With the war in Ukraine and the ongoing genocide in Gaza dominating the news agenda, Richie is joined for the final show of the series by BBC special correspondent and veteran war reporter, Fergal Keane.

Fergal, who's spent much of the last couple of years covering both conflicts, has been reporting from frontlines across the world for over three decades. But recently, he's been adapting how he does the job, taking on assignments that place him out of harm's way, yet still get him close enough so that he can tell the stories of the ordinary people whose lives have been upended.

He made that decision after privately battling with PTSD for years, a condition which he thinks dates back to well before his career as a journalist, all the way back to his turbulent childhood, even.

And as he explains to Richie, it's one of a number of choices he's made which have brought him a sense of peace for the first time in his life, even while he continues to be deeply affected by his reporting on the Ukrainian and Palestinian lives which continue to be lost every day.

Fergal also describes how distant a ceasefire in Gaza seems to him right now, how he ensures he doesn't go back on his promise to steer clear of frontline reporting, and he remembers the life of a Gazan who died at just five days old, baby Sabreen al-Sakani.

Episode is a Second Captains production.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we may have mentioned once or twice on social media this week, joining Richie on today's show is a very old friend and an up and coming League of Ireland manager by the name of Damien Duff.

Speaking the morning after Shelbourne's 0-2 win over Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght, Damien explains how he had to change his approach to the job after the anger that fueled him began to impact his personal life, how it still takes up most of his waking hours, and why he's not looking beyond management in the League of Ireland.

He also tells Richie why he thinks John O'Shea should step away from the interim Ireland job and what an embarrassment the FAI's approach to recruiting a new manager has been.

Episode is a Second Captains production.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A message for listeners: today's show includes discussions of themes that some people may find distressing from the outset and throughout, including sexual violence, sexual abuse and the sex trade.

When Mia Döring was sixteen years old, she was raped, a hugely traumatic experience she couldn't speak about for two years until her mental health reached a crisis point.

In the aftermath of that assault, a man in his thirties began to groom and sexually abuse Mia. Her abuser would pay her each time he saw her, making the situation even more psychologically complex for an already vulnerable, traumatised teenage girl.

By her own description, Mia began to equate the money with her own self-worth, and the idea of her value as a human being tied to these payments led her to enter the sex trade as a college student.

Now a psychotherapist specialising in sexual trauma, she speaks to Richie about making the decision to talk publicly about her experiences, how the people running the industry in Ireland and the punters propping it up tried to intimidate her as she campaigned for the purchase of sex to be made illegal, and the road to recovering from trauma.

Episode is a Second Captains production.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.