Europe is in chaos, but we’re here to talk about it all, as long as the wifi holds out! This week, we’re chatting about Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s call for a snap election in light of his country’s recent housing demonstrations and a host of other controversies roiling Madrid. Please note: this podcast was recorded before news broke on Wednesday night of the death of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction sparked Spain’s massive housing protests.
We’re also discussing Russia’s decision to cancel Kanye West’s sold-out concerts in St Petersburg – and various scripts you can borrow if a racist antisemite wants to play a concert in YOUR country. And ahead of Friday’s announcement of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, we’re joined by Haakon Gjerløw, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, to try to make sense of this controversial prize and who deserves to win it in 2026. Honestly, now feels like a really great time to give peace a chance.
Speaking of reasons to get the wifi sorted… we’re looking forward to our next online listener hangout! If you want to shoot the breeze/commiserate about the state of things with Katy and Wojciech, you’re most very welcome to join us at 6pm CET on Sunday, 18 October. We’ll post a link to join the call on all our social channels an hour before we kick off.
Inspiration Station recommendations:
Dix pour cent, le film (Call My Agent! The Movie)
Other resources for this episode:
“Conflict trends: A global overview, 1946–2025” – the Peace Research Institute Oslo
“Donald Trump? Please no. Here’s who actually deserves this year’s Nobel peace prize” – The Guardian, 28 September 2026
“‘Like caring for a pet’: the app that lets you know if your neighbourhood tree is thirsty” – The Guardian, 2 October 2026
CO-HOSTS
Dominic Kraemer and Katy Lee
PRODUCER
Morgan Childs
SENIOR PRODUCER
Katy Lee
MIXING AND MASTERING
Wojciech Oleksiak
REPORTER/INTERN
Inês Ruivo
MUSIC
Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
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KATY LEE:
This podcast has been produced in cooperation with Euronet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
But this podcast would not be possible without the incredibly generous support of our amazing listeners who donate a little bit each month at patreon.com forward slash Europeans podcast.
[MUSIC]
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Hello and welcome to the Europeans. Katy and I may have an unstable internet connection, but maybe that's a metaphor for the current state of Europe.
KATY LEE:
I'm unstable. Everything's unstable.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
But we're here anyway, and we're going to make it work, aren't we? Because that's what we do in Europe.
KATY LEE:
That's what we do. Soldier on. How are you doing, Dominic?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
I'm good, actually. I've been really enjoying the early autumn sunshine here in Amsterdam. It's been delightful. But I do feel like we need like a new word for this very 2026 phenomenon of feeling guilty about enjoying weird weather.
KATY LEE:
Yes.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Because the only reason that is really nice in October for this brief moment is thanks probably to apocalyptic climate change. So like, can we try and come up with a word for that?
KATY LEE:
The Germans presumably already have a word that captures the nuance of all of this. Germanophones, write in and let us know.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Please do. How are you doing?
KATY LEE:
I'm okay. Yeah, it's been a very dramatic, and in some ways, sad and enraging week here in France. We've had hundreds of schools closed this week because of these big, big protests by high school students protesting that their education has been overlooked and systematically underfunded for years, which they're entirely right about, by the way. It's a totally valid reason for a protest. And yeah, I don't know what you've read over there, but I kind of feel like a lot of the media coverage has been focused on like kids behaving like feral animals. Is that the kind of thing that you're seeing?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Really? I've read more about like kids getting injured.
KATY LEE:
Yeah.
DOMINIC KRAEMER
Not necessarily kids being blamed for that.
KATY LEE:
I'm encouraged to hear that because, I mean, let's be clear, there has been some horrifically unacceptable behaviour. There was this one high school principal that got doused with petrol. There's been some horrific things. And yeah, at the same time, there have been plenty of kids protesting peacefully. And also, as you say, kids themselves being dealt unacceptable violence by the police. There was this viral video that you probably saw of this cop holding a 14-year-old girl in a chokehold. So yeah, febrile times here in France.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah. And in other parts of the continent too, which I think we'll come to later. Yeah. Why don't you start by telling us what's coming up in Good Week Bad Week, Katy?
KATY LEE:
Yes, I'm going to be talking about Pedro Sánchez's decision to call a snap election in Spain in the midst of massive protests over housing.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
And then I'm going to look into the decision to cancel yet another of Kanye West's concerts on this continent, this time in Russia. Then in our interview segment, we'll be calling up Haakon Gjerløw, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, one of the world's leading peace research organisations.
Every year, this organisation's director publishes a short list of who they think deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. And with this year's winner being announced the day after this episode comes out, we were thrilled to catch Haakon just before that news breaks. We talk about his predictions, whether the Peace Prize is still relevant and the political pressures it's facing at the moment, not least from a certain orange man in the White House who seems to think it is already his. That's coming up later. But first, it's time for Good Week, Bad Week.
[MUSIC]
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Who's had a good week, Katy?
KATY LEE:
Well, this is a segment of this week's show that is brought to you in collaboration with Euranet Plus.
And okay, this is a slightly complicated one. But I'm going to say that Spain's opposition think that they've had a good week. Am I allowed to do that?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, sure.
KATY LEE:
I mean, whether or not they have actually had a good week, we'll see about that in about two months time. Because Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has just called an early general election. He could have called it as late as August next year. But no, this election is happening a lot earlier than that. November the 29th, to be precise. And the main opposition party, the right wing People's Party, they are really happy about it.
Their reaction on Monday was just this tweet saying: “Finally”.
The opposition are currently leading in the opinion polls, hence the jubilation. There is going to be an election much sooner than they thought. And they think they can win it.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, I saw the headlines on Monday saying that Sánchez had called this early election, but I haven't actually had time to read up on why this is all happening. So, I hope you're gonna break down the whole thing for me now.
KATY LEE:
I'll do my best with some help from a surprise guest. Stay tuned to find out who that is in a second. But maybe a good place to start is with this contrast between Sánchez's reputation on the world stage and where he stands at home. Because we've talked quite a few times on this podcast about how Sánchez has become this kind of European golden boy of the left, this kind of fearless defender of progressive values feels kind of rare in world politics these days.
You've got that image versus what has been happening at home, which is a bunch of corruption court cases involving members of his family and his political circle. And also something that happened over the summer. It happened while we were away, so we didn't really get to talk about it. But it was this whole thing over Ceuta, which is this tiny bit of land on the tip of Morocco's coast that is actually Spanish territory.
