With the war in Ukraine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza dominating the news agenda, Richie is joined for the final show of the series by BBC special correspondent and veteran war reporter, Fergal Keane. 

Fergal, who's spent much of the last couple of years covering both conflicts, has been reporting from frontlines across the world for over three decades. But recently, he's been adapting how he does the job, taking on assignments that place him out of harm's way, yet still get him close enough so that he can tell the stories of the ordinary people whose lives have been upended. 

He made that decision after privately battling with PTSD for years, a condition which he thinks dates back to well before his career as a journalist, all the way back to his turbulent childhood, even. 

And as he explains to Richie, it's one of a number of choices he's made which have brought him a sense of peace for the first time in his life, even while he continues to be deeply affected by his reporting on the Ukrainian and Palestinian lives which continue to be lost every day.  

Fergal also describes how distant a ceasefire in Gaza seems to him right now, how he ensures he doesn't go back on his promise to steer clear of frontline reporting, and he remembers the life of a Gazan who died at just five days old, baby Sabreen al-Sakani. 

Episode is a Second Captains production.

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As we may have mentioned once or twice on social media this week, joining Richie on today's show is a very old friend and an up and coming League of Ireland manager by the name of Damien Duff. 

Speaking the morning after Shelbourne's 0-2 win over Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght, Damien explains how he had to change his approach to the job after the anger that fueled him began to impact his personal life, how it still takes up most of his waking hours, and why he's not looking beyond management in the League of Ireland. 

He also tells Richie why he thinks John O'Shea should step away from the interim Ireland job and what an embarrassment the FAI's approach to recruiting a new manager has been.

Episode is a Second Captains production. 

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A message for listeners: today's show includes discussions of themes that some people may find distressing from the outset and throughout, including sexual violence, sexual abuse and the sex trade. 

When Mia Döring was sixteen years old, she was raped, a hugely traumatic experience she couldn't speak about for two years until her mental health reached a crisis point. 

In the aftermath of that assault, a man in his thirties began to groom and sexually abuse Mia. Her abuser would pay her each time he saw her, making the situation even more psychologically complex for an already vulnerable, traumatised teenage girl. 

By her own description, Mia began to equate the money with her own self-worth, and the idea of her value as a human being tied to these payments led her to enter the sex trade as a college student. 

Now a psychotherapist specialising in sexual trauma, she speaks to Richie about making the decision to talk publicly about her experiences, how the people running the industry in Ireland and the punters propping it up tried to intimidate her as she campaigned for the purchase of sex to be made illegal, and the road to recovering from trauma. 

Episode is a Second Captains production.

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Nine months ago, Pat Sheedy walked out of prison after spending more than two and a half years locked up for trying to fund his decades-long gambling addiction through various scams. 

After winning his first bet as a teenager, he quickly fell into a cycle of working, borrowing and stealing to make sure he could place his next bet. Long periods of abstinence - at one point he went 12 years without gambling - followed, but it wasn't until finally being given a custodial sentence in 2020 that he began to really reflect on the damage he was doing to other people. 

Pat speaks to Richie just a few hundred metres down the road from where he placed his first bet in Limerick city today and explains why prison was the best thing that ever happened to him, describes the life of a compulsive gambler and how he's tried to make amends with the victims of his scams since being released last August.

Episode is a Second Captains podcast. 

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This week on Episode we're taking a mid-series break but fear not, Richie and Killian will be back on the road next week when we'll be bringing you another brilliant conversation. 

Until then, a massive thank you for all the support for the show so far this series!

Episode is a Second Captains production.

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This week Richie and Killian travelled to Phibsboro to meet James Kavanagh at the home he's just about to leave after eight years for a new life in the countryside.

Richie and James look back at James' teenage years, the earliest of which he spent locked up alone in his bedroom, his sanctuary from the homophobic bullying that dominated his time at school. He speaks about the reality of having no friends whatsoever until he was sixteen, darting from class to class to avoid other students and how he managed to start afresh and leave those days behind him.

After the chat, Killian describes an experience both he and James have had in common with last week's guest, Donie O'Sullivan: recurring panic attacks and trying to manage them before they derail your day-to-day life.

Episode is a Second Captains production.

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As Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6th 2021, a relatively little-known Irish journalist walked CNN viewers through exactly what was going on as it unfolded. 

Donie O'Sullivan quickly became a household name, and within a few weeks he had decided to use his newfound platform to speak about the sometimes acute mental health issues which had been a part of his life over the previous decade. 

In the three years since, Donie has continued to report on misinformation and conspiracy theories on the American right for CNN, all the while managing his evolving relationship with his own psyche.  

He joins Richie today to chat about the way in which his personal experiences with irrational thinking guide his reporting on fringe groups like QAnon, how a diagnosis of OCD has brought more clarity to his life and how alcohol can muddy those same waters. 

Episode is a Second Captains production. 

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A few short weeks ago, a joint Oireachtas committee recommended that the Government legislate for assisted dying in controlled circumstances where a terminally ill person is approaching the end of their life. 

The fight for legal access to assisted dying began back in 2012 when Marie Fleming, who had advanced multiple sclerosis, and her partner and full-time carer, Tom Curran took a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. They believed that there was a right to die and to be assisted in doing so under Irish law; the Supreme Court disagreed. 

Despite the ruling and the threat of potential murder charges, Tom Curran publicly pledged to stand by a long-standing promise he had made to Marie. When the day came that she decided her condition meant her life was no longer worth living, he would help her to die peacefully and with dignity. 

Today Richie sits down with Tom just over ten years after Marie passed away to speak about their life together, her determination to end it on her own terms, and his work to provide information on assisted dying to people in similar positions to Marie. 

Episode is a Second Captains podcast. 

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It's been a few months since we closed out series one of Episode sitting at Damien Dempsey's kitchen table, and to mark the first show of the new series, we're bringing you an exclusive interview. 

Last week, Richie and Killian travelled to France to sit down with Vera Pauw at her home in the Dordogne, as she speaks publicly for the first time since the week the FAI declined to renew her contract seven months ago. 

Vera describes the impact she felt the allegations published just before the World Cup in The Athletic about her time as manager of the Houston Dash - allegations which she denies - had on Ireland's World Cup campaign, and how she thinks she is now unemployable in the western world. 

She also responds to Diane Caldwell's suggestion that everything Ireland achieved, including their first World Cup qualification, was in spite of Vera being their manager, and outlines the disconnect she feels with the team she spent four years with. 

Episode is a Second Captains podcast. 

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Today's season finale with Damien Dempsey is a beautiful journey through music mixed with some hilarious stories about Shane MacGowan, Ronnie Drew, and a live performance from his kitchen table that blew Richie and Killian away.

In ten days time, Damien will take to the stage at Vicar Street for the first of six of his now iconic Christmas gigs at the venue, concerts which have taken on a huge emotional significance for his fans.

Ahead of those shows and in the midst of recording his new album, Richie sat down with Damo in his home in Donaghmede to chat about that Vicar Street magic and how little pressure there is when you and the audience want the exact same thing: the best gig of their lives.

Episode is brought to you by NOW and is a Second Captains podcast.

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