Ray D'Arcy Daily: Four things we learned from former RTÉ presenter's new daily podcast
Ray D’Arcy has been part of Irish life in one way or another for almost 40 years, and now brings his lorry load of experience and nationwide popularity to a daily podcast
Former RTÉ presenter Ray D’Arcy launched his new daily podcast on Monday morning, following a teaser that revealed his latest move.
The 61-year-old, who departed the national broadcaster last October, hopes to reconnect with his listeners through his new daily show, the first episode of which dropped on Monday.
In the trailer for the new show, an upbeat D’Arcy told listeners: “You might remember me from such productions as Today FM, … Well, it was inevitable. I am back with a podcast. Not just any podcast, but a daily podcast, Me with friends and family.”
D’Arcy has been part of Irish life in one way or another for almost 40 years, and now brings his lorry load of experience and nationwide popularity to a daily podcast where he will give his own world view, Monday to Friday.
He will also have family and friends, including his wife Jenny Kelly, Mairead Ronan, and Bernard O’Shea, join him on the podcast.
Monday’s episode posed the question, ‘What do people want to do daily that they do not do?’, with D’Arcy hoping that people will incorporate the podcast into their daily routines.
To gather some thoughts, D’Arcy took to the streets with his mic to ask the general public what’s something they want to do daily, but currently don’t do.
Some of the answers he got included: Go for a walk every day; go for a run; get up early, read a book and watch the sunrise; and get out in nature every day.
Here's what we learned from episode one.
Delving into his daily life, D’Arcy spoke about visiting a café last Saturday morning, where he struck up a conversation with another café-goer about the song playing through the speakers – Talking Heads’
He said the man beside him saw him moving knowingly to the tune, telling D’Arcy, “You’re showing your age.”
This struck up a conversation which got D’Arcy thinking: How good would it be to ‘pass on a song’ to someone, whereby one suggests a song to someone to listen to.
D’Arcy also touched on his new, unintentional, disguise – a beanie and glasses, a bit like The Edge.
“It means that I can do what I haven’t been able to do since my early 20s and eavesdrop. So, I may just take myself into cafés and sit down and eavesdrop as the late Maeve Binchy did,” he said.
D’Arcy’s next point of conversation on the podcast highlighted the work of opinion writer Sinead O’Sullivan, whose recent write-up questions when Ireland will declare its road-death toll a public health crisis.
O’Sullivan, who is passionate about road safety and who set up the website stoproaddeaths.ie, highlights the lack of joined-up statistics about road deaths in the country, making the point that you can’t have good policy if you don’t have the stats.
She calculates the years of life that have been lost on the road, taking into consideration that the majority of those who lose their lives on Irish roads are aged between16 and 25.
“So, if you die at around 20 and the average life span is somewhere around 80, well then over 60 years have been lost. She [O’Sullivan] says 190 road deaths in the Republic last year have destroyed more lives than prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, and cervical cancer combined,” D’Arcy said.
“Fewer deaths but with younger victims means more lives lost. So she calculated all those wasted years of young people who die on our roads and compared them to lives lost due to cancer, which is a public health crisis.”
D’Arcy went on to read out a letter that he had submitted to the Irish Times on the issue, highlighting areas that he believes would help to improve the number of fatalities on Irish roads.
Joining D’Arcy later in the podcast, Mairead Ronan spoke about the tense semi-final on Sunday night, which saw Jordan Dargan miss out on a spot in the final of the show.
Ronan touched on how star Paudie Moloney is attracting a large public vote, despite being at the bottom of the judges' vote each week.
She said that he has improved each week, and touched on how he has come a long way after a back operation some years ago.
“This is the thing. It’s not a dancing competition, it's an entertainment show on the telly. And people need to accept that,” she said.
D’Arcy went on to talk about how he has to become a social media person to promote the podcast, despite not being one to put himself out there on social media whatsoever.
Ronan shared some tips and tricks with D’Arcy on how to get off the ground, such as using trending audio, reels and OOTD posts, which led the pair to chat about the resale value of some clothing items, such as Levi's, and how people are using Vinted to make some extra cash.
Before closing out episode one of the podcast, D’Arcy introduced The Little Red Mic Café Quiz, where D’Arcy pops into a café to ask a coffee drinker some quiz questions. The idea is that if they get three of the questions correct, D’Arcy gets them a coffee of their choice.
The daily quiz will feature as part of the podcast from Monday to Friday.
- The next episode will air on Tuesday morning and is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
