Category: Episodes

Today my guest is environmentalist and sustainability expert Kaj Embren. With over 25 years’ leadership and consultancy experience, Kaj has a track record of promoting sustainable solutions in fields such as industry, governance and civil society. Kaj firmly believes that we already have the tools to obtain sustainability and prosperity, but we still need to… Continue reading Kaj Embren

Today my guest is author and historian Dr. Margaret Weitekamp. Margaret is chair of the Space History department at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum where she curates the Social and Cultural History of Spaceflight Collection encompassing some 5,000 pieces of space memorabilia and science fiction objects. She is also the author of… Continue reading Dr. Margaret Weitekamp

Today my guest is award winning author and journalist Clodagh Finn. Clodagh has worked for various Irish newspapers, including the Irish Examiner and the Irish Independent and she is known for her insightful writing on social issues, culture, and current affairs. Clodagh has recently written Through Her Eyes – A New History of Ireland in… Continue reading Clodagh Finn

Today my guest is Alivia Brown. Alivia graduated from UCLA in 2022 with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Evolutionary Medicine. During her time at UCLA, Alivia’s research led her to find a passion for education and cross-cultural knowledge. In addition to her academic achievement, Alivia also has her own YouTube channel devoted… Continue reading Alivia Brown

“A musical director is responsible for choosing the backing band members, doing the arrangements for all the songs and when you get to a high level with people like Britney Spears, you will be responsible for writing the incidental music, links and also making sure that all the music that you have written and arranged… Continue reading Simon Ellis

“There are some aspects of insects origin which are a little unclear, but they came on land pretty early and for a long time they were some of the most dominant lifeforms on land and at one stage they were very large with some of them with 70 centimetre wingspans, and it’s believed that they… Continue reading Donald Hobern

“I am as fascinated with by what was going on in the Neolithic or Megalithic age as I am in much more recent events in the 20th century. An enormous amount of it is connected and we are rebuilding our understanding of the past and that’s going to cover everything from the ancient Bronze age… Continue reading Turtle Bunbury

“Especially with motorsport, we don’t have women in Formula 1, we don’t really have women in Formula 2 either, we’re very lucky to have women in Formula 3 now, but we have to fight twice as hard, because we have to be winning to prove that we’re able to be there; and I guess that’s… Continue reading Shannon Tobin

“It was an amazing thing that happened in my career, meeting David and then starting to work for him. Initially, I was hired because they needed an outside of the box guitar player to do the Heathen and Low records live. It felt really good to be validated by someone like David; he is someone… Continue reading Gerry Leonard

“You are seeing better coaches going in and supporting women’s ski jumping and obviously that’s important, but it’s also important that there is a level of support from national federations, and the reality is that to develop a ski jumping team you’re talking about eight to ten years and when you look at that you… Continue reading David Goldstrom

“I always wanted to be a journalist since I was fifteen or sixteen. It was definitely something that I wanted to do. I was kind of between law and journalism – I was attracted to both of those fields, so I did work experience in the Four Courts in Dublin and I did work experience… Continue reading Méabh McMahon

“Commentary starts with my love for rugby, my dad used to take me to lots of games and that mixed with the voices to the games, I think that’s what really made me fall in love with the game. I started thinking about some of the iconic commentaries that I’ve heard and maybe I didn’t… Continue reading Justin Middleton

“To me it was fascinating and infuriating that there is so much going on that I just couldn’t see. That the answers to your questions, like: are there aliens around the star – the answers exist – they’re out there, like it’s happening out there or it’s not, but we just can’t see it. It’s… Continue reading Daniel Whiteson

“The magazine wanted to entertain, but it also wanted to improve and educate its readers in lots of ways, and one of its biggest concerns was that very few women had any kind of formal education in the way their brothers, fathers and uncles would have had and so it presented itself as a kind… Continue reading Prof. Jennie Batchelor

“The main reason they haven’t been used is that they are militarily useless. For example, Russia could use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, but it probably wouldn’t alter the war. It wouldn’t make the Ukrainians surrender and so they really would not be able to achieve military goals with them. The US considered using nuclear weapons… Continue reading Robert Jacobs

“What we are seeing is a fundamental shift in the Republican party and essentially a split between some of these moderate and more extreme voices, and ultimately in terms of how that effects the rest of the world, these more extreme voices tend to be much more isolationist. You have a lot of Republicans who… Continue reading Cristina Maza

“I wanted to take a different angle on the war. We have lots of books about Hitler and the top Nazi set but when you write about a woman, suddenly I got people saying how can you possibly pick this subject. It’s this ingrained sexism as well but it’s very important for us to understand… Continue reading Clare Mulley

“It turned into a business, and car companies originally were invented by people who had a passion for the internal combustion engine, like Henry Ford, but essentially they went through these very passionate people who were hugely enthusiastic about cars to becoming a business in the 80s, and it became a world renowned business and… Continue reading Bob Flavin

“Well, mostly women don’t kill each other or they don’t kill men. Now, there are exceptions, but I have never heard anybody ask the question: what is it about the way women are reared that basically it means they don’t kill other people, and is there anything that men can learn from this? Because I… Continue reading Prof. Pat O’Connor

“That’s what I should be doing. I shouldn’t be doing just the basic, almost like Parky on television – you ask them the question – you get the answer, you ask the question – you get the answer. I need to introduce people to who these people are and what their show is about by… Continue reading Martin Quibell

“Romance fraud is somebody using the guise of having a relationship with you to extort money out of you and it’s people who are pretending to be somebody else. They approach women and they will often say that they are an oil rig worker, a pilot – it’s often a sexy job – one that… Continue reading Becky Holmes

“How am I going to get people engaged? The Irish navy is your navy – this is for you – you pay your taxes and that pays my wages and that buys these ships. I’m a normal girl from Carlow that is out here trying to help Ireland protect its resources, its people, and do… Continue reading Lt Cdr Grace Fanning

“There’s something really dangerous and messed up that you always want to see people at their worst. I’ve travelled and been in so many places in the world and the one thing that I know is that no one has ever asked me to pity them – that’s the last thing they want. They want… Continue reading Benjamin Chesterton

“It was almost subconsciously, because I found when much older a folder that I was given at the end of school from a teacher who said: ‘I hope you become a journalist one day and you get to live in China’, and that’s exactly what ended up happening – so, subconsciously, I was always working… Continue reading Suswati Basu

“In those days, the build up to the start at Le Mans was like the start to a World Cup final and it consisted of Germany, Italy, Japan and France. The amazing thing was that I was on the pitch. the big difference was that there was no crowd violence – just an extremely knowledgeable… Continue reading Richard Jones

“The thing about writing historical fiction is before I start writing a story, I would have generally spent about three months just purely researching and it becomes very tense between my editor and me, because it’s the whole thing that we can’t get anything wrong, because it will be picked out.“ Today I’m joined by… Continue reading Nicola Pierce

“The changes are actually happening societally. The majority of the Unionist electorate would be socially liberal and certainly for me it’s all about trying to get Unionist parties to be more reflective of society. My own party doesn’t have any women in the (Northern Ireland) assembly and that is something we do need to address,… Continue reading Michael Palmer

“Russia is an imperial nation, still. The Soviet Union was just a new shape of the Russian empire. So in their thinking, Ukraine is not a real nation and they want to get it back home with the empire. There is no way of stopping this apart from military defeat.” Today I’m joined by historian… Continue reading Nadia Dobrianska

“There’s a very, very real conversation going on about the future of the union – principally that means how do you not lose Scotland. Northern Ireland is slightly to one side of that. It’s different because we have an international treaty in the Good Friday Agreement that guarantees a border poll, or if there is a… Continue reading Kevin Meagher

“We were taught that it’s all about the guest. It’s not about you – you’re only there to throw a really specific short question and I think we don’t get to see the more personal side of a lot of these artists these days at all. You just get a snapshot of what they are… Continue reading Sandy Kaye

“Ever since people realised those bright things in the sky were moving, they’ve been watching for patterns. People are really drawn to the sky, space and the universe because it has the power to show you your place in all of that.” Today I’m joined by astrophysicist Dr. Johanna Vos. Originally from Dublin, Johanna is… Continue reading Dr. Johanna Vos

“Women made 40% of the audience at NASL games which was remarkable at the time. It was a unique experience and marketers figured, wait a minute now, something special is happening here – women are going and what a better way to learn about the sport but to go to a game and enjoy the… Continue reading Michael Lewis

“When I started it, the whole idea was to try and make some sense of what was happening and also because we were afraid. For once I was sitting inside the event but this time, I knew I was going to be inside the story too.” Today I’m joined by author and broadcaster Carole Coleman.… Continue reading Carole Coleman

“The way it’s all structured is so wrong. All of these women want to be productive, want to be tax payers – many many women want to be part of that. If we had cheap child care for women, you would see them thrive in their careers.” Today I’m joined by broadcaster and journalist Eimear… Continue reading Eimear Ní Bhraonáin

“It’s about a time of life thing. With Pop stars, it’s often presumed that once they’ve passed their commercial peak, their best is behind them but what I found is that a lot of them are arguing otherwise. The more song writing they do, the better they become because they are honing their craft and… Continue reading Nick Duerden

Today I’m joined by Aoife Noonan. Aoife is an award winning pastry chef from Dublin, with a history as Head Pastry Chef and Executive Pastry Chef positions in some of the best restaurants in the country.She has also worked as a culinary consultant and brand ambassador for major global brands, with her most recent tenure… Continue reading Aoife Noonan

Today I’m joined by activist Joe Gonzalez. Joe is one of the founders of The Project Solution which is a non-profit organisation that gives people an opportunity to donate to community infrastructure projects around the world. Joe has spent his professional career in a multitude of fields, including work in television, film, and theatre.  Joe… Continue reading Joe Gonzalez

Today, I’m joined by author and journalist Mark Piesing. Mark specialises in writing about technology, culture and everything in between for some of the biggest names in the media, and has recently published his first book, N4 Down : The Hunt for the Arctic Airship Italia. This book tells the story of the largest polar… Continue reading Mark Piesing

Today, I’m joined by musician Midge Ure. With a career spanning over forty years, Midge has been one of the most influential artists of his time. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Midge enjoyed enormous success in a number of bands, including Slik, Rich Kids, Thin Lizzy, Visage and as the frontman of Ultravox. Along with Bob Geldof, he was… Continue reading Midge Ure

Today, I’m joined by actor Moe Dunford. A native of Waterford in Ireland, Moe has built up an impressive career in both television and film. His standout role for television was the History Channel drama The Vikings and recently, Moe was the lead role in the acclaimed Nexflix film Nightride, in which his character, Budge,… Continue reading Moe Dunford

Today, I’m joined by audio producer and podcaster Rob Lilley. Rob is one half of a duo who host the increasingly popular podcast The Euro Trip Eurovision Podcast. With his co-host James Rowe, their podcast has managed to capture the fun and excitement that arrives on our television screens every May in the form of… Continue reading Rob Lilley

Today, I’m joined by American radio personality, Mat Kaplan. Mat is the host of Planetary Radio, a radio talk show about space exploration produced by the Planetary Society. The role of the Planetary Society is to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the general public to inspire and educate people from all walks… Continue reading Mat Kaplan 

Today I’m joined by author and political commentator, Yannis Karamitsios. Originally from Thessaloniki in Greece, since 2006 Yannis has been living in Brussels and is a legal officer at the European Commission. Yannis dedicates a considerable part of his public action to the promotion of European and international federalism and has recently written book on… Continue reading Yannis Karamitsios

Today I’m joined to by author and academic Brian Milne. Brian is a social anthropologist who has extensive field experience in human and civil rights for all ages, environmental issues and has been politically active most of his life. I have known Brian for many years now and we have often worked together on media… Continue reading Brian Milne

Today I’m joined by historian, author and podcaster Tristan Hughes. When I was in the early stages of creating the concept for The Comfortable Spot, I always had Tristan on my list as a guest. Tristan’s podcast, The Ancients, is an amazing series that not only covers vast swathes of early history, but also perfectly… Continue reading Tristan Hughes

Today, I’m joined by an author and blogger Insuk Kim. Insuk is a native of South Korea, but is an extensive traveller who now resides in Greenland. Insuk’s love for Japanese and French culture initially took her to Japan before she embarked on a journey to Europe and, in particular, France in order to follow… Continue reading Kim Insuk

Today I’m joined by journalist Tina Lee. Originally from the USA, Tina is based in Berlin and specialises in migration, human rights, politics and the far right. Tina has previously worked for Human Rights Watch and The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. Nowadays Tina is editor-in-chief of Unbias The News which is a space for journalists… Continue reading Tina Lee

Today, I’m joined by historian, writer and podcaster, Katja Hoyer. Katja’s podcast, Tommies and Jerries, has a unique style that not only manages to inform us about the similarities and differences between British and German, but also has a combination of fun and form. Katja has also recently written an amazing book, Blood and Iron:… Continue reading Katja Hoyer

Today I’m joined by Dr. Fergal Lenehan. Fergal is based at the University of Jena, Germany, where he is a full-time researcher at the project called ReDICo: Researching Digital Intercultureality Co-operatively. A believer in Social Europeanism, he is an author and recently also a co-editor of Reclaiming the European Street by President Michael D. Higgins.… Continue reading Dr. Fergal Lenehan

Today, I’m joined by Irish author and academic, Dr. Jennifer Cassidy. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Jennifer is based at the University of Oxford. Having received her doctorate in 2016, Jennifer specialises in researching international development and digital diplomacy. A proud advocate of gender and human rights, Jennifer has spoken at TEDx Oxford and is a regular media contributor,… Continue reading Dr. Jennifer Cassidy