Enough politics: we’ve got a nature-themed episode for you this week. Producer Katz Laszlo joins Katy to explain how Austria’s environment minister went rogue to save the EU’s hugely important nature restoration law; we’re also talking about the German town that just voted to kill all its pigeons. And in the human world: the podcast that brings Scandinavians together in their own languages. Hilde Sandvik takes us behind the scenes of ‘Norsken, svensken og dansken’, a show described as family therapy for neighbouring nations. 

Last weekend, Parisians voted to triple parking fees for SUVs in a bid to remove some of the city's more polluting vehicles. It's just one of many policy ideas that are being tested out in European cities to clean up the air we breathe — but how bad is the problem really, and can we really fix it? This week we ring up Oliver Lord from the Clean Cities Campaign to find out. We're also talking about the exhausting antics of Viktor Orbán and some juicy Italian art theft allegations.

A lot of us are pretty diligent when it comes to throwing our plastic into the dedicated bin. But how much of that stuff actually gets recycled? This week we're digging into the truth behind Europe's trash with Nico Schmidt, reporter for Investigate Europe. We're also talking about Germany's massive anti-AfD protests, and Saudi sell-out Rafael Nadal.

We’re kicking off the new year with a heady mix of urban policy, cake-based scandal and political controversy. Find out which European city ranks as the most ‘liveable’ in Good Week, and dive into the fraud case embroiling Italian mega-influencer Chiara Ferragni in Bad Week. And in this week’s interview, hear from historian Quinn Slobodian about the parallel he sees between the current discourse around Israel-Palestine in Germany, and events 50 years ago.

Last week, dozens of NATO peacekeepers were injured after violent protests broke out in northern Kosovo. What is going on, and why do Kosovo's problems seem so hard to fix? This week we dig into the deeper context behind the unrest with political analyst Agon Maliqi. We're also talking about why much of Europe is antsy about who's going to be steering the EU next year, and a bizarre dispute in the art world.

We've been glued to the Turkish elections over the past week. But what does Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's victory in the first round mean for the country, and for Europe as a whole? This week we ring up political scientist Ahmet Erdi Öztürk to find out. We're also talking about a big boost in Germany's support for Ukraine, a fake tan controversy, and the teeny tiny bridge behind the Mona Lisa.

A whole bunch of plastic objects are about to become illegal across the European Union: everything from coffee stirrers to straws and cotton buds. As we count down to the big day on July 3, we're revisiting last year's special episode about how the EU is even able to make laws like this for 27 countries. This week we're asking: "How the hell do you make an EU law?"

You can blame Dominic for the pun. This week, as tensions between the United States and China reach fever-pitch, we're asking: does Europe need to pick a side? Tom Wan, Research Director in European Politics at the Global Studies Institute in Hong Kong, is on the line to explain what's at stake in Europe's relationship with China.

The Italian journalist and travel writer Giovanni Vale is used to writing tourist guidebooks, but usually they're for countries that still exist. We rang him up to ask why he's turned his attention to 'extinguished' countries, starting with the Venetian Republic which sprawled across the Mediterranean for more than a millennium. Also this week: Polish punk and Europe's organic revolution.

We've been wondering how on earth the European Union makes laws for 27 countries at once. Producer Katz Laszlo went to the beach to find out.

This week, a story that puts the romance back into European policy negotiations. What does a ninth-generation Catalan fisherman have to do with a law that affects an entire continent? Quite a lot, it turns out.

In Budapest, going out for a drink can be a political act. For the final episode of 2019, Dominic takes us to Auróra, a very special bar at the heart of the fightback against Hungary's authoritarian government.