The Fairground Park pool in St Louis Missouri was the largest pool in America when it was built in 1919. It had enough room for 10,000 swimmers. All of them white.

But when integration came to Missouri, rather than allow all races to swim, the Fairground Park pool closed. 

This phenomenon was explored by writer Heather McGhee and on Free State today, Joe and Dion examine the drained pool politics of unionism and the Orange order in Northern Ireland. 

When the North Down Cricket Club cross-community sports camp sports was blocked following an online backlash it was a perfect example of how narrow mindedness hurts everyone.

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Jim McGuinness isn’t a pragmatist. He is, Joe says, a pragmatic extremist.

On Free State, Joe and Dion look at the clash between genius and control. 

Through the history of sport, geniuses have always made their own way and systems have been devised to stop them. Will this be the case when David Clifford’s Kerry play McGuinness’s Donegal?

We look at how McGuinness saw the opportunity in the new rules before anyone else and what that tells us about his managerial genius. 

Dion has been at the England-India game at Lord’s and he talks about the instinctive uncoachable genius that can often undo any system. But will genius be enough to undo Jim McGuinness’s?

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In January, Timothy O’Grady joined Dion and Joe on the podcast to talk about Say Nothing and what it got wrong.

What stayed in people’s minds was his reading from his novel Monaghan.

With the publication of that novel this summer, Tim returns to Free State to talk about what he has learned about war and killing through years talking to people involved in the Troubles. He explains how it shaped his novel and he talks about the work he’s doing with his friend Stephen Rea on the actor’s memoirs.

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When the pictures emerged of the loyalist bonfire in Moygashel in Co Tyrone, most people were horrified at the migrant boat effigy at the top. 

Politicians condemned it and called for action but others insisted it was in fact an act or ‘artistic protest’.

On Free State, Joe and Dion look at the celebrations around the Twelfth of July, not as the desperate acts of a lost people, but as an artistic installation.

Have we failed to understand the subversive power and artistic merit of Loyalism for generations? Or should we look at this artistic protest as a brutal sign of a community punching down as they search for people to blame?

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What kind of world do you think you’re living in?

Most people when asked will have one view but on Free State today, Joe explains a surprising truth. 

Joe was in Portugal last week when Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva died so tragically. As Joe watched the funeral he noticed things about the community of Gondomar where Jota and his brother were from.

Joe and Dion talk about the times when community matters and when we lose sight of it. Dion also offers a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist: how to fix hurling

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Sahar Delijani was born in Evin Prison in Tehran. Her mother, who had been part of the movement that toppled the Shah in Iran, had been jailed as the new regime silenced some of the coalition that brought it to power. Her uncle was subsequently one of many political prisoners executed by the regime in 1988.

Sahar Delijani wrote about those experiences in her bestselling novel, Children of Jacaranda Tree.

On June 23 Israel bombed Evin Prison during their attacks on Iran and 71 people including jailed dissidents were killed. 

On Free State today Sahar Delijani recounts her own experiences in Iran and why those experiences have made her more fearful of the west and Israel's demonisation of Iran. She talks about how the dangerous talk of regime change threatens ordinary Iranians. She explains why people have lost faith in the west and why Israel’s attempts to look for change would be laughable if it wasn't so dangerous.

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In the aftermath of having their US visas revoked following their comments at Glastonbury, Bob Vylan issued a statement saying they were “a distraction from the story”.

“We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people,” their statement said. “We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine … a machine that has destroyed much of Gaza.” 

On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at why Bob Vylan are not a distraction, it is more dangerous than that. Instead they explain why they, like Kneecap, are being turned into a futile sacrifice, not to distract from the genocide but to brainwash the gullible into believing they aren’t seeing what they know they’re seeing.

In the week that Palestine Action were banned alongside two neo Nazi groups, they ask what has happened to a society that foams with outrage over comments on a stage but remains quiet about a genocide.

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On Sunday at Croke Park the glory belonged to Kerry but who was responsible for this victory and will Joe have to apologise?

On Free State today Joe and Dion look at how Kerry beat Armagh and David Clifford‘s role in the All-Ireland champions’ downfall.

Joe accuses Dion of failing to read beyond the headline of his column which was referenced in the aftermath by Kerry manager Jack O’Connor. 

Dion confesses to his own doubts about Clifford. But does Joe have anything to apologise for or should the world be apologising to him for misunderstanding what he does?

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There are those who believe Artificial Intelligence will lead to the extinction of mankind. There are those who believe AI will save the world.

On Free State today, journalist and author of the Empire of AI Karen Hao explains why AI is an imperialist project and how the colonising is already taking place. 

She says why she believes the doomer vs boomer debate is a distraction and how Ireland is on the frontline of this imperialist project. Water and energy resources will be drained as empires are built while humans will be expendable.

Karen also tells us why the term Artificial Intelligence was a marketing term in the first place which set the technology on a destructive path.

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The world seems to be intent on tapping into humanity’s worst instincts.

Tech companies ensure the algorithms keep us enraged and fearful, but is there a resistance movement? 

On Free State today Dion tries to persuade Joe that Test match cricket is part of a broader cultural phenomenon but will Joe buy it?

Joe looks at how Kilkenny was transformed from a cricket county to the cradle of hurling.

They also consider the All Ireland quarter finals and Dion’s credentials as a Kerry supporter are challenged by Joe, who definitely isn’t buying it.

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