Ramble with Joe McGucken

RTÉ
RTÉ
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Documentary
  • Semiweekly

This is Ramble, a podcast where Joe McGucken immerses himself in the crazy world of each guest, capturing on-location interviews with people from the fringes of society, people from weird subcultures, hobbyists, sports people, celebrities and anyone in between. Joe is only interested in hearing a good story. The problem is, Joe is highly unqualified. With zero journalistic credentials and a naive optimism, Joe is perpetually out of his depth. But there’s a charm to it all. Driven by a genuine, relentless curiosity, he fumbles his way through these raw encounters and reflects on the madness back in the studio, relying entirely on his own pure inquisitive, nature and the extreme patience of his guests.

  1. Oct 22

    Ramble with A Ghost Hunter

    What happens when a ghost hunter and a man terrified of ghosts spend the night in an abandoned convent, both hoping for very different results? This week, an anxious Joe heads to Cobh to spend the night in a deserted 19th-century convent with Matthew Clarke from Cork Supernatural Society. There’s a cemetery on the grounds, thermal cameras at the ready and Joe, who has apparently agreed to all of this. For Matthew, ghost hunting started with his mam and sister. They eventually drifted away from the hobby, but he kept going, getting deeper into paranormal investigations and building a group of people who share his fascination. What began as an unusual family activity became a way of finding his people. But what counts as proof of a paranormal experience? What keeps him searching? Is he chasing a ghost, or searching for something else entirely? And if something does answer back, is Joe really going to stick around for a follow-up question? Alongside those questions, there are slamming doors, videos of ghostly figures apparently giving chase, and audio equipment picking up spirits answering back. Joe tries dowsing rods and ventures into the cemetery by torchlight. None of this is doing much for his nerves. A Ramble about having a passion, finding your tribe and spending your free time doing something most people would actively avoid. Matthew has found people to go ghost hunting with. Joe would quite like someone to walk him back to the car. Explicit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Ramble with A Ghost Hunter

  2. Oct 15

    Ramble with The Man Who Sold Angels

    You've heard the Robbie William’s song “Angels” at a wedding, a funeral, or at 2am in a pub. But have you heard of the Irish-man who wrote it with Robbie Williams? His name is Ray Heffernan. In 1996, after a night on the town in Dublin, Ray bumped into Robbie Williams in The Globe pub. Robbie went back to Ray's mam's house in Glasnevin and stayed for ten days. In that time they wrote Angels there, recorded a demo in Temple Bar and became friends. Then Robbie went back to London, and when Ray followed, Robbie ghosted him. Ray signed away the song for seven and a half grand before it went on to become one of the biggest songs in the world. Thirty years later, a new European law could reopen the deal. Ray went to London to file against Robbie Williams, with a team of solicitors at his side and, for reasons we still can't fully explain, Joe waiting outside. So while Ray's case was being filed upstairs, Joe stood on a London footpath, waiting to find out whether Ray is a man who was done dirty or a man who can't let go. Explicit.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Ramble with The Man Who Sold Angels

  3. Oct 8

    Ramble to Lisdoonvarna: Love Sold Separately

    A group of Americans have signed up for a package holiday to find love in Lisdoonvarna. Flights, a seven-course dinner and a minivan are all included. Love is not guaranteed, but it is very much implied, and the package costs over three thousand dollars per person. The group have never met each other. They arrive with hope in their hearts and a very low bar. They are following Mary Timby, an American who came to the Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival on a whim last year, fell for a local and went viral. This year she’s organized a trip for this group of Americans to hopefully follow in her footsteps. Every September around 80,000 singles descend on this Clare town of about 1,000 people, and the group is hoping lightning will strike twice. Of course, Joe tags along to watch. Like a safari in the Savannah, Joe observes as the Americans go hunting for love. Instead they’re faced with “handsy farmers” and over-eager young men sweating it out on the Matchmaker pub dancefloor. It comes as no surprise to Joe but, it wasn’t the PS I Love You experience they might have been expecting. By the final morning they are heading home with great memories but no matches, and Joe is left wondering: Is love something that you can sell?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Ramble to Lisdoonvarna: Love Sold Separately

  4. Oct 2

    Ramble with Ireland’s Newest Citizens

    5,600 people packed into the Convention Centre in Dublin recently to officially declare their fidelity to the Irish nation, a massive bureaucratic event that highlights the evolving identity of the island. Joe decided to wander into the ceremony to figure out exactly what these new citizens were signing up for, only to promptly plunge himself into a mild existential crisis about his own national identity. From interviewing a newly minted Brazilian-Irish woman and a Sri Lankan man who has seemingly adopted a Wexford accent, to stumbling through a satirical, fake citizenship ceremony at the National Gallery orchestrated by the artist Asbestos, Joe earnestly attempts to pin down a neat dictionary definition of Irishness. Naturally, our intrepid host discovers that trying to categorize a culture defined by both a complex history and a complete refusal to take anything too seriously is a near-impossible task. After a slightly desperate phone call to his poet friend Emmet O’Brien in search of philosophical clarity, Joe ultimately realizes that defining a nation is a messy business, and perhaps a sociological exercise just a bit above his pay grade. Explicit.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Ramble with Ireland’s Newest Citizens

  5. Sep 30

    Ramble On: The Government’s Guide to the End of the World!

    Is the apocalypse coming? Joe has questions. After the government sends 2.2 million households a 17-page Be Emergency Ready booklet, Joe starts wondering what exactly we're supposed to be preparing for. Nuclear fallout? Cyber attacks? A massive blackout? The Russians blowing up the internet? Or just a very inconvenient few days without the card machine? In this episode of Ramble On, Joe digs into Ireland's history of preparing for disaster, from Cold War nuclear fears and the infamous 1965 Bás Beatha booklet to the distribution of potassium iodite tablets during fears surrounding Sellafield. He considers what happens when the electricity, phones, internet, banking and water all stop working. And how quickly civilisation might descend into chaos when the neighbours noodles start looking particularly tempting. There are also bunkers, billionaires, radioactive satellites, the Rapture, what happens to your pets when everyone gets taken to heaven, and the rather obvious possibility that Joe would be absolutely useless in the apocalypse. So stock up on water, tins of tuna and noodles, get yourself a wind-up radio, and have a listen to Joe Ramble On about the Government’s Guide To The End Of The World.  Explicit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Ramble On: The Government’s Guide to the End of the World!

  6. Sep 24

    Ramble with The Irish Houdini

    On the 100th anniversary of Harry Houdini's passing, Ireland's only escapologist is preparing to contact the legendary illusionist's spirit from an old shoe shop in Limerick. This week Joe takes a Ramble down south to meet Steve Spade, the Irish Houdini.  The conversation starts with card tricks at weddings and dodgy hypnotists and ends with a plan to contact the dead. Steve's built a career on escaping things that could kill him. The kind of stunts that have genuinely ended other magicians' lives. He talks Joe through how he got into it, the injuries along the way, and the unwritten code escape artists live by. There's also a wedding proposal at a magic awards ceremony, a Houdini pair of handcuffs treated like a family heirloom, and a seance planned in an old Limerick shoe shop to mark 100 years since Houdini died. Joe, for his part, remains deeply unconvinced by magic in general and is still trying to figure out how his uncle took off his finger. Explicit.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Ramble with The Irish Houdini

  7. Sep 22

    Ramble On Matilda and Child Stardom

    Joe took the boys to see Matilda at the Bord Gáis. The lead got sick, the safety curtain came down, and an eight year old understudy walked out in front of a sold out house and stole the show. That sets Joe off on a Ramble through the strange world of child stardom. A chance encounter with the original Matilda talking about intimacy at a variety show in New York. The militant casting rules for a Matilda, and its fleeting nature for the child actors. West End wages of sixty quid a show. The Oliver orphans doing ten o'clock finishes for twenty pounds, and three Billy Elliots sharing one Tony Award. Also: a Jobsbridge internship, a TV station that ceased to exist before the course finished, and a considered assessment of the McGucken boys prospects after Star Camp. Explicit.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Ramble On Matilda and Child Stardom

  8. Sep 18

    Ramble With A Truck Pulling Amputee

    Shane McLoughlin holds eight world records for pulling incredibly heavy vehicles, and he does it all while missing a leg. After a freak accident involving a heifer leaving him with gangrene, Shane endured 78 operations over a period of 10 years before finally telling his surgeons to just take the leg off. Instead of going easy on himself, he became a paralympian and eventually pivoted his focus to pulling trucks and other heavy vehicles like a 1000 tonne passenger Ship. Shane is currently on a mission to get amputee truck pulling recognized at the upcoming Paralympics. Joe can barely muster the energy to walk to the bathroom without losing breath, so trying to wrap his head around a man who trains by casually dragging parked lorries off the side of the road left him feeling more than a little out of his depth. Joe sits down in Shane’s home in Monaghan to discuss his unbelievable threshold for pain, his upcoming attempt to pull the actual Polar Express train in New York, and his ongoing beef with the Guinness Book of Records. It is a fascinating look at pure, stubborn defiance and what happens when you completely refuse to let anyone tell you what your limits are.  Explicit.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    Ramble With A Truck Pulling Amputee
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

This is Ramble, a podcast where Joe McGucken immerses himself in the crazy world of each guest, capturing on-location interviews with people from the fringes of society, people from weird subcultures, hobbyists, sports people, celebrities and anyone in between. Joe is only interested in hearing a good story. The problem is, Joe is highly unqualified. With zero journalistic credentials and a naive optimism, Joe is perpetually out of his depth. But there’s a charm to it all. Driven by a genuine, relentless curiosity, he fumbles his way through these raw encounters and reflects on the madness back in the studio, relying entirely on his own pure inquisitive, nature and the extreme patience of his guests.

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