There were lots of stories we could have led the podcast with this week: The US Midterms. The Fine Gael “who are we, exactly” psycho-babble. Russell Brand being a rapist. And so on.
But there’s one story that’s simply more important than all the others: Irish people have almost stopped having babies. Give it a few decades, and our native population will collapse. That’s not speculation. It’s just maths.
This is an issue that we need to talk about: In this podcast we try to do that with big ideas. Are pro-lifers to blame? A little, says John - like the pro-choicers. Is the Government to blame? Yes, says Sarah, to mild disagreement from her host.
And how do we fix it? John proposes two controversial ideas. Sarah says it’s about fixing the culture. Hungary tried policy - but it didn’t really work.
Relatedly, Mary McAleese wants baptism outlawed, or something, in her latest tirade against the church. This leads John and Sarah to debate, of all things, circumcision - but it also features Sarah talking about her own experience as an unbaptised Irish kid in the 1980s.
After all that, we do get on to Fine Gael, the Mid-Terms, and Jim O’Callaghan losing to the lawyers in court.
The hour flies by. Or it did when we were recording it, anyway. Enjoy!
