We have a very special episode for you this week. From the south of Italy, a father and son's coming of age stories, told in parallel.

This is the first episode of our series This Is What A Generation Sounds Like: intimate stories from across the continent, as told by the young Europeans experiencing them.

This series is produced in cooperation with Allianz Kulturstiftung, an independent not-for-profit cultural foundation committed to strengthening cohesion in Europe using the tools of art and culture.

This week, Eurovision, panthers, and a celebration of Cyrillic writing. Ahead of a Cyrillic national holiday in several Eastern European countries, we chat to typography designers Maria Doreuli and Krista Radoeva about what makes the script so special. We're also talking about the Paris mayor's war on cars, and why Slovenia's populist prime minister is really, really into panthers. Plus, a special edition of Isolation Inspiration for the Eurovision nerds.

Like everyone else, we Europeans have been watching a LOT of television over the past year. But something rather nice has been happening: we've been watching *each other's* television. Could streaming giants like Netflix be helping develop a shared European culture, as we all sit down to enjoy shows like Lupin and Money Heist? This week we speak to Jérôme Dechesne of European producers' group CEPI about the Europeanisation of binge-watching. We're also talking about the prince who apparently-accidentally shot Romania's largest bear, and the Belgian farmer who may have apparently-accidentally moved the French border.

The Oscar-nominated Romanian film Collective is enraging and inspiring in equal measure. This week we hear from Răzvan Luțac, one of the investigative journalists who uncovered the vast healthcare scandal at the heart of the film. We're also talking about a fascinating court case brought by young German climate activists, censorship allegations on Italian TV, and a missing finger.

This week we're delighted to have an excuse to talk about Dominic's favourite salty cheese. Halloumi has just been recognised as a product unique to Cyprus — something that eurocrats have hailed as a positive step towards reconciliation on the divided Mediterranean island. Is there any truth to that? Cypriot podcaster Natalie Lamprou is here for a great chat about cheese, politics and Cypriot identity.

It's a green-themed episode this week: we're talking about why Germany's Greens are the party of the moment, and taking a look at the environmentalists now running the Danish territory of Greenland. Plus, Katy's been chatting to the Polish artist Joanna Rajkowska about why she put a giant palm tree on a Warsaw roundabout.

Why are so many British people completely clueless when it comes to understanding Northern Ireland, given that it's part of the UK? After days of rioting in Northern Irish towns and cities, we speak to historian Tim Mc Inerney, co-host of the excellent podcast The Irish Passport, about the strange island-of-Ireland-shaped hole in many Brits' understanding of their own history.

All aboard! We love trains here at The Europeans, but your ability to get around the continent by rail depends a lot on where you live. This week we're chatting to Italian data journalist Lorenzo Ferrari about why Vienna has a ton of international train connections and Albania has... zero.

This week, the young Romanian activist who has the patriarchy shaking in its boots. Sofia Scarlat founded Romania's first ever gender equality organisation for teenagers; in a country where the very idea of sex education has come under fierce debate, Girl Up Romania's Instagram account has become a vital source of information for young women. We chat to Sofia about her hopes for a gender equality revolution.

For decades, Eastern Europe has suffered a massive brain drain of people heading abroad in search of opportunity. But something remarkable happened during the pandemic: huge numbers started coming back. Can they be convinced to stay? This week we speak to urban researcher Ognyan Georgiev about his fascinating work tracking Bulgaria's returnees — and we get his predictions for which European cities are going to be the coolest in 20 years time.

Pretty much everyone has their face covered in public these days, and yet Switzerland is set to become the latest European country to ban (non-Covid) face coverings in public — including Muslim garments like the niqab and burqa. Given that barely any Swiss women wear these, what exactly is going on here? This week we speak to Inès El-Shikh of the Foulards Violets feminist group about what this referendum campaign has felt like for Muslim women.

To mark International Women's Day this week, we speak to one of this continent's most courageous activists: Marta Lempart of the Women's Strike, the movement that that has organised massive street protests in recent months against Poland's incredibly restrictive abortion laws. We're also talking about Berlin's gender-neutral acting prize, Fidesz, and the power of oranges.

We've got a musical episode for you this week: a Catalan rapper jailed for controversial lyrics and tweets, an ancient French horn, and some vintage Dutch pop. Plus the historian Timothy Garton-Ash is here to explain why he thinks we need a more "polyphonic" Europe.

A lot of this continent's favourite food comes originally from its former colonies — often with tweaks to suit European tastes. This week we talk to the superstar chef Asma Khan about food that has crossed borders, as well as her bid to banish macho culture from the restaurant industry. We're also talking about Super Mario, Greece's student protests, and an extremely old nun.

Why has a book about eels become a smash-hit in Sweden and beyond? This week we talk to Patrik Svensson, author of The Gospel of the Eels, about these strange and wonderful creatures and their epic annual migration from Europe to the Sargasso Sea. We're also talking about the Balkans' #MeToo uprising, Germany's mass coming-out, and the world's greatest Zoom meeting. 

Europe has big plans to regulate the giant internet companies that shape our lives. But just how much will they force the likes of Google and Facebook to behave? This week we ring up Andrii Degeler, host of the Tech.eu podcast, to explain the whole thing without putting us to sleep. We're also talking about the French village with an astonishing history of helping the persecuted; bingeing on movies on a lonely Swedish island; and why the EU's design might make it harder to fight poverty.

The oil giant Shell is Europe's biggest company — and it's facing an absolutely massive court case over climate justice. This week we speak to Anoek Nuyens, one of the women behind an extraordinary piece of theatre about Shell that laid bare the "crisis of responsibility" at the heart of global climate policy. We're also talking about Russia's opposition protests and the horrifying case of a TikTok challenge gone wrong in Italy.

The 'Ndrangheta has become one of the most powerful and dangerous crime syndicates in the world. But how does the mafia actually operate? This week, as a massive trial of suspected   'Ndrangheta   members gets underway in Italy, we delve into the inner workings of Europe's organised crime scene with the criminologist Federico Varese. We're also dishing up edible insects, the many European governments on the verge of collapse this week, and the magical power of seagrass.

Since Angela Merkel's party starts choosing her successor this weekend, German journalist Wolfgang Munchau is here to reflect on what kind of a hole the Queen of Europe will leave in our continent. We're also taking a look at Norway's split personality when it comes to the climate, and why Amsterdam cannabis tourism may become a thing of the past.

For our last episode of the year, we take you to a supermarket in the Dublin suburbs in 2006. We also discuss a string of mysterious explosions at Polish grocery stores in the Netherlands, doing a deal with Viktor Orbán, and the secret to happiness in Europe.