Podcast Corner: Journalist shines a light on trolling in Ireland
Former Irish Examiner journalist Aoife Moore's own experience of trolling prompted her to investigate the subject in her podcast. Picture: Moya Nolan
New from journalist Aoife Moore is this series about life online, taking you “inside the darkest corners of the internet to work out why people troll, who they troll, and the effect it has on the victims”. Moore, a former political reporter with the Irish Examiner, says she has had death threats, rape threats, and all kinds of the worst comments imaginable - and it’s not a unique experience. So many people - so many women (“it started to get very looks-based, weight-based, and women-having-an-opinion-based,” says one contributor) - have been subjected to vile abuse online and Moore seeks to delve deeper into the topic. She says people might not talk about it because they might be seen as weak or complaining - Moore is anything but! The series is available on Outcaster.io on a subscription basis, with new episodes weekly.
Do we need a multi-part series about Adele? Well we have it now, thanks to hosts, actor/comedians, and best friends Anna Leong Brophy and Emily Lloyd-Saini. The show, from the highly reputable Wondery, asks what it’s like to be uber-famous, to have all the lights and cameras directed at you. The series begins with the postponement of Adele’s Vegas residency - and the comments that she’s inundated with. It’s not trolling, but no doubt she knew the risks she was taking when shelving the show for a few months.
The first episode talks about her rise and stage fright. The second focuses on her 21-induced rocket to worldwide fame, which brings both gifts and problems. We could probably do without the constant backing track - especially when there’s no actual Adele music - but it’ll still make you like the singer that bit more.
From iHeartPodcasts and Novel (the latter made last year’s brilliant The Superhero Complex, The Girlfriends takes us back to the mid-90s and a group of women who all have a ‘scarlet letter’ of having dated a murderer. Host Carole Fisher is in Vegas (decades before Adele’s residency) and meets Bob Bierenbaum; he’s perfect on paper - a doctor, a pilot - but there’s something off about him.
Fisher knew other women who had also dated Bierenbaum, and it soon becomes clear he has a few skeletons in his closet: His first wife Gail apparently walked out of their apartment 10 years earlier and was never seen again. Fisher and her girlfriends’ gossip about Bob soon becomes a multi-state investigation. The nine-episode season is currently halfway through its run.
