It’s time for a second helping of the great writer, thinker and commentator, Fintan O’Toole.  Fintan has spent a lot time in the United States, including twelve years as a visiting professor in Princeton, so he has lots to say about American culture and politics, which we get into on this episode. We also chat about Brexit, the state of modern journalism, covering the culture wars, and if he’s going to be throwing his hat into the  ring for the top job in the Aras!

Comedy - As you can imagine, lots of people listened in to part 1 of our chat last week and we got a lot of interesting messages on the Mario Rosenstock Podcast hotline…

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Political reporter Gavan Reilly has been in the Oval Office twice – the first time was during Donald Trump’s first term as US President, and the second was during Trump’s current term. In this bonus episode Gavan tells me what its like to be up close and personal with Donald J Trump and he shares his thoughts on his politics, his personality, and even his physical demeanour.

Fintan has been one of the top thinkers, writers, and speakers in Ireland for as long as I can remember. He has so much to say about so many things and always has a deeply thought-out and fresh perspective on the big issues. So when we get stuck in to a great conversation, I let it run for as long as he’ll let me!

This is part one of a two-part conversation we've just recorded, covering immigration and the ‘idiots’ of the far right, why Donald Trump uniquely combines fascism and comedy, how Charlie Haughey got away with it, and what it really means to be Irish. Enjoy!

Comedy - Now that Elon Musk has dramatically vacated his government job as head of D.O.G.E, Trump is looking for applications for the role -  and we’ve got hold of some of them…

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

As the saying now goes, what happens in Leinster House…ends up in Gavan Reilly’s new book, ‘The Secret Life of Leinster House: what you really need to know about how the country runs’.

 Gavan is a former colleague of mine from back when he was the correspondent for Today FM and Newstalk. He now leads Virgin Media’s political coverage and he’s also one of the presenters of the great Group Chat podcast. When it comes to politics and politicians, Gavan has been there, done that, and got the t-shirt – and now it’s time to write the book .

 In this episode of The Mario Rosenstock podcast Gavan joins me to share the juicy stories, behind the scenes intrigue, and the insights into how politics really works, that he has gathered over his many years as a political reporter.

 COMEDY- Did you see that Ryanair Boss Michael O ‘Leary has just become 100m euro richer? …This has caught the attention of a few well known people and they’ve been leaving messages for Michael on his phone…we got exclusive access.

 Produced by Patrick Haughey, Audiobrand

A couple of weeks ago Dave Hannigan joined me to share the fascinating story of how a Kerry man called Butty Sugrue managed to convince the one and only Muhammad Ali to come to Ireland and fight Alvin Lewis in Croke Park. It’s a fantastic yarn and if you didn’t hear it, I’d strongly recommend doing so.

But Dave has lived in the US for over 25 years and so I couldn’t let him go without getting his thoughts on what its like to be an Irish man living in Long Island, which is true Trump territory, and all that comes with it. Dave and I go deep on politics, media, the 'flooding of the zone', and even the fall of the Roman empire!

The Mario Rosenstock Podcast is produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

He joined me here on the podcast a couple of years ago but he’s such a brilliant character and so much has happened in his life since we last met, that it was high time we did it again.

Born into a highly dysfunctional family, Willa White became addicted to solvents by the age of 7, which was followed by several years of heroin and alcohol abuse, stints in prison, and mental breakdowns.  The story of how he got clean and into a good place in his life and head is a real lesson in tenacity, resilience and the power of being surrounded by good people.

Willa’s new show is called Dead Man Talking and you should definitely check out the details and see if you can make it along – right after you listen to this episode of The Mario Rosenstock podcast

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Lisa Harding and I go way back, right back to Trinity College Dublin in the early 90s where we both did our degrees and became very involved in acting. We both went on to pursue acting careers, however neither of us decided to stay on that path but we ended up succeeding in different, yet still related careers. 

In Lisa’s case, that career was writing fiction, something that she has excelled at from day one. Her latest novel is called The Wildelings and it is set back in those crazy college days in the early 90s in Dublin and because I was there at the time myself, I was dying to get stuck in to this book and have a chat with Lisa about it here on the Mario Rosenstock podcast.

 We chat about how people from unconventional, even dysfunctional backgrounds tend to find each other college and band together. Lisa also tells me about falling in love with acting – and falling out of love with it again; why writing is a lot like acting, the craziness of creative people not being able to get mortgages to buy a home, and lots more.

 COMEDY - We have managed to get exclusive access to the voicemail box of the Eurovision song contest headquarters. Their phones have been hopping since Ireland’s entry failed to make it through to the final.

 Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Picture the scene – its 1972, Ireland is a very different place to what it is today, the country is very monocultural and  feels isolated out on the periphery of Europe. Its all a bit grey.  Enter from stage left, one of the most interesting,  charismatic and successful sports stars in the world – the great Muhammad Ali – and he’s here to fight in Croke park stadium.

 The story of how all of this came about has fascinated me for years. It involves the world’s greatest sportsman, a pretty questionable Kerry-born circus strongman, and an Ireland that is almost unrecognisable to the Ireland of today.

 Journalist and history lecturer Dave Hannigan is the man who decided to bring this story to life – and to a new generation – and it all comes together in his new book called The Big Fight: When Ali conquered Ireland. This story has everything, its told by a brilliant story teller. Enjoy.

 COMEDY  - Joe Duffy has announced his retirement after almost forty years in RTE. And he gets an unexpected call that sets him rushing out of the studio.

 Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

As a big fan of all things Cork, I was delighted a couple of years back to come across a fantastic ‘pure-cork’ comedy character called Reggie from the Blackrock Road. Reggie is a very old-money, conservative and highly snobby character who has a lot to say about a lot of people, very little of it complimentary. I find him hilarious.

 Reggie is the brainchild of journalist, writer, and comedian Pat FitzPatrick. You may have enjoyed Pat’s excellent writing in the Sunday Independent, he also wrote jokes for Brendan O’Connor on his Saturday night tv show and he had a very popular fake agony aunt column in the Examiner called Ask Audrey.

 In this episode of The Mario Rosenstock Podcast, Pat tells me all about Reggie Blackrock Road, the inspiration behind him, and his current tour https://www.reggieblackrockroad.com/ . We also talk lots about Cork (of course), class and comedy.

 Comedy – With Kneecap getting so much attention for their controversial political statements, some well-known Irish musicians are trying to get in on the action. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, is there?

 Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand.

(…and what we can do about it). Dermot Whelan and I worked together in Today FM for many years, until he made the decision to leave the Dermot and Dave show to focus on his wellness business and pursue his passion for making mindfulness accessible and relatable to everyone.

 And since he has been doing this work, the two words that people have said to him most are ‘busy and wrecked’. So he set out to find out why we are all so busy so much of the time, why burnout is becoming so prominent, and what are the small, achievable actions we can take every day to buy some of that precious time back for ourselves. And he joins me on this episode of the Mario Rosenstock Podcast to tell me what he found out.

COMEDY  - Some well-known characters share their tips for staying mindful and avoiding burnout

 Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand