The Booket List

On our 3rd episode, Eoghan spoke to Mark Little, former journalist and founder of Storyful. Mark is currently working on his newest venture, Kinzen.

Mark’s book of choice was ‘Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72’ by the notorious Hunter S. Thompson. The book details Thompson’s adventure following the democratic candidates vying to take on Richard Nixon in the 1972 Presidential election.

Mark is one of the most recognised thought leaders in journalism and misinformation in the modern world. While diving into this book, we spoke to Mark about the way journalism is going today and the ever growing influence social media and technology is having on public discourse.

Pat Divilly is our guest on today’s podcast. Pat is a fitness entrepreneur turned life coach. He is based in Galway and his work has been helped countless people across Ireland.

We speak to Pat about ‘Awareness’ by Anthony de Mello. De Mello is an Indian priest and his book encourages people to wake up to the world around them. Observing your thoughts and emotions from as an outsider.

Pat is someone with a lot of wisdom. We delve into many topics around the book and Pat’s own life. Pat speaks about his love of Jiu Jitsu and surfing, while also explaining the important of keeping up your hobbies.

This week, we spoke to journalist and author, Roisin Kiberd, about her recent book ‘The Disconnect: A Personal Journey Through The Internet’. A very relatable book about the journey many of us have gone through in the past decade navigating this ever growing thing called the internet and all its various aspects.

One of the key themes we discuss is the founders of some of the big social media players, particularly, Mark Zuckerberg. He is a recurring character in the book and there are incredible insights into his life and the power he holds.

As well as this, we look at the social implications of the growth of these companies. A pertinent issue in Ireland today is the housing crisis and Roisin tied this into her book also.

We spoke to Ben Harkin, a young man from Donegal. He recently self published his first book ‘Time nor Tide: Ireland and Climate Change’. We speak to him about the pressing issue that is Climate Change and the current situation in Ireland.

As we are all aware, this is an issue that is going nowhere. Unfortunately, many of us feel totally helpless and lacking in knowledge around this topic. Ben’s book explains some of the most complex areas of Climate Change and how Ireland is handling the crisis.

Some of the many areas we delve into include; exporting emissions, farming, travelling, and we even manage to talk about a recently introduced Leaving Cert subject ‘Politics and Society’ which is introducing more and more young people to these complex topics.

Professor Luke O'Neill has been one of the most trustworthy and reliable voices throughout the pandemic in Ireland. His consistent positivity has provided me (and thousands others) with comfort and reassurance throughout the past year.

Thus, it was a huge honour to sit down with him and speak about his most recent book, ‘Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science’ on this week’s episode. The book aims to demystify many aspects of modern life that science can help explain, such as; diets, vaccines, big pharma, mental health, and much more.

It was impossible to not ask him about Covid and the future we are staring into. However, like always, Luke is able to see the positives that are about to come for the world post pandemic.

We sat down with small business expert Carl Reader. Carl has recently released his new book ‘Boss It’. The book is written for the first time business person. Carl cuts out all the jargon that normally comes with these types of books and simplifies the process of starting a company.

We speak to Carl about the realities of an entrepreneur's life and the sacrifice that is involved. We delve into the area of the surge in ‘get rich quick’ influencers many of us are bombarded with on social media and how Carl differentiates himself from these people.

This episode will be interesting for anyone interested in running their own company or interested in business in general. From fundraising, to networking, to messaging, to marketing, we cover it all with Carl Reader.

We had the pleasure to speak to Irish News Reporter of the Year for 2018 & 2019, Mark Tighe last week.

Mark’s book of choice was ‘All the President’s Men’ by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The book details how the pair brought down President Richard Nixon and exposed the infamous Watergate Scandal. Many parallels can be drawn between Tighe’s exposé of former FAI President John Delaney and the work Woodward and Bernstein did during the 1970’s.

As always, we learn a lot about our guest. We dive deep into the book and also ask Mark about his time blowing the whistle on the FAI’s shoddy finances, as well as learning about the pitfalls of Ireland’s defamation laws.

We speak to Giles Paley-Phillips about his new book 'Blank'.

Giles began his career as a children's book author. But more recently he is co-host of the Blank Podcast with his friend and comedian, Jim Daly.

Their new book retells some of the most insightful stories that they have had on their podcast. In the book they go through moments in their own lives and their guest lives and delve into topics like; imposter syndrome, social media, sleep, and much much more. 

Our conversation is an open chat about life in general.

And we're back!

After our short hiatus, today we speak to Off The Ball's Eoin Sheahan about Paul Kimmage's classic "Rough Ride".

The books outlines Kimmage's career in pro-cycling in the late 80's. His descriptions of the torture cyclists go through during these long and harrowing races are eye opening to say the least.

However, the main point of this book is Paul's exposure of the mass doping that cycles participate in. The backlash Kimmage received for this expose was intense. He then went on to be a journalist with the Sunday Tribune and later helped expose Lance Armstrong's doping.

We ask Eoin about his opinion of the book and the role of a sport's journalist.