The Europeans | European news, politics and culture – Détails, épisodes et analyse

If the winter blues have got you down, these two things might lift your spirit: (1) the Christmas section at your local Lidl, and (2) the news that a same-sex marriage in one EU country must be recognised in another. But how this ruling is going to be implemented across the bloc—especially in the countries where there are no civil partnership rights—remains to be seen. This week, we unpack the manifold questions raised by this big-step-in-the-right-direction decision. We also examine the Louvre’s controversial new ticketing policy. Is giving cheaper tickets to Europeans a form of discrimination?

Our guest this week is Angéla Kóczé, chair of the Romani Studies programme at Central European University. Angéla recently wrote a compelling article for Verfassungsblog in response to a troubling new Hungarian law. We caught up with her to discuss Europe’s long history of anti-Roma discrimination, including decades of forcible sterilisation of Roma women.

This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it’s contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible—we could not continue to make the show without you! If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. An extra incentive to support us this week: on December 15 at 2030 CET, we'll be recording the final episode of the year on Zoom at a very fun live show just for our supporters. We'd love to have you with us!

This week’s Inspiration Station recommendations are the 2022 film Woman on the Roof and the very cool website Mapping Diversity, which reveals just how many streets in your European city were named after women (spoiler: probably very few).

ICYMI: We’ve launched a newsletter! Get a fuller picture of who’s had a good week and who’s had a bad week in Europe each Friday in GOOD WEEK BAD WEEK. You can sign up at europeanspodcast.substack.com.

Other resources for this episode:

• “How significant was an EU ruling on same-sex marriage?” – RTÉ, 30 November 2025
• “Poland will implement EU court order to recognise same-sex marriages, says justice minister” – Notes from Poland, 26 November, 2025
• “L’établissement public du musée du Louvre et son fonds de dotation” - French auditors’ report on the Louvre’s finances, 6 November, 2025
• “Contrat à 15 000 euros, commanditaires « à l’accent slave », van blanc… Les secrets du casse du siècle au Louvre” - the juiciest French reporting on the investigation into the Louvre heist. Le Parisien, 25 November, 2025
• “Multilingualism protects against accelerated aging in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of 27 European countries” – Nature Aging, 10 November 2025 

Produced by Katz Laszlo and Morgan Childs Editorial support from Wojciech Oleksiak Mixing and mastering by Wojciech Oleksiak Music by Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

00:46  Two radically different solutions for beating the winter blues 04:52  Good Week: A landmark gay marriage ruling in the EU 17:32  Bad Week: The Louvre's new ticketing system 33:08  Interview: Angéla Kóczé on how Roma people are experiencing the rise of the far-right 48:54  The Inspiration Station: 'Woman On The Roof' and MappingDiversity.eu 52:46  Happy Ending: Duolingo could protect you from ageing

YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Substack | hello@europeanspodcast.com

It hasn’t been a Good Week for the climate since, er, 1820-something? And it wasn’t last week, either. But it is a good week for The Europeans, because we’re joined by Luisa Neubauer, one of Germany’s best-known climate activists. Luisa recently wrote a terrific piece for The Economist about Europe’s climate “vibe shift”. We got her insights on what has caused the greenlash and what we ought to be doing about it. It’s a thoughtful, self-reflective, heartening conversation we think you’ll enjoy. 

We’re also talking about Brussels’ proposed “military Schengen” agreement, which would allow EU member states to move troops and equipment across borders relatively swiftly. (You don’t want to know how sluggish things are now.) And we’re taking a look at Slovenia’s troubling new “Šutar Law”, a security bill that is widely understood to target the Roma minority.

In other news… The Europeans are launching a newsletter! If you want to hear more about what happened in Europe over the past week and find out what we left on the podcast-cutting-room floor, subscribe to GOOD WEEK BAD WEEK over on Substack. New issues hit inboxes on Friday mornings.

And someone else has a new newsletter, too. Our very own Katy Lee has just published the first issue of Millefeuille, an English-language newsletter “for Parisians who are bad at local news”. If you fall in the middle of the Europeans podcast–Francophile Venn diagram, subscribe here.

This week’s Inspiration Station recommendations are two newly resurfaced works by Johann Sebastian Bach (here and here) and Carlo Rovelli’s book about the physics of time, The Order of Time.  And if you, too, are in the market for a novella to help you knock out your 2025 reading goals, Dominic likes Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These. 

Other resources for this episode:

• “The surreal 45-day trek at the heart of Nato’s defence” - Financial Times, 17 November, 2025 
• “Commission moves towards ‘Military Schengen' and transformation of defence industry” - European Commission press release, 19 November, 2025 
• “Why you probably should not re-gauge railways in Europe” - Jon Worth, 30 September, 2025
• “Slovenia’s ‘Šutar Law’ Sets a Dangerous Precedent for Europe” - Roma Foundation for Europe, 18 November, 2025
• “Romani Activists Fear Collective Punishment & Discrimination as Slovenia Passes New Security Bill" - European Roma Rights Centre, 7 November, 2025

This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it’s contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible—we could not continue to make the show without you! If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (in many different currencies), or you can gift a donation to a superfan. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number. Produced by Morgan Childs  Editorial support from Katz Laszlo Mixing and mastering by Wojciech Oleksiak Music by Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Substack | hello@europeanspodcast.com

It’s been a busy week for European politics, European protests, and European wallabies. In the midst of the madness, we caught up with Kateřina Šafaříková of Czech news outlet Seznam Zprávy, who filled us in on the Czech Republic’s recent parliamentary elections. Is the probable next Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš, likely to be an Orbán-esque thorn in the EU’s side, or does he just kinda wanna text with Macron? Kateřina shares her thoughts. We also catch up on the protests that Georgia’s democratic opposition has been staging against the country’s government in Tbilisi and a grassroots victory in Lithuania.

If you’re moved to learn more about what’s going on in Georgia, check out our interview with Anna Gvarishvili in the episode “Is this the end of Georgia’s European dream?” You can also follow some of the initiatives and journalists Wojciech recommends:

• Project 64 https://x.com/64project_
• George Melashivili https://x.com/geomel_ge
• Marika Mikiashvili https://x.com/Mikiashvili_M
• Anna Gvarishvili https://x.com/AnnaGvarishvili

You can discover more of Kateřina Šafaříková’s work over here or follow her on Instagram here.

This week's Inspiration Station recommendations are the documentary Pianoforte and the book Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, courtesy of Patreon member Pia. 

Brace yourselves if you decide you do indeed want to hear the now former Lithuanian minister for culture singing on an episode of the Voice.

This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it’s contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible—we could not continue to make the show without you! If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (in many different currencies), or you can gift a donation to a superfan. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number.

00:00:47 Bentornato! 00:04:08 Good Week: Lithuania’s cultural sector 00:15:15 Bad Week: Georgian democratic opposition  00:28:11 Interview: Journalist Kateřina Šafaříková on last week’s Czech elections 00:47:34 The Inspiration Station: The documentary Pianoforte and the book Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie 00:52:40 Happy Ending: Massive Der Spiegel wallaby scoop! Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

The last time we interviewed the physicist Meganne Christian, she was working on the French-Italian research base on Antarctica. Now she has her eye on outer space. We ring her up to find out more about her new life as a reserve astronaut for the European Space Agency, and Europe's role in the new commercial space era. We're also talking about Pedro Sánchez's Spanish election gamble and a hopeful court verdict for same-sex Romanian couples.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/europes-place-in-outer-space

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at ⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠ (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠leaving us a review⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify. 

You can follow Meganne here on Twitter and Instagram, and the ESA here and here. The report on Europe's future role in space exploration can be found here, and you can find out more about the ESA astronaut selection process here. Some other links you might want to check out:

• ESA Space Ambition book
• ESA Terrae Novae 2030+ Strategy Roadmap
• International Space Station Benefits for Humanity 2022
• ESA Human Spaceflight on Twitter

This week's Isolation Inspiration: 'The [Queer] Politics of Eurovision' from verilybitchie, and This Is Love: The Museum of Broken Relationships.

00:22 Welcome to the western-most peninsulas of Eurasia 03:28 Bad Week: Spain's Socialists 11:36 Good Week: LGBT couples in Romania 20:53 Interview: Meganne Christian on life as a reserve astronaut and what Europe is up to in space 32:53 Isolation Inspiration: The Queer Politics of Eurovision and The Museum of Broken Relationships 35:09 Happy Ending: Cheers to you, Gert-Jan

Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

Twitter | Instagram | hello@europeanspodcast.com

We usually see young people as the face of climate activism. This week, we find out how 2,000 Swiss women, all over the age of 65, took their government to court in a case that could change climate laws across Europe. And along the way, we figure out once and for all how the European Court of Human Rights actually works.

This is a special episode made in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation, one of several podcasts we're making this year about sustainability with their support. Stay tuned later in the year to hear more.

You can find out more about the KlimaSeniorinnen here. 

Listening from Amsterdam? The Forum on European Culture runs at De Balie from May 31-June 4, with a ton of great speakers on the line-up. Find the full programme here: https://cultureforum.eu/programme-2023 

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at ⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠ (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠leaving us a review⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify. 

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/the-biggest-climate-case-that-ever-was

Reporter and producer: Katz Laszlo

Editor: Katy Lee

Editorial support: Dominic Kraemer and Wojciech Oleksiak

Sound design, mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music by Jim Barne, Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions

Twitter | Instagram | hello@europeanspodcast.com

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.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/the-naughty-child-of-nato

You can follow Erdi on Twitter @ahmeterdiozturk.

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at ⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠ (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠leaving us a review⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify. 

This week's Isolation Inspiration: Cautionary Tales: 'The Man Who Bet His House on a Pop Song - A Eurovision Tale' and 'The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared' by Jonas Jonasson

00:22 Together again

03:31 Good Week: Is Germany's Ukraine 'turning point' actually here?

11:27 Red-faced over orange-face 

19:26 Interview: Ahmet Erdi Öztürk on the Turkish elections

28:23 Isolation Inspiration: 'The Man Who Bet His House on a Pop Song' and 'The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared'

33:19 Happy Ending: A Mona Lisa mystery solved?

Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

Twitter | Instagram | hello@europeanspodcast.com

This week is a bonanza for fans of Europe's two favourite competitions: the Champions League football tournament and the Eurovision Song Contest. Both are held up as events that bring Europeans together, but which one does the job better? This week we aim to settle the debate once and for all with a face-off between sports commentator Barbara Barend and Eurovision historian Dean Vuletic. We're also talking about a €300-million EU pension black hole and France's first rap awards.

Do you live in Europe, and do you enjoy this podcast? If so, you can celebrate democracy and fund our show at the same time, by signing up to join the Capital of European Democracy jury. It only takes a few clicks and it's a huge help to us! Sign up here before May 15: https://join.capitalofdemocracy.eu/europeanspod

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/eurovision-vs-the-champions-league

The Eurovision vs. Champions League debate was part of a special event for Europe Day hosted by the European Cultural Foundation. You can find out more about this year's celebrations at europeday.eu.

This week's Isolation Inspiration: 'King Charles III's Secret Kingdom' and 'If Found'. You can find the article Katy mentioned on the Flamme awards here in the Guardian, and the ECF's Radio Europe Day playlist here on Spotify. 

00:22 Beyoncé in the Brussels bubble

03:49 Bad Week: A €300m pensions black hole

13:25 Good Week: France's first rap awards

18:39 Help us out by joining the European Capital of Democracy Jury!

20:23 The ultimate debate: Eurovision vs The Champions League

37:46 Isolation Inspiration: 'King Charles III's Secret Kingdom' and 'If Found'

40:54 Happy Ending: Aurimas Valujavičius's epic journey

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at ⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠ (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠leaving us a review⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify. 

Producer: Katy Lee

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

Twitter | Instagram | hello@europeanspodcast.com

The EU is a lot of things. But is it funny? And would Europe be a better place if we *could* find it funny? This week we're talking to Lise Witteman, one of the co-founders of live comedy show The Schuman Show, about finding humour in the Brussels machine. We're also talking about Pope Francis' face-off with Viktor Orbán and the Italian tourism campaign that spawned a thousand memes.

Do you live in Europe, and do you enjoy this podcast? If so, you can celebrate democracy and fund our show at the same time, by signing up to join the Capital of European Democracy jury. It only takes a few clicks and it's a huge help to us! Sign up here: https://join.capitalofdemocracy.eu/europeanspod

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: ⁠https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/brussels-that-well-known-comedy-goldmine⁠

You can find out more about the Schuman Show at https://www.schumanshow.eu.

The final visual version of the episodes in our series This Is What A Generation Sounds Like, produced by our friends at Are We Europe, can be found here. 

This week's Isolation Inspiration: The Allusionist's Eurovision episodes and 'The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania'

00:22 King's Day and erotic fiction penned by a finance minister

03:53 Good Week: The Pope v Viktor Orbán

11:44 Bad Week: Open to Meraviglia!

18:12 Help us out by joining the European Capital of Democracy Jury!

20:26 Interview: Lise Witteman on making the EU funny

31:58 Isolation Inspiration: The Allusionist's Eurovision episodes and 'The Curious Case of Columbo's Message to Romania'

35:53 Happy Ending: Gamefy The Dam Removal

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at ⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠ (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠leaving us a review⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify. 

Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak 

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

Twitter | Instagram | hello@europeanspodcast.com

Mapping our genes has already allowed humanity to make huge strides in medicine. But the vast majority of the genomes we’ve decoded are those of people of white European heritage. Why is that a problem, and how do we fix it? This week we talk to the Nigerian geneticist Segun Fatumo about fixing the genome gap. We’re also talking about Andalucía’s bid to protect flamenco, and why Europe’s most powerful media mogul is in hot water.

Segun is an associate professor of genetic epidemiology and bioinformatics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He tweets @SFatumo.

You can find a video of flamenco performers celebrating Andalucía’s new law here, and watch the latest visual podcast in our series with Are We Europe, 'Andrea', here. We are delighted that the visual version of an earlier episode of This Is What A Generation Sounds Like, 'Mohamed', has been nominated for the CIVIS Prize! Watch it here.

This week's Isolation Inspiration: this interview on the European Space Agency's Jupiter mission; How To Sell Drugs Online (Fast); World Leader or My Friend's Dad? and Luis Sal's Parisian croissant review. 

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at ⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠ (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠leaving us a review⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify. 

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/how-racial-bias-is-messing-with-dna-research

00:22 Make Europe Digestible Again

02:23 A Good Week for protecting flamenco?

09:22 A Bad Week for Axel Springer's CEO

19:30 Interview: Segun Fatumo on the European bias of genomic studies

30:24 Isolation Inspiration: Juice, 'How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)', World Leader or My Friend's Dad, croissant reviews

34:59 Happy Ending: 500 days of reading and knitting (in a pitch-black cave)

Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak 

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

Twitter | Instagram | hello@europeanspodcast.com

What comes to mind when you imagine a library? Rows of books, probably. But across the continent, libraries are transforming into places that serve communities in all sorts of other ways. This week we hear from two very different libraries about how they're doing just that: Bojana Grujic of the Novi Sad City Library in Serbia and Myrto Tsilimpounidi from the Feminist Library at the Feminist Autonomous Centre in Athens. We're also talking about the fallout from Macron's trip to China, the international fight against Hungary's homophobic law, and the hallucinogenic adventures of early Europeans.

Bojana and Myrto's libraries are taking part in the European Cultural Foundation's Europe Challenge. The hunt for new participants begins soon; keep an eye on the ECF's website for updates, or subscribe to their newsletter.

This week's Isolation Inspiration: Birdsbesafe cat collars, available via the Royal Belgian League for the Protection of Birds, and 'The Shadow King' by Maaza Mengiste. Bonus: Katy's amazing Notion template. 

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at ⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠ (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by ⁠leaving us a review⁠ or giving us five stars on Spotify. 

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast.com/episodes/libraries-the-safest-spaces-we-have

00:22 No Easter eggs for Dominic

02:43 Messy / Bad Week: Macron and von der Leyen's trip to China

14:47 Good Week: The fight against Hungary's anti-LGBTQ law

23:06 Interview: Bojana Grujic and Myrto Tsilimpounidi on the reinvention of Europe's libraries

35:51 Isolation Inspiration: Birdsbesafe cat collars and 'The Shadow King' by Maaza Mengiste

40:59 Happy Ending: Early Europeans' psychedelic dabbling

Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak 

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

Twitter | Instagram | hello@europeanspodcast.com