It was an email out of the blue from one of the world’s biggest book publishers that completely changed the course of Vicki Notaro’s career. Having spent over 15 years as a journalist and managing director of a magazine group, Vicki suddenly got the chance to turn a long-held dream into reality, and become a fiction writer.

Fast forward four years, and Vicki has already had two best-sellers on the shelves; her latest novel, Anywhere But Here, has just been published; and she’s already working on the next!

On this episode of The Mario Rosenstock Podcast, Vicki and I have a great chat about life before and after that life-changing email from Penguin Ireland, what makes a book become a best-seller (hint – sexy dragons), trying to crack international markets and get optioned by the big streamers like Netflix, and her love of romantic comedies and her podcast about them, called ‘You Had Me At Hello’.

COMEDY - Crime World investigates: Hosepipe Mobsters

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Paul Cullen is one of Ireland's best-known journalists, having spent more than 30 years at The Irish Times covering health, politics, education and public affairs. But despite having a successful career and a happy family, Paul always felt like an outsider, like he didn’t really belong anywhere. This feeling stemmed from his adoption at the age of three, and knowing nothing about his parents, why they had sent him into institutional care as a baby, and what happened to him during those first three years of his life.

While climbing Germany’s highest mountain, Paul had a serious fall and as he lay injured in the snow he promised himself that , if he survived, he would face up to all of these questions and to find the answers.

What happened next is a fascinating story of discovery, captured in Paul’s recently published memoir called ‘Outsider’, and he joins me on this episode of The Mario Rosenstock Podcast to share his full story.

COMEDY- Speaking of memoirs, Joe Duffy, formerly of RTE’s Live Line, is about to publish his. As you might imagine, every broadcaster wants to be the first to interview him. We got exclusive access to Joe’s voicemails…

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

For decades, Hot Press has been at the centre of some of Ireland's most challenging conversations around drugs, consistently questioning whether criminalisation is the best way to tackle addiction, organised crime and public health. Now, that conversation continues through its new podcast series, Dealing With Drugs: A Hot Press Podcast

The show is presented by deputy editor of Hot Press Stuart Clarke, who joins me as my special guest on this episode of the Mario Rosenstock Podcast. We chat about everything from why Portugal's model of decriminalisation is working and why Ireland's model of criminalisation isn’t, to organised crime, music culture and why honesty may be the most important starting point for any meaningful debate about this issue.

COMEDY: It’s the most popular gift Grub Sketch that I have written years – I channel my inner Bob Dylan and sing about the number of England players with Irish roots in the World Cup!

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Mike Hanrahan has spent over forty years writing, performing and championing Irish music. He spent fifteen years with Stockton's Wing, writing hits such as Beautiful affair and Over the Moors, which was the theme tune for Joe Duffys radio show for over 40 years until recently (and Mike has a very strong opinion on the decision to drop it)

He went on to spend ten years writing and performing with the legendary Ronnie Drew with whom he became a close friend; He has also supported Michael Jackson in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, appeared in Jim Sheridan’s The Field, alongside Richard Harris, Sean Bean and John Hurt; performed for Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior; he even spent years as a professional chef in kitchens across Ireland. And we have a great chat about all of these stories and more in this episode of the Mario Rosenstock podcast

Lucy Kennedy’s hit TV show ‘Living with Lucy’ has been a huge success and so much of that is down to Lucy’s disarmingly relaxed and authentic style of interviewing – in fact it doesn’t even really feel like an interview, more of a very causal chat, which is why the celebs she moves in with are so open and honest with her.

As well as being a tv presenter , Lucy is also the co host of the breakfast show on Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio, alongside Colm Hayes; she has written several children’s books, and now she can add adult fiction writer to her CV. Her debut novel is called The Mini Breakers and we chat about that – and a whole lot else in this episode of the mario Rosenstock podcast.

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

My conversation with Greg Allen continues, with more great stories and sports insights in this episode. Greg has spent over 40 years covering golf and athletics on RTE, and in this part of our chat he shares early memories of watching Rory Mcllroy play, what he thought at the time, and where he thinks his career is headed now. We hear stories about his interviews with famous golfers including Jack Nicklaus, and I hit him with a quick fire round of questions about his favourite sportsperson, most memorable sporting moment, and lots more.

COMEDY - its World Cup fever at the moment and David WcWilliams is doing what David McWilliams does best, on the David McWilliams podcast!

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Greg Allen joined RTE’s sports department over 40 years ago and he intentionally decided to focus on two sports that weren’t particularly widely covered, so that he could develop a niche for himself and make his mark. He chose well, as Ireland has since become a global force in golf and athletics , and Greg has had a front-row seat to that remarkable transformation.

He has covered 10 Olympic games, every World Athletics Championship since 1993 and each European Athletics championship since 1990, 90 major golf championships, 16 Ryder Cups , over 100 international events and domestic ones too – and in this episode he tells me some great insider stories about the big events, the sports stars involved, and the rise and rise of Irish sport on the world stage.

COMEDY - As one of Ireland’s most recognisable sports commentators, there’s was naturally a lot of interest in this episode from other recognisable sports commentators, and they were eager to get in touch with Greg on the Mario Rosenstock podcast hotline.

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Ever since he was a kid, all Jack Lukeman (aka Jack L) wanted to do was to write and perform music - and he has managed to make a very long and successful career out of it, with multi-platinum selling albums and thousands of gigs under his belt. And it certainly helped that he has one of the most recognisable voices in the industry.

But as well as writing and performing music, Jack also thinks a lot about it – he’s fascinated by its history, the science behind it, and the impact that AI is having on music, and what that means for musicians and performers in general. So we have a deep and wide-ranging chat about all that, as well as Jack’s upcoming projects, including MC'ing on the main stage and performing at the upcoming Forest Fest in Co.Laois in July, a 'Northern Lights' church tour, and two consecutive nights at the 3Olympia in March 2027

COMEDY – Ray Darcy, Michael Healy Rae, and Ivan Yates remember what they got up to after they sat their Leaving Certs.

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand