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Spice Bags Podcast
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HeadStuff Team

Spice Bags win at Irish Food Writers Awards 2023

Spice Bags’ hosts Mei Chin, Blanca Valencia and Dee Laffan may have sadly hung up the headphones earlier this year but that doesn’t mean that they have stopped receiving the praise they deserve. 

Spice Bags won Gold at this year’s Irish Food Writers Awards hosted at the RDS Dublin on October 26th. It is the second time our formidable foodies were awarded Irish Food or Drink Podcast of the year.

Named after everyone’s favourite Chinese-Irish drunk snack, Spice Bags is all about Ireland’s relationship with food from the outside world.

Mei, Blanca and Dee are three multicultural women living in Ireland, who love to chat about the food they love, and sometimes hate, interviewing people in Ireland and abroad who are helping to shape the culture of food here, and always asking questions like – How have Chinese restaurants changed not just the dining options in Ireland but the communities where they exist? Why are so many Irish cheeses made by women? Why does Dee get chills at the thought of “Cold Ribena”?

You can find the entire back catalogue of Spice Bags episodes here on HeadStuffPodcasts.com or wherever you listen to your favourite shows.

Double Love Live Show
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HeadStuff Team

Double Love Spooktacular Live Show

We had another fantastic night in The Podcast Studios, the home of HeadStuff Podcasts, on Thursday October 26th as we hosted Double Love’s Halloween Special with a packed house and many more enjoying the show from the comfort of their home on Livestream.

Special guest Amy Clarkin, author of An Post Irish Book Awards shortlisted ‘What Walks These Halls’, joined our Sweet Valley experts Anna Carey and Karyn Moynihan on the night.

The mood for the night was set with an opening live performance of the Podcast’s theme song played by host Anna Carey on the ukulele. During the show, the hosts took a deep dive into the ‘stupidest SVH thriller yet’, talking about everything from Victorian ghosts to the notorious Nicholas Morrow.

Meanwhile, fans of Double Love from far and wide connected and shared their passion for the podcast over the livestream chat. Some fans even took a day off work to watch the stream uninterrupted!

The best Sweet Valley high themed costume of the night won a Double Love tote bag full of Sweet Valley High classic books, The Podcast Studios merch and more.

Double Love delves into the weird and wonderful world of Sweet Valley High, one book at a time. The live show was a recording of Episode 137 – Jessica Wakefield may have forgotten that her favourite number is 137, but we haven’t!

Make sure to sign up to HeadStuff+ for discounts on future live shows from your favourite hosts on HeadStuff Podcasts.

Join the Cast Square 800
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HeadStuff Team

HeadStuff Podcasts Launch Join The Cast Podcast Competition

HeadStuff, Ireland’s premiere podcast network, has announced a new competition to find Ireland’s next big podcast, offering a prize worth up to €50k in production costs.

Join The Cast is a free and open competition where entrants submit a 3-minute audio or video clip pitching their podcast idea. Entries will be judged by a selection of big names in the podcast game, including Tony Cantwell (Tony Cantwell’s Hit Show), Naomi O’Leary (Irish Passport Podcast) and Gearoid Farrelly (Agony Rants), among others. The top pitchers will be revealed in the New Year and will get the chance to record a pilot episode of their show in HeadStuff’s state-of-the-art facilities, The Podcast Studios off Pearse Street. 

These winning pilot episodes will all be broadcast together on HeadStuff’s channels, with the public voting on an eventual winner, who will be rewarded with a full season of their own – with all production costs paid for! This includes studio time and an accompanying marketing campaign. 

“I have no doubt that there is loads of podcasting talent out there just waiting to be discovered. We’re hoping this competition will bring some of the best and brightest to our attention, and we’ll be able to help them reach their potential and make a great podcast.”

– Alan Bennett – CEO HeadStuff & The Podcast Studios 

The deadline for pitches is the 19th of November. For anyone looking to find out more, you can visit Jointhecast.ie or any of HeadStuff’s social pages on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook.

Irish Podcast Awards
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HeadStuff Team

HeadStuff Scoops 7 Nominations at the 2023 Irish Podcast Awards

As the Irish Podcast Awards roll around again, here at HeadStuff we are celebrating seven nominations, including best network or publisher for HeadStuff Podcasts.

The event that celebrates the best in Irish podcasting will be taking place on Tuesday 21 November, at the fashionable House Dublin.

‘This year’s shortlist is a symphony of stories, a medley of musings, and a banquet of banter. From the uproarious chuckles of comedy podcasts, to the mind-bending twists of the thriller genre, and the insightful wisdom of factual storytelling, our shortlist has something for every kind of ear’ – Irish Podcast Awards

Podcasts on the network have been nominated across five categories including best comedy podcast, best entertainment podcast, best factual podcast, best wellbeing podcast and best interview. 

Fad Camp, a comedy podcast about the ridiculousness of fad diets hosted by Grace Mulvey and Conor Dowling, has been nominated for both best entertainment podcast and best wellbeing podcast. Fad Camp recently hosted their first live show as part of The Dublin Fringe Festival as their listeners are continuing to grow and grow. 

The nominations for best factual podcast include both Basically…with Stefanie Preissner and For Tech Sake. 

Preissner’s weekly podcast takes news stories and makes sense of them. Past guests include leading television host Ryan Tubridy, immunologist Luke O’Neill, and Tánaiste Micheál Martin. 

For Tech Sake is a co-production from Silicon Republic and HeadStuff Podcasts. The show is hosted by Elaine Burke and Jenny Darmody and with each episode they set out to ‘take a side-eye view of tech, not evangelising or demonising it, but definitely throwing a bit of shade when it’s deserved.’

Agony Rants are also celebrating a nomination in the best comedy podcast category. The podcast is hosted by Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh and comedian Gearóid Farrelly, who offer advice and unconditional support to their devoted listeners. The show has recently celebrated its 100th episode and are launching a new bonus series, exclusively for HeadStuff+ members, along with a merch drop. 

Personality Bingo with Tom Moran is nominated in the best interview category. Each episode Tom chats to a special guest using the medium of random questions as chosen by bingo balls. Past guests include Paul Mescal, Bressie and Michael Fry. 

The HeadStuff Podcasts has also been nominated in the best network category once again this year. It’s onwards and upwards for HeadStuff!

Don’t forget to check out these wonderful shows and their bonus content on HeadStuff+ at HeadStuff Podcasts. And we’ll see you at the 2023 Irish Podcast Awards.

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HeadStuff Team

Welcome to the new HeadStuff Podcasts!

Welcome!

You’ve probably noticed some changes around here! We’re delighted to be launching a major update to the HeadStuff Podcasts website with major improvements across the board. 

Some key feature updates include:

⛔️ Ad-free listening for members in their app! This is something we’ve been looking to give to our members for some time, you can now find personal ad-free RSS feeds for each of your favourite shows – you will also find your updated Bonustown RSS feed in there too!

⭐️ A new membership platform which makes it easier to manage your subscription and offers new features including referral bonuses so you can share the love and save some cash,

📻 A new and improved podcast player if you like to listen though the website.

😻 You can now save your favourite shows to your account by clicking the heart icon next to an episode when you are logged in.

👂We’re all ears! Please reach out to us if you have any issues with the transition to the new site or new platform and bear with us while we deal with any bugs that might arise in the coming days.

🛍 We have a new merch store coming very soon too so check back for even more goodies from more of your favourite shows.

We have big plans to keep improving the site over the next few months and with the new platform we hope that will keep things moving so we can offer more to our members.

Head over to our dedicated New Site FAQ that should cover the main queries you might have.

If you have any issues or questions that you can’t find an answer for send us a message in the chat box between 9-5GMT Monday – Friday during the transition phase – the team are on hand to get you up and running!

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