Podcast Corner: First-class podcasts from Second Captains

SECOND Captains is one of the long-running success stories in Irish podcasting. Ostensibly a sports show led by Eoin McDevitt, Ken Early, and Ciarán Murphy, the former Off The Ball team from Newstalk launched the podcast in mid-2013. two Monday shows are offered for free, with Tuesday-Friday behind a Patreon subscriber model and dubbed ‘The World Service’. It has more than 11,500 subscribers.

Chances are, at this stage, you’re already a convert. Sometimes with paywall shows, there’s a sense of out of sight, out of mind. Every so often though, Second Captains strikes a chord with one of its shows and releases it for wider consumption — you might have heard episode 1,124, about the so-called Belfast rape case, featuring Richie Sadlier (who has his own irregular ‘Player’s Chair’ show on the SC feed) and journalist Sinead O’Carroll.