Settle in for a spirited episode of Irish Stew with two pioneering women in the Irish spirits industry, Alice Carroll--the proud Limerick distiller and co-founder of Foxes Bow Whiskey, and Maura Clare--the Queen of Poitín and creator of the Smuggling Nun brand. They swap notes on their journey into the spirits business, the challenges and opportuni…

Michael Meade spent over 20 years on Wall Street and then stepped away from the pressured world of high finance to do something totally different. Some, in his circumstances, may have opted for plenty of time on the golf course and cracking open a few brews, that’s not the kind of person Michael Meade is. Intrigued by a visit to Ireland, Michael wa…

As Chief Executive of the Western Development Commission (WDC), Allan Mulrooney is a tireless advocate for the Western Region of Ireland, promoting social and economic development for the counties of Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway, and Clare. Why go west? Allan points to the region's mix of the old and the new, how it fosters a wo…

In the first of our “Irish Libations” series, we welcome Michael McKillop, who branched out from the 36-year-old Glens of Antrim Potatoes business to launch Glens of Antrim Distillery with its Lir line of Irish Whiskeys, amidst bucolic surroundings in Cushendall, Northern Ireland. We get a professional’s view of the growing, shipping, and marketing…

Launching Season Six, we go behind the scenes of the woman-strong Irish film Lies We Tell, a brooding tale of angels and demons, light and shadow, manners and mores, family secrets and family crimes, which The Guardian called “a tightly laced, elegantly cut gothic period drama.” A total rethinking of Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1864 novel Uncle…

When we last talked with Dan Mulhall, he was Ireland’s Ambassador to the United Stares. Since then, he retired after a 44-year career in diplomacy, but he’s been busier than ever as we learn in this check-in episode with Martin Nutty focused on his new book on W. B. Yeats. Recent invitations to New York University, Cambridge, and Harvard, provided …

With a computer programming background and an instinct for reporting, Malachy Browne is on the vanguard of a new form of data-driven news coverage that is revitalizing journalism. Co-founder and enterprise director of the New York Times Visual Investigations team, Malachy is pioneering the use of digital sleuthing, collecting and analyzing troves o…

Ted Smyth, former diplomat and C-Suite and current President of the Advisory Board of Glucksman Ireland House NYU, joins Martin Nutty for a discussion on Irish and American politics. What does the recent November 2023 American mid term election presage for 2024? How differing are the American and Irish views on Gaza? How should we understand the re…

Fin Dwyer of Irish History Podcasts pays a return visit to Irish Stew. We last hosted Fin two years ago. Since then, Fin has continued to fascinate his listeners with in depth episodes on a broad range of Irish History topics. Despite this frenetic pace, Fin has found time to publish a book titled: A Lethal Legacy - A History of Ireland in 18 Murde…

Join us in a westward journey to the Irish enclaves of Butte, Montana and on to a chicken coop on Maryland’s Eastern Shore as Marybeth Shea guides us along little-known paths of Irish migration and through little understood profession of technical communications. She describes herself as a humanist and cites her Catholic education, specifically wit…

So why learn Irish? "Studies have shown that learning your native language, learning any language, but especially your ancestral tongue, brings feelings of comfort and freedom. And especially when considering our past and our heritage, learning Irish is very revealing and very healing," says our latest guest Mollie Guidera, the Irish language teach…

Join us as we travel from Ireland all the way to New Zealand to explore a vision of Ireland from centuries ago in our conversation with Brian O’Sullivan. He’s an author, cultural researcher, strategic analyst, and founder of Irish Imbas, the only Irish publisher specializing in fiction and non-fiction based on the ancient Irish cultural knowledge a…

A Trinity College graduate in economics and politics, he represented Irish business abroad, led The Ireland Funds for almost two decades, and now Kingsley Aikins combines his fervor for networking and diaspora engagement in the mission of The Networking Institute. “Kinger,” as he’s known to his friends, talks of how rugby became his global passport…

From New Jersey to Sligo, Wales, London, Germany, to touring the globe and then to New York, Roger Clark stamps his passport as a leading citizen of the Global Irish Nation. And to millions around the world, he is an icon. An actor, filmmaker, voiceover artist of over 150 audiobooks, Roger’s claim to global fame is his performance-capture portrayal…

Outtakes from WEE #161: The Intergenerational Safemaker Cousins, including breaking a tie in the HIPO rankings. What's our new Patreon tier? What would Jack do if he were Taylor Swift? Which Dan Mulhall needs to be killed? Why does everyone do everything? All that plus timecode antics, the Cruise Hole, and hot butter-churning tips on our Amish Barn…

In this Global Irish conversation, we search for the true origins of Western Civilization with a most global of guests, Naoíse Mac Sweeney, author of The West: A New History in Fourteen Lives. Her father is from Cork City, her mother is Malaysian Chinese, she grew up in London, studied the Greek and Roman world, and is a professor of classical arch…

Growing up in The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Jane Ferguson spent most of her life reporting on the global troubles in Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Gaza, Syria, and Afghanistan, reporting for CNN International, Al Jazeera, PBS Newshour, The New Yorker and other outlets, always finding the human stories in inhuman wars and all revealed in her unfl…

