The Women's Podcast

This November, Americans will have the opportunity to elect their first female president. After securing enough support from her delegates, Vice President Kamala Harris looks set to take on former president and convicted felon Donald Trump in the next election. But will Americans vote her in? In this episode, Róisín Ingle is joined by Caitríona Perry, BBC News Chief Presenter based in Washington DC, to discuss Harris’ rise through the political ranks, her stance on key issues such as women’s reproductive rights and what she might bring to the role if voted into power.

At the beginning of 2019, writer and journalist Kitty Ruskin was young, free, and single and eager to give her sex life a bit of a shake-up. Having previously shunned the idea of one-night stands and kissing complete strangers, Ruskin decided to embrace her sexuality and embark upon a year of no-strings, casual sex. Partly inspired by Sex and the City’s Samantha and by her desire to shed her sexual reservations, Ruskin began meeting a variety of men on dating apps, one swipe at a time. In her new book ‘Ten Men,’ Ruskin shares the details of her year of sexual liberation and the darker and less discussed side of modern dating. She tells Róisín Ingle about the men she met, the men she'd rather forget, and the lasting impact of her experiment.Warning: This episode discusses sexual assault and rape.

Laura Dockrill was just 14 years old when she first set eyes on her husband, Maccabees guitarist Hugo White. The pair quickly began an intense relationship, exchanging carefully curated mixtapes and letters doused in Body Shop perfume. Despite a longing on both sides, the teenagers never let their friendship spill over into romance. It is this tale of young love that serves as the inspiration for Dockrill’s new novel, I love you, I love you, I love you. The book follows the story of teenage sweethearts Ella and Lowe, who spend their early years friend zoning each other, before eventually losing touch. In this episode, Dockrill talks to Róisín Ingle about why she decided to fictionalise her own story and the joys of delving back into the intensity of first love. She also speaks about her experience of postpartum psychosis following the birth of her son in 2018 and how she’s become a voice for this severe mental illness, which affects around 1 in 1000 mothers.

In this episode, author and journalist Fiona McPhillips talks to Róisín Ingle about her new novel, When We Were Silent. It’s a thriller set in a Dublin convent school, where a culture of silence and abuse is rampant. The story was partly inspired by the 2020 podcast series about disgraced Irish swim coach George Gibney. In this wide-ranging conversation, McPhillips discusses her varied writing career, her personal struggles with infertility, and how she finally brought to life the novel she had been “threatening” to write for years.

The Queen of Pop, Taylor Swift, is finally back in Dublin this weekend, bringing her Eras tour to more than 150 thousand fans at the Aviva Stadium over three nights. To celebrate the singer's return, we’ve gathered a panel of Swifties to talk about her music, stardom, and her dedicated fanbase. Writer, DJ, and disability activist Louise Bruton gives a potted history of Swift's career, from teenage country singer to global mega superstar. Creative writing student and member of University of Galway’s Swiftie Society, Ella Conneff, explains how Swift's music resonates and brings people together. We also hear from Kayleigh Bealin from the Irish Family History Centre, who has teamed up with EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum, to track down Swift’s Irish roots and her connections to Derry and Dublin.

Last year, just 23% of all engineering graduates in Ireland were women, while female engineers currently represent just 12% of the profession. Orlagh Costello, an engineer, coach, and speaker, is on a mission to change this and to encourage more women into this very male-dominated industry. Ahead of International Women in Engineering Day on June 23rd, Costello joins Kathy Sheridan in studio to talk about the many routes into the profession and the career possibilities available. She also explains how nearly everything we interact with on a day-to-day basis has been developed with the help of engineers, from the clothes we wear to the phone you’re probably listening to this podcast on. Costello also talks about the technical drawing teacher who inspired her career, what her first few years working after graduation were like, and how the engineering industry, like all industries, can benefit from having more women involved.

According to psychologist and neuroscientist Dr Sabina Brennan, we all have the power to manifest our dreams into reality. However, it has nothing to do with wishful or magical thinking. Manifesting, she says, requires a change in the way we think and behave: it’s about learning how to harness the power of the brain. In her new book,The Neuroscience of Manifesting, Brennan explains the science behind this mental process and sets out the everyday strategies to help you build the life you want to live. In this conversation with Aideen Finnegan, the former Fair City actress talks about her move from acting into psychology, the importance of self compassion and the core building blocks of manifestation.

When it comes to getting divorced in Ireland, many couples end up going through the Irish courts to settle their separation agreements. This process often involves one side battling against the other and can, in some cases, take years to finalise, costing anywhere from twenty to sixty thousand euros. According to divorce expert and author Michelle Browne, there is an easier, cheaper, and less adversarial way to divorce: mediation. In her new book, Scars of Divorce, Browne outlines the devastating and traumatic effects of settling a divorce in the courtroom and explains how her own personal experience inspired her to study law and eventually become a family mediator. In this conversation with Róisín Ingle, Browne details the benefits of mediation, talks through the pitfalls of parenting through divorce and explains “how to get your mojo back” after a marriage breakdown.

A regular on The Women's Podcast, journalist and author Caitlin Moran was in Dublin recently as part of her latest book tour. As someone who regularly discusses the problems of girls and women in public, Moran has often been confronted with the question: “But what about men?”. Indeed, the statistics on male misery are grim: boys are falling behind in school, are at greater risk of addiction, depression, suicide, and increasingly at risk from online misogynist radicalisation thanks to the likes of Andrew Tate and Jordan B Peterson. Moran explains what led her to write her new book What About Men? and discusses the issues affecting men and boys that she says if tackled will also help women and girls.This episode was originally published in July 2023.