As you probably read about at the time, there was this huge influx of tens of thousands of people from Morocco to Ceuta at the end of July, which happened in large part because of a fake internet rumour that said that there had been a court ruling saying you wouldn't be deported if you crossed. In any case, the border controls basically broke down, dozens of people died trying to cross the water, and it became a full-blown humanitarian crisis in this tiny Spanish territory. It also became a political crisis for Sánchez and his government. His opponents at home accused him of acting too slowly. And then there was this pretty astonishing letter signed by basically every EU leader, 22 out of the 25 others, accusing Sánchez of undermining the whole of the EU security with his wider migration policy. And yeah, they basically threatened to shut down the Schengen zone over this thing.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, which I found wild at the time because Ceuta is not even in the Schengen zone.
KATY LEE:
It isn't, no.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
So how did these EU leaders justify accusing Sánchez of doing something that was endangering the whole of Europe?
KATY LEE:
Well, one of the things that they took aim at was this decision that Sánchez made a while back to grant legal status en masse to many migrant workers who've come to Spain. About 1.2 million people have applied for that regularised status. It's not clear how many of them are going to get it. But in this letter, the EU leaders accused Spain of creating a quote-unquote poor factor. They said that this policy of Sánchez's was encouraging people to try to come to Europe illegally, and that this was something that other European leaders do not welcome, to put it mildly.
Now, the Spanish government has pushed back very hard against this idea that this policy of theirs was irresponsibly endangering the whole of Europe's security.
For one thing, none of the people who crossed to Ceuta this summer would even have been eligible for this big regularisation scheme, because it's for people who were here before 2026. And in any case, none of the people who came to Ceuta during this big crossing, none of them actually made it to the European mainland. Almost all of them have now gone back to Morocco, in fact.
But yeah, what happened in Ceuta created this huge political row at home, and internationally, with Sánchez's allies as well.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Okay, but from what I've seen, the fact that he's called this election isn't actually really to do with this crisis in Ceuta. It's to do with housing, right?
KATY LEE:
Yes, sorry. Yeah, I was just giving you the background context.
So we've got a bunch of corruption scandals, we have this mass arrival of people, you're all caught up. Let's get to what's happened in the past few days.
On Friday, the Spanish government tried to pass various emergency measures through the parliament to tackle Spain's enormous housing crisis. And the right-wing parties got together and they blocked those emergency measures.
The thing to remember here is that Sánchez's government is a coalition, and it is a minority coalition. So it's the socialists working with their junior partners, who are this relatively new, smaller left-wing movement called Sumar. And even those two, between them, they do not have a majority in parliament. So, they've also had to work with other parties over the past few years to get various bits of legislation passed.
And that has been exhausting, and it has come with a lot of setbacks. Sánchez hasn't even managed to pass a budget since 2023.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
I mean, which major European country has? That's not true. They have, but it seems to be a problem in a lot of countries.
KATY LEE:
It really does. They should have like a therapy group for leaders trying to pass budgets.
But yeah, this parliamentary defeat on Friday, it felt like one parliamentary defeat too far. The government was trying to pass two emergency pieces of legislation to tackle the housing crisis. Why was it trying to do that? Well, now seems like a good time to bring in our surprise guest.
Hi, Inês!
INÊS RUIVO:
Hi, everyone.
KATY LEE:
Listeners, we're really happy to introduce you to the Europeans' first ever intern, Inês Ruivo.
Inês is a journalism student and you're Portuguese, but you also happen to be a Spanish speaker. And you're joining us from Madrid for the rest of the year, which feels like pretty good timing.
INÊS RUIVO:
Yeah, depends what you consider good timing. But yes, absolutely. Madrid has given me quite a welcome.
KATY LEE:
Well, indeed. I mean, your apartment is right next to the Puerta del Sol, right?
INÊS RUIVO:
Yeah, very close.
KATY LEE:
So this is one of Madrid's main landmarks, this massive square, which for days now has been the site of this protest camp, which for people my age, it brings back a lot of memories of the Indignados camp that was there in 2011. There've also been massive protests about housing moving through Madrid and also up and down the country in recent days. Can you tell us a bit about what sparked these protests?
INÊS RUIVO:
For sure. So the short version, like the simple version of it, is the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, who is an 87-year-old resident of one of Madrid's most traditional neighbourhoods, Retiro, for those of you who've heard about it. So this eviction was very publicised and it drew a lot of shock reactions from all over, particularly because this person had been living in this apartment for 70 years now. So since she was like 17 years old. And so her eviction was met with a lot of protests.
This happened because her building was sold to an investment company called Urbagestión and they were less than pleased with the rent control on her apartment.
She was paying 500 euros for a very central apartment in a traditional neighbourhood and they amped it up to 1,540 euros. So a huge, huge rise in rents, which of course she could not keep up with. They even tried to negotiate with the real estate company, but nothing really came of it.
But these protests were a long time coming, including the one going on in Puerta del Sol, which is the one you might have seen. And these were in fact a contingency plan.
This was the fourth attempt to evict Maricarmen from her home. She was already under observation and all of this happened already on Wednesday morning. And by the evening there was already protests. So, this was under observation.
And I guess there was this notion that this was kind of a perfect David and Goliath story, like the eviction of an octogenarian from her 70-year-old home really encapsulates the broader issue of housing in Spain and Europe.
KATY LEE:
Yeah, and we talked just a couple of weeks back about just how much the housing crisis has escalated, not just in Spain, but across Europe in recent years. And it does feel like people are starting to take to the streets more in other countries. We've notably seen similar demos in Lisbon in recent days. But just to be clear, I mean, the cost of housing in Spain specifically, it is particularly acute.
More than a quarter of Spanish renters spend 40% or more of their income on rent and utilities. That is way higher than the EU average.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, you can understand why people are out there protesting. But Inês, I believe you've been getting to know some of the people camped out on the square in recent days. We sent you down there to practise your interviewing skills. What kinds of things have the protesters been telling you? What kind of stories have you heard?
INÊS RUIVO:
Thank you for the assignment, by the way. And yeah, I did speak to a few people and I talked to people who have been present since the Maricarmen eviction. And the first few days were particularly difficult. Things have kind of simmered down and they've adjusted to the new normal of having tents in Puerta del Sol.
But initially the police was very obviously nervous, and there was quite a bit of confrontation. Two people I spoke with actually had to run from rubber bullets and quite a bit of commotion. So people thought maybe it was a bit of an overreaction from the police, but there was obviously a lot of nervousness around it.
But what I've been hearing most is a lot of frustration. The attitude of Sánchez's government was pretty defeatist to begin with.
So, the thing that put everyone on the streets was this eviction and the issue of evictions. Just in the first three months, there were 4,000 evictions in Spain. And addressing this was one of the major measures that the government was proposing last week. So, a full ban on anyone being evicted from their homes until 2030 and restricting vulture funds from buying homes.
This was put into one decree. In a separate decree, the government slipped other measures that the protesters pushed for, like the automatic renewal of rental contracts. But this was considered to be more of a political move. And there was this idea among some protesters that this would actually make the decrees weaker.
KATY LEE:
I don't really get that, though. I mean, maybe they thought that if they split the proposals into two different laws, maybe there would be a bigger chance of getting at least some of these proposals passed?
INÊS RUIVO:
Well, yes and no.
The idea was in fact to split the housing policy measures into two decrees to make sure that at least one of them gets approved. That's true. But the more ambitious measures, like halting the evictions until 2030, those were put into one decree and the milder, easier measures were put into a separate one.
And this was seen by a lot of people as an attempt to placate the protesters. And I think it has gotten to a point where they no longer want to see small incremental change. They actually want a complete rewrite of housing policy. It's gotten that far. And as we can see after Friday's vote, this strategy did not pay off.
KATY LEE:
OK, so it sounds like the protesters were frustrated with the government for being a bit defeatist in the first place and just not dreaming big enough. But is the protesters' anger directed more at the government right now or more at the right-wing parties who just blocked the government from at least trying to do more to address the housing crisis?
INÊS RUIVO:
I think there has definitely been a shift. Initially, there was this idea that the ruling coalition, the government, did not do enough. But I think after Friday's vote, the anger has shifted a little bit towards the opposition. The Junts, Vox and the People's Party make up the right wing of the Congress. And they were essentially the main obstacle to getting these decrees approved. I think there was a genuine attempt from Spain's government to address concerns.
So I think there is frustration that nothing was done earlier. But mostly there's frustration with the opposition for failing to address the housing crisis in the terms that the protesters put them in.
KATY LEE:
Yeah, the official line from the People's Party is that they torpedoed this plan because they think the solution to the crisis is to build more housing rather than regulating. We've talked on this podcast before about how increasing the housing supply is great if you can do it well, but it is not the magic bullet that can fix everything on its own. But I mean, this is why I'm wondering if it really is such a good week for the opposition. Housing is this huge political issue in Spain. In surveys, it has been regularly at or near the top of the list of things that people are worried about for years. And here was a government at least trying to do more about it, maybe less than the protesters would like. And as you say, there is some anger that they let things get this bad in the first place.
But at least it looked like an attempt to do something and to say to the protesters, we're listening. And then you have the right-wing party saying, “nope, we're going to vote these policies down”. But clearly they've made some calculations that it will be worth losing some goodwill from voters. Because they think that having this early election will be to their benefit.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, but Sánchez has made a gamble like this before, hasn't he? Not only a few years ago, he also called an early election when people didn't expect it. And I think back then the People's Party were also ahead in the polls and then the right-wing didn't manage to secure a majority. So like...
KATY LEE:
Déjà vu!
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
What are the polls looking like right now? The People's Party, the right-wing party are ahead of Sánchez's Social Democrats, right?
KATY LEE:
Yes, they are, yeah.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Is it a really comfortable lead?
KATY LEE:
So the People's Party are averaging about 34% of the vote versus 26% for the Socialists.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Okay, so that's not a huge difference.
KATY LEE:
8%. The other important detail is that Vox, the far-right party, they're on about 18% of the votes. So if this is roughly how people end up voting in November, you can imagine a situation where the People's Party team up with Vox and are able to form a right-wing government between the two of them.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Wow, what a thing that would be though, to have the far-right actually in power nationally in Spain.
KATY LEE:
Well indeed, I mean it would be the first time a far-right party has been in national government in Spain since the death of Franco and the return to democracy in 1975. It is something that people perhaps feel is slightly less of a massive deal inside the People's Party itself, because having previously vilified Vox as being far-right scumbags who they didn't want to have anything to do with, as Vox has grown more and more popular in Spain, the People's Party have repeatedly started working with them in regional coalitions and adopting Vox's hardline stance on immigration.
Maybe sounds familiar, this kind of right-wing shift of what used to be mainstream centre-right parties, but still, it would be a momentous thing if Vox entered into power nationally and that is one of the things that Sánchez is gambling on, the fact that this is not a reality that most Spaniards want to see. And he really ran that message home when he announced the election on Monday. He effectively asked voters, who do you want running the country at a time of geopolitical uncertainty and a climate emergency and artificial intelligence upending the economy? Do you want me or do you want the far-right? He is pitching this, not for the first time, as a battle between the forces of progress and potentially having a far-right coalition government.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
That's quite a negative argument though, like vote for me because the alternative is worse.
KATY LEE:
It is. To be fair to Sánchez, he did also say these are the values that we stand for. We stand for openness, we stand for social justice. I've always been clear about that. And he did also point to what his government has actually done.
Spain is the fastest growing economy in the EU. It has invested massively in green energy under Sánchez. He has personally stood up against Trump and Netanyahu in a way that we frankly haven't seen from anyone else.
But he also acknowledged that a lot of people haven't felt the effects of all that amazing growth. And his government have also got plenty of other stuff wrong and there are still plenty of injustices that need fixing. His pitch is give me more time and I will fix those things.
The opposition's pitch is you've had eight years in power already. You should have fixed those things by now.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Well, I mean, it would be pretty momentous for the European Union if Sánchez isn't prime minister soon because Spain is currently the only large European country with a social democratic leader.
KATY LEE:
Yeah, I mean, especially since Sweden's social democrats just won an election by the skin of their teeth, but they haven't currently managed to actually pull a coalition together.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, so I guess my last question is, do you think the opposition are right to think that this is a good week for them? Like, are they going to win this election?
KATY LEE:
What do you think, Inês?
INÊS RUIVO:
I think it's a Hail Mary for sure from Sánchez, but I don't see many options left for him and the socialists. This government, as you said, has been tested far too much, especially in the last year. So, I think it's hard to see an outcome where this government was going to win re-election in 2027 when it came around. So, this could be simply a way to ensure re-election.
KATY LEE:
Full stop.
INÊS RUIVO
It's their best option, yeah. But I will choose to not be cynical and believe that there was a true intention to make real changes to the housing policy and hear the protesters. And I think seeing the decrees fail like this, like one of the decrees failed, it was not approved by six votes, which is a very small margin. And I think that disappointment made Pedro Sánchez realise that without a majority government, he won't be able to be the progressive leader he wants to be. So the people who would get him and his party elected are protesting right now in all major cities in Spain. And I think he knows that. So this is a fine way of saying, I see you, I want to help. Now help me help you.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
And Katy, what do you think? Is this the end of the Sánchez era?
KATY LEE:
I think that Sánchez is a gambler and it is very hard to think of any other European politician who has gambled so many times and won. You know, as you said, we were in the situation just three years ago where he called an early election when he was in a tough spot and he won.
He is arguably in an even tighter spot than he was three years ago. There is plenty of stuff that his opponents can attack him with, but there's also plenty of stuff that he can defend himself with too. Last time around, a lot of the people who might have voted for the People's Party, in the end, they were so horrified by the prospect of Vox actually getting into national government that they didn't vote for the People's Party. And that really helped Sánchez. We will have to see if that's still true. This time around, or if this norm is just broken down as it is happening over so much of Europe right now, you know, there are maybe enough people who are relaxed about seeing Vox in government because it's just something that is just like part of the political times that we live in.
But yeah, as you say, if Sánchez loses, it won't just mean big changes for Spain. He is the strongest progressive leader across the EU and there's no one really like him. I would say maybe even globally who has a similar profile in terms of standing up for progressive values, or at least not many.
So yeah, a pivotal week for Europe, I think we can say. Has it really been the good week for the Spanish opposition that they think it's been? Let's come back to that question on November the 30th.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Well, thank you, Katy. And thank you, Inês. I'm glad I know more about what's been happening in Spain.
KATY LEE:
And it's been great to have you with us.
INÊS RUIVO:
Thank you. I'll be here November 30th, updating you on the elections.
[MUSIC]
KATY LEE:
Hello, sorry for the interruption. This is Katy coming to you on Thursday morning. There have been two major developments in this story since we recorded this conversation on Tuesday. The first is that Spain’s government has since approved many of the emergency reforms that got rejected by Parliament, which it was able to do because Parliament is now dissolved ahead of the elections. It’s a move that makes it look like maybe even less than a Good Week for the opposition.
The second development is the much heavier one, which is that Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction sparked the protests in the first place, has very sadly died. She had after all of this heartbreak managed to reach a deal with the investment company that had hiked her rent. But she was being treated in hospital for exhaustion. She never managed to move back into the apartment that she had called home for so many decades.
[MUSIC]
KATY LEE:
All right, who has had a bad week?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Something completely different. I'm giving bad week to Kanye West, also known as Ye, because his planned gigs this weekend in St. Petersburg were cancelled at the last minute. The Russian media is saying the decision was made by the authorities and the organisers of the concerts are reportedly being investigated for fraud. So also bad week for them.
KATY LEE:
Ooh, Kanye's had a pretty tumultuous time of it these past, what, six months-ish? Trying to perform on this side of the Atlantic. I feel like there's been this kind of steady drip-drip of headlines about cancellations. But I have to say I'm kind of surprised to hear that he's been cancelled by the Russian authorities. I kind of thought that like, given all of his outbursts about various things in recent months, he might have even aligned himself with Russia somehow?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, I can understand why you might think that. I mean, he said a lot of absolutely unacceptable, racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic things over the past few years, which I'll give you a quick reminder of in a minute. But as far as I can tell, he's actually never come out and said anything like in support of Russia.
And maybe if he had, the Russian authorities would be okay with him performing there. Actually, one Russian politician, Nikolay Novichkov, said the concerts should be cancelled unless Kanye publicly gave moral support for Russia and the quote-unquote special military operation in Ukraine. But yeah, I mean, Novichkov is not a member of the government.
He's just a Russian MP. So we shouldn't take that as the reason as to why Kanye's gigs were cancelled. What we do know is that the foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the concerts were unacceptable because of Kanye's glorification of Hitler.
KATY LEE:
Right.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
And unlike most of what comes out of the Russian foreign ministry, that's actually a piece of truth.
Kanye West has glorified Hitler. He has sold t-shirts with swastikas on them from his website. He released a song called Heil Hitler. He went on Alex Jones's podcast in the US and said he thought some of what Adolf Hitler did was good. And his hate speech against Jews is only one area of his hate speech. He's also posted countless misogynistic statements online. He's posted images of himself in white KKK style robes. There are just too many instances of outrageous hate speech to mention all of them individually here on the podcast.
Now, I should say he's apologised for many of these statements after the fact and defended his words by blaming his brain injury and bipolar disorder. But then he's often come back after an apology and said even more outrageous things at a later date.
So, it's understandable that many people have felt pretty uncomfortable about the idea of him coming to perform for tens of thousands of people here in Europe. And I should also point out that many of these things that he said and done are from not very long ago. A lot of the most extreme things he said and done happened last year in 2025.
KATY LEE:
And as I said, I've been seeing this kind of drip feed of headlines about cancellations. Can you give us a kind of rundown of where he has had dates cancelled?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, so the UK government barred Kanye from entering the country on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good. He was meant to be headlining London's Wireless Festival and the whole festival ended up being cancelled actually after a huge media storm with brands pulling out because of their booking of Kanye.
It was a bit more complicated for countries within the Schengen zone to ban Kanye's entry, but...
KATY LEE:
I love that here's a Schengen angle here!
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
There's always a Schengen angle. But some of his gigs in continental Europe were cancelled.
In France, the authorities said they would seek a ban as well, but before they could, the show was postponed indefinitely. In Poland, it was cancelled by the venue after a lot of political pressure. The culture minister Marta Cienkowska said, I cannot imagine that in Poland, a country where people were murdered in Nazi German extermination camps, we can organise a concert of an artist who openly says that he likes Hitler. In Switzerland, the stadium owners said the gig couldn't go ahead because of the club's values. In Italy, it was cancelled over security concerns and in the Czech Republic, the venue cancelled the event because of public and political pressure. Now, Russia is the latest country to cancel after, yeah, reportedly political pressure from the Russian regime.
KATY LEE:
But he did actually end up playing some gigs in Europe this summer, I think.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yes, he did. The biggest gig that he performed in this vague region, it was in Turkey where he was seen by 118,000 people.
He performed in Georgia, in Portugal, and also in my home country of the Netherlands. That one is actually really interesting because there was very wide opposition from Dutch politicians to his performance here. A majority of the second chamber of parliament voted against letting Kanye into the country.
KATY LEE:
Oh, there was a vote on it?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
There was a vote in parliament. The mayor of Arnhem, where he was performing, also said he didn't want him to be there. But the cabinet's answer and the mayor's conclusion was that it had no legal grounds to refuse him.
And when the Central Jewish Council took the case to court, the judge ruled that indeed there was no concrete threat to public order. So the concerts went ahead. About 70,000 people went to see him in the Netherlands across two nights.
Interestingly, just this week, the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, released a letter that she'd sent to Kanye while he was staying here in June. So he was performing in Arnhem but staying in a very fancy hotel in Amsterdam. In that letter, she said, “I would prefer to exclude you from our city. However, the Dutch rule of law requires a legal basis for doing so based on a concrete threat to public order, national security or a proven risk of criminal offences”, she said, “I would like to urgently ask you to leave Amsterdam immediately after your last concert. And during the few days that you are unfortunately here to conduct yourself with the greatest respect towards Amsterdamers in general and Jewish Amsterdamers in particular.”
And I have to say, I find something quite powerful about this approach from our mayor. Honestly, I'm glad I live in a country where mayors and the government say, we find this repugnant, but the law doesn't let us ban you for it.
KATY LEE:
Yeah, that does feel like the right balance, right? Of being like, I would love to ban you. I think you're a terrible person and I'm free to say that.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah.
KATY LEE:
But I'm going to follow the letter of the law on this one because the law is what matters.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah. And obviously some European countries did find legal ways to stop these events from happening, usually thanks to cooperation from the venues. But if we look specifically at the case in Russia this week and compare it to what happened here in the Netherlands, yeah, I just found it quite a stark contrast.
Like Russia is a country where freedom of expression doesn't exist anymore. And once a government gets to decide which opinions are too offensive to be heard, it rarely stops at the truly vile ones. And I'm not defending a single word Kanye has said, but the alternative to tolerating some horrific speech isn't a world without horrific speech.
It's a world where someone in power decides what we're allowed to say.
KATY LEE:
I do find it fascinating that Kanye seems to be like a little bit uncancellable. Like it doesn't matter what he says. I don't think he can go any further. And yet he still has this huge number of fans who want to come and see him play live.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, I also find that completely wild. I mean, I understand that you can like, some people are able to separate the artist from the art. But yeah, on the other side, he has been effectively and successfully cancelled in some of Europe, thanks to a combination of public and political pressure. So, we shouldn't ignore that.
But you're right that his fans seem to be very loyal through everything he says. Maybe some people are sympathetic to the idea that you can say things during a manic episode, as he's claimed in the past, and then you should be forgiven for them. But I know there are a lot of people in the Jewish community and beyond who believe you shouldn't be forgiven when you've said such horrific things, and certainly not so quickly.
KATY LEE:
But it does seem to be like a super rare situation where we have like Russia agreeing with like the Polish and UK authorities on something. Like that's such a rare occurrence. Why do you think they ended up cancelling these gigs in St. Petersburg?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Well, I mean, as I said, Russia isn't exactly a bastion of free expression. So, I don't think we should be surprised totally that Kanye isn't allowed to perform there. Like had his gigs gone ahead next weekend, it would have been quite a big deal because it would have been one of the biggest Western artists, if not the biggest to play in Russia since the full-scale invasion. I think it's also important to note that cancelling these gigs gives the Russian authorities a chance to claim that they're pushing back against antisemitism. So, it's kind of a domestic political win. And it fits into Russia's false narrative that the war in Ukraine is justified because they want to quote unquote, denazify Ukraine. Hosting an artist who praised Hitler would pretty strongly undermine that message.
So, when you really think about it, I think it's actually quite logical that Russia would cancel his gigs. And I don't think it means we're moving into a world where there'll be greater consensus between the UK or Poland and Russia on other cultural hot topics. It just happens that in this case, they overlap.
Anyway, the organisers of these gigs that were planned in Russia, as I mentioned at the top, are now reportedly being investigated for fraud, which is quite bad news for them. And meanwhile, fans are waiting for their refunds. So yeah, Kanye or Ye, after a summer of cancellations across Europe, even Russia didn't want you. This is a bad week for you.
[MUSIC]
KATY LEE:
Here's an idea. For all of that money that you're saving by not going to a Kanye West concert, why not spend it on supporting your favourite European podcast?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Great idea.
KATY LEE:
Do you think there's much overlap between people who've been tempted to go and see Ye in 2026 and people who listen to the show?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
I wonder. Probably there are some people. I'd love to hear from you if so.
KATY LEE:
Regardless of your musical tastes, you, the person listening to this right now, I know for a fact that you have exceptional taste in podcasts. So why not help us keep making more of the podcasts you love by actually funding us? It doesn't need to be a huge amount. If a lot of people give a little, it makes a massive difference.
But we do really need people to dig into their pockets and help us make this thing if we're going to carry on making it into 2027 and beyond.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
So if you have any spare cash and want to help us keep this podcast up and running, please head to our website europeanspodcast.com/support to find out the different ways in which you can help us out. And if you don't have the money right now, we really appreciate any shout outs on social media. Helping other people discover this show is the second most important way to ensure this show's survival.
We have a few new supporters to thank this week. They are Gabriel, Karen and Michael. Thank you also to the following people who have increased their donations. JP, Yvoen, Simon, Juan, Kris, Anna, Emily and Willem.
KATY LEE:
Thank you, lovely people.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Thank you all so much.
[MUSIC]
KATY LEE:
It is Nobel Week. It is the time of year when we celebrate progress in the all important fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics and the pursuit of peace.
Yeah, it's the time of year when a handful of people get handed some very large cheques for their efforts in these arenas. You also get a gold medal and a very nice certificate. But I think if it was me, I would probably be most interested in the cheque for 12 million Swedish kronor, which is about a million euros.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, wow.
KATY LEE:
There's still no Nobel Prize for podcasting, which I think is outrageous oversight. Come on, people, get with the times.
And interestingly, all of these prizes are awarded in Sweden, which was, of course, the home country of the man that the prizes are named after, the inventor Alfred Nobel. All of them except the Peace Prize, which is given out in Norway. Do you know why?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
No, I don't actually. I hope you're going to tell me.
KATY LEE:
Well, I'm not because fun fact, nobody knows. If you have way too much time on your hands, which apparently I did yesterday, I suggest that you fall down a nice deep internet rabbit hole looking at the various theories about why Alfred Nobel, a Swede, specifically requested in his will that the Peace Prize be given out by a Norwegian committee rather than in Sweden like the others.
All of the theories relate to the state of Scandinavian politics around the time of his death in the 1890s, which is not something I thought I really needed to know about, but I am glad that I now do.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Fascinating.
KATY LEE:
Last year, of course, the Peace Prize attracted a fair amount of controversy because Donald Trump insisted that he should win it, like the giant baby that he is.
And then the person who actually did win it, the Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, she actually gave Trump her Nobel Gold Medal. She said that he deserved it after the capture of President Nicolas Maduro. So, it's all eyes on the Peace Prize this year. Is it going to be similarly controversial? Who is it going to go to?
The city of Oslo is home not only to the Norwegian Nobel Peace Committee, which decides who walks away with the prize every year, it is also home to a totally unrelated organisation, the Peace Research Institute Oslo, a think tank. And it has become a kind of unofficial job of the Peace Research Institute to get asked who they think should get the prize. They are, after all, also people in Norway who spend a lot of time thinking about peace.
So we thought it would be fun to ring up their acting director, Haakon Gjerløw, to ask who he thinks actually has contributed the most to world peace in 2026.
[MUSIC]
KATY LEE:
Haakon, great to have you with us here on The Europeans.
HAAKON GJERLØW:
Thank you for inviting me. I'm really glad to be here.
KATY LEE:
So every year, your organisation comes up with this very widely watched shortlist of the people and organisations that you think should or might be in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize. What is the point of this list? Do you genuinely expect the Nobel Committee to take your ideas into account? Or is it more about drawing attention to the work of brave people that should be considered but probably won't be?
HAAKON GJERLØW:
Well, of course, we do hope the committee do take note of the list. But our ultimate goal is to highlight some of the great effort that is happening out there in terms of peace building. And we want to make them visible, that these are people doing great work for peace building.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
This is this new element to the Nobel Peace Prize prediction season, which is the rise of websites like PolyMarket, where people gamble, although I don't think we're actually officially allowed to call it gambling.
KATY LEE:
It's not gambling.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
But they like predict, put money on who they think is going to win. There seems to be a fair amount of overlap between your list and the front runners on PolyMarket. I take it the bettors are looking to you for names and not the other way around?
HAAKON GJERLØW:
We, of course, certainly hope that they look to us that we want to take credit for the PolyMarket. We do. And I assure you that I have not put bets into it. You know, last year in PolyMarket, you saw much rise just before the announcement. So that's how they discovered a leak is through the betting markets, that there had been an information leak.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
But it must be a bit weird for you having so much influence over these markets.
HAAKON GJERLØW:
Maybe I should start trading in it? No. Well, it means that the goal that we're trying to achieve is working, right? We want to highlight these organisations and individuals. So, the fact that these are picked up in betting markets is at least one signal that that communication is working, right? These are organisations, even if they don't get the prize, it's good that people heard about them.
KATY LEE:
What do you think the Nobel Peace Prize is actually for in 2026? Is it meant to reward peace that has already been achieved? Or is it meant to encourage people that are still working towards peace?
HAAKON GJERLØW:
It is a prize that does a little bit of both. So the prize, you know, it originates in Alfred Nobel, which was this inventor, Swedish inventor. He invented the dynamite, so he got really rich on weapons. And he made these Nobel Prizes, and one of them, the Peace Prize. So the guidelines for the prize is the same every year, basically. It's whatever he wrote in his testament, which is disarmament, the international cooperation, and promotion of peace.
Those are kind of the three criteria that every prize in the Nobel Peace Prize should adhere to. And it has this formulation on whoever did the most in this over the past year. But we've seen, is that strictly 2025 or not? So, if you've done consistent work over many years, then you also did something in 2025, right? And consistent work will be rewarded simultaneously.
If there was like a huge peace deal in 2026, that would probably have been recognised. And we saw that, for example, with the deal in Colombia, the prize was given for that peace deal, even though it was in the same year as the prize was given when it's supposed to be the year before. So, there's some flexibility in the exact timing.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
And are there examples of when someone being named a laureate has clearly made like a difference to the pursuit of peace? Or is it mainly rewarding things that have already happened?
HAAKON GJERLØW:
Well, it's a good... The Nobel Committee often do want to kind of encourage and empower some of these organisations and individuals in their work going forward. And you know, Desmond Tutu, when he won the prize, he has this quote that he... Before he won the prize, he was a nobody. But after he won the prize, everyone saw him as a saint.
And then suddenly he has this total new outreach and audience. Maybe, you know, Malala might be a similar type of story where you give a platform to someone that would struggle a lot more to have that platform were it not for the prize.
KATY LEE:
Yeah. Bringing things back to the present, though, you told Reuters that the committee will consider whether an award does more harm than good. So, are there inverse cases where having the prize has perhaps done damage rather than actually encouraging peace?
HAAKON GJERLØW:
I think one way is if you give the prize to someone that will put them on the spotlight, particularly if these are, you know, political dissidents or somehow in conflict with powerful actors, it could put them under even greater pressure. It's very difficult to kind of attribute those things to the prize. Some of these dissidents have been under pressure from governments long before, like Liu Xiaobo, for example, when he won the prize. He's a Chinese dissident. He was already under imprisonment by China. He was under great political pressure in China. It did do harm to Norway's relation to China, right, because these are separate entities. The Norwegian government has nothing to do with the Nobel Committee, but Norway could come under harm's way.
If you want to bring it a bit more into the present, right, the prize to Machado with Trump's interest in the prize. I don't think the prize harmed her, but it definitely gave her something. It gave her certainly a different type of bargaining chip into the conversations with Trump, right? And she gave him the medal. So, it puts the laureates in a position to get a platform, and they can use that for different purposes, and they can potentially use that platform to do harm, right? You don't know how people change or not.
Not saying that Machado did harm, but you could put them in difficult political dilemmas by giving them this spotlight.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, Trump is like strangely obsessed with this prize, and I sometimes wonder if it puts the Nobel Committee in a pretty difficult position. I mean, obviously giving Trump the prize would fundamentally damage the credibility of this prize right now. But if he's continually passed over, which seems likely, could the prize become a target in a way that makes it kind of more political than it wants to be given Trump's penchant for attempting to destroy any organisation or person that doesn't do what he wants?
HAAKON GJERLØW
The prize, I think, over time for it to stay credible, for it to stay relevant in the discourse, I think it's positive for the prize that it gets this attention. It's good that it's sometimes controversial. It just can't be controversial all the time, right? It has to be controversial some of the time.
So, you know, this is the dilemma, right? Trump gives his massive attention, which is, in a way, good for the prize. It means that it is an important prize to powerful actors. But then it can't only be controversial, right? And you could question, right, OK, so what if they now give it to a UN agency, for example, because Trump has already started cutting so much of the money to several UN agencies. Would this kind of just intensify his attack on an awardee such as a UN agency? That being said, the Nobel Peace Prize has always been in part conflict with powerful political actors. So, Trump is nothing new for the Nobel committee, right? They've been standing up against powerful political actors throughout the existence of the prize.
KATY LEE:
So let's look at who might get it this year, if not Donald Trump. Can you tell us about some of your suggestions for worthy winners of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2026?
HAAKON GJERLØW:
So particularly for Europeans, the world has become a lot more tense and there's a lot more conflict. And what we see when there's a lot more conflict is also that the cost of conflict and the disaster and destruction from conflict is becoming much more apparent to us. I could mention Gaza, I can mention Ukraine, I can mention Sudan, Al-Fashir in Sudan.
A humanitarian action in those situations is extremely important to safeguard human beings in such situations. And there are two ways we could look at this. There's kind of the general humanitarian effort providing food, shelter, water, electricity, transportation, infrastructure, massively important to make a society survive through conflict.
And therefore, we put an organisation like the Sudan Emergency Response Rooms, which is this community-driven bottom-up organisation working on humanitarian efforts during the ongoing Sudan Civil War. It's also a good organisation in the sense that it brings some attention to a conflict that ends up a little bit in the backseat, competing for attention from Iran war and Ukraine war and everything. So it's also a way to kind of signal that this is also a very serious war in Sudan.
But then one particular group that deserves our particular attention is, of course, children as victims of war. You know, they can be kind of incidental victims through the destruction of education systems, housing, which destroys their future prospects and livelihoods. But children are also sometimes directly targeted in conflict.
I could mention Boko Haram and the abductions of schoolchildren by Boko Haram. But of course, the context we're in now is also the abduction of Ukrainian children into Russia. So that's why we've also on the list put Save the Children as an organisation that works for children's rights globally and also put on Mykola Kuleba, who is the founder of what's called Save Ukraine, particularly working for children in Ukraine.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It'll sound like they would be incredibly worthy winners. Is there any case for giving the prize to someone like Volodymyr Zelenskyy, do you think?
HAAKON GJERLØW:
To be blunt, I think no. As a commander in chief of a war, this is not a prize for everything that is good.
And the awardee doesn't have to be a saint, but it does have to follow the three criteria, right? International cooperation, disarmament and promoting peace. As a commander in chief of war, the prize wouldn't want to take sides in a war. At least I think they wouldn't want to.
But it's also like armament is a huge part of Ukrainian defence efforts and it's fully understandable. But the prize is the prize. So and it has a different criteria.
So I think this year it's not likely that he will win the prize. But had there been a peace agreement, had he been part of an agreement, that would definitely be a strong candidate for a prize.
KATY LEE:
2025 in general was a bad year for peace. You have this conflict trends report that you produce. And last year, it recorded 65 state-based conflicts, which is the highest since 1946. What is driving that increase?
HAAKON GJERLØW:
I think if I was to point out one thing, I think there's an increased international uncertainty.
And uncertainty is the enemy of stability and peace. It creates miscalculations, risks that leads to conflict. So moving from a world where the U.S. was such a dominating superpower to a world that is becoming more complex with different powerful actors and where the international norms are eroding so that the rules for conduct are becoming more unclear.
And, you know, there has been a change in opinion from some state leaders in how much they want to support multilateralism and a rules-based order. Or they want to instead follow unilateral, bilateral and partly quite aggressive bargaining. Right now, I'm obviously thinking partly towards Trump.
But, you know, this is also something that has happened more to Russia, over the past two decades. It's become a more aggressive and a more aggressive country. China is becoming more self-confident in the South China Sea.
So, there are just more actors that are willing to posture and less actors defending multilateralism.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Where do you think Europe and Europeans fit into this trend of increasing conflicts? I mean, both as a region with a war on its soil at the moment and as actors in conflict elsewhere.
HAAKON GJERLØW:
I do think it's very clear that Europe is becoming acutely aware of the prospect of conflict or more conflict on European soil. How I read it is that it's kind of withdrawing the gaze of European politicians towards more defensive preparedness in Europe. Of course, I hope that Europe will continue to defend the values of multilateralism, a rules-based order, the things that we did that built a more peaceful world that are now under attack and challenged.
[MUSIC]
KATY LEE:
If you're listening to this on Friday or after, you will know who the prize has actually gone to. And I wonder if it's going to be someone on Hawkins' list or if it's going to be some total wildcard. I do hope it goes to someone who deserves it. There are clearly so many worthy candidates, which is kind of heartening when the world is a dark place.
While I was falling down my internet rabbit hole about why the Peace Prize is given out in Norway rather than Sweden, I did actually fall down a separate rabbit hole about why the Peace Prize exists in the first place. Because it kind of sticks out, right? Like all of the other ones are for academic pursuits like medicine or chemistry or physics or literature. And they're clearly all domains that were very important to Alfred Nobel. But there is this kind of interesting old story about why he specifically wanted a Peace Prize.
And supposedly it is because when his brother died, a French newspaper mistakenly reported that it was Alfred who had died and described him as a quote, unquote, “merchant of death”. Why was that? Well, as Hawkins told us, Alfred Nobel's best-known invention was, of course, dynamite. And supposedly Alfred was horrified that this is how he's going to be remembered by the world. So, he wanted to create something that would associate with him with something more pro-peace. It is a spectacularly badly sourced story, and some historians think it's just a myth. But I think it's kind of fun.
What is more likely is that he was influenced by his friendship with Bertha von Switner, who was this huge peace activist. So, yeah, there you go. Maybe that's the lesson here.
Do you have any rich inventor friends? If so, maybe whisper in their ears that they should go and do some good things in the world.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah.
KATY LEE:
Pursue world peace. Support independent podcasts.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Maybe the people making billions from artificial intelligence at the moment could think about how to spend those billions.
KATY LEE:
There's an idea.
[MUSIC]
KATY LEE:
Let's head to the Inspiration Station. Do you have any recommendations for us this week, Dominic?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, I want to tell you about one of the most absorbing little books I read over the summer.
KATY LEE:
I love an absorbing little book. Is it an absorbent little book?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Um, I didn't test it. It's absorbent. I didn't test its absorbency. It's a book called Clear by the Welsh writer Carys Davies.
Yeah, and it's only 160 pages long, but it's like totally packed with atmosphere. And at the heart of it, there's like a really intriguing relationship. It's set in 1843 on a fictional island beyond Shetland out towards Norway, about as remote as you could get in the United Kingdom.
And there are only two men on this island, and they have no language in common. Ivor has lived there alone for years and speaks Norn, the old Norse-rooted language of Shetland and Orkney, which was already dying out by then. And John is a Scottish minister who's been sent by the landowner to clear Ivor off the island. So, this is part of the time in Scottish history called the Highland Clearances.
When John has an accident, Ivor takes him in and nurses him, and slowly the two of them start to piece together a way of talking to each other, even though they don't speak the same language. And it's one of those books that really makes you think about language and, you know, in so many different ways, like how landscape shapes our language.
Ivor has all these specific words for the weather and for the sea and the land around him. So I really recommend this lovely little novel to anyone interested in lost language, or anyone who wants to know a bit more about this dark chapter of Scottish history, the Clearances. It's a really excellent read, and despite being about a dark chapter in history, it's full of humanity and friendship.
KATY LEE:
Oh, so that's very beautiful. What was it called again?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Clear.
KATY LEE:
Clear.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
By Carys Davies.
KATY LEE:
Lovely.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
What would you like to talk about in the Inspiration Station this week?
KATY LEE:
Manage to watch an entire film.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Hey, get you!
KATY LEE:
Rare feat for someone with a toddler and a baby. Did I watch it in three separate sessions? Yes, yes, I did, but I still had a great time. I watched Dix Pour Cent, le Film, or to give its English title, Call My Agent, the movie. Have you seen it yet?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
No, I'm really looking forward to seeing it, though, because I loved the series.
KATY LEE:
Yes. So this is the film follow up to the long running, much beloved French TV comedy series Call My Agent, which is about a talent management agency in Paris. They are agents for actors and musicians and comedians. It is such a good series. If you've never watched the original, go back and watch it because you're in for a treat. The writing is brilliant. And the best thing about it is the cameos from real life celebrities, some of them big stars from the English-speaking world.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Playing themselves.
KATY LEE:
Playing themselves. And when they show up in this show as versions of themselves, they're always very good sports about agreeing to play these like ridiculous neurotic versions of themselves being real drama queens. It's very, very funny.
I was a bit worried when I started seeing posters around the metro for a film spinoff, because this TV series ended perfectly five years ago. And I just worried, like, do we need this film? Like it doesn't always go well when people make spinoffs from legendary TV shows. Sex and the City was, I think, a notable example of this. I haven't actually watched those movies, but I heard they weren't great. Anyway, 10% le film does not disappoint. It was so good to have the gang back together. I won't give you any spoilers, but there are indeed celebrity cameos of actors playing themselves. And I don't know if I can say this... I think it shows a really good spectrum of the different ways in which French people can be funny. And I think that's good because I think other Europeans sometimes don't think that we French people are very funny. Can I say that?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
You can say that, yes.
KATY LEE:
We are funny. It's great. It's a great film. It's got really good heart. It made me laugh a lot. Go watch it if you have a Netflix account.
[MUSIC]
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
For my happy ending this week, I want to tell you about something I read in The Guardian that really, really cheered me up. It's an app from Berlin called Gieß den Kiez, which roughly translates as water your neighbourhood. And the idea is quite simple. It tells you when the trees on your street are thirsty.
KATY LEE:
That's a good idea.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It's a lovely idea, isn't it? So essentially, it's a map of more than 900,000 of the city's trees showing their species, their age and how much water they need using local rainfall data. So it just works out which trees near you are drying out. When someone waters a tree, they log it so the whole neighbourhood can see that it's been done. And if you really want to commit, you can adopt a tree or a few of them and let your neighbours know you're the one looking after them.
And I just find it utterly charming. I had a look at the map while I was prepping for this episode, and there's a cluster of trees in Friedrichshain that are absolutely crying out for some water. And I'm going to go to Berlin in November. So I think I'm going to have to bring my watering can.
KATY LEE:
Hopefully someone would have got there by the time you get there in November. We have a lot of Berliners who listen to the show. So somebody in that hood, go over there.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, go and check them out. Anyway, the idea is already spreading. Leipzig and Magdeburg, among other German cities, have their own versions already. And there's no reason it couldn't work anywhere. So yeah, Berliners, well done.
If you're elsewhere, why not think about setting up a version in your own city? The code is apparently open source, so anyone can use it.
[MUSIC]
KATY LEE:
We are away next week, listeners. So I might suggest in the meantime that you listen to last week's episode if you missed it, because it was a really good one. A full length interview episode with the Polish AI researcher Aleksandra Przegalinska. And you can also find us hanging out on the internet between podcasts on Europe's very own Macedon and also on Instagram.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
The Europeans is made by KATY LEE:, Morgan Childs, Wojciech Oleksiak, Inês Ruivo and me, DOMINIC KRAEMER:.
It's made with the European-made audio software of Hindenburg Pro.
KATY LEE:
Oh, before we go, I just wanted to mention again that we are doing a real live hangout on Sunday the 18th of October, so the weekend after this one. If you're at a loose end, come and hang out with me and Wojciech.
We will be doing a group call thingy for whoever wants to show up and chat or ask us questions. I think it's going to be fun.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
You said a real life hangout, but you actually mean online.
KATY LEE:
Online, real life. Hey, those two things are blurred these days.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It's not IRL.
KATY LEE:
6pm CET on October the 18th. We will put a link for the call. And yes, it is a call.
We're not face to face, but we'll put that link on our social media an hour beforehand. Put the date in your diaries.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Do that. Have a great week, everyone.
KATY LEE:
Bye.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Dag.
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