The guests alone could have made this a 5-Star podcast. They’ve had some excellent people on with plenty of interesting things to say. Sadly it’s heavily let down by the host. James O’Brien is excellent at running rings around people who aren’t very clever on talk radio but put him in a room with intelligent people with a story to tell and he’s embarrassingly out of his depth. You will find yourself shouting “shut up and let them speak!” At least once an episode.

Then you’ll be hooked and have to listen to the rest, some of the best are not the ones you might expect. Would love to see Paul Sinton-Hewitt on here.

Sorry to say (cos he has some great guests) but what an absolutely irritating interviewer. Keeps endlessly cutting off and speaking over guests answers to his questions!! Rude and self absorbed. Doesn’t even seem interested in what his guests have to say - just in his own opining.

I enjoy the way casual and funny mode of the whole podcast. Interesting questions posed to quite interesting people. Hopefully we get more variety of people on here

Fascinating subjects. Questions are insightful and articulate. Best thing I’ve listened to in some time.

A perfect balance between the interviewer and the interviewee.

That’s probably enough reason for the 5 stars, but if you need more he’s an amazing, and empathetic interviewer. Often I don’t know of his interlocutors but come away fascinated with them.

This is a gem of a podcast. Such human conversations with such a variety of fascinating people. O’Brien is a master interviewer and interesting in his own right. I wish he could interview himself