Saturday with Matt Cooper: ‘Good luck trying to get us home early from a night out'
Matt Cooper talks to us about his new podcast with Ivan Yates and why you'll never find him sitting in on a Saturday night.
My Saturdays actually start about nine days beforehand. On a Thursday, when I can get on the golf line of my golf club to book my Saturday round. The alarm is even set to remind me to get online and make sure I get a time that suits Aileen and myself to play. That’s usually the key starting point for my weekend, and everything else follows from that. The time I get up on a Saturday morning is usually dictated by the time I get given. I only picked up the game in August 2020. We were on a family holiday during covid during those brief times when you were allowed outside your county and we booked Parknasilla in Co. Kerry and went down with the kids, just for five days. We were looking for things to do and decided to play there. We were all absolutely hopeless, but I looked at Aileen and said, “that’s the best fun I’ve had in ages,” and she said the same.
Saturdays to me are about switching off. I work hard from Monday to Friday doing the radio show , now adding in the podcast I’m doing with Ivan [Yates], on top of the podcast and writing a newspaper column. That’s why I try to make sure that Saturday is the day I do not work. Golf has been the best way to ensure I’ve no distractions. When I get on the course, my head clears of everything. Breakfast-wise; I’m reasonably careful about what I eat because I’m a type two diabetic. I bought an air fryer last year and it’s among the best investments that I’ve made. I’d usually have a couple of sausages, a few pieces of bacon and a slice of sourdough bread.
I use a personal trainer twice a week on weekdays, and I would try to get in two heavy weight sessions. I am a big reader, so I’ll always have a book on the go, especially if I’m not golfing. I’m reading a book at the moment by the former editor of the Washington Post, Martin Baron called 'Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and the Washington Post'. It’s a fantastic book for a political junkie like myself, but also coming from the newspaper background which is where I started and having worked as a newspaper editor and covering various elections, I’m finding it absolutely fascinating as a pleasure read at the moment. I think the reason I got into media in the first place was just a fascination and a curiosity about what was going on in the world, and then wanting to be the person who could help bring that information into the public domain. That theme continues into the books that I’ve written as well. It’s about putting the stories out there and letting people decide for themselves.
The new podcast I’m doing with Ivan Yates will inevitably get some consideration on a Saturday at some stage. I think we both offer differing views and opinions on things. Ivan is probably far more opinionated than I am, but that curiosity that drives me means I act as a counterweight and balance it all by questioning things further. As Ivan said; he sees the world as it is, and I see the world the way it should be, which may be a little simplistic, but so far, the feedback and response we are getting is very positive. We cover topics that are relevant to people’s lives, and I think we do it in an entertaining and provocative way. Maybe people who are out and about on their own Saturday, walking the dog with headphones on or driving their car on the way to golf, will find this podcast an entertaining way to catch up on things.
This is when the sport on television is watched. I watch either rugby or soccer or if it’s summer, Gaelic games. I also manage to watch matches on delay. For instance, if there was a Leeds game on at 12:30 on the TV and I wasn’t there, I make sure the radio doesn’t go on in the car on the way home, so I don’t get the score and I never look at alerts about who’s won. Then I get in and watch the game I want to watch. I’m not a huge social media person. I mostly used Twitter over the years, but I’m less interested in that now because it’s become a lot more poisonous in its approach. I mainly use social media just to let people know about what’s coming up in terms of podcasts and that. It’s really on a Sunday that I take my bundle of all the weekend papers and spend a few hours trawling through them looking for ideas - Saturday is absolutely my day of rest.
We nearly always go out for dinner with friends on a Saturday. Either to their houses or to a restaurant. As I get older, I like staying around the area. I live in Rathmines, so there are plenty of good restaurants around us to choose from. It would be very, very rare for us not to be out on a Saturday night. This week, for example, we are having nine people around to our house for dinner. We have a big dining table, and everyone will sit around, and we’ll all have a great time. Aileen takes control of cooking, I’ll see to the drinks.
I’m reasonably good at going to sleep for the most part. But if we are out with friends, good luck trying to get us home early from a night out. So that might mean a little bit of sleeping in on a Sunday morning to make up for things. I like to call that balance.
- is a brand new, no-holds-barred political podcast series with Matt Cooper and Ivan Yates. Available every Friday wherever you get your podcasts.
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