Episodes
Long Distance
This week, the distances travelled in search of love and safety. The Finnish novelist and playwright Saara Turunen has written beautifully about what it's like to navigate a relationship between Helsinki and Barcelona. We chat to her about European culture clashes and what feminism looks like in the two countries she lives between. Plus, Europe's failed refugee policy, magical taps, and ill-chosen words by a billionaire populist (no, not that one).
Why is Greece's refugee policy such a mess?
In 2015, the 'migrant crisis' was the front page story of every newspaper in Europe. Today more than 42,000 people are still stranded on the Greek islands, in shameful conditions — and yet we barely talk about it. Migration researcher Apostolis Fotadis joins us from Athens to explain why Greece's refugee policy has become such a disaster. Also this week: big changes in Portugal, criminally-bad (?) singing in Croatia, and a Finnish mystery.
What's going on in Malta?
“There are crooks everywhere you look now," Malta's top investigative journalist wrote on her blog in 2017. "The situation is desperate.” Half an hour later, Daphne Caruana Galizia was dead.
A Polish teenage diarist
Renia's diary spent decades locked in a bank vault. Like many teenagers, she had used it to vent about stupid fights with her friends and to record the thrill of her first kiss. And when the war came, she used it to document the relentless killing of Jews in the town where she lived. Ania Jakubek is on the line from Warsaw to tell us the extraordinary story of Renia Spiegel, and why it stayed unknown for so long. We're also talking about promising signs that Europeans are becoming less bigoted. Oh, and there's a dog.
Back for your Görlitzening pleasure
WE'RE BACK, with a new look for a new season. This week we're catching up on the summer's Italian drama and tackling the delicate question of Nazi relatives. And we're heading to Görlitz, on the German-Polish border, to find out why why so many voters in eastern Germany are putting their faith in the far-right AfD.
Morals and the Mediterranean
We don't call it 'the migrant crisis' anymore. Yet, every day, people attempt the treacherous crossing to reach our shores, and more than 500 people have died trying this year alone. This week we're talking about the politics of fear and the laws of the sea with the Italian migration expert Matteo Villa. We're also talking about rockets, bees and Greece's return to the right.
Brave and competent women
This week, the European women steering the ship. Katy and Dominic discuss the case of Carola Rackete, the rescue boat captain who has come to symbolize the moral divide over migration, as well as the nomination of Germany's Ursula von der Leyen and Christine Lagarde to two of the most powerful jobs on the continent. In the meantime, the biggest Czech protests since the fall of communism have been giving the populist billionaire PM Andrej Babiš a run for his money. We ring up Benjamin Roll, one of the young leaders of the growing protest movement.
Happy Birthday Bauhaus!
This week, European cultural greats past and present. We discuss the good, the bad and the Bauhaus with the American painter Henry Isaacs, who grew up surrounded by many of the key figures from the legendary German art school that marked its 100th birthday this month. And Katy chats to Kurt Overbergh, artistic director of the Ancienne Belgiquemusic venue, about new sounds, immigration and the return of Turkish psychedelia.
Stick it to the grown-ups
This week's guest is ten years old and one of the fiercest, smartest people we've ever had on this podcast. Lilly Platt calls in from Zeist in the Netherlands to tell us why she's helping to lead the tens of thousands of children across Europe striking to demand action on climate change. And from skipping school to skipping the queue, anti-money laundering expert Laure Brillaud is here from Brussels to cast a light on the murky world of 'golden visas' for sale in Europe. Plus: positive pop, bad meat, and one very happy cellist.
The Unlucky Passport
Whether you're a European passport-holder or not, so much in life is determined by the paper we carry in our pockets. Our guest this week is the Yemeni photographer Thana Faroq, whose brilliant project The Passport explores what it's like to hold a so-called 'unlucky' passport. Her work is on show in New York right now, but she's not allowed to travel from her home in the Netherlands to see it with her own eyes.
Also this week, Bram Hilkens is here to delve into the continent's hip-hop scene, Katy and Dominic have been gallivanting in Berlin, and Greece has been lightening the load for its donkeys.
The Europeans is supported by Future Europe, a podcast from the European Investment Bank. Check it out here: eib.org/future-Europe
And we're supported by Are We Europe! Type 'europeanspod' for a 15% discount on your copy of the continent's most beautiful magazine at www.areweeurope.com
Welcome To Europe, Here Are Four Walls
There's a big difference between a shelter and a home. After Sweden's elections cast a spotlight on the integration of immigrants, this week we're asking how housing and urban design can affect your ability as a newcomer to settle in a new place. Alice Pittini, research coordinator at Housing Europe, talks us through some of the best examples of housing designed to help refugees and asylum seekers get stuck in and start building new lives. We also chat about Viktor Orbán and the battle for Europe's soul, green jargon, and French superheroes. Plus, a listener sheds some light on Dominic's salty German food mystery.
Read Housing Europe's latest research on migration & housing here: https://bit.ly/2N6p89H
And check out this neat project they're involved with, Designing Inclusion: https://www.desinc.org
Piss and Populism
As you'll see in this week's episode, we're warming to two themes this season: urine, and the far-right.
Timo Lochocki (@TLochocki), an expert on populism in Europe, is on the line from Berlin to talk about why we SHOULDN'T talk about Steve Bannon's new venture on this side of the Atlantic. On a brighter note, Adrian Murphy's here to talk about Europeana, a lovely EU culture project that is currently collecting personal stories about migrating around the continent. Check it out at https://www.europeana.eu.
Also: good times for cash-strapped Berlin parents, bad times for Shakespearean amateur voiceover artists, and a disaster averted in Katy's hometown.
The winner takes it all, the loser takes a selfie
It’s been a week of highs and lows for Europe and The Europeans. Katy came back from Germany with empty pockets but a full heart (and a selfie). It’s been a bad week for euro diplomacy, but a great one for trashy pop. Someone who’s seen more than her fair share of highs and lows is our guest Farah Abdi, a transgender Somali refugee who arrived in Malta by boat in 2012. She tells Katy about her journey and her fight for better rights for LGBT refugees in Europe. And songwriter MaJiKer, who’s penned songs for Eurovision hopefuls, is on hand to explain why Israel snatched victory and Sweden got robbed.