This newsletter went out to backers of the series on March 12. If you’d like to receive these updates sooner, please consider donating to our crowdfunding campaign.

Dear Who Does It Best? crowdfunders,

Time for an update from The Europeans. We’ve been so very overjoyed at how quickly we reached our funding goal for this series! Thank you so much for not making us beg (ok, not beg too much). Since then, we’ve been quiet, but behind the scenes there’s been a lot of moving parts.

In case you didn’t hear in our latest episode, Big news from The Europeans!, Katy is having her second baby! We’re still grieving that we will never get to hear her rendition of the childcare episode (because she will be busy actually doing childcare) - but this does give us an opportunity to do something we’ve been dreaming of for a long time: work with other stellar European radio people.

The childcare episode will now be reported by Maja Stepančič and Uršula Zaletelj - two Slovenian reporters who are equal parts warm and rigorous, and happen to host the biggest parenting show on Radio Slovenija (RTV SLO), Šala za starše. They ended the last season with an episode talking to people who absolutely did not want children. Needless to say, we are very much intrigued and wish we spoke Slovenian. On top of that, Maja is also the editor of RTV SLO’s show about Europe, Evropa osebno. They are such a perfect fit for this episode - it’s a bit much really. We couldn’t be more pleased to be working with them.

*Our new reporters, Maja Stepančič and Uršula Zaletelj*

Next up: we needed a replacement for Katy’s fiendish editor mind, to keep our scripts on point - slowing down and speeding up in the right places. And we’ve found the perfect person - drumroll - Jasmin Bauomy. Berlin-based, Jasmin has a whole flurry of work behind her in all kinds of roles, from Al Jazeera’s first news and current affairs podcast The Debrief, to more recently her own show Little Devils, which you should absolutely all listen to.

As promised, we want to be more transparent about our process with this project, since you’ve so directly supported it. Where are we at now? Early reporting.

HOUSING: Katz is knee-deep in housing policy. She’s currently zooming in on The Netherlands, and Paris. The Netherlands as an example of a country where the market was very much deregulated with massive consequences (the UN has even named the housing shortages as a an influence in how we vote), and Paris as a city where housing had become completely unaffordable (through deregulation of renters’ rights) and now the city is spending substantial resources to make a comeback. While Vienna, a case study pointed out by many, has some very valuable lessons, Katz realised that a part of the strength is that Vienna’s city council never lost its stronghold on social housing, which puts them in a really strong negotiating position with investors who want to build, regulators etc. It definitely shows how important having a city-owned critical mass of housing can be. But! It’s difficult to replicate: beyond other countries/cities slowly trying to build a similar critical mass, unfortunately they’re gonna have a hard time replicating the benefits of Vienna’s system for quite some time. This means there’s still potentially space for another country, so feel free to send ideas in. Especially about Greece, where people spend an astonishing amount of their disposable income on rent . And also in Spain, where people can't have a mortgage past 70 apparently? One last thing: very quickly, Katz realised she’s gonna have to talk about the renter/homeowner divide. She’s already learned some quite astonishing things about the massive wealth inequality that exists in the millennial generation, predominantly via property ownership (and in turn, inheritance from baby-boomers). And plenty of housing experts named this as one of the biggest taboo subjects of our generation. Apparently, millennials have a real hard time talking about this openly with each other. That’s definitely something we as a team recognise. You too? If so, whether you are a homeowner or a renter, please send us a voice memo (so we can potentially include some of these in the podcast!) at hello@europeanspodcast.com A conundrum as an extra nudge: we've been hearing from a few people about especially older generations who "can't afford to rent so they must buy"? How does that work? We want to understand!

DRUGS: Wojciech has spent the first days of his research trying to understand why Europe has not suffered from the opioid crisis on a scale comparable to the US. Perhaps our drug-related policies are just that much better, he thought. The pursuit of an answer led him to delve into reading and watching countless materials about opioid addiction, including re-watching the ever-shocking and depressing documentary "Reindeer Spotting: Escape from Santaland" (available here).

Finding the clear-cut answer to his initial question proved to be somewhat of a mission impossible. However, what became clear was that Europe was not only fortunate to have avoided giving birth to the Sackler family (which, through Purdue Pharma, aggressively marketed and misled the public about the addictiveness of OxyContin, fueling the U.S. opioid crisis that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and widespread addiction), but also that several countries in Europe adopted progressive drug policies early on. These policies seem to have been effective in preventing people from slipping into opioid addiction.

Step two was to examine each country and look for those that have tried something different. This opened the floodgates to a myriad of articles and studies analyzing solutions ranging from decriminalization and medical use to turning a blind eye to possession of negligible amounts and full legalization of possession and production.

That’s where Wojciech is today: trying to make sense of which policies not only prevent people from dying of opioid overdoses, but also come closest to striking the perfect balance between protecting public health and protecting society from the harmful impact of addiction, and offering the freedom to make informed decisions about one’s body and sobriety. He wishes statistics provided more unambiguous answers, but hey - nobody said it was easy!

Something else Wojciech has been wondering about is the extent to which we should focus on the most harmful drugs. They are the most extreme, life-or-death example of how policies shape our lives, but according to a rough estimate, only about 0.35% of Europeans have ever come into contact with opioids. Would you rather hear more about the drugs you’ve actually encountered (or tested), like cannabis, MDMA, or mushrooms? Don’t hesitate to reach out to him at hello@europeanspodcast.com.

That’s it for now! We’re aiming to bring you one of these updates every month until the series comes out in October, letting you know how our work is going – and, of course, how we’re spending your money. If there’s anything specific you’d like to hear about, let us know!

Love and radio,

Katz & Wojciech

Introducing some new team members!

We did it! ‘Who Does It Best’ is fully funded