Decades From Home - A Podcast About Germany

It’s an action packed episode this week, which isn’t good news for Nic who seems to be a little under the weather. Luckily Kat has a sure fire remedy, although it might not pack as much of a punch as Nic’s less complicated concoction. From medicine to language, we review the vote and various controversies over the 2024 Jugendwort des Jahres and find out which new bit of English will be invading the conversations of under-25s across Germany for the next year or so. We also find time to discuss the media panic in England over the appointment of a German to the top job in English men’s football, discuss the results of a study into the 4-day-week from German companies, and we finish by discovering the best tourist destinations in Germany from an AI influencer. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

It’s back to school, or rather university, this week as Nic returns to the classroom for another semester of inspiring students with jazzy Powerpoint slides. We discuss issues of technology, where to find an overhead projector, and why a room full of engineering apprentices is a terrifying vision.A story coming out of Stuttgart catches our attention, I mean it’s not often that an opera ends in 18 people needing medical attention. Why has Florentina Holzinger's opera "Sancta" caused so much controversy, and how much does that have to do with a nude rollerskating nun?We finish the show with the curious case of the death of a neo-nazi while climbing Hitler’s favourite mountain, and what it all has to do with Nazi UFOs.For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 AppealSave the ChildrenÄrzte ohne GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

Well look at that, we’ve made it two whole centuries of podcast episodes, who would have thought! By way of a reward to our lovely listeners, we have an action packed episode full of dodgy German pronunciation, brutal Denglish phrasing, and numerous grammar corrections, and that’s only the first five minutes!Continuing a tradition established way back in episode 100, we’ve collected some of the most asked questions about Germany from across the internet (well, Reddit) and we attempt to bring the knowledge with all the authority that 12,000 minutes of podcasting has bestowed upon us.For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

It’s feeling very autumnal on the podcast this week, probably because of all the pumpkins we keep seeing around the place. Nic, our man in the Bavarian countryside, has seen piles of them on sale at the side of the road, but Dili’s only seen them in the shops. She’s not complaining though, because she’s found a novel way of getting a discount when she needs a Kurbis.Somewhere that needs a discount or two is Oktoberfest, which Nic learned first hand at the weekend. After his adventure at the Wiesn, we learn how to dance on the tables, and fall asleep on trains after a day on the Festbier.We also follow up on the elections in Thuringia, and how the AfD have begun to sow chaos, and we finish on government plans for national service.For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

On the show this week, Nic has a run in with the Bishop of Augsburg as his kids’ Kindergarten is finally opened. We discuss Bavarian flavoured Catholics, the correct kind of wurst, and sermons for 4-year-olds. Elections are in the air at the moment, and we start with Dili’s optimistic assessment from her former home of Sri Lanka as things seem to be taking a turn for the better after Presidential elections. From the positive, we turn to slightly more negative state election results in Brandenburg, as the SPD retain their position as the largest party, but the AfD also make large gains. We close out proceedings with a surprise invitation to Oktoberfest and ponder what is the best outfit to wear to the Wiesn that isn’t a Dirndl or Lederhosen. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

On the show this week, we’re joined by translator, Würzburg resident, and all round top Scottish lass Lynn Nothegger! As if to celebrate Lynn’s debut, Producer Simon brings us some exciting news coming out of Frankfurt concerning one of Germany’s premier sporting events, the 11th European Tram Driver Championship. We discuss drag racing on the Straßenbahn, and our own experiences of Germany’s public transport.It’s not often we have another resident of Bavaria on the show, but we quickly learn why not all Bavarians are the same, and why many in the north of the state don’t actually consider themselves Bavarian at all. We also discuss the different immigrant experiences between Berlin and Bayern, and Lynn offers some tips for dealing with Germany’s labