This week, Katy’s plunging into the depths of the French Submarine Saga and Dominic’s delving into some tentatively good developments for LGBTQ parents in Europe. Plus, the speech we were all waiting for! Or not. One of our favourite journalists within the Brussels bubble, the Spanish reporter Beatriz Ríos, is here to unravel Ursula von der Leyen's State of the European Union for us.

A year into the protest movement in Belarus, what are things like on the ground? This week we talk to the poet Hanna Komar about her own experience in detention, and the extraordinary "algorithm" of solidarity among women in the movement. We're also talking about Russian gas, Norwegian oil, and the magnificence of Emma Raducanu.

Slovenia, aka Katy's favourite country, is increasingly drawing comparisons with Hungary and Poland when it comes to the state of its democracy. Can this worrying direction of travel be reversed? This week we ring up our favourite Sloveniologist Aljaž Pengov Bitenc to find out. We're also talking about Bulgaria's political rock star, and a shocking attack on a Dutch crime journalist.

Few people talk about bread in such magical terms as Apollonia Poilâne. This week we speak to the head of one of France's most prestigious bakeries about the secrets of sourdough and taking over the family company aged just 18. We're also talking about Iceland's four-day week experiment, a cyberattack that took out hundreds of Swedish supermarkets, and boosting body positivity in Norway.

We tend to talk about freedom of movement within the EU as an abstract concept. In reality, moving to a new place involves a million little moments of awkwardness, sweetness, and human vulnerability. This week, we bring you a story of what freedom of movement actually felt like, for a 14-year-old Romanian moving to Germany.

Streets, cities, train stations: across the continent, they're likely to be named after men. What if the women who shaped Europe were given the recognition they deserve? This week, Katy speaks to the Irish journalist Mary Fitzgerald and Italian writer Francesca Cavallo, co-author of Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls, about a wonderful project which reimagines the Brussels metro map in celebration of brilliant European women. We're also talking about the row over LGBTQ rights at the Euro football tournament, and how unsexy-but-important housing policy brought down Sweden's prime minister.

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?"

Jens Thoms Ivarsson has one of this continent's most fascinating jobs: chief "rain man" for the city of Gothenburg. We chat to the creative director of Rain Gothenburg about the Swedish city's rather wonderful plan to become the best place in the world when it's raining. Also this week: expensive Finnish breakfasts, accidental asparagus, and why Budapest's plans to build a Chinese university campus have gone down so badly.

This week, a murky spying scandal and a huge climate lawsuit. It seems that our American friends may have been using Denmark's internet cables to spy on European politicians. But how much did Denmark know about it? We're also talking about the landmark Dutch court ruling that could force Shell to drastically cut its carbon emissions. Plus, the European Review of Books! We chat to George Blaustein and Sander Pleij about why they're setting up a new magazine of ideas for the continent.

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.