Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

420 episodes

Writer Michael Thomas on breaking the chains of the past
08/08/2026 | 1h 5 mins.
Michael Thomas found the kind of success most writers dream of with his first novel, Man Gone Down, but his life and career took a different direction. Now he has returned with an astonishing memoir, The Broken King. On Free State, he talks to Dion about addiction, race, and retiring to Ireland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Embrace the Mediterranean life. Embrace death.
06/08/2026 | 42 mins.
July was the driest July on record in Ireland and the second hottest since 1900.

Most of us have enjoyed this summer but should we just now accept our Mediterranean climate and whistle past the climate graveyard.
On Free State today we look at how climate and migration became weapons to protect the elites and sustain inequality.
Dion and Joe look at the way the events in Ceuta were seized upon. It provided a backdrop for misinformation and fear and another chance to tell you your freedoms were under attack while your freedoms were being trampled on somewhere else.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Merchants of doubt. The men who conspired to destroy the planet.
04/08/2026 | 47 mins.
In the 1980s, there were 21 days when the temperature in London reached 30 degrees. In 2026 there have been 24.
In Greece, two died in a midair collision between helicopters fighting wildfires. France has seen the greatest civilian evacuation outside wartime as people flee the danger areas.
And yet people will take issue with what they are seeing.
On Free State we look at the movement that turned climate science into a climate debate. We examine how the methods that were used by big tobacco transferred to the climate arena. We look at how Brexit may be the model as the same alliance that drove the UK out of the EU, question the science as the world can burn so long as it doesn’t affect the bottom line
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How John Ware searched for the truth in the darkness of the Troubles
01/08/2026 | 1h 2 mins.
Running agents during the Troubles has become one of the darkest element of the history of the north. John Ware has covered this story since the 1970s and produced a ground breaking Panorama on the topic. Ware talks to Dion today about a lifetime covering this subject and the stories of Brian Nelson and Freddie Scappaticci. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mayo vs Gianni Infantino
30/07/2026 | 36 mins.
Can you put a price on what we watched at Croke Park on Sunday? What would you sell a Mayo victory in the All Ireland for?
We know that what we watched affects us in ways that money can’t buy but Gianni Infantino thinks he can sell the essence of sport.
On Free State today Dion and Joe look at why sport is so important and why men like Infantino are a danger to the things that are most important in our lives.
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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