Our Global Irish conversation with award-winning author Jane Delury centers on her second novel Hedge, a bildungsroman of an Irish American woman in her forties named Maude pursuing a career in the esoteric field of garden history, looking for clues in the past under the mounting challenges of the present. The theme of bringing a garden back to lif…

Jack and Dan carry the Safemaker legacy and wrap up the latest batch of episodes by watching season 21's "Stealing First Base," a reactionary Boomer episode about how you can't do anything anymore, like kiss fourth graders without consent. WEE start our season finale by going right off the rails and putting hats upon hats upon hats until we have to…

Outtakes from WEE #159 and WEE #160, including a discussion about Christopher Nolan's recent films. Is Dan starting the show like that? How do we come back in after crunching the numbers? Why is Quentin Tarantino a dumb-dumb? All that plus talkboys, birthday twins, Montell Jordan's theme for Jack talkin' about podcasts, and the same bits, over and …

This week, Jack and Dan watch Season 29's "Homer is Where the Art Isn't," a very specific parody of an obscure 70s TV drama that guest stars Bill Hader. Why are we putting our kids to bed early on a Saturday? What are we clutching onto? What is Jack's "Poetess"? Why you no Giacomo?? All that plus the three characteristic symptoms of Frovid, Two-Fac…

This week, Dan and Jack watch Season 16's "Don't Fear the Roofer," guest starring Ray Romano as Homer's new best friend. How has Marge changed over the years? What one-time offer are WEE giving to Matt Groening? What is Jack and Dan's platonic friendship song? And what magazine was originally printed on maps? All that, plus the time Jack met Ray Ro…

Outtakes from WEE #158: The Podcast of Record, including a discussion about the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Why are we covering "Flanders' Ladder"? Has L.A. jaded Jack? When does Dan say his best stuff? Who should they replace Kang with? Who caught Jack masturbating? All that plus Dan's Pennsylvania accents, Porn City, and a man doing a man'…

Join us on a stroll along North Circular Road from Phoenix Park to the Dublin Docklands with our guide Luke McManus, the documentary filmmaker of the award-winning North Circular which opens in New York City on July 28th. Rendered in graphic black & white over a soundtrack of local North Circular musicians, the film gives voice to narratives from t…

This week, Dan and Jack celebrate a (very) delayed birthday bash by watching season 29’s Flanders’ Ladder, an episode where Bart is in a coma and talks to ghosts. Is this episode a birthday gift or a birthday curse? What is the biggest betrayal since Dylan went electric? Who did Ron DeSantis have a grudge against in Yale Law School? What is the onl…

How can a kneecap bone change the history of Ireland? We answer that question during our conversation with Dr. Ruth Carden, a paleo zoologist with a particular interest in the animals that roamed Ireland over the last 50,000 years. Ruth's research focuses particularly on the skeletal remains of those animals, since that is all that usually remains …

Outtakes from WEE #157: Mayoween Whatever, including a peek at our rankings and figuring out the intro for the episode. Which podcasts are colliding? What does Jack miss most about New York? All that plus Freet, bad haircuts, and Jack & Dan talking about The Flash and other movies. www.weepodcast.com…

Our latest global Irish conversation goes behind the scenes of the globe’s most significant international organization, the United Nations, courtesy of Ireland’s Ambassador to the UN, Fergal Mythen. He didn’t rise to one of Ireland’s most significant diplomatic postings without an impressive diplomatic career behind him. Fergal has worked on Irish-…

When Seamus Heaney wrote, “Walk on air, against your better judgement,” he could have been writing about Pauline Turley. From Newry to New York, Pauline has paired hard work with serendipity to arrive at her pivotal role charting the impressive trajectory on New York’s Irish Arts Center from a cramped tenement building to its expansive new home. Sh…

Mayoween Fools! It's Draculas as far as the eye can see this week as Jack and Dan watch Season 27's Treehouse of Horror XXVI, an episode that features problematic accents and Sideshow Bob finally killing Bart. Should Sideshow Bob have been part booger? What's Dracula's favorite holiday? Can you put a question mark in a hashtag? Who should play Will…

Join us as we pick up the conversation with Doug Devaney who interviewed us last fall on The Plastic Podcasts. A talented podcaster, Doug’s also an actor, writer, journalist, and self-proclaimed "songster, funster, punster, hamster." In this episode we delve into the core concept of The Plastic Podcasts, which centers around the notion that “we all…

Helllooooooo, it's outtakes from WEE #156: My T*ts Are Saggin'... HELLBOUND! Can Jack remember the name of the Simpsons episode we're watching? Who has Three Stooges Syndrome? All that plus our Star Trek: Picard Review-Preview and random cockney accents. www.weepodcast.com

It's tangent city as Dan and Jack return with a new batch of WEElite episodes, starting with season 11's "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?," the episode where Homer becomes a food critic. Which network slogan are WEE stealing? What were Charles Foster Kane's last words? Who's taunting the lions at the zoo? Which Bus Stop character loves Flet…

By John Lee & Martin Nutty

For Richard Donavan running the grueling 26.2 miles of the Boston Marathon was only a way to stretch his legs before getting up the next morning to run across America…for the second time. Running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days sounds impossible, so he did it in under five. Richard is also the first person to run marathons at both…

For over 25 years Manachán Magan has been at the forefront of Irish cultural affairs. He first rose to public attention with the 1996 launch of Irish language television now known as TG4. Together with his brother Ruán, Manachán produced a ground breaking series of television programs exploring indigenous cultures across the globe Since those early…

Outtakes from before Jack and Dan began their commentary for Sync Points #11: Mank, for the WEE completionist who listens to everything, even tracks where Jack’s mic is turned off. Which classic Bus Stop character makes an appearance? Should we have watched RIPD instead? How many times can Dan say “Mank” in six minutes? All that plus An Inconvenien…

We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a Mank time. This April 1, Jack and Dan fool around by recording Sync Points #11 and talking over the entire Netflix original film Mank. We’re not calling it a commentary track because there is very, very little Mank commentary. Instead we talk about the Rocky franchise, the Alien franchise, the Final …

Outtakes from Sync Points #10: We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story answering burning questions like: Do we remember how to start the show? Was The Matrix's Switch a southern belle? What will Dan post to reddit when Jack dies? All that plus Seinfeld talk, the cruel joke of aging, and random Power Rangers noises. www.weepodcast.com…

From “The Island of Malta and the Ireland of Malta,” Malta’s Ambassador to Ireland tells Irish Stew of the unexpected connections between the island nations of Ireland and Malta, especially for his hometown of Floriana. Ambassador Giovanni Buttigieg traces the Irish connection back to an 1895 visit to Floriana by an Irish Cardinal who went to Rome …

Outtakes from WEE #155: Ghost COVID, including what happened after our rankings jump cut. Which "Take Me Out" will Dan sing? Is it okay for Dan to do that voice? Have WEE done it all? All that plus lots of okays, a new Hey Everybody, and Freet Peaking. www.weepodcast.com

Jack & Dan take the world by storm with the final episode of our Season 33-a-thon, covering the two-part episode "A Serious Flanders," a detailed, violent, non-canon parody of the Fargo TV series. What's the month to be thankful? Who do we want on the WEE Soundtrack album? Who hosts the new Netflix show "Is it Schlort?" Who is the Typhoid Mary of G…

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, Barbara Walsh started her career in Galway as a newspaper photographer and has gone on to work for newspapers and magazines in Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. While at the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Barbara reported on the notorious murderer William Horton Jr. and Massachusetts’ flawed prison furl…

Outtakes from WEE #154: My Tits Are Flyin'... WORLDWIDE! including a rankings tie-breaker and a depressing update on Jack's broken foot. Are there dockworkers at Willow's house? Who does Groophic think caused 9/11? What sounds zen? All that plus an out-of-season Ol' Dracula Fingers, not-so-modern vernacular, and Jack & Dan's Disney+ roundup. www.we…

Set your VR dials for this week’s WEE where Dan and Jack cover Season 33’s "You Won't Believe What This Episode Is About – Act Three Will Shock You!”, an episode about clickbait and cancel culture. How did The Simpsons rip off The Dark Knight Rises? Why is Jack like the Twinnings company? How do you picture Tweaky the Twist? All that plus WEE VR, b…

Outtakes from WEE #153: Dockworkers & Tomatoes, including a behind-the-curtain look at how our new ranking system is going. Should we have done third points? Why were we blacklisted from radio forever? Where’s Bobby Fischer? All that plus two cans on a string, the Queen of Radio, Peetreon, and the Jim Carrey Animated Universe Podcast. www.weepodcas…

Dan and Jack continue the Season 33-a-thon with “Boyz N the Highlands,” where Bart and Martin confront each other—and satanists—in the Celtic moors of Springfield. Oh and Lisa is called Jules now. Who is Springfield’s alpha bully? Who would be the perfect Duke in a live action movie of The Critic? What TV show will CBS make when we fold spacetime? …

He’s the quintessential New York Irish cop who rose up through the ranks from walking a beat to becoming a highly-ranked detective. He’s also a respected leader of New York’s Irish American community and a man at the center of a major controversy playing out now in New York as the American Irish Historical Society’s irreplaceable Beaux-Arts townhou…

Deleted scenes and outtakes from WEE #152: It's Schlort! including a three minute conversation during the break covering Andor, Rise of Skywalker, and the hit NBC series Heroes. What was Greg Grunberg’s superpower on Heroes? Does Jack have COVID? Why we gotta eat those potatoes? All that plus a prisoner’s dilemma, Arrested Development Season 5, Jac…

Jack and Dan continue their Season 33-a-thon with “Pixelated and Afraid,” an intense episode where Homer and Marge are stranded in a snowy forest. Did they animate Homer’s penis? Does Mr. Funny Man think the episode is funnier than Dan? Which bus stop character do you pull on? What’s your HEBO? What are you doing with your time? All that plus circl…