Podcast Corner: Inspiring Irish women, Hollywood and Vietnam, legacy of conspiracy
Kerry footballer and rugby player Louise Galvin is among the Irish women featured in What a Woman. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie
An Irish conversation show from host Caroline Lyons and producer Sarah Benner, this series has been running since the start of 2023, offering inspiring conversations with a diverse group of women that have achieved great things across different professions. There’s businesswomen, sports stars, and many other well-known names to date, including Kerry footballer and rugby player Louise Galvin, presenter Jacqui Hurley, and Irish Examiner columnist Annmarie O’Connor, who details her Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2021 and since becoming an advocate. Even regardless of the names, its the themes discussed in the 20-or-so episodes so far which linger, such as anxiety and body image, postnatal depression, and autism. The makers say: “Health and wellbeing is a primary focus of the current series where we are addressing issues relating to female health on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level.”
This 10-part series, released via BBC Sounds earlier this summer, saw the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring investigate the legacy left by the rise in conspiracy movements in the UK and the media machine at its heart. Think last year’s The Coming Storm and Things Fell Apart. There have been two bonus episodes since the show aired, one on the obstacles that stand between journalists and the truth, and one released last week, entitled ‘Irish Conspiracyland’. It details a court case being taken again a conspiracy theory newspaper for claiming the covid vaccine was to blame for the death of a young man. He had in fact taken his own life. His mother and her lawyer claim they have since been targeted by the newspaper, whose editor is Gemma O’Doherty. The court case is believed to be the first regarding a false death vaccine claim. The episode is only 19 minutes long and can be listened to without having heard the full series.
From the Ringer podcast network and to be found in the feed of its sterling movies show The Big Picture, Do We Get to Win This Time? examines Hollywood’s relationship with, and depiction of, Vietnam. It begins with Oliver Stone’s Platoon winning four Academy Awards at the 1987 Oscars, as host Brian Raftery calls it the high point for Vietnam on screen. Years earlier, filmmakers had found the war untouchable - John Wayne’s The Green Berets was one early effort that is perhaps best forgotten, getting the green light only after a little help from then-US president Lyndon Johnson. In exchange, the military got approval over the script. Wayne later explained what The Green Berets was: “Propaganda.”
