Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

400 episodes

Can the World Cup save America?
23/06/2026 | 34 mins.
‘I have come to sell a product called soccer.’ The former FIFA president Joao Havelange announced himself in 1974 with these words. They have been the model for the expansionist, grasping FIFA that has existed to this day.
But maybe what matters was not the product but everything but the product?
On Free State today we look at why the World Cup matters and why it might be everything that Donald Trump’s America is not.
From David Clifford and Kerry to Messi and Argentina, sport is what it is because of the communities that are brought together.
Could it be that as America experiences the World Cup, they see that the world is a better place than their leaders want them to believe?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
An Actor's Life: Power Ballad start Peter McDonald on working with Paul Rudd, dealing with fame and the Monday Club
20/06/2026 | 51 mins.
In Power Ballad, Rick, played by Paul Rudd, a washed-up wedding singer, and Danny, a fading boy band star, bond over music and a late-night jam session. On Free State today, old friends Dion and Peter McDonald, co-writer and co-start of Power Ballad, discuss their own late night escapades, Peter's time in the theatre and and his extraordinary time working with the legendary Robert Altman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The World’s First Trillionaire and the Truth about Two Tier Policing
18/06/2026 | 47 mins.
There are no atheists in the foxholes and in the darkness of the night there is nobody who won’t find consolation in the World Cup.
On Free State today Joe talks about his own World Cup journey. Joe and Dion look at why the tournament captivates and what it tells us about communities as opposed to the leaders of those communities.
At a time when Elon Musk had become the world’s first trillionaire, we look at the hatred he is trying to foment.
And we look at the story of Palestine Action and what it tells us the authoritarian direction of the world today.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The hypocrisy of Loyalism and why is Jimmy McGuinness having a meltdown?
16/06/2026 | 36 mins.
How have Donegal got themselves in this mess? Has Jim McGuinness’s obsession with Kerry blinded him to the other threats.
On Free State today, Joe examines why some counties accumulate All Irelands and others fail, while Dion surprises him with his knowledge of Roscommon’s football history.
Joe and Dion also look at how the Belfast Riots happened.
For months the PSNI were warned that houses were being identified and that people were stockpiling food for fear their homes would be attacked but according to reports nothing was done.‘My daughter was crying, saying she doesn’t want to die,’ one father said of the terror his family endured during the riots.
Why has this happened and what is the hypocrisy at the heart of loyalism that allows this hate to prosper?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Love and Mercy: The Rise and Fall of Diego Maradona
13/06/2026 | 50 mins.
The World Cup has begun but will there ever be a tournament like Mexico '86 dominated by Diego Maradona? On Free State today, Dion talks to David Arrowsmith about his book on Maradona, the impulses that drove Maradona and how he escaped from poverty but could never escape the sense of being an outsider. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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About Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Free State is a podcast for the curious that stimulates, provokes, challenges and entertains, while never taking itself too seriously. Free State covers topics from sport to politics, love to loss, the human condition and how to fix the world, with guests from across the planet including Nigerian princes, former Prime Ministers, ex convicts, footballers, boxers and extraordinary people from every walk of life. Free State is presented by Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning. Brolly is a barrister, an original thinker with a fascinating backstory, who donated a kidney to a stranger and then led a crusade to transform organ donation on the island of Ireland, and Fanning is an award-winning interviewer and author. They are not motivational gurus or life coaches. They are two people from very different worlds, with one core belief uniting them - this is not a high performance podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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