The Comfortable Spot

Today my guest is Alivia Brown. Alivia graduated from UCLA in 2022 with a major in Anthropology and a minor in Evolutionary Medicine. During her time at UCLA, Alivia's research led her to find a passion for education and cross-cultural knowledge. In addition to her academic achievement, Alivia also has her own YouTube channel devoted to Anthropology. On this channel, Alivia hopes to make anthropology a more accessible topic for the global community and educate others on the importance of the field. I knew Alivia would be a wonderful guest so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.

Today my guest is producer and musical director Simon Ellis. With over thirty years in the music business, Simon has worked with an incredible amount of artists including Britney Spears, Spice Girls and S Club 7. When he is not writing and producing music, Simon is on tour not only as a musician but also as a musical director. I first got to know Simon when he was part of Ellis, Beggs and Howard who were a pop trio in the late 80s. The band gained a cult following with their debut single, Big Bubbles, No Troubles which is considered one of the most unique pop tracks of its time. I was interested in chatting with Simon to catch up on his career, as well as in finding out what the role of a musical director is in the modern age of live pop music. He's a great guy to chat with, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.

Today my guest is naturalist Donald Hobern. Donald is a lifelong naturalist with strong interests in Lepidoptera, DNA barcoding and metabarcoding, insect photography, and automation of species detection. I met Donald via the Mastodon platform as I was looking for someone with experience in Entomology which is the study of insects and their relationship to humans, the environment, and other organisms. Donald is a wonderful guest with a wealth of knowledge on the world of insects and we have an informative chat, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.

Today my guest is racing driver and entrepreneur Shannon Tobin. At 18, Shannon and her sister set up Equissentials which specialises in importing Equestrian goods into the Irish market. As well as starting her own business, Shannon is one-third of Team Valkyrie Racing which is an all-female racing team creating a safe space for diversity and supporting women racing in motorsport. Shannon is also currently working in Alpine which is the sports and racing wing of Renault. Shannon is a great conversationalist and has such a varied career despite still being in her mid-twenties, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.

By accessing this podcast, you acknowledge that the entire contents and design of this podcast are the property of Ken Sweeney, or used by Ken Sweeney with permission, and are protected under Irish and international copyright and trademark laws. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this podcast may save and use information contained in the podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational purposes. No other use, including, without limitation, reproduction, retransmission or editing, of this podcast may be made without the prior written permission of Ken Sweeney.

Today my guest is broadcaster David Goldstrom. Over the past twenty years David's commentary and voiceover work has embraced Ski Sunday, the Commonwealth Games and numerous Summer and Winter Olympics, including Tokyo 2021 and Beijing 2022, David is presently a Senior Commentator for Discovery/Eurosport focusing on the Winter World Cup Ski and Ski Jumping season along with the major Canoeing, Rowing, Weightlifting and Equestrian Championships of the year. I was delighted to have David with me to chat about his career and winter sports in general, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and hope you will stay with us.

By accessing this podcast, you acknowledge that the entire contents and design of this podcast are the property of Ken Sweeney, or used by Ken Sweeney with permission, and are protected under Irish and international copyright and trademark laws. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this podcast may save and use information contained in the podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational purposes. No other use, including, without limitation, reproduction, retransmission or editing, of this podcast may be made without the prior written permission of Ken Sweeney.

Today my guest is broadcasting journalist Méabh McMahon. With almost twenty years experience, Méabh is currently one of the anchors at Euronews - a pan-European media broadcaster. I was interested in chatting with Méabh about her career which has mostly been based in Europe and about some of the highlights of her time in broadcasting journalism, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.