When Dave Zirin flew home to America last week, as a precaution he wrote the telephone numbers of a lawyer and an Irish politician on his arm.

He had been away for only a week but a week is a long time in an authoritarian state. 

While he had been gone, JD Vance had declared an article about Charlie Kirk’s death in The Nation, the magazine Dave works for, to be ‘soulless and evil’. 

Dave wondered again what kind of country he was coming back to.

On Free State today, Dave Zirin explains why Ireland has been conned by the NFL game taking part in Croke Park this weekend. He laments that a venue so historic as allowed itself to be hijacked for a sportswashing exercise. He details why the NFL has no place in Ireland but why Kneecap give him hope.

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When Mary Lou McDonald announced a ‘game changing’ candidate many eyes looked to Joe Brolly. But was he ever in the running and would Dion have voted for him?

On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at what Sinn Féin’s backing of Catherine Connolly means for the presidential campaign. 

They also wonder if Jim Gavin can redeem himself after farmgate and Joe reflects on Gavin’s words about Gaza.

They also ask what does the Charlie Kirk memorial service tells us about America.

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What happens when a man tries to take up hurling at 41?

What does he learn about himself and Ireland’s relationship with its fabled national game.

On Free State today, Second Captains co-host Ciaran Murphy tells us what he learned about Ireland when he joined his father’s old club in West Waterford.

Are the obstacles to more people playing hurling all to do with the skills demanded or are there other reasons we need to examine? Do we pay lip service to this game and is hurling another cultural jewel that Ireland treats poorly?

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At the age of 45, Leo Varadkar decided to resign as Taoiseach. Many people wondered why.

In an extraordinarily frank interview on Free State today, Leo Varadkar talks about how finding peace in his personal life dulled his political ambition.

He speaks about his failings as a politician and a man. He explains why he believes in a united Ireland but isn’t a nationalist.

He criticises Keir Starmer’s embrace of nationalism in Britain and denies he was conned by Boris Johnson during their summit at the Wirral in 2019.

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Who was Charlie Kirk and what had he got to do with Ireland?

On a heated episode of Free State, Dion and Joe argue about how to respond to the murder of Charlie Kirk. Is it right simply to commiserate or do the ideas he advanced need to be challenged? 

They look at the rise of Kirk and how the MAGA movement has reacted to his killing.

Do people who disagree with everything he stood for need to observe a respectful silence or should they make their case now when it matters most?

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Diarmuid Lyng led the life many believe is the dream.

But it wasn’t his dream.

On Free State today he talks about how there has to be another way. How there has to be a version of ourselves outside the consumer western narrative that occupies so much of our lives.

He explains what he is hoping to achieve with Wild Irish Retreats. And why the answers are all around us.

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What is it like to cover the Donald Trump White House?

How should the media engage with the presidency in a time of crisis?

On Free State today, Niall Stanage talks to Joe and Dion about his time in America speaking truth to power. He recalls his encounters with the Biden official John Kirby over Gaza. 

Has the deferential nature of the media in America led too many to take a step backwards?

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The Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson declared last week that Donald Trump had been an FBI informant working to take down Jeffrey Epstein. He subsequently said he might have got it wrong. 

In Britain Reform had their party conference with the BBC’s political editor gushing about the ‘insurgency vibe’.

On Free State, Joe and Dion ask if the media knows how to handle the rise of figures who peddle nothing but misinformation.

Joe and Dion disagree on why this is. As the Irish presidential election comes closer they wonder about the questions some candidates like Catherine Connolly face.

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Ireland is a rural country. We believe that the values that sustain us are values that have been shaped by our struggle for land and our struggles on the land.

But as the climate emergency reaches a point of no return, how damaging have these foundational myths about Ireland been?

On Free State today John Gibbons talks about Ireland’s failure in tackling climate change.

He explains why farming today is not what it was when we shaped our romantic view of it and why agribusiness has used national myths to advance one side of a culture war.

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When Nigel Farage arrived in Washington this week, a US congressman Jamie Raskin spoke the truth about this snake oil salesman. 

In Britain the worst of Farage’s impulses are now indulged.

On Free State today, Dion and Joe look at what the writer Tanjil Rashid has called ‘the age of deportation’.

How have countries slipped closer to the authoritarian way of life and why is it being allowed to happen?

They look at how Nigel Farage dominates the media and how the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer follows Farage agenda.

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