Podcast News Roundup | An Irishman Abroad Celebrates Its 8th Birthday And More!

Welcome back to HeadStuff’s Podcast News Roundup, your go-to place for podcast news and recommendations. This week’s roundup features HeadStuff’s Podcast Of The Week and also looks at a major Irish podcasts eight birthday, an app that is the podcasting equivalent of TikTok, a major streaming service breaking into podcasting and the nominations for Best Irish Food Podcast at the Irish Food Writing Awards.

And as always if you host a podcast and want it featured as our podcast of the week, email us at [email protected] and we’ll be sure to check it out!

Podcast Of The Week

The Witness: In His Own Words gives an unprecedented and candid look at the inner workings of how organised crime functions in Dublin. Joseph O’Callaghan started off working on a milk delivery van to earn some pocket money as a young boy. But through manipulation and fear it quickly escalated to drugs, robberies, and partying with the criminal elite.

He retells the story from the very beginning through to today in gritty detail. Covering how he got lured in by the notorious Brian Kenny, then trapped in a life of crime to eventually acting as a state witness in 2005, putting Kenny away on a life sentence. He tells us how he used a cocktail of drugs to cope with the work he had to do and the crimes he witnessed.

The series is thoughtfully executed with flawless production and pacing. There are descriptions of some harrowing moments that might be too much for some, but if you’re a true crime fan this first-person account is a must listen!

An Irishman Abroad Celebrates It’s 8th Birthday

This week marks the eighth birthday of the hit Irish podcast An Irishman Abroad, hosted by Jarlath Regan. For readers unfamiliar with the podcast, the show made a name for itself by consistently offering honest and thoughtful long-form interviews with some of the best-known Irish immigrants of all time. 

A line up of previous guests could be summed up as a who’s who of famous Irish faces, including Bob Geldof, Gabriel Byrne, Mary Robinson, Brian O’Driscoll, and Hozier. But the names attached aren’t the only reason the show has lasted so long. The quality of the conversation, Regan’s talent for interviewing and the fact that the show has not missed a week in it’s entire eight year run has allowed it to stay relevant, and keeps the show growing.

Speaking to Irish Central about the impressive milestone Regan said “ At times it’s been exceptionally tough. It’s still hard but the listeners and the guests have always been the reason the thing keeps going. I get so many emails from people in the farthest corners of the world telling me what the show means to them, I don’t think I can ever stop making it knowing what it means to these people that tune in each week.”

We can’t wait to see what this next year of the show brings.

A New Startup Aims To Be TikTok For Podcasts

Moonbeam.fm is a podcast player and discovery app that has a TikTok-like interface, allowing listeners to swipe through clips and find new podcasts they otherwise wouldn’t come across.

Paul English, the co-founder of travel app Kayak, is the man behind the app and has said that difficulties in finding new shows or getting decent podcasting recommendations inspired him to create the app.

The app has a feature called Beam, which serves listeners with curated clips from shows that are specific to their own interests. If you don’t like a clip, you can keep swiping. Hosts also have the ability to create clips from their show using the Moonbeam Console.

MoonBeam.fm is available to download now and we are interested to see if this new form of discovering podcasts is a natural evolution that will take off, or is just jumping onto the trends of a popular app. Time will tell.

HBO Max Launches Podcast Programme

The streaming service HBO max has gone from strength to strength in the States, and now they are expanding into the podcast world with a series of scripted audio programmes.

Some are podcast companions to popular HBO shows like Chernobyl, Insecure and Lovecraft County. Others look back on shows for the anniversaries of some of their most groundbreaking programming with contributions from the original cast, like Band of Brothers, The OC and more.

Most notable of these announcements however is the announcement of Batman: The Audio Adventures, the first scripted original audio adventure for the caped crusader, starring Jeffrey Wright as Batman, Rosario Dawson as Catwoman and John Leguizamo as the Riddler. The series is said to be inspired by the detective noir feel of the 90’s animated series Batman: The Animated Adventures. As a fan of the cast, the animated show and generally of Batman himself, I’m excited to see what this series has to offer.

All of HBO Max’s programming is set to launch from September onward.

Nominations for Best Irish Food Podcast announced at the Irish Food Writing Awards

The nominations for the first annual Irish Food Writing Awards were announced earlier this week and the category for Best Irish Food Podcast is looking like stiff competition.

That’s Bangin’ hosted by Marcus O’Laorie and Chris Mellon, Spice Bags hosted by Mei Chin, Dee Laffan and Blanca Valencia, and Chew The Fat hosted by food and travel bloggers The Gastro Gays (otherwise known as Russell Alford and Patrick Hanlon) are all competing for the top prize.

The award ceremony will take place in September and to read more about the awards and the podcasts nominated click here. 

We’ll be back next week with more podcast news. In the meantime, we have plenty more articles on our site to keep you entertained!