Second Captains Part II

No issues on Spotify.

Looks like Bernie Sanders is in the studio, really looking forward to that.

Sounds like they're still pretending to be independent and non-corporate 😂

It's not referenced on the Bernie Sanders episode. Wonder if they will do a separate episode on what happened in Liverpool

from the description of today’s second pod (not listened yet) it seems like they’ll touch on it anyway. Which makes sense — you can’t not talk about it at all. As Dave said above, it’s probably better to leave a more in-depth pod on it til a bit later.

Are they not independent? Legally the company is a corporation I presume, so I suppose technically they are not non-corporate. What are you actually talking about though?

You can choose not to care but it's tough to argue that describing themselves as such isn't inaccurate at best. They're partnered with two national broadcasters and advertise both Irish and international corporations (if you don't want to count Aer Lingus or Dalata, how about Volkswagen Group?).

Didn't they just do a Guinness sponsored event a couple of weeks ago?

How come you're completely leaving out the non-corporate part?

You're hardly going to try to say that doing corporate gigs means that they're non-corporate?

FFS not this nonsense again.

They are not owned by any parent radio or television station. Therefore they are independent.

They do work with RTÉ, they’ve had a radio show for years. The idea that they have complete editorial control there is based on what?

They described themselves as exactly that on Monday. In terms of what it means, you’d have to ask them that. Being partnered with and sponsored by international corporations certainly doesn’t suggest “non-corporate”.

So your evidence that their independent podcast is not independent is from their other work outside of the podcast? They all do work for other organisations — Eoin and Murph for the RTE show, Murph and Ken for the Indo, Eoin for Premier Sports etc, but the work done on this podcast that we're all listening to and subscribed to, is independent with them having total editorial and creative control of it (which is what independent actually means in this industry).

I think he used to support Arsenal.

Getting Bernie Sanders in 2025 is like when Basshunter played a nightclub in Sligo back in college. Hard times.

He's the biggest and most active figure in the opposition right now. I don't see the lads getting any MAGA heads on any time soon, so it's about as big a figure in US politics as is out there for them to get at the moment. Sure it's 9 years since he ran, but it's not like he ever went away, he's one of the few past runners whose kept his presence up. As I said, 40,000 people out to see him here a few weeks ago… Pete Buttigieg, as one of the few others sticking his head above the parapet, got 1800 recently by contrast (and I like Pete, he's good value too).

But also, it's just generally a weird gripe… like, he's around Ireland at the moment, he's an unquestionably big figure whose time is in high demand, he's a very interesting guy, and they nabbed an interview. That's all good.

(imo the Basshunter equivilent would be someone more like John Kerry. Bernie's more like Oasis - past his prime but still very relevant in his own way)