A brand-new Wexford podcast has taken Spotify by storm, cracking the 30th spot on Ireland’s top 50 podcasts…
A newly launched podcast that aims to better the mental health of Wexford has become an overnight sensation, climbing to number 30 on Spotify’s list of top podcasts in Ireland in just a few days.
The podcast, called Shoot the Shizz, was created by psychiatric nursing student and bodybuilder Patsy Whelan. He defines the show’s title on the official Instagram page for the podcast, writing:
‘“SHOOT THE SHIZZ”
noun ~
The action of talking; speech or discussion.
adjective ~
Engaging in speech or conversation.’
The aptly named podcast has opened up a much-needed conversation about mental health in Wexford and Patsy provides a valuable perspective as a mental health nursing student.
This week, I had the opportunity to sit down with him to talk about his motivations for starting the podcast, its rapid success and what listeners can expect next.
I know you discuss this in the podcast but for those who haven’t listened yet, where did the idea to do this podcast come from?
‘So, as a lot of people around Wexford know, there’s a long history of mental illness stigma. A lot of slang words towards mental illness and mental health around. Present day, there’s been a lot of unfortunate events we all know about.
Last Tuesday or Wednesday, I was in the gym and I was talking to one of the boys-I’ve been wanting to do something for ages, but I’m not that experienced with social media or posting podcasts or anything-but they were saying that I should do a podcast. I was a bit iffy on the tech side of it.
I went to Aaron Smith. He was like “Man it’s very simple if you wanna set a podcast up. You just set an account up, record it and upload it.” I was like “Hardly!”, you know, I didn’t really think much into it. So, that’s what I did.’
Patsy then outlined for me the meteoric rise of the podcast’s listening figures.
‘Within seven hours, we had over 160 listens. The next day we made it into the top charts on Spotify, think we were 130 in the charts. We were 50 in the charts on Monday. Then yesterday I think we were just touching 600 listens. In the Spotify podcast charts across Ireland, we’re number 34 at the moment.’
I have to ask; how did it feel when you saw how successful it became?
‘It still hasn’t hit me properly. It’s just mad. It’s really good. I feel grateful, really, because people of Wexford really want to listen. Especially our generation, we do need to know what’s going on. I feel absolutely on cloud nine.’
It’s an amazing achievement. Do you think it says something about the mental health situation in Ireland that the podcast was so well-received so quickly?
‘Yeah. If we’re talking about Wexford, it’s a well-known fact we do need a 24/7 mental health service. Our closest unit is Waterford so Wexford does need one of those. Nationwide, yeah, it says it all really that within five days we had 600 listens. It just screams that this needs to be addressed now.’
One thing I like about the podcast is that even though it’s a mental health podcast, there is also great emphasis placed on physical health. To what extent do you agree with the phrase ‘healthy body, healthy mind’?
‘Absolutely. I fully agree with that. You can go anywhere and see a mental health professional and they’ll ask you “How are you sleeping? Are you eating properly? Are you getting enough exercise?” If you’re feeling good physically, it will translate over to mentally. Not always but most of the time it will.
You know yourself, not everyone’s into sport. But if you take time out of your day for half an hour and go down town and take a stroll around-it makes all the difference in my opinion.’
On the launch episode of Shoot the Shizz, Patsy welcomed guests Aaron Smith and Stephen Walsh on the show. Each brought their own interesting perspectives to the show’s topics with Aaron being an athlete who competes in 110-metre hurdles and Stephen being an online coach with ten years in the fitness training industry.
Do you plan on having Aaron and Stephen on regularly or do you envision shaking up the guests quite a bit?
‘Stephen was the one who suggested it to me in the first place and Aaron was the one who helped me set up things. He egged me on for years to do something about things and he wanted to do something as well. So, it felt only right to have Stephen and Aaron on for the first episode.
Tomorrow I’m recording with Peter Casey. He’s from Cork and he’s a student in the Kilkenny mental health service. We’ll be touching on education and the kind of things we’ve been taught in college and what the stats are. But I will have Stephen and Aaron again a few times in the future because they’re big figures in this podcast.’
The trio bounced the topics off each other excellently to the point where I wondered how much of the show was pre-planned. When I asked about this, he promptly pulled out a notepad with a short list of topics, a far cry from a script. ‘That’s all we had’ he explained.
Now that you’re a bit more familiar with podcasting, what do you like about the medium as a means of getting a message across?
‘I think it’s great. It’s a good way to get listens and get your stuff out there. I post quite often myself on Instagram-my own personal content-but I prefer talking cos I have a lot to say but I can’t put it into one Instagram or Facebook post. I think the podcast is a better way of putting stuff out there.’
Do you have any future plans for the podcast that you’re excited about?
‘I have a couple of special guests lined up that I’ll be announcing on Instagram next week. I haven’t looked into the future too much I kind of try to take it as it comes. I just really hope it grows and keeps going the way it is. I hope people are listening and will continue to listen and get educated on what’s going on mental health-wise with people in the world and our country as it is.’
You said at the end of the episode ‘If we can help someone in some way, our job is done’. Is this the core of what you’re trying to accomplish with the podcast?
‘Yeah, I had a conversation with another friend a few weeks ago. He asked me, because he had someone close to him unfortunately pass away due to their mental health struggles, ‘is everything always preventable?’. I said yes. It can be preventable. Whether it’s six months down the line or six years. So, if someone listens to the podcast today, they might feel better about themselves and they might seek help.
Not everyone needs to see someone (a professional). I can go into the next room and talk to my family about things. But yeah, that’s what the message is, that hopefully everything can be solved. Hopefully, someone will listen and get help and be seen. Seek help or tell someone or just talk to lads. That’s what we’re doing, just talking as lads.’
Is there anything you’d like to say to the readers of Wexford Weekly?
‘Shooting the Shizz’, as we always say, is having a talk about things. I really hope we can get a message out to people in the county and wider Ireland about the mental health attitudes in the country at the moment and get some education out there about the resources available and what we can do about ourselves, our family and our friends.’
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