He joined me here on the podcast a couple of years ago but he’s such a brilliant character and so much has happened in his life since we last met, that it was high time we did it again.

Born into a highly dysfunctional family, Willa White became addicted to solvents by the age of 7, which was followed by several years of heroin and alcohol abuse, stints in prison, and mental breakdowns. The story of how he got clean and into a good place in his life and head is a real lesson in tenacity, resilience and the power of being surrounded by good people.

Willa’s new show is called Dead Man Talking and you should definitely check out the details and see if you can make it along – right after you listen to this episode of The Mario Rosenstock podcast

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Lisa Harding and I go way back, right back to Trinity College Dublin in the early 90s where we both did our degrees and became very involved in acting. We both went on to pursue acting careers, however neither of us decided to stay on that path but we ended up succeeding in different, yet still related careers.

In Lisa’s case, that career was writing fiction, something that she has excelled at from day one. Her latest novel is called The Wildelings and it is set back in those crazy college days in the early 90s in Dublin and because I was there at the time myself, I was dying to get stuck in to this book and have a chat with Lisa about it here on the Mario Rosenstock podcast.

We chat about how people from unconventional, even dysfunctional backgrounds tend to find each other college and band together. Lisa also tells me about falling in love with acting – and falling out of love with it again; why writing is a lot like acting, the craziness of creative people not being able to get mortgages to buy a home, and lots more.

COMEDY - We have managed to get exclusive access to the voicemail box of the Eurovision song contest headquarters. Their phones have been hopping since Ireland’s entry failed to make it through to the final.

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Picture the scene – its 1972, Ireland is a very different place to what it is today, the country is very monocultural and feels isolated out on the periphery of Europe. Its all a bit grey. Enter from stage left, one of the most interesting, charismatic and successful sports stars in the world – the great Muhammad Ali – and he’s here to fight in Croke park stadium.

The story of how all of this came about has fascinated me for years. It involves the world’s greatest sportsman, a pretty questionable Kerry-born circus strongman, and an Ireland that is almost unrecognisable to the Ireland of today.

Journalist and history lecturer Dave Hannigan is the man who decided to bring this story to life – and to a new generation – and it all comes together in his new book called The Big Fight: When Ali conquered Ireland. This story has everything, its told by a brilliant story teller. Enjoy.

COMEDY - Joe Duffy has announced his retirement after almost forty years in RTE. And he gets an unexpected call that sets him rushing out of the studio.

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

As a big fan of all things Cork, I was delighted a couple of years back to come across a fantastic ‘pure-cork’ comedy character called Reggie from the Blackrock Road. Reggie is a very old-money, conservative and highly snobby character who has a lot to say about a lot of people, very little of it complimentary. I find him hilarious.

Reggie is the brainchild of journalist, writer, and comedian Pat FitzPatrick. You may have enjoyed Pat’s excellent writing in the Sunday Independent, he also wrote jokes for Brendan O’Connor on his Saturday night tv show and he had a very popular fake agony aunt column in the Examiner called Ask Audrey.

In this episode of The Mario Rosenstock Podcast, Pat tells me all about Reggie Blackrock Road, the inspiration behind him, and his current tour https://www.reggieblackrockroad.com/ . We also talk lots about Cork (of course), class and comedy.

Comedy – With Kneecap getting so much attention for their controversial political statements, some well-known Irish musicians are trying to get in on the action. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, is there?

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand.

(…and what we can do about it). Dermot Whelan and I worked together in Today FM for many years, until he made the decision to leave the Dermot and Dave show to focus on his wellness business and pursue his passion for making mindfulness accessible and relatable to everyone.

And since he has been doing this work, the two words that people have said to him most are ‘busy and wrecked’. So he set out to find out why we are all so busy so much of the time, why burnout is becoming so prominent, and what are the small, achievable actions we can take every day to buy some of that precious time back for ourselves. And he joins me on this episode of the Mario Rosenstock Podcast to tell me what he found out.

COMEDY - Some well-known characters share their tips for staying mindful and avoiding burnout

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

As far as careers go, crime journalism is up there with one of the most, let’s say, ‘unique’. Its not for the faint hearted – you’re dealing with dangerous people who do terrible things, and your job is to make as big an audience as possible aware of the crimes they commit.

So who’d want to do a job like that? Well, Nicola Tallant for one. Nicola is one of Ireland’s best-known crime journalists. After years writing about crime, she then started talking about it on a podcast she created called Crime World – which is now one of the most-listened to podcasts in the country. She also does live stage shows, writes a book every year and regularly appears in the media.

In this episode of The Mario Rosenstock Podcast, Nicola and I talk about why she is so fascinated by crime journalism and what and drives her to work so hard at it. We also talk open and honestly about those characters we all seem to find so compelling, like Christy and Daniel kinihan, Gerry the monk hutch, and Conor McGregor. And there are also quite a few very funny moments.

If you'd like to catch Nicola at her next live event, follow this link https://www.kilkennylawfestival.com/speakers/nicola-tallant

COMEDY - Rory MclIroy’s phone is hopping after his big win at The Masters.

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

He was the star hurler who gave it all up to travel across Asia, spending months meditating in a Buddhist temple in Thailand, then returning home to live in the wilds of Kerry and become a champion of Irish culture, language and spiritualism. Diarmuid Lyng’s life has been far from conventional.

Diarmuid has spent a lot of time thinking about his life and his purpose in life – and he has had the courage to make some very difficult decisions in order to stay true to himself and what he believes he has been put on this earth to do. This episode of The Mario Rosenstock Podcast gets quite deep at times, but we also have some great laughs and get stuck in to things like the madness of hurling,, the beauty of the irish language , and Diarmuid’s creative crowd-funding idea for finding a permanent home for his wild Irish family (CLICK HERE to learn more about that)

COMEDY: Racing time, and the ‘What the hell is going on in world markets’ handicap hurdle is about to get started…

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

I have always loved my chats with Larissa Nolan, Features Editor and Columnist at the Irish Mirror. She always has a fresh, interesting and quite frankly brave take on the things that capture the public imagination from time to time. So when the chatter about the rise of toxic masculinity reached a new level recently, I knew who to call.

Its being fuelled by stories like like the Trump / JD Vance / Dana White ‘bro-ligarchy ‘in the US, Conor McGregor’s appearance in the Oval Office, the ongoing issue of Andrew Tate, and the new Netflix show Adolescence,.

I wanted to sit down with Larissa and try to figure out whats going on, if it’s something we should all be worried about or if its just another swing of the pendulum, and what even is toxic masculinity anyway?

COMEDY - Tuesday was Liberation Day folks, and when it came to doling out economically punishing tariffs, the Donald was taking no prisoners. But, true to form, he was happy to apply tariff exemptions in the cases where it suited him personally...

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand