Colm Flynn Podcast

Hannah Alderman is a young aspiring model who recently moved to New York City from Oklahoma. Moving to one of the most exciting cities in the world was a big step for Hannah towards her dream of becoming a professional model. However, when Covid-19 hit, she found herself locked into her apartment building in Brooklyn. It wasn't all bad as on her rooftop many of the building's tenants would meet in the evenings and throw parties. Hannah would go up to the roof every night and have a glass of wine... the only problem is she would not know when to stop. She soon released that she had a problem with alcohol and struggled to try and get it under control, eventually resulting in her checking into rehab back in Oklahoma. In this podcast, Hannah talks to Colm Flynn about her relationship with alcohol and the toll it took on her life, and how, with the help of others she has been able to battle the addiction and fight for a brighter future. 

Mario Salerno is a landlord like no other. After first meeting him you may think this hard-talking, body-building, tracksuit-wearing, Italian American would be as tough as nails, but as hundreds of his tenants discovered when New York was in the grip of the Coronavirus, he has a heart of gold. In April of 2020 New Yorkers were devastated when their city became the global epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic. The city that once never slumbered overnight became like a ghost town as people fled the city. For many of those who remained, life was tough as people started losing their jobs and income. In the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, Mario Salerno runs an auto body repair shop and garage. He is also a very successful landlord with over 200 tenants and noticing how much some of them were hurting, he decided to do what most landlords would never dream of doing. He waived the rent for all 200 tenants for the entire month of April. Conservative maths put Mario at a loss of over a quarter of a million dollars. Colm Flynn heard about his story and immediately went to interview him at his garage. After the report was broadcast it went viral and Mario became known as the 'Angel Landlord' of Brooklyn. He was invited on to the Ellen Show, mentioned on Saturday Night Live, and even invited to the White House by President Trump! One year after his incredibly generous gesture, Colm travels to New York to meet Mario Salerno to find out more about him and the story of Brooklyn's 'Angel Landlord'.

Paddy Slattery is an Irish filmmaker and director who has just been named by IFTA (Irish version of the Oscars) as one of Ireland's top emerging talents. But growing up, it was never his plan to pursue a career in cinema. He comes from a village in the countryside west of Dublin and in 1996 when he was just 17 years of age, Paddy was the passenger of a car that was involved in a serious accident, flying off a country road and flipping a number of times. The driver and other passengers walked away with little injuries, but as Paddy was not wearing a seatbelt he was left paralyzed from the chest down. "I don't care what they say, I will walk again.",  were the words he told doctors as he sat in a new wheelchair. 25 years later, Paddy says he can now fly. Colm Flynn talks to Paddy Slattery about his incredible story, who says that when his "body switched off, my mind switched on."

Imagine being paid to lie? Imagine having to live a lie for most of your professional career? If you forget your lies, or get them mixed up, you could be killed. This was the life that Marc Ruskin lived as a secret undercover FBI agent for almost 20 years.The FBI generally has about 100 UC agents working full-time in the field. In the 1990s and 2000s, Marc Ruskin had the most diverse, and notorious, case list of all, and the broadest experience within the bureaucracy, including overseas. He worked ops targeting public corruption, corporate fraud, Wall Street scams, narcotics trafficking, La Cosa Nostra, counterfeiting―and gritty street-level scams and schemes.Sometimes working three or four cases simultaneously, Ruskin switched identities by the day: Each morning he had to walk out the door with the correct ID, clothes, accessories and frame of mind for that day’s mission. Meet Alex Perez, Alejandro Marconi, and Sal Morelli, just a few of Ruskin’s undercover personas.But what about the psychology of doing undercover work? Did Marc ever feel guilty about turning in his subjects, after getting to know them quite well over a period of time? Does he ever think he provoked them to carry out more crime in order to build his case? Do elements of these characters he had to act and live out stay with him? Listen to find out more. 

Stephen began to realize something wasn't right when noticed parts of his memory was missing. He would go for a walk with his girlfriend during the day and then realize he couldn't recall the last ten minutes - anything. He put it down to stress. But when it continued and became more frequent, added with severe headaches, he went to the doctor. After a brain scan, his doctor called him, "Stephen, you have a brain tumor."... This is the reality that is facing a friend of mine.Stephen and I went to college together and he was always such a vibrant and fun person to be around. As we say in Ireland he was a 'character'. Always well dressed, always talking cigars, movies, and fashion.  A few years after leaving college Stephen was struck with tragedy when his mother passed away. Soon after this, he was diagnosed with having a brain tumor. Now, after two surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Stephen is sharing his experience of how he was able to remain strong and stable throughout his life-changing ordeal.

BONUS MATERIALOn Easter Sunday in 1964, one of the strongest earthquakes in North American history struck Alaska with the city of Anchorage being horst hit. Amidst the destruction and despair, a voice emerged over the crackling airwaves that would go on to become one of the unlikely heroes of the disaster.  Genie Chance was a local radio journalist who rushed to the station when the earthquake struck. For the next few days, she broadcast around the clock helping the dazed and confused locals find their loved ones and relayed messages of hope and encouragement. I speak with author and journalist Jon Mooallem, who just published a new book, ‘This Is Chance! The Shaking of an All-American City, A Voice That Held It Together’, about this remarkable woman and how she helped to hold the community together during their darkest hour. 

After the catastrophic disaster at the Chernobyl  Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine in 1986, around 50,000 people were evacuated from the nearby city of Pripyat. The residents were told to take just the clothes they were wearing along with their passports, and reassured they would be allowed to return soon after. However as radiation levels were so high, the decision was made to create a 30km 'exclusion zone' around the Chernobyl power station and for the past 35 years the city of Pripyat has become a ghost town, frozen in time in Soviet 1986, and now giving way to nature. Philip Grossman is a scientist, engineer and filmmaker, who has visited the city of Pripyat and the Chernobyl exclusion zone 14 times. He explored the abandoned buildings which are still highly radioactive in parts still today. Colm Flynn talks to Philip Grossman about his experiences exploring the exclusion zone, as well some of the misconceptions around the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. They also talk about the overall safety of nuclear energy today. 

Lisa Murphy is 31 and from Cork in the south of Ireland, and if you met her you would be taken by her warm and bubbly personality. On the face of it she looks like a 'normal' happy young woman, living in Ireland's capital, Dublin, and having recently started a new job. But under the surface Lisa has been battling a debilitating and life-threatening condition for the last twelve years, bulimia. This condition leaves no marks on her body, or makes her look a certain way, and so most of the time it is impossible for others to tell something is wrong. But every day Lisa goes through an uncontrollable cycle of binge eating, and then purging.. over and over again. What started when she was 19  years of age, making herself get sick so she could look 'sexy' like other girls, spiralled out of control in the years that followed and Lisa found herself doing things she would never thought she was capable of. Lisa hit rock bottom earlier this year when she attempted to commit suicide as her eating disorder was so out of control. Now she is looking for help, and has started a GoFundMe to raise money to pay for treatment at a specialised centre. In this interview, Lisa is so honest and open about her condition and the effect it is having on her life. But please be warned, some parts of the interview are graphic and may be difficult for some listeners to hear, especially if you have been affected by an eating disorder or have felt suicidal. I want to really thank Lisa for being so generous with her time and willingness to share her story. The insight she offers into the life of a person with an eating disorder is unique and very raw, and I know that I learned an incredible amount about a condition I knew very little of before.Please share this interview with those you know, and support Lisa and her GoFundMe, here:https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-help-our-friend-lisa?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

Can you imagine living on a tropical island in the south Pacific Ocean? A paradise on Earth where life moves at a slower rate. That's where my guest for this episode lives and works. Sanya Ruggiero is a consultant communications advisor who works with the UN and other organisations. She is now working on a UN project to provide Covid relief to small business and freelancers in Fiji and neighbouring islands. She is also working on a project to clear radioactive waste left on the Marshall Islands following nuclear weapons testing by the US government. Recently she was has written articles for AlJazeera and worked on projects with ABC, the Australian national broadcaster. Sanya also has a strong Catholic faith, which she says has helped her in life, despite it been sometimes seen as unpopular by some of her colleagues. In this interview I chat to Sanya about her fascinating family story, the history of the Figi islands, and the work she is doing today. Thanks for listening, and follow Sanya on Twitter: @Sanya_Ruggiero

BONUS MATERIALMarty Cooper is nothing more than a living legend. Back in the early 70's, he and a small team of engineers at Motorola changed the course of history forever when they developed the first every handheld portable cellphone. Motorola wasn’t a big company at the time and was up against the biggest company in the world, AT&T, who were pushing their own invention that was a car phone. It was really a case of David and Goliath as the two companies went head to head for the future of the telephone.Marty Cooper and his invention of cellphone beat all the odds and in 1973 Marty made history by making the first-ever cellphone call in history on 6th Avenue in New York City. Who did he call? His rival Joel Engle, the head of AT&T.In this short podcast I chat to Marty Cooper about that incredible time and how his invention went on to change the world! 

Brooke Brodack was once the most subscribed YouTuber in the world but suddenly deleted her channel and disappeared from all social media. It was 2005 and YouTube was still a new website. Then a 19 year old girl from Holden, Massachusetts, created a channel called 'Brookers' where she uploaded videos of herself hanging around the house, doing funny sketches, and just being creative. Her channel took off and gained over 60,000 subscribers, at one point being the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. She was offered a gig by NBC and moved to Hollywood... But then deleted her channel, and all social media, and moved to India. She tells Colm Flynn her story.

Shaun Doherty was, for 30 years, a hugely successful broadcaster in Donegal, Ireland. Every day he presented the main talk show on Highland Radio. Over three decades he became a household name in the region and won multiple awards for his work. But one day, he announced live on air, that he would be leaving his job in radio, and pursuing something else. Now, in this exclusive interview, Shaun talks to Colm Flynn about why he decided to walk away from the success he had, and move to Rome in Italy, to start a new life studying for the priesthood, and how he hopes to find fulfilment in his new role. 

Kevin Briggs has stood, sometimes for hours late at night, in the freezing cold mist on the Golden Gate Bridge. The routine became all-too familiar for Kevin. Talking to someone who had climbed the barrier of San Francisco's iconic bridge and who was about to jump to the choppy waters below. With no formal training in negotiation, or how to handle depression or suicide, he would carefully navigate conversations with these individuals who stood there in the wind at the lowest point in their life. What's remarkable about Kevin story, is how effective him just listening to these people was. Over his career he talked approximately 600 people down from the bridge, and sadly lost two.  In this interview, Kevin tells me about the people he encountered and what brought them to the bridge. We also talk about the effect this kind of work has had on him, and what advice he has to others who are feeling suicidal, or know someone who is. In this interview, we talk about people who were suffering in the depths of depression, and some people may find parts upsetting. If you are affected by depression or suicide, please talk to someone. You can start by checking out one of these links below. There will be someone like Kevin there to listen to you, and help you with what you are going through. https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/feelings-symptoms-behaviours/behaviours/help-for-suicidal-thoughts/https://mentalhealth.org.nz/conditions/condition/suicide-coping-with-suicidal-thoughts

Welcome to season 2 of the Colm Flynn Podcast! Dara Tah is an Irish Youtuber and Ticktocker who has shot to internet fame in recent months. But overnight success has come after years of hard work, and in this interview Dara tells Colm about some of his more daring YouTube videos like visiting Area 51, staying the night in a haunted castle, being buried alive, and gives an honest account of what goes in to making a viral hit. 

Bláithín Ennis is an incredibly talented Irish fashion designer, specialising in jewellery and accessories. Her work is sold in some of Ireland's top retail outlets, and has been worn by celebrities around the world. From Wexford in the south east of Ireland, in this episode, Bláithín tells Colm about where her love of fashion and creating came from, and how she landed a dream internship working with Diane von Furstenberg in New York. She also talks about what it's like running her own fashion business and brand in Ireland and the challenges that poses. Finally, her advice to anyone considering turning their passion into a business. 

In this episode of the Colm Flynn Podcast, I chat to Irish social media influencer and reality TV star, Cormac Murphy. Living in New York City, Cormac featured in the first season of 'Love Island' on CBS and also appeared on the E4 show of 'Celebs Go Dating' in the UK. But behind the chiselled instagram pictures and seemingly perfect life in the US, Cormac was secretary battling with addiction and depression. His addiction to alcohol and drugs became so bad that his family eventually had to intervene and bring him back to Ireland and to rehab. Cormac claims he believes he would always have ended up in rehab, but thinks the party lifestyle that came with recognition from his TV work accelerated that. Now, Cormac is back in New York City and living a new life. He's sober, healthy, happy, and running a successful fitness company called Macc Fitness. 

Louise Cooney is one of Ireland's most successful social media stars, with almost a quarter of a million followers on Instagram alone. But behind the seemingly always glamorous lifestyle online, in this episode of the Colm Flynn podcast, Louise talks about the hard work that goes into building a brand and business. She talks about the pros and cons of being self employed and the kind of challenges she faced when launching a new clothing band, Cloo Active. In this interview Louise also opens up about her big move to New York city and how the experience wasn't quite what she expected or hoped it would be. But as you'll hear Louise reveal, she believes everything happens for a reason, and has never been happier to be back in Ireland now where she has found love, happiness and appreciation for everything she has.Follow Louise on social media @louisecooney_

All his life Tanner Charles has been running towards the very thing that people most people run away from, Tornadoes! Since he was a teenager he has been a passionate storm chaser, constantly trying to get closer and closer to the danger.  From Minnesota, Tanner now produces Youtube videos where he follows violent and destructive storms, sometimes driving for hours just to see one. In this podcast interview, Tanner tells Colm about his love of seeing Tornadoes hit land and experiencing their sheer power. He also opens up about the most emotional storm chase ever where he found himself helping an elderly couple whose home was completely destroyed. Colm and Tanner also talk about the ethics behind the videos he makes, and whether promoting and filming storm chasing is responsible, especially when they cause so much destruction, and sometimes even death.Finally, in a surprising twist to the interview, Tanner reveals he is a Christian and talks about how he sees tornadoes as part of God's plan. 

Emily Mais is a writer and an author who, after losing her mother to cancer, decided to reevaluate her life and change the things that didn't make her happy. Like so many other people her age, she was at a point in life with a steady long-term boyfriend, a good job, and a nice apartment in Toronto, but ultimately wasn't happy. It took losing her mother to help her realise that life is short, and you only get one chance at things. So, with no real plan or agenda, she left her home in Canada, changed careers, and moved to Rome in Italy where she now lives. In this podcast, Emily talks to Colm about what those final months with her mother were like, and how it inspired her to become a writer focusing on love, loss and grief. The three things she says we all experience but never plan for. You can follow Emily on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emaisy/

Jordan Pulmano is a filmmaker from California who specialises in shooting music videos and festivals. His work has brought him all over the United States, and to other parts of the world. But back in 2017 he got a call to film a music festival that would go down in history, but for all the wrong reasons. 'Fyre Festival' was billed as a glamorous, exclusive, and one-of-a-kind music festival which was to be held on an island in the Bahamas. Jordan was really excited to go and film with his team who would be documenting everything over the course of the festival. Their job was to produce a highlights video at the end that would be used to promote the festival the following year. But as they landed on the tropical island, straight away it was apparent that things were not going according to plan, and over the next couple of days things quickly fell apart. The man who organised the festival, Billy McFarland, was jailed for four years.Here is Jordan's story of being hired to film the infamous Fyre Festival.