Frances Black is one of Ireland’s best-known singers, born into one of Ireland’s best-known musical dynasties. Nanci Griffith famously called her ‘the sweetest voice of Ireland. Frances also successfully reinvented herself as an Independent Senator, building a reputation as one of the Seanad's strongest advocates on addiction, mental health and social justice.

We recorded this episode just one day after the tragic and untimely passing of Glen Hansard, and in our chat we pay tribute to Glen and Frances shares some lovely stories about him. She also talks about her upbringing in the tenements of inner city Dublin, using her position as a senator to fight for social justice, and why she thinks that a woman’s heart may have been the inspiration for the Spice Girls!

COMEDY – it’s ‘'The Kids Are Driving Us Absolutely Mental In The House Handicap Hurdle'!

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

John Gibbons is one of Ireland’s most vocal climate commentators - he has a weekly slot on Matt Cooper’s Last Word on Today FM and his articles are regularly published across print and online media. He has also joined me here on the podcast several times over the last few years as I like to stay up to date on whats happening in this area – and right now there’s an awful lot happening.

So we invited John back on to the show to chat about everything from the wildfires raging across Ireland and Europe, and the increasingly baffling anti-environmental policies of the US government, to rising world temperatures and the speed at which we’re adopting renewable sources of energy.

COMEDY – So it seems EVERYONE is from Mayo this week. With the Mayo football team’s historic win over Kerry, the tributes have been pouring in to the Mario Rosenstock Podcast hotline, from well-known people with Mayo roots

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