The Women's Podcast

On today’s show, Róisín Ingle is joined by comedian and all-round legend Joanne McNally. In this hilarious conversation, Joanne speaks about living with four other single women, (one of whom is a sexual psychologist), why she mostly uses tinder for content ideas and how her favourite pastime of ‘drinking with the girls’ was the inspiration for her latest show, Prosecco Express. Also, Rosita Boland...

Ep 357 Book Club: The Dutch House / Irish Composer Emer KinsellaThe Book Club is back and this time Róisín Ingle, Bernice Harrison, Ann Ingle and Niamh Towey are chatting about The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. The book tells the story of two siblings, Danny and Maeve Conroy, and how their lives unfold over the course of five decades. Also Róisín Ingle chats with Irish violinist Emer Kinsella about...

In today’s episode we’re joined by the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Elizabeth Strout, who has just released her new book, ‘Olive Again’. It’s the much anticipated sequel to her best seller ‘Olive Kitteridge’ which was released in 2008. After eleven years, we’re thrown back into the chaos of Olive’s life as she adapts to changes within herself and the world around her. Elizabeth explains to Rói...

Megan Phelps Roper was born into the Westboro Baptist Church, a small Kansas based ministry which garnered world-wide condemnation for their anti-gay protests and pickets at 9/11 memorials and soldier’s funerals. Megan spoke to Róisín Ingle about her new memoir, Unfollow, which details her early life in the church, why her family celebrate tragedy and death and what inspired her to leave it all be...

As we wrap up Food Month here in The Irish Times, we’re joined in studio by award winning chefs Michel Roux Jr. and Margot Janse. The pair travelled to Dublin recently to judge the Euro-Toques Ireland Young Chef of the Year 2019 Competition, which was won by Gráinne Mullins, a head pastry chef at Galway restaurant Lignum. Margo has enjoyed a lengthy career in South Africa working as a head chef in...

In today’s episode, we examine what life is like for women living in the Gaza Strip, in southern Palestine. Róisín Ingle spoke to Mona Al Shawa and Hala Riziq, who travelled over to Dublin recently with Trócaire for some respite and to share their experiences with Irish people. Both have made it their life’s mission to defend women’s rights in a place where violent conflict and an oppressive patri...

In today’s episode, Tanya Sweeney tells Roisín Ingle why the opening of an Oliver Bonas store in Dublin is bad news for our wallets. (She spent too much on a neon rainbow lamp. What? It sparked joy!) They also discuss that car crash Prince Andrew interview and after encouraging us all to de-clutter our homes, ask why is Marie Kondo now selling her own home-ware range? Also on this episode, Roisín...

Last week The Women’s Podcast left behind the usual surrounds of the studio for a live recording in House on Leeson Street, with thanks to our sponsors Green & Black's. Marian Keyes was the special guest on the night and treated the live audience to an exclusive excerpt of her brand new book Grown Ups. Marian also spoke about her love of the dark winter nights, why she keeps turning down Dancing W...

In this episode, Róisin speaks to entrepreneur, author and ground breaking business leader, Margaret Heffernan. As the former CEO of five businesses, Margaret shares her incredible insight into the complexities of how an organisation works. Having spent a lot of her career focusing on the role of women in business and leadership roles, Margaret also speaks about how women can positively change the...

In this episode we are joined by former US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power. The Dublin born academic and author talked to Kathy Sheridan about how she became one of the most powerful women in American Foreign Affairs and discussed her acclaimed memoir The Education of An Idealist. Power also goes back to her difficult childhood in Dublin and the custody battle which led to her, aged 9, leaving...

Today we’ve dedicated the podcast to Gay Byrne - the legendary broadcaster who died on Monday 4th November - and specifically to his impact on women in Ireland. Most of the listeners to his radio show were women, he regularly made space for women on both radio and on The Late Late Show, allowing their voices to be amplified on topics such as divorce, sex, religion, contraception and feminism. He a...

Margaret Atwood is a literary legend and you can imagine how excited we were to have her on The Women’s Podcast for the third time. As author of The Handmaid’s Tale - and many other award winning novels - she brought us the world of Gilead and started a powerful global conversation about women which still resonates today at a time when Donald Trump is the leader of the free world and reproductive...

In what was a momentous week for Northern Ireland, The Women’s Podcast travelled to Belfast for our first podcast recording in that beautiful city. It was the week abortion was decriminalised in the North after a long grassroots struggle by feminist activists. So what happens next? Panellists including Alliance for Choice activist Danielle Roberts, performer Kellie Turtle and Alliance party Assemb...

In this episode, Kathy Sheridan talks to women and organisations who have benefited from the Mná na hÉireann Women of Ireland fund which was set up to increase the economic mobility of women across the country. We also mark the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month by talking to one survivor of the illness who now volunteers educating women and girls in how to detect early signs of the illness. Ger...

Barefoot Pilgrimage is a new book by Andrea Corr, the musician, songwriter and actress who was the lead singer of pop group The Corrs with her three siblings Sharon, Caroline and Jim. The memoir is a love letter to her late parents Jean and Gerry and a meditation on life, grief and hope. Corr came in to The Women’s Podcast studio and talked to Roisin Ingle about the memoir, her career, religion, f...

The BBC broadcaster Emma Barnett was the first person in the UK to announce she was menstruating on live TV news. Now she has written a call-to-arms manifesto on why we need to destroy the ludicrous stigma around periods. In the second part of our True Blood series, Emma talks to Kathy about the history of the taboo of periods, the stories women shared with her for the book and the new wave of act...

In the first of a two-part series, we explore why we find periods so hard to talk about and what can be done to help break the stigma that still exists around them. For today’s show, Kathy is joined by Labour councillor Deirdre Kingston, Niamh Dunne, a youth ambassador for Plan International Ireland, and by Claire Hunt of Homeless Period Ireland, to discuss first periods, taboos, period poverty an...

In today's podcast, journalist and founder of the Positive Birth Movement, Milli Hill, talks to Jennifer Ryan about her book Give Birth Like a Feminist. She says pregnant people need to realise that they have choices when it comes to giving birth and the power imbalance between health professionals and those giving birth needs to be redressed. Also in this episode, Róisín Ingle chats to Susan Jane...

In today's podcast, Kathy and Róisín revel in the joys of WAGatha Christie; Tanya Sweeney speaks candidly about postnatal depression; and Irish Times journalist Jack Power reviews 'Consent: Everything a Guy Needs to Know about Sex, Love and Consent', Inti Chavez Perez's sexual health and relationships guidebook aimed at boys and young men. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...

Flo Perry is a writer and illustrator, who has managed to make a career out of her passion for drawing breasts and penchant for quizzing people on their sex lives at parties. In her book 'How to Have Feminist Sex', she explores everything from faking it, to consent; from stress, to kink; and how losing your virginity isn't so different to eating your first chocolate croissant. In today’s podcast s...

Last night The Irish Times, in association with Green & Black’s Chocolate, brought Oh My God What A Complete Aisling authors Sarah Breen & Emer McLysaght to The Docklands in Cork for a live recording of the Women’s Podcast. Róisín sat down with Sarah and Emer to discuss their third novel 'Once, Twice, Three Times an Aisling', their plans for the fourth book, what it’s like to write with your best...

In today’s podcast, Róisín talks to singer-songwriter Wallis Bird about her sixth album 'Woman', which is released this week. Wallis talks to Róisín about what's inspired her for the new album - #MeToo, Trump, Brexit, the war in Syria - about how falling in love and being in a grown-up relationship has changed her, why she shaved her head to record 'Woman', and why living in Berlin is as annoyingl...

In her new book ‘Republic of Shame’, journalist Caelainn Hogan examines Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes and the collusion of the Catholic Church with the Irish State. Personal accounts from survivors, nuns and others bring the truth forward for all to see. In today’s podcast, Róisín speaks to Caelainn about the stories of the women she spoke to, the lack of understanding of the suffering they endu...

In 2018, Limerick woman Vicky Phelan became a household name as Irish women's voice for justice, when she chose to speak out and lift the lid on what has become one of the greatest political and medical scandals of our time. In today’s podcast she talks to Róisín about her memoir ‘Overcoming’, which details her remarkable personal story from her early life and a life-threatening accident, through...

In today’s episode, Cork woman Vera Twomey talks to Kathy about her memoir, For Ava. Ava is Vera's daughter and she suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that causes multiple seizures a day. The only medication that has any effect on Ava's condition is a form of medicinal cannabis that Vera has, for years, fought tooth and nail to gain access to. For Ava tells the story of that cam...