Paddy Cosgrave's Ramble

In this week's episode we sit down with Twitter's favourite son, Michael Fry, to talk politics, comedy, what it means to be Irish and much more..

For this podcast I sat down with James Ball. James is one of the world’s foremost investigative journalists. James broke the Edward Snowden leaks while at the Guardian, he also worked with Julian Assange at Wikileaks, and is a twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, despite only graduating from college about 10 years ago.  For this conversation I was joined by Eoghan McNeill and Dr. Gavin Morrison.  We hope you enjoy this ramble. 

For this podcast I sat down with Professor Quinn Slobodian, author of one of the most extraordinary books I’ve ever read, Globalists: The end of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism.  Quinn is a historian and Associate Professor at Wellesley College since 2015. He previously was a Residential Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, at Harvard University. I was joined for this ramble on neoliberalism by a political philosopher Dr. Gavin Morrisson. Gavin until he joined Web Summit, was the lecturer for all courses in political philosophy in Trinity College Dublin. Gavin’s expansive knowledge of 2,500 years of political philosophy is simply mind-blowing.  Gavin helped kick off the conversation with Quinn.  We hope you enjoy this ramble. 

Pascal Saint-Amans, as the head of tax policy for the OECD since 2012 has ushered in some of the most significant reforms to international taxation of the last 50 years. We chatted to him about his on-going efforts at herding cats, also known as leading an international negotiation, to continue making the international tax system more fair and just.

Eoghan McNeil, Dr. Gavin Morrisson and I recently spoke with Mark Zaid Mark cofounded Whistleblower Aid with John Tye. Whistleblower Aid is an extraordinary organisation based in Washington DC. It represents whistleblowers who want to expose Government or corporate wrong-doing or corruption. Mark has arguably been more successful than any other lawyer representing whistleblowers in recent times. Mark represented the Ukrainian whistleblower who triggered the impeachment of Donald Trump, and it has emerged in recent days Mark is part of the legal team representing the Lincoln Project against Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Mark and Whistleblower Aid have also helped expose wrongdoing across the US Federal Government, as well as playing important roles in the exposes of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein. Mark is a fascinating lawyer and public advocate, with an incredible track record. Our conversation took place some weeks ago.  We hope you enjoy it.

Tomorrow, November 3rd, is election day in the United States. In a very real sense it’s the most important election in the world. It’s for that reason that I considered it a rare privilege to get to talk to Ellen Weintraub, US Federal Election Commissioner.  The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Ellen has served as one of the commissioners on the US Federal Election Commission since 2002, and chaired it for the third time in 2019. She is one of three commissioners currently. Ellen is a consistent voice for meaningful campaign finance law enforcement and robust information disclosure. I’m joined for this conversation by my co-hosts Dr. Gavin Morrison and Eoghan McNeill.  Gavin spent many years as an academic philosopher in Trinity College Dublin. At Trinity, Gavin was the university’s lecturer in political philosophy, and seems to have amassed almost everything there is to know on the subject. Eoghan used to live in Beijing, where he was a business editor for China Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official english language newspaper and the most read english language Chinese publication in the world.  We hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to the first episode of Paddy Cosgrave's Ramble. First up is a chat I had with Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post. I think the Morning Post is the most important newspaper focused on China in the world today. It’s owned by Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and China’s richest person. The Morning Post’s mission under Gary is to lead the global conversation about China. Gary has an incredible background with leading roles in companies like Spotify, Google and as CEO of Digg. 

You're listening to Paddy Cosgrave's Ramble. Hello, I’m Paddy Cosgrave. I helped start a conference called Web Summit.  Earlier this Autumn, bored and largely locked down in Ireland, I started calling interesting friends around the world for chats. Then I started recording some of those chats. So this isn’t really a podcast. I don’t have an interest in growing an audience, or getting sponsors. I’m just interested in talking to people I find interesting.  Like the people running the election in the US, or the person running what I feel is the most important Chinese newspaper at present, the South China Morning Post. Maybe you’ll  find some of those chats interesting. Sometimes I’ll be joined by friends and colleagues from Web Summit, where I work, like by Dr. Gavin Morrison who spent many years as an academic philosopher in Trinity College Dublin. At Trinity, Gavin was the university’s lecturer in political philosophy, and seems to have amassed almost everything there is to know on the subject. I’ll also be joined for some interviews by Eoghan McNeill. Eoghan used to live in Beijing, where he was a business editor for China Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official english language newspaper and the most read english language Chinese publication in the world. Eoghan has fascinating insights into China and the world in general.  First up is a chat I had with Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post. I think the Morning Post is the most important newspaper focused on China in the world today. It’s owned by Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and China’s richest person. The Morning Post’s mission under Gary is to lead the global conversation about China. Gary has an incredible background with leading roles in companies like Spotify, Google and as CEO of Digg.  Second up is a chat with Ellen Weintraub, she’s one of three Federal Election Commissioners in the United States. In a very real sense she’s overseeing the world’s most important election on November 3rd. Third up is a chat with Pascal Saint Aman, who through his work at the OECD, is spearheading the most significant reforms to global taxation ever. Corporate tax is, I believe, one of the most important issues in the world today. Fourth up we talk to James Ball who is one of the world’s foremost investigative journalists. James broke the Edward Snowden leaks while at the Guardian, he also worked with Julian Assange at Wikileaks, and is a twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, despite only graduating from college about 10 years ago.  The list of guests is growing. The first podcast drops on November 1st with CEO of the South China Morning Post, Gary Liu. Followed by a US election special on November 2nd with the US Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub.  Subscribe at your peril.