The Echo Chamber from Tortoise Shack

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Listener favourite, US-Based Irish-Russian Prof of Economics, Constantin Gurdgiev is back to wrap 2025 and this is a belter. Please listen and enjoy Constantin on Trumponomics, EU sclerosis, Ireland's windfall taxes vs Irish quality of life and what a vision for the future might be. Thank you, Constantin for your contributions as always. The Ditch 2025 R...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Cambodia was already one of the most disadvantaged places in the world long before the latest escalation with Thailand. Joining us to talk about the displacement of over a million people, the ongoing bombing and the impact it is having on the ground is Managing Director with seebeyondborders.org Pheung Pov and CEO with same, Colm Byrne. We also discuss t...

Ali Al Omari is a Palestinian-Philippino artist and architecture graduate, who holds a masters degree from the Victoria University of Wellington. His work focuses on Palestinian art, Sumud and Resistance through architecture. In this episode, he talks about architecture in Palestinian history including that of Gaza, a city that rises from the ashes, just like the Phoenix, tune in for the full epis...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Dr Niall Conroy is Adjunct Professor of Public Health in UCC, but you’ll remember him as the fella who handled the COVID 19 pandemic public health response in Queensland, Australia. He returns to the shack to talk about the worst flu outbreak in years and what we should do to protect ourselves and others. He also talks about the inequalities baked into t...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack In this echo chamber podcast, I’m joined by Prof of Human Rights and Law at QUB, Colin Harvey, to talk about the potential of a new United Ireland. We discuss the work that has already taken place, the conversations that are being held and the ways in which governments need to step up. The Constantin Gurdgiev podcast is here:https://www.patreon.com/posts...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack In this PalCast, Yousef talks with Tony about the most recent events in Gaza, including the devastating floods, what's happening in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and how the aid situation is nowhere near where it needs to be. They outline the differences between the reality on the ground and the ridiculous narrative that the ceasefire is holding. The...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Jude Sherry and Frank O'Connor are the driving forces behind the #DerelictIreland movement. They’ve been working relentlessly for years to bust the myths and political narratives that say that getting vacant or derelict properties back into use as homes is too complex and costly and , despite many hurdles, they are winning. Their recent appearance at the...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Prof Richard Murphy is back and he's not pulling any punches. We talk the UK's self-sanctioning budget, the Labour-becoming-the-Tories, but somehow worse, the fight between Zack Polanski's Populist Ecosocialist Green Party and Nigel Farage's Populist Far Right Reform Party and heck, even Gramsci gets a mention! The Conor McCabe Podcast is out now here:ht...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack A short podcast with MEP for Dublin, Lynn Boylan, on the return (again!) of CETA, the Governments insane push for unconstitutional investor courts, Mercosur's hormone enhanced cows for German cars and how to react to the EPP and Fine Gael joining with the far right in the EU. The Leilani Farha Podcast is out now here:https://www.patreon.com/posts/patron-...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Eva Abu Mariam is a 20 year-old woman from Gaza studying dentistry at Al-Azhar University–Gaza, who is involved deeply in community work in the field in Gaza. She joins us from her family home after 25 months of displacement, famine and tragedy. Please watch this podcast. Yes, the subject matter is heavy. But her spirit is indomitable. Her poem that we d...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Worker’s rights getting rolled back. Environmental protections getting torn up. Financial regulation getting loosened. Data privacy laws getting sacrificed to the AI Gods. Access to Justice being undermined. Capitalism isn’t in crisis. Capitalism is the crisis. In this podcast I'm joined by Senator Patricia Stephenson and TUD lecturer, Dr Ciarán O'Carrol...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Abdullah Al-Yazouri, is a 15-year old sophomore currently residing in Gaza. He came to global attention as the narrator of the award winning documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a War-zone." The BBC later pulled the documentary because of his fathers job in the Dept of Agriculture in Gaza. He talks about the documentary, the "controversy", his experience du...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Journalist, writer and our man in Stockholm, Philip O’Connor is back and he had a lot to say. We talk the shift in rhetoric around immigration policy by senior politicians, what the Ivan Yates controversy actually says about our media, the chances of Left Unity beyond the Connolly campaign and some reasons to be optimistic. There are some! Listen to Rich...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Award winning Columnist with the Guardian, and host of their Politics Weekly podcast, John Harris, rejoined me in advance of the Budget to talk Labour’s lurch to Farage framing, the lack of a plan to improve the lives of ordinary people and the rise and rise of the Greens under Zack Polanski. The Bernadette Devlin Podcast is out now here: Richard Boyd-Ba...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Fresh from her dalliance with another podcast that I try not to listen to, but sometimes do, is returning champion, UCD's Orla Hegarty. She gives us a great breakdown of where the newest housing plan breaks down, talks cheese sandwiches and procurement, true affordability and even a little Charles Stewart Parnell. Enjoy. The Bernadette Devlin podcast is...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Maryam Elwaheidy is a translator with a strong foundation in English, Arabic. She holds a B.A. in English Language and Translation from Al-Azhar University in Gaza. She joins us from Gaza city to update us on the latest situation on the ground with the heavy fall of rain which flooded the tents of displaced Palestinians. We also discuss how the world is...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Our guest, Andrew Stroehlein, has over 20 years of experience in Human Rights Advocacy, including several years as the European Director of Human Rights Watch. He recently started his own newsletter, International Affairs for Normal People and I was delighted that he agreed to rejoin us on the tortoise shack to talk about his latest piece, "No One Cares...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Campaigning journalist, John Gibbons, is no stranger to talking Climate Breakdown on the tortoise shack, but this chat is a little bit different. His new book, The Lie of the Land, is part memoir, part climate action quick reference guide and part John starting fights with groups who have vested interests in slowing our response to the accelerating clima...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Ayat Abuhelal is a poet, writer, translator, and student of English literature, born and raised in Gaza. She was recently evacuated to Ireland to continue her academic studies. While finishing her BA studies online, she is preparing to start her MA studies in Dublin. She shares a story of struggle between two worlds. This story is of displacement, hope a...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Cian Prendiville was Head of Digital Organising on the Connolly for President Campaign, and late last week he joined me to talk about those history making months, the highs, lows and the learnings he wants us to take forward into a new keepleft.ie movement. Great insights, great enthusiasm and great strategic planning; even this old cynic was impressed....

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Prof Constantin Gurdgiev returns to talk about Trump’s attack on economic data, the ridiculous surge into AI investment, the booming markets, the fraying social contract, the EU, China, Russia and Ukraine and even a few words on the Connolly presidency victory. There's a lot in this. But please listen. The Connolly Campaign podcast with the campaign's he...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack Sojood Bakroon is a graduate of Literature at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. She is a writer and a poet, who hopes to amplify the Palestinian voice and let the world know about Palestine and Gaza. She is now in Ireland doing English and Communication at UCD. In this PalCast episode, she shares her experience of loss, displacement and fonding hope and sadnes...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack The great and the good fell over themselves to praise the recent John Collsion think-piece in the Irish Times. But nobody really stopped to ask "is he right?" In this Echo Chamber Podcast we are joined by Planning and Environmental Expert, Sabrina Joyce-Kemper and Solicitor, Fred Logue. Sabrina shares her lived access to justice experience as part of the...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack The EU continues to rollback hard won rights and protections around trade, work practices and environmental regulations all in the name of simplification and competitiveness. Now the previously maligned “free-trade” Mercosur is back on the agenda, consequences be damned. Joining me to discuss this and more is MEP Lynn Boylan, who is organising an event o...

Please join us at patreon.com/tortoiseshack CW: Contains personal stories that some listeners may find upsetting. This week Israel broke the ceasefire with devastating consequences, killing over 100 people, including 46 children. Somehow most western media is reporting that they've now reinstated it. We live in terrible times. Our guest, Hala Al-Khatib is a 20-years-old writer and poet from Gaza a...