Two huge games for Ireland's footballing women ended with one loss, one draw and the World Cup dream very much alive - Stephanie Roche joined me to go through the tactics that Vera Pauw's side used in this momentous week.

Brendan Walsh has gone from sending letters to zoos begging for information to being a zookeeper himself, educating people about animals through everything from daily talks to podcasts and TV shows. I had him as a regular guest on a radio show 25 years ago back when he was a teenager, and his passion for the animal kingdom and the natural world burns as brightly now as it did then.

Conspiracy theories have always been with us, but as the Covid-19 pandemic swept around the world in March 2020 they exploded in popularity as misinformation flooded to fill the vacuum of uncertainty. They quickly expanded to include everything from Covid conspiracies and paedophile rings to anti-vaxx sentiments, presenting governments and scientists with a tough nut to crack as they sought to convince ordinary people that they had their best interests at heart.

Before transitioning, Kirsti Miller was a world champion and a multi-sport sensation in her Australian hometown of Wagga Wagga, as well as being the toughest prison governor in the correctional system. After transitioning, hormone treatments saw her go from over 100 kilos to under 60 as the supposed advantages of having once inhabited a male body quickly ebbed away.

Finland captain Tim Sparv is one of the most outspoken footballers when it comes to the Qatar World Cup and the conversation around human rights, and there are not too many more like him.

No matter what we are talking about, whether it is sport, politics or anything else, we need to think before we speak - and we also need to ask ourselves where our opinions on these things come from.

Zack Elbouzedi's path in football has taken many twists and turns, the latest of which has led him to Stockholm and AIK. In front of 12,300 fans on Sunday, Zack's two corners laid the foundations for a 2-1 win that keeps his new team in the title race, and behind his success is a story of hard work, perseverance, and that little bit of luck that brings us to the right place at the right time.

The Paralympics is taking place in Tokyo, and even though the coverage is way, way better than it used to be, there's always room for improvement. Actor, activist, athlete, podcaster and heartthrob Graham Merrigan joined me to talk about representation on TV, relationships and being a wheelchair user in modern Ireland.

Over 30 years ago Dublin was a vibrant city struggling to shake off generations of poverty and the shackles of the cult of Catholicism. As a teenage songwriter with his band Power Of Dreams, Craig Walker captured that time before upping sticks and heading to London to seek fame and fortune, and now as an adult he finds himself in Berlin, still writing songs that resonate. The band's new album Auslander - the German word for foreigner - is an outstanding return to form after a gap of 26 years, and he still has as much to say as he ever did about creativity, writing and what it means to be Irish and a stranger in a strange land.

From the moment my Da told me about Muhammad Ali as a six-year-old (me, not him), I was smitten.

On Sunday I got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Irish sporting history made at the Olympics, and I wish he could have been there with me.