The Mario Rosenstock Podcast

Rachel Allen needs very little introduction. A very familiar face on our screens and a best-selling author, Rachel has carved out a highly successful career for herself in the culinary world both in Ireland and abroad. But did you know that her grandfather escaped from a concentration camp? Or that she has very strong views on veganism that might surprise you? Or are you aware of what her favourit...

It’s not easy being a TV weather forecaster in Ireland, and Joanna Donnelly knows this first-hand. She regularly gets blamed for actually creating bad weather, not just forecasting it. But despite all this, Joanna loves what she does. Having studied Mathematics and Meteorology, Joanna has worked with Met Éireann and RTE for over 28 years, and has just published her latest book, From Malin Head to&...

I have heard some fascinating life stories in my time, but Terry Prone’s is up there with one of the best. Terry is a writer, an actor, a journalist, a broadcaster, an advisor to successive governments, a communications expert, a PR pioneer, the list goes on and on - and after already writing 30 books, she has finally written the one that tells her own life story. Its called Caution to the Wind: A...

Have you ever hear a Tánaiste and former Taoiseach doing an impression of Muhammad Ali? Well, you're just about to. In this second and final part of my interview with Micheál Martin he nails an impression of his sporting hero, and we also talk about freedom of speech, violent protests, the housing crisis, the presidency, Murphy’s vs Beamish, and which Irish politician he’d most like to get in to t...

I’m pretty sure that you will not have heard an interview with Tánaiste Micheál Martin quite like this one before. The man is great craic, full of funny stories and banter – it’s a side to him that we rarely get to see in the Dail and on current affairs shows, but we certainly get a taste of it in this episode.  We talk about his love of impressions, and he even does a few for us! He tells me...

Senator Michael McDowell has been a TD, Tanaiste, Minster for Justice, and the country's Attorney General; he’s currently a barrister, a senator, and a columnist for the Irish Times. How he found the time to join me for an hour-long chat for this podcast I’ll never know, but Im very glad he did because we got through some great topics, including how broken a state Ireland once was when the tax rat...

 2023 has been a year of wildfires, extreme weather, and record temperatures – is it all down to climate change? To answer that question we invited climate commentator John Gibbons back to the studio for a conversation that I think you’re going to find very interesting ( and probably alarming).   John Gibbons has been researching, campaigning and consistently appearing in the media about...

At one stage during our chat, Shane Coleman broke into a quite excellent impression of former finance minister Charlie McCreevy. Unfortunately I couldn't convince him to do a few more, but we did get stuck into a few political topics, as you might expect.   Shane was one of Ireland’s leading political correspondents in print media for many years before joining Newstalk as political editor fol...

Watching the Rose of Tralee this week reminded me of the brilliant episode we recorded last year with Daithi O’Se. Daithi was in top form when we met, the Rose was back after a two-year hiatus and he was raring to go. We chatted about what its like hosting the festival (and how he gets in shape in advance), what makes Kerry people so unique, his new cottage renovation project, and he even teaches...

It's hard to describe Roddy Collins. Footballer, football manager, boxer, brother of a boxing world champion, practical joker, social commentator, author..the list goes on. Not only does Roddy have great stories to tell, he also tells them so well. We talk about life in football’s lower divisions, settling local disputes in the ring, practical jokes that went too far, and walking the streets of Du...

While we’re on our short summer break, I’m playing some of my favourite episodes from the series so far. This one is from May 2021, its with my friend and colleague Dermot Whelan, who has just announced that he’s leaving the Dermot and Dave Show on Today FM to focus on his mindfulness business. When we record this episode, Dermot had just released his bestselling book Mind Full. He told me all abo...

We’re on a short summer break at the moment and so we’re resurfacing some of our favourite and most popular episodes from the last few months. This episode first aired in November 2022 - its a fascinating chat with Frank Greaney, Courts Correspondent with Newstalk and Today FM, and also podcast host, author, and restaurateur! I love Frank’s on-air appearances with Matt Cooper and they have been in...

Every episode of my podcast features a brand new and exclusive comedy sketch. If you want to hear a few of my favourites funnies from the last few months, just click play and enjoy!! Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

It's never easy to pick easy to pick highlights from the series because there genuinely is far too much to choose from. So I’ve tried to find a few clips that represent the wide range of guests, topics, and laughs that we tend to have on this show every week. So what’s coming up? Jarlath Regan of the brilliant ‘Irishman Abroad’ podcast will be talking about why he took up running during Covid, how...

Tadhg Hickey is a comedian, a singer, an actor, an author, and he is also a long-time friend of the Mario Rosenstock Podcast. Tadhg was also a regular guest on the radio show I used to present on Today FM on Sundays before we started this podcast. On one of those Sunday shows Tadhg joined me for a long and fascinating chat about his recovery from alcohol addiction. What was particularly interestin...

Alison Curtis and I have been close friends and colleagues for over two decades. We worked on the same show for many years (The Ian Dempsey breakfast show, where I still work) and to say there are a few very entertaining stories from that period would be an understatement – and yes, you’ll get to hear a couple of them in this conversation (the ones the lawyers said were ok to share!). Alison has a...

My special guest on this episode is not only brilliantly talented, but such great craic too. Lyra is one of Ireland’s fastest rising stars - her music has featured on Love Island, Grey’s Anatomy, X-Factor and RTE’s Striking Out, she has performed on TV shows such as Dancing with the Stars and Ireland’s Got Talent and, get this, she’s just back from London having opened for Pink in Hyde Park! Lyra...

This is a very open, honest and compelling conversation with a man you will probably be very familiar with through the many public-facing roles he has had over the years – Senator, Minister, author and high profile newspaper editor among them – but in this conversation you will learn a lot more about the other side of Shane Ross. We chat about growing up between Ireland and England, being both a p...

Luke 'Ming' Flanagan is not your average politician. He looks different, he acts differently, and since his very first day in politics he has been tirelessly campaigning for the decriminalisation of cannabis. And because of that, he has often not been taken seriously by other politicians many of whom have either overlooked him or made fun of him. But Ming has certainly been taken seriously by vote...

I've always been fascinated by the lives of crime journalists. It’s a career that involves exposing criminals and crime gangs, putting yourself in dangerous situations, and often being at the receiving end of death threats. What’s it like to live a life like that and why would anyone want to do it? These are just some of the questions that I wanted to ask Paul Williams, one of Ireland’s best-known...

There was a time in Ireland where honest communication about personal issues or potentially controversial subjects was not our strong suit. As my special guest on this episode, comedian Anne Gildea, says – “Nothing was said about anything – it was all mystery.” Little by little we became more open and liberal about these things however one of the issues that stayed very much buried under the carpe...

A lot of people come up with great ideas for businesses or creative projects, but only a few of them actually make it happen. Tony Kelly is one of those rare people. An actor and comedian, Tony created a comedy character many years ago call Gar Campion who is a very talented but deeply flawed hurler. He started putting Gar in sketches on YouTube and in the years since he has fought tooth and nail...

Just like tens of thousands of people across Ireland, Ciaran Mulqueen spent a long, long time trying to buy a home. As he searched through property listings online, he was taken aback by some of the tiny, poor quality properties for sale and rent at ridiculously high prices. Not only that, but so many of the photos of various properties were clearly photoshopped, and many of them claimed to be in...

A lot of people with amazing stories have sat in front of me in studio since we started The Mario Rosenstock Podcast, but Georgie Crawford must be right up there as having one of the most dramatic and compelling stories of them all. It’s a story about a cancer diagnosis at a young age, a surrogacy interrupted by war, deep self-doubt, and more. But Georgie turned all of this negativity in to someth...

We got a huge response to the first part of my chat with economist and podcaster Chris Johns. Thanks for all your emails, tweets and Instagram messages about it – I read a few of them out at the start of this episode. In this, part 2 of my interview with Chris I continue to ask him to ‘talk to me like a 2 year old’ and answer some of my simple questions that can have complex answers. Questions lik...