Podcast Episodes

Colm Toibin - ‘The problem in life is always middle aged men’

Episode 325

Colm Toibin returns to the Free State studio for what is now the traditional Christmas interview.

He reflects on the year when he turned 70, why there is too many men watching rugby on television and …

Published on 18 hours ago

Best of Free State - Keith Donald

Episode 324

First there was the music. Keith Donald was always looking to escape. 

Music offered the first exit. Then came drink.

Keith Donald was abused as a child by his headmistress. He found that jazz had the …

Published on 2 days, 18 hours ago

A Free State Family Christmas

Episode 323

Why do so many of us still cherish Christmas? 

And why do so many find it a tough time of year?

On Free State today, Joe and Dion reflect on the power of Christmas and what it tells us about us as a pe…

Published on 4 days, 18 hours ago

'If I was in despair I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning’ - Leon Diop on building a New Ireland

Episode 322

When he was 11, Leon Diop had his first experience of aggressive racism. 

But his identity was something he wrestled with in many ways.

In a remarkable interview on Free State, Leon Diop talks about th…

Published on 1 week ago

Rule West Britannia

Episode 321

Causes, as we know, are notoriously bloodthirsty,’ James Baldwin wrote. 

What does it do to do somebody when they have crossed the boundary into a world of killing and destruction? How do they enforce…

Published on 1 week, 2 days ago

Stakeknife, MI5 and the dirtiest war

Episode 320

When the state sanctions it, is it murder? When the state protects its agents from the consequences of their crimes, how long before cynicism corrupts society?

On Free State today, Joe and Dion look a…

Published on 1 week, 4 days ago

Eoin Ó Broin - Why the government doesn’t want to fix the housing crisis

Episode 319

In 1948, Herbert Simms, under increasing pressure from the demands of his job, took his own life.

The pressure came from his job as Dublin’s housing architect. Between 1932 and the time of his death, …

Published on 2 weeks ago

Australia has banned social media for kids but will AI take over their world?

Episode 318

During the heroin epidemic in Dublin in the 1980s, one drug baron infamously remarked as he was jailed, ‘If you think we’re bad, wait til you see what’s coming after us.’

Australia banned social media…

Published on 2 weeks, 2 days ago

The Peace President - Infantino drags FIFA to a new low

Episode 317

When Gianni Infantino created FIFA’s Peace Prize, how could he have imagined that the inaugural winner would be his great friend Donald Trump.

But there Trump was on stage in Washington, presenting hi…

Published on 2 weeks, 4 days ago

Why I Quit the US Government

Episode 316

“I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deep…

Published on 3 weeks ago