Here we have Irish author Caroline O’Donoghue’s podcast Sentimental Garbage. It’s a mixture of film reviews, life observations, and travel notes from the brain of O’Donoghue and guests.

You’re Wrong About’s fabulous Sarah Marshall has championed this one for some time.

Thus, we decided to have a good old listen. The result? This is another glorious addition to a network of podcasts championing culture, intellectualism, mental health, and clarity. All at a time when certain sects of society are working overtime to undermine such essentials.

Embracing One’s Fantabulous Feminine Side in Sentimental Garbage

The podcast began as a chick literature show celebrating guilty pleasures, then morphed into social commentary and modern film reviews. Our first episode listen was for the modern classic Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) with Ralph Fiennes.

We first became aware of O’Donoghue through another favourite podcast of ours.

The ever-engaging, therapeutic joys of You Are Good (hosted by Alex Steed and Sarah Marshall) had O’Donoghue on for a May 2023 episode. This one here.

That’s reviewing the classic 1995 film Babe. You Are Good isn’t a traditional film review show, more an opportunity to relieve life experiences and cultural/political happenings of the time and how they relate to now.

Anyway, we love that Babe episode and O’Donoghue enthusiasm and infectious laugh led us to Sentimental Garbage.

There are almost 200 episodes on offer here.

Guilty pleasure movies from the ’90s and ’00s onward are a big deal, such as the oddball Spice World movie, but other “girly” topics are put into context. There’s an episode on singer and actress Cher, modern takes on the need for women to get married (Weddings episode), and thoughts on influencers.

As geezers, it’s been useful listening to understand a more feminine approach to things.

Some of the films covered (such as Wimbledon from 2004) are kind of romantic comedy, “chick flicks” (a lazy way of pigeonholing that genre) kind of stuff. Not films we’d typically watch, but O’Donoghue and her guests put an entertaining and thoughtful take on how all of this culture has influenced their lives.

If that’s your kind of thing, then this podcast is a very nice mixer for You’re Wrong About and You Are Good. A potent tonic indeed.

Gosh! Here’s an Interview With Caroline O’Donoghue

Caroline O’Donoghue is from Cork in that there Ireland. She’s also a novelist, having written books such as The Rachel Incident (2023) and All Our Hidden Gifts (2021). We’ve not read any of her books yet (FOR SHAME!), but as Ireland seems to be an emerging leader of female novelists… we really bloody should.

She’s also now working on a TV series, so Sentimental Garbage is actually on hold.

That may seem like a bummer (no new episodes for a bit), but it will let us catch up on the back catalogue the show has on offer. Very splendid indeed.