Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning Podcast By Gold Hat Productions cover art

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning

By: Gold Hat Productions
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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 will never try to sell you a penis scented candle. 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.

Gold Hat Productions
Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • The Wolves of Wall Street - How Trump & Co are making billions from the Iran war
    Mar 26 2026

    “The White House does not tolerate any administration official illegally profiteering off of insider knowledge, and any implication that officials are engaged in such activity without evidence is baseless and irresponsible reporting.”

    Fifteen minutes before Donald Trump posted that there had been ‘productive conversations’ with Iran, $580 million in oil bets were made in a period of 60 seconds.

    Who knew to place those bets? Did anyone have insider information?

    “The only focus of President Trump and Trump administration officials is doing what’s best for the American people,” a White House spokesperson said.

    On Free State today we look at the con that was Trump’s war on Iran, a war that he is trying to end and which Iran prolongs any way it can knowing his desperation.

    Thousands have lost their lives in this latest example of American aggression and Trump now talks about peace.

    But does he know how to control the forces that are unleashed in a war? Or, as with Vietnam, has he set America on a course that will lead to greater human misery?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    40 mins
  • Michael Lyster: When We Were Kings
    Mar 24 2026

    When Michael Lyster started presenting The Sunday Game, Ronald Reagan was seeking reelection as president of the United States. When he stopped presenting it, Donald Trump was president for the first time.

    For 34 years Lyster was the presenter who shaped our summer days. He was the accompaniment to the drama and the tension, the celebration and the argument. It is no wonder that when his death was announced, the country felt as one,

    On Free State today Joe remembers his friend Michael Lyster. He recalls his calm and poise and ability to relax a studio so that the audience was entertained. He remembers Lyster’s ability in a rally car and his love of life. Above all, he remembers a friend from the time when they were kings.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    36 mins
  • How To Make the World A Better Place
    Mar 21 2026

    Adam Doyle, the artist known as Spicebag, achieved some notoriety when his art depicting evictions became a talking point in the national media.

    He is an artist of significance and he is also doing significant work.

    On Free State today he tells us about the project he is involved where his merchandise has funded a centre for children in Gaza The Ionad Hind Rajab is an Irish–Palestinian solidarity initiative based in Al-Mawasi, Khan Yunis, Gaza.

    Adam tells us the story of Hind Rajab and why art is always political.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    34 mins
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