Episode 17 and I'm joined by Molly Keane:00:25 — Intro / meet Molly / Sligo, photography, trail running, sourdough donut discourse03:22 — Note 1: Barry / Something overheard on the Crete flight home between a creepy guy and his seat partner12:44 — Note 2: Molly / Oldest note: a shopping list that reveals a decision she made about herself → Dirty Girl Fridays → pineapple pizza → candied pineapple toasty on the Tour de Mont Blanc27:05 — Note 3: Molly / A dream from April 2022 involving someone unlikely being fearless → recurring childhood nightmare → Tenet, Inception, and why Molly is a serial rewatcher of Little Miss Sunshine36:40 — Note 4: Molly / A New Year's Eve note that asks one big question and leaves it completely blank → Paris Marathon, strength training, running podcast recs44:45 — The Mongolian massage: a forty-five minute education, a gas station inflatable man, a lit rollie, and €50 Barry didn't see coming51:37 — Mongolian throat singing, Tilly the dog's review of it, and Barry's DART claim that didn't survive five seconds of scrutinyMolly is a photographer, trail runner, and all-round outdoor enthusiast based in Sligo. But that's only a small portion of our convo. We'd met exactly once before this. You can find Molly at @mollykeane_photo on Instagram and @molly_wanders on TikTok, where she documents everything about the northwest of Ireland with her rescue dog, Tilly, and her wonderful fiance Garth. We cover...A note I took on the flight home from Crete that I probably shouldn't publish but absolutely am. Molly's oldest note — a shopping list from 2021 that brings us onto Monty Python. A dream she wrote down in April 2022, which opens up into a proper conversation about recurring nightmares, Christopher Nolan, and Little Miss Sunshine. And a single question jotted down on New Year's Eve with absolutely zero follow-up — which then leads to the most honest conversation about marathon training, patience, and why runners hate hearing about strength training. That bit was written by AI. So sue me. It's really late.And then at the end, because we went about twenty minutes over and I couldn't stop myself, I told Molly about the time I booked a Mongolian massage in Berlin through ClassPass. Forty-five minutes of massage history. A scarecrow. A gas station inflatable man. A lit rollie. A calcium deficit diagnosis. And a €50 surcharge on what I thought was a free session. I don't have many regrets in life, but.The podcast's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secretphonenotes/My website + contact: https://barrytaylor.co/Cheers!
This week Barry is joined by Danny, an Ecuadorian musician-turned-entrepreneur based in Guayaquil, Ecuador for a roulette through his notes apps. Daniel spent eight years as a musician in Germany, fronting Ponte Pilas. Now he's back in Ecuador running Pulso Verde, a sustainability startup that communicates climate action through comedy and sketches - their self-declared moonshot: to become the SNL of sustainability. They get into the challenge of building a green business in a country where sustainability is, in Daniel's words, still in nappies, and what it actually looks like when individual impact becomes measurable. Also: a 2014 note about an album cover involving two blocks of ice, a one-line note on human conviction that doubles as a perfect summary of climate inaction and gastritis pizza relapses, the Ecuadorian expression "el mundo de los sin zapatos" (the world of the shoeless), the Philip Seymour Hoffman hair-pulling story from the set of The Master, Jake Gyllenhaal's eyebrows in Nightcrawler, and Barry's 35 before 35 list. (I'm sorry, AI summarised this. I am too too tired).00:23 — Introduction04:57 — Note 1: Barry / Camino hiking shopping list → peach loops, sweaty Camembert, and morale management on long trails11:06 — Note 2: Daniel / oldest note (2014, Bremen) → "You and I, we're gonna live some more" → Ponte Pilas origin, music background, parents who wanted to be musicians~18:00 — Note 3: Daniel / "El mundo de los sin zapatos" → creativity and discipline → the Berlin park "temple" → Bismillah album, Peter Kat Recording Company31:31 — Note 4: Daniel / "The condemnation is that we know what to do and we don't do it" → sustainability parallels → gastritis and the pizza relapse36:09 — Pulso Verde deep dive: the SNL of sustainability, the talk show, team of 13, no greenwashing41:01 — The man who brought his reusable cup / what measurable impact actually feels like43:37 — The Studio (Seth Rogen) / Hollywood making fun of Hollywood / the actors who said no and are now calling back45:10 — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Thomas Anderson, and the hair-pulling story / Jesse Plemons / Jake Gyllenhaal's eyebrows in Nightcrawler50:20 — Barry's 35 before 35 list / acting class as the litmus test of fear / sign-off / "el mundo de los sin zapatos"Practicing your Spanish? Listen here:Pulso Verde: https://www.instagram.com/pulso__verde/?hl=enPulshow: https://www.instagram.com/pulshowww/?hl=en More episodes etc:Secret Phone Notes: https://www.instagram.com/secretphonenotes/?hl=en
This week Barry is joined by Sara Louise — Sydney-based brand strategist, singer, musician, and author — for a roulette through her notes app. In the last thirteen months, Sara has recorded an album at Abbey Road Studios, written and released her debut single "Buen Hombre", and self-published May the Road Rise, a book tracing her Irish family roots back to the Cork flying columns and the War of Independence. Her grandmother was a member of Cumann na mBan, awarded IRA medals, and was involved in printing illegal propaganda with Erskine Childers in a cottage outside Kilnamatra, Macroom. Also: working in Tokyo and why KFC is Japan's Christmas tradition, singing "My Way" in Spanish at a Bolivian celebration of life, Barry's overheard Bray prom conversation that doubled as a commentary on Ireland's cocaine statistics, and what it means to carry your grandmother's DNA a hundred years after she left Cork.Links:https://www.saralouise.me/ https://barrytaylor.co/https://www.instagram.com/secretphonenotes/ Email: barrytaylor1993@gmail.com 00:00 — Intro / meet Sara 04:57 — GUEST RANDOM NOTE08:18 — Japan: KFC Christmas and NYE traditions: Shinto New Year, Yoroshiku Negaishimasu14:14 — RANDOM HOST NOTE: Ireland's cocaine stats → Jameson whiskey → the Boston deathbed story22:51 — GUEST RANDOM NOTE singing at a Bolivian funeral → Irish songs and grief → dream of singing in Irish37:54 — GUEST RANDOM NOTECoke for Vinnie → Sri Lankan food in the Hunter Valley → what is jaggery46:17 — Irish family history: the flying columns, 8th Battalion, Cork ambush sites52:20 — Cumann na mBan → grandma's IRA medals 56:41 — Erskine Childers, illegal propaganda, TB, and leaving Cork in 19251:00:09 — Wrap-up: May the Road Rise book, the album
This week I sit down with Niamh Barry a Cork-born, Dublin-based photographer and documentary filmmaker and we roulette her phone notes app. Niamh's debut documentary Something in the Air, officially selected for Galway Film Fleadh 2026 and GazeFest, follows Raychel Sanner, a storm chaser and trans woman living between Oklahoma and New Mexico. Just last month it won Best Short Documentary at the BAFTA-qualifying Manchester Film Festival.https://www.filmsomethingintheair.com/donatehttps://www.niamh-barry.com/189a7061fd-contentWe get into Tornado Alley, anti-trans legislation, what surprised Niamh about the LGBT community in Oklahoma, and what it took to finally photograph boygenius, including a last-minute visa scramble and a flight to Philadelphia.Amongst other things, we kick off with Barry's (me, host) (not Niamh) awkward opener involving a dermatology appointment and the SH:24 free STI testing service (get checked, folks). Chapter list is below. as well as other links!Chapter list:00:00 – Welcome & introducing photographer and filmmaker Niamh Barry03:40 - FIRST HOST NOTE (RANDOM)04:20 – An awkward first phone note: skin checks, STI tests & Irish healthcare09:40 - FIRST GUEST NOTE (RANDOM)10:20 – The notes behind working with Irish band Sprints15:45 – Flying to Philadelphia to photograph Boygenius20:45 – Queer representation in music photography24:45 – SECOND GUEST NOTE (RANDOM)26:20 – Making Something in the Air30:10 – Storm chasing, Oklahoma & meeting Raychel33:45 – What Hollywood gets wrong about tornadoes36:50 – Will & Harper, empathy & travelling across America44:00 - THIRD GUEST NOTE (RANDOM)44:50 – The Irish Photography Prize & photographing community50:30 – Barry's accidental photography exhibition55:20 – Wrap-upSocial links:https://www.instagram.com/narryphotographyvids/https://www.instagram.com/secretphonenotes/Thanks!
Ready to roulette a stranger's notes app? Today I'm joined by Chris Barrett, an adventurer who is known for sharing stories of Irish and Arctic nature. He's also a woodworker, conservationist, designer, and many other things. He's worth a listen. It's one of my fave chats so far. Anyway, let's see what we find in his notes app.Secret Phone Notes Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/secretphonenotes/Chris Barrett's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/chris_barrett_photo/Rough overview and chapter list below: A citizen science Arctic expedition off Svalbard, a year bike packing through Patagonia, Bolivia's salt flats and the Atacama Desert, and a near-miss on Bolivia's death road all come up through the notes. So does an autonomous fertilizer ball, a gecko-inspired glove built for his college thesis, and the Trinity College research linking polar bears back to the Irish brown bear. Plus: Tom Crean, translucent polar bear fur, and why biomimicry has 3.5 billion years of R&D behind it.00:00 – Welcome & introducing Chris Barrett01:20 – RANDOM HOST NOTE02:00 – Colour blindness, whiskey ads & Coca-Cola myths04:50 – Coca leaves, altitude sickness & hiking in Peru06:50 – Bikepacking Patagonia, Bolivia & traveling light09:15 – The Pacific Crest Trail & ultralight hiking culture12:30 – RANDOM GUEST NOTE: the autonomous fertiliser ball16:55 – Nature restoration, farming & rural Ireland20:05 – Biomimicry: how nature inspires better design24:55 – Gecko gloves, shark skin & everyday invention28:10 – RANDOM GUEST NOTE31:20 – Cycling the Bolivian salt flats & drunken drivers36:20 – RANDOM GUEST NOTEBoxing inventions → Arctic photography37:30 – Polar bears, climate change & photographing the Arctic41:55 – Svalbard expeditions & a life-long obsession with the poles44:20 – Tom Crean, Shackleton & Ireland's greatest explorer48:35 – Wrap-upThank you for listening!