Decades From Home - A Podcast About Germany

After almost two years of podcasting, we’ve finally reached the summit of 100 episodes! We’ve spent a lot of time wondering how we should celebrate such a massive milestone, and the only logical conclusion is to take a BFF quiz from Teen Vogue. Yes listeners, we’re going to share our deepest darkest secrets with you, and should we fail to answer, well the punishment will be a shot of something truly awful.What have been our most embarrassing moments, do we believe in ghosts, and what were our worst dates? All will be answered as we delve into the darkness of our own psyches, and share all the lurid details that we can remember. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Claudio Schwarz on UnsplashPhoto by Markus Spiske on UnsplashPhoto by Marcel Eberle on UnsplashPhoto by Luis Morera on UnsplashPhoto by Markus Spiske on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

On the show this week: We’ve been enjoying the halloween spirit this week, to differing degrees of success. Nic accidently watched the scariest horror movie of all time, while Simon rewatched an old favourite which he’s sure had significantly less nudity the first time around. We also chat about a day trip to one of the weirdest, and most Bayrisch, tourist attractions in Germany.We have a special guest this week, we’re joined by William Noah Glucroft, a freelance journalist based in Berlin. We talk trick or treating in Berlin, controversial beer opinions, and favoured pieces of German culture. Of course, we didn’t just, bring William in to chat about the niceties. We break down the first year of Germany’s traffic light coalition government and find out whether life after Angela Merkel has all been downhill. To finish, Simon & Nic have another Boris Becker update, as we find out how the Tennis playing hero of Germany is staying fit while serving at His Majesty's pleasure.For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Tim Simon on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

Even though we’ve been here for two decades between us, we still can’t get the hang of German pillows. Simon knows this better than most, especially after suffering a pillow related injury. Never let it be said we don’t suffer for this podcast! Neck pain aside, Simon did manage to get out of the house to forage for mushrooms. He must be pretty good at telling his champignons from his deathcaps, because he’s still here to tell us all about it.The results are in for the Jugendwort des Jahres 2022 and it’s a smashing result, although we do wonder why so many new English loan words seem to be decades out of date. Turning to less pleasant news, we look at Adidas dropping Kanye West and why it took so long for the German sports giant to drop a celebrity that’s willing to spew anti-semitism. Finally, we look at a recent potato based protest by climate activists who attacked an $110 million Monet painting with lashings of Kartoffelbrei. To Nic’s surprise, Simon is far less concerned with the protest itself and much more annoyed by what Germans consider mashed potato. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Rachel Loughman on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

On the show this weekWe have a bundle of updates from last week, with Union Berlin still flying high in the Bundesliga, among other news. We discuss the recent debate on keeping three nuclear power plants open until 2023, which is a good chance to learn some interesting new German vocabulary. Additionally, we also have to look across the channel at the ongoing idiocy of British politics.With shops setting out their festive displays as early as possible this year, we look at the most wanted toys this Christmas.Is a rollerskating Peppa Pig or a vaping Buzz Lightyear really worth the money or should we be looking at more sustainable options?Changes to the law in Germany mean religion will no longer be recorded for individuals when they get married, which seems to be a positive step, but has also annoyed conservatives. We talk about the continued influence of the church in people’s lives and why it can have a big impact on your tax. We finish with a story about companies forcing people back to the office, and why not turning on your webcam can be a sackable offence.For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Tite Zobaran on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

On the show this week:Growing up is tough, especially for parents, as Nic discovers when his daughter gains the freedom to wake him up at all hours of the night. Of course, Simon is very sympathetic, although perhaps his suggestions on how to resolve the issue lacks a certain level of nuance. We welcome episode 96 with a trip down memory lane, to the year 1996 and the exploits of a certain Geordie footballer. We review the results of the local election in Niedersachsen, and consider what it might mean for Germany and Christian Lindner’s FDP. We discuss the worrying story of apparent sabotage on rail communications in the north of Germany, and a scandal concerning Russian infiltration of cyber security infrastructure. Given the story was broken by the comedian Jan Böhmermann, we talk about other examples of satire being ahead of journalism, and whether it’s a good thing if the news is communicated in a funny way.Simon brings us a story about copycat chocolate as a Swiss court rules against German discounter Lidl over a suspiciously familiar chocolate rabbit, and we finish off the show with a look at the impact of raising prices in German supermarkets. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Hello I'm Nik on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

We’re back from Bonn, but we still have some important things to discuss, namely how did all that Haribo taste. Simon might be putting off trying the cake flavoured Gummibärchen, but Nic has been glorying in the wide open spaces of novelty flavour country. Nic has also been to Bamberg recently, which gives us a chance to talk Rauchbier and whether one of Bavaria’s most famous cities is really “the Venice of Germany”.Oktoberfest ended this week, and despite many expecting it to be the busiest for years, numbers were actually down, as were beer sales. More disturbingly were the numerous reports of inappropriate behaviour and sexual harassment directed towards women working in beer tents or stands throughout the Wiesn. We look at some of these reports and what it means for Bavaria’s most famous festival.We travel back in time for the second part of our Bonn meetup, where Simon shares his experiences of being in Britain for the Queen’s funeral, the chaos enveloping the British government, and why Britain has such a problem talking about its history. We finish the show with Simon’s recollections of being thrown out the famous Heide Park Resort.Oktoberfest Articles:Die fremde Hand am Hintern"Verschwinde, hau ab!", hat die Chefin mir nachgerufen„Wenn es abends voll wird, dann ist es nur noch eklig“„Ich habe zehn Tage gekellnert und 100 Euro draufgezahlt“For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Itai Aarons on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

After two weeks away from the pod, Simon is back in all his glory, but this isn’t the only thing we’re celebrating in this week’s episode. For the first time since we started the show, both Simon and Nic are in the same room for the first of two episodes recorded at our producer’s house in Bonn. Aside from being the home of our producer, there’s another good reason to be in Bonn: it’s the home of Haribo. We talk about the British equivalent of Germany’s favourite gummy sweets, our favourite Haribo choices, and we find out why Nic can’t eat a Chocolate Orange. Simon talks about his adventures in the UK, and why taking the ferry is easily the most enjoyable way to visit our former island home. Sure, the “seasickness” wasn’t great, and the karaoke left a lot to be desired, but damn it there was a really nice dressing gown in the VIP cabin.We finish the show by getting our dirty mitts on some bottles of Kölsch, which isn’t so much a beer as it is a way of life, and one of the many benefits of being north of the Weißwurstäquator. Decades from Home - A podcast about GermanyFor those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Meg Boulden on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

With Simon still galavanting around the UK, Nic enlists the help of listener favourite Dili Algama to steady the good ship Decades from Home. That being said, Nic might not have been fully prepared for the levels of German directness that Dili brings along with her. We unpack our feelings the day after the Queen’s funeral, and wonder what five mile queues and enforced mourning mean for the UK. Thankfully we have more cheery topics to cover, such as the delights of moving house in Germany, why having a kitchen is not guaranteed, and how to avoid getting trapped in the seven circles of IKEA hell. Dili discusses what it’s like to live in a small village in the east of Germany, why we often seek out the negatives of living here and whether we’re too German or not German enough. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Corina Rainer on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

Simon is away on holiday in the UK this week, but the show must go on, even if half of the show is knee deep in sausage rolls and pints of warm beer. Luckily for Nic, we’ve been able to secure a fantastic guest as we welcome historian and journalist Katja Hoyer to talk about dealing with British greetings and how to correctly pronounce the word “scone”.It’s rather lucky we have a historian with us after a week of deep historic importance. Nic and Katja discuss the death of Queen Elizabeth II and preparations for the funeral on Monday. Nic finds out what it’s been like in Britain since the news dropped, we talk about the meeting of “Ancient customs” and 21st century realities, and we wonder why Paddington Bear plays such a prominent role.We didn’t just ask Katja on to talk about current events though. As the author of Blood and Iron: the Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871 -1918, Katja is the perfect person to ask about how Germany was unified, the connecting lines from 1871 to modern day Germany, and why Bismarck doesn’t get much love, in Bayern at least. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Craig Bradford on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

On the show this weekAfter four days back in Germany from adventures in the UK, Nic is feeling a bit weird. Thankfully, Simon is on hand to talk through the process of returning home from, well, home. One significant difference is how low-fi much of life in the south of Germany can be, but is that maybe a positive? Then again, not having to deal with British indirectness is certainly a positive about being back in Bavaria.Speaking of Britain, there’s a new Prime Minister to discuss, and a new cabinet. We ponder what this all means for the UK and whether things will actually improve now that Boris Johnson has packed his bags and left 10 Downing Street (spoiler: probably not).We celebrate a true German success story as a group of local butchers conquer the World Butchers' Challenge in Sacramento. What does it take to be the world’s best butcher? Sticking with interesting contests of skill, Simon introduces us all to the World Gravy Wrestling Championships in the UK, which leaves us with a serious question: which professional wrestler would be the best at fighting in a pool of delicious gravy? To finish we discuss 9th century punishments for angry bees in Worms and why Hartlepool isn’t a safe place for monkeys. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal Save the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenImage CreditPhoto by Jordane Mathieu on UnsplashTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß