Where The Wildelings Are. Writer Lisa Harding on surviving Trinity College, anxiety and the Male Gaze
Lisa Harding’s stunning new book The Wildelings is set in a fictional university in Dublin. On Free State today, Lisa talks to us about her own time at Trinity in the 90s, when students would be rated on their looks. She talks to Dion about the male gaze and their shared experiences of drink and how when she became an actress she turned to tequila to take the edge off her anxiety. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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45:25
Skorts, Skirts and Shorts. What will the new pope say?
Since we launched the podcast, we have never been afraid to ask the big questions. This has sometimes come at a cost but that is the way it has to be. Today we ask one of the questions that will define this generation: what is a skort?On Free State, Joe and Dion wonder why this issue which should be so simply resolved in favour of women in sport became so complicated and laced with bullshit. There are working groups and committees working to resolve the issue going forward to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.More importantly, what does it tell us about the world today and its obsession with triviality that the skort takes up so much airtime? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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35:27
“I want nothing to do with this.” Gaza & the myth of western civilisation. With the brilliant Omar El Akkad.
"One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this." On October 25 2023, novelist Omar El Akkad posted this message on X.On Free State today Omar El Akkad joins Joe and Dionto talk about how the world looked away. His magisterial new book One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This details the complicity of the west. Gaza is enduring a famine and Israel maintains a blockade where children’s hunger is a weapon of war and an instrument of monumental cruelty. Omar’s voice is a compelling and necessary counterpoint. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The Revolutionary Road. Women’s Liberation Movement Founder Rosita Sweetman on divorcing her family and why Kneecap were right
Rosita Sweetman wanted to change the world. Like many of her generation, she was inspired by the civil rights movement in the US. She became a founder of the women’s liberation movement in Ireland. She was fearless and it was fun.But her life wasn’t. On Free State today Rosita Sweetman talks about her new memoir Girl With A Fork In A World of Soup. She tells us about having to divorce her family and the extraordinary scene when at a family meeting, her sisters were asked by a psychiatrist if any of them had slept with her ex husband. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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44:55
Whatever You Say, Say Nothing - Kneecap and Britain's Periodical Fits of Morality
"We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality,” a man once said, When it has come to the pursuit of Kneecap, the ridiculousness has extended far beyond the British public to its media and politicians too. It has reached the Irish political class and media as well.Kneecap have apologised to the families of murdered MPs but still they are pursued by those lost in what Philip Roth called the “ecstasy of sanctimony”.On Free State, Joe and Dion ask what does it tell us about the ability to comment freely in the modern world? At a time when n it seems critical to be able to speak out, it is under constant threat.Dion also recalls a GAA road trip while Joe explains why he considers Jesus Christ a role model. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Free State is a podcast for the curious that stimulates, provokes, challenges and entertains, while never taking itself too seriously. Free State covers topics from sport to politics, love to loss, the human condition and how to fix the world, with guests from across the planet including Nigerian princes, former Prime Ministers, ex convicts, footballers, boxers and extraordinary people from every walk of life. Free State is presented by Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning. Brolly is a barrister, an original thinker with a fascinating backstory, who donated a kidney to a stranger and then led a crusade to transform organ donation on the island of Ireland, and Fanning is an award-winning interviewer and author. They are not motivational gurus or life coaches. They will never try to sell you a penis scented candle. They are two people from very different worlds, with one core belief uniting them - this is not a high performance podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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