The Women's Podcast

Last month Irish writer Sally Rooney launched her highly anticipated third novel Beautiful World, Where Are You. Since its release, the book has topped bestseller lists across the world and continues to fly off the shelves. We here at the Women’s Podcast devoured the book in just a few days and we’re still not ready to stop talking about it. That’s why in today’s episode, Róisín Ingle is joined by Irish Times columnists Emer McLysaght and Fintan O’Toole to get their thoughts on the book and to discuss the Sally Rooney effect: the mass appeal of her writing, the impact she’s had on the literary world and the spotlight she’s shone on emerging Irish writers.

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Last month Irish writer Sally Rooney launched her highly anticipated third novel Beautiful World, Where Are You. Since its release, the book has topped bestseller lists across the world and continues to fly off the shelves. We here at the Women’s Podcast devoured the book in just a few days and we’re still not ready to stop talking about it. That’s why in today’s episode, Róisín Ingle is joined by Irish Times columnists Emer McLysaght and Fintan O’Toole to get their thoughts on the book and to discuss the Sally Rooney effect: the mass appeal of her writing, the impact she’s had on the literary world and the spotlight she’s shone on emerging Irish writers.

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In her new book, Women vs Capitalism, economist Vicky Pryce presents readers with an uncomfortable truth: we will not achieve equality for women without radical changes to contemporary capitalism. In today’s episode she speaks to Kathy Sheridan about all the ways in which our economic structure is built to put women at a disadvantage, from the gendered threat of robot labour to the lack of women in economics itself. Pryce also shares her personal journey of moving from Greece to the UK in her teens, her experiences in the male-dominated financial sector and the challenges of being a working mother.

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Last year, when most of us were busy baking banana bread or learning how to crochet, Irish actress Jade Jordan spent her time in lockdown delving back into the pasts of her mother Dominique and grandmother Kathleen. Spurred on by the death of George Floyd, Jade was eager to explore and add to the discussion surrounding race and discrimination in Ireland. The result of these conversations between Jade and the women closest to her, is the book, Nanny, Ma and Me: An Irish story of family, race and home. In today’s episode, she tells Róisín Ingle about the power of looking back into the past, the importance of speaking out and standing up to racism and why when people come together to talk, the possibilities are endless.

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We cannot resolve the climate emergency without fighting for gender equality. Women, especially poor women of colour, are suffering most as a result of the climate crisis, our highest-profile climate activists are women and girls and yet, at the top table it is men who are deciding the earth’s future. In her latest book, How Women Can Save the Planet, award-winning journalist Anne Karpf argues that when it comes to fighting climate change we are not all in it together, but we could be. In today’s podcast she joins Róisín, Sadhbh O’Neill, policy coordinator with Stop Climate Chaos, and Catherine Cleary, writer and founder of the Pocket Forests initiative, to talk about many of the issues raised in the book, the debate about women and climate change and what we can all do to help.

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In today’s podcast Róisín talks to the journalist, author and presenter of the brilliant How To Fail podcast Elizabeth Day. She has just published her latest novel, Magpie, a thrilling, stylish and psychologically astute story of jealousy, motherhood and power. In this funny, moving and revealing conversation, Day explains how some of the book’s themes relate to her own life, why it was important to her to write about mental illness with sensitivity and why she is a Derry girl at heart. She also tells Róisín about her lockdown wedding to husband Justin Basini, some of her favourite How To Fail guests and her friendship with Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

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Taste of Dublin returns to the Inveagh Gardens this week. A celebration of eating, drinking and entertainment, the festival runs for five days from the 1st- 5th September and features live cooking demonstrations, wine tastings and food stalls from all over the world. This year, Our Table will be joining the festival line up, selling a selection of products and showcasing start up businesses from the migrant background. Our Table was founded by activist Ellie Kisyombe and food writer Michelle Darmody, who met through a shared conviction that Direct Provision was an unjust system and that talking about it through food might help to start an important conversation. In today’s episode, Kisyombe and Darmody speak to Róisin Ingle about the origins of Our Table and their involvement in this year’s festival. Also joining the conversation is pastry chef and Irish Times food writer Aoife Noonan who will be doing a live demonstration at Taste of Dublin this Sunday. See https://dublin.tastefestivals.com/ for all details.

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It’s that time of year again. The back-to-school sun is shining as thousands of children around the country return to the classroom. Parents, children and teachers alike will be hoping for some normality as the new school year begins, but will it be all plain sailing? In this episode Róisín Ingle is joined by journalist and parenting expert Jen Hogan and by Maria Rushe, a secondary school teacher based in Donegal. They discuss the worries and concerns facing parents and students, the current rules around masks and vaccinations and they’ve loads of tips and advice for the new academic year ahead.

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In her new book The Breakup Monologues, comedian Rosie Wilby takes you on a journey back through her romantic history, celebrating the ups and downs and the many lessons learned along the way. The book serves as a love letter to those breakups and includes anecdotes from friends and interviews with relationship therapists, scientists and sociologists. In this conversation, the “breakup queen” tells Róisín Ingle about her obsession with heartache, the new language around dating and why lesbians are the unofficial, unrecognised world champions of breakups.

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The Bright Side, by Irish director Ruth Meehan opens in Irish cinemas on August 20th. The film was inspired by Anne Gildea’s best-selling memoir ‘I’ve got cancer, what’s your excuse’ and tells the story of Kate (Gemma-Leah Devereux), a world-weary comedian who is diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of thirty-five. Already suicidal, Kate sees this as a guilt-free way out, but the prospect of death soon becomes the best reason to choose life. In this episode, Gildea and Meehan tell Roisin Ingle how the idea for the film came about, their strong emotional ties to the story and some of their favourite moments from the set.

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