Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning 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 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
  • Addiction by Design-How we became the gambling industry’s lab rats

    Addiction by Design-How we became the gambling industry’s lab rats
    Jun 30 2026

    How many times do you look at your smartphone each day? How often do you pick it up? How aware are you of how it makes you feel?

    On Thursday’s Free State we looked at how gambling has got out of control.

    Today Dion and Joe examine how what we are dealing with is an entirely new phenomenon, a supercharged addiction of smartphone and gambling, a dopamine hit of huge power.

    We look at the demographic most affected and ask when will people do enough to help them?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    48 mins
  • Why the west stayed silent over genocide

    Why the west stayed silent over genocide
    Jun 27 2026
    When Fintan Drury wrote his first book on Palestine - Catastrophe, Nakba II, the manner in which it resonated with people told its own story. Now he has written Genocide - Sponsoring the destruction of Palestine, another searing and detailed account of how the Palestinian people have been failed. He talks to Dion about why now is the time to act.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • The Imitation World Cup - Gamble Responsibly (LOL)

    The Imitation World Cup - Gamble Responsibly (LOL)
    Jun 25 2026

    The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibited betting on baseball, basketball, American football and most other sports in nearly every US state.

    In 2018, the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional, opening up America to a stampede of betting.

    On Free State today we look at how the gambling industry achieved such prominence and how they made gamblers feel that the problem wasn’t them it was you.

    With tens of billions being bet on the World Cup and prediction markets like Polymarket allowing people to take a position on everything, we wonder where it will end?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    51 mins
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All stars
Most relevant
A great insight to Northern Ireland life during the troubles
Very funny, well worth a listen.
Will be listening to the rest

Excellent

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