Culture That Made Me: Jamie Heaslip on Entourage, Joe Rogan, and The Sopranos
Jamie Heaslip is a big fan of The Sopranos and The Wire. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Jamie Heaslip, 39, grew up in Naas, Co Kildare. During an impressive professional rugby career, he was part of Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning team in 2009 and the British & Irish Lions side which won a test series in Australia in 2013. He captained Ireland and also won three Heineken Cups with Leinster. His business interests include investing in tech start-ups. He is one of the RTÉ team of analysts covering the Rugby World Cup in France.
Everyone my age would probably remember watching Friends as teenagers. The 1990s was a time of event TV. I think it was every Thursday night that Friends was broadcast here in Ireland. It was something you looked out for and then discussed the following day in school. I was in a mixed school so it was a hot topic on a Friday morning. I didn’t have a favourite character, but everyone had a love towards Joey. He was a lovable character.
I loved Entourage. Obviously, it was probably not deep, or demanding on an intellectual level, but it was definitely a favourite show. Everyone at school was thinking: ah, if one of the lads made it, maybe that's what life would be like. It felt like you were getting an insight into what that world was like and the craziness of it all. The central character’s agent was based on Ari Emanuel, who was Mark Wahlberg’s real-life agent. There were always various different celebrities and superstars in it. It was light-hearted. It was a good fun show, in half-hour stints so it was easy viewing. It got me through a couple of rugby tours, put it that way.
The Sopranos, you couldn’t go wrong with picking that show to watch. I don't think we came across a show like that before when it first came out. A show that was so brutal at times, as it was, as well as being so layered and complex at the same time. The storylines and the characters in it and the actors were superb. I didn’t have a favourite character. They were all so good.
The Wire was class. It was interesting the insight it gave you into the city of Baltimore – the drug problem there, how it came to be, how it got to a certain size, and all the different people involved in it. I found it fascinating to see the world of crime from a different angle. It was such a different take to the norm.
I’ve always loved David Attenborough’s documentaries. He has such a depth of knowledge. He gets his cadence right, the tone right. He sets the scene very well with his voice because you rarely see him. His voice is quite soothing. It’s fascinating when you see behind the scenes how they capture the footage, how long it must take to do it. The dedication and sacrifice is impressive. He’s very good at tying things up, especially his last few documentaries like the one on the climate crisis, and how it impacts us all, is interesting.
I found the documentary on Theranos interesting. It’s called The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. The entrepreneur and founder of the company, Elizabeth Holmes, ended up in jail on the back of it. She said that with one drop of blood you could do a series of medical tests. It was all a facade. Her company raised hundreds of millions of dollars. There were some really interesting people on her board. She was lauded. It was very interesting, especially in the tech world where hype can carry people away, without any actual substance behind it.
WeCrashed is a drama miniseries about WeWork, and the couple behind the company. They got a valuation for it worth billions of dollars. Adam Neumann was the founder. The story is essentially how he managed to get money out of people and burned them in the process. WeWork was hyped as a big tech company, but it was basically about leasing buildings and then sub-leasing spaces within the buildings.
It’s fascinating the ability of people to hype up an idea – how people who are good orators can generate excitement and momentum, while business models are overlooked. It was in the time of interest-free money, which was a factor as well, and people have a fear of missing out. Very interesting if you’re involved in the tech world.
I loved the Michael Phelps book No Limits: The Will to Succeed, which he brought out after the 2008 Olympics. It was a big, influential book that I used a lot while playing rugby and still reference now. In the book, he lays out his journeys from the Olympics in 2004 and 2008, and how he was going to achieve his goals. He went about it in a very methodical way. It's very, very interesting.
A book I reference and read a lot is Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building. It’s by Claire Hughes Johnson. She’s the ex-HR director for Stripe. It’s a good book for people in tech companies. She's been there. She's worn the T-shirt. Her book is about the trials and tribulations of hiring people at different stages, and companies getting to different stages. It’s a lot about teams, and how team dynamics and a company’s culture can change as you’re dealing with bigger sizes.
My favourite rugby podcast is Chris Jones and Ugo Monye on BBC Radio 5 Live. It’s the main one I listen to. Chris is a great reporter. He’s very fair. He does good due diligence. Ugo Monye is very good at his job as well. They make a good combo.
I love The David McWilliams Podcast. It’s very good. He's a great communicator. He can tackle a subject that can seem to be very complex and he can make it understandable in simple terms, which is a hard skill to master.
I like the Joe Rogan podcast, like a lot of other people. He has a very eclectic mix of people on the show, with different opinions. He covers all sorts of topics. It’s very broad. He has his opinions about certain things. Not all of his guests agree with them. He doesn't necessarily agree with their opinions, but they all discuss it openly. I don't listen to every episode, only the ones that are of interest because each episode is so long.
