The launch of State of Us opens with a frank, layered conversation between Ian O’Doherty and Graham Linehan, setting the tone for a podcast series that promises to grapple with the fault lines running through today’s media and cultural landscape. Linehan, best known for co-creating Father Ted, offers not only a personal testimony of ostracism and resistance, but also a broader critique of the state of public discourse in the UK and Ireland—particularly the role played by once-trusted institutions like the BBC.
Linehan’s frustration is palpable. He describes a media climate that no longer tolerates dissent, where creative voices are either silenced or required to echo dominant narratives. In particular, his disillusionment with the BBC serves as a barometer for the general erosion of institutional trust across Western societies. The old social contract—where citizens were encouraged to participate in civic life on the understanding they would be treated fairly and objectively—is now threadbare. The media institutions that once brokered that trust appear to have traded it for ideological conformity and algorithmic appeal.
We’re living through a moment when access to media content has exploded. Anyone with a smartphone can now stream, record, publish or distribute information globally. In this landscape, the decay of legacy broadcasters like the BBC is becoming ever more visible. Their credibility falters not just because of external pressures, but because they no longer reflect the diversity of voices and experiences that shape our collective reality.
Linehan’s own politics—particularly his concern for the safeguarding of women and children—has led to career-damaging repercussions. But more than a personal grievance, it is indicative of something deeper: the sclerotic atrophy of independent thought and artistic freedom in the UK. Creative culture has become risk-averse, policed by social approval, and tethered to a narrow band of acceptable opinions. In a society that once prized eccentricity and intellectual rebellion, we now face an anaemic sameness that masquerades as progress.
O’Doherty’s observation about taxi drivers knowing more than most journalists cuts to the heart of the matter. When ordinary people’s voices are excluded or caricatured, the legitimacy of the entire media ecosystem falters. If our mainstream institutions no longer have the will or capacity to reflect the lives, views and concerns of everyday citizens, then they no longer serve a democratic purpose.
The path forward is not to rehash the broken formulas of centralised media, but to break them up. We need to invest in smaller, independent, and locally embedded forms of communication. We need platforms that listen to voices from the street, not just the studio. And above all, we must resist the lure of algorithm-driven consensus by reviving the civic value of disagreement, curiosity, and critical thinking.
Podcasts like State of Us are not merely entertainment—they are a vital corrective. In the absence of a media system willing to engage with difficult truths on a human level, DIY media and independent podcasts have become essential. They allow us to rebuild the connective tissue of a fragmented society: one story, one voice, one conversation at a time.
In welcoming this first episode, we affirm the need for a media culture that is neither beholden to group-think nor afraid of complexity. State of Us is a bold step in that direction. Let’s listen.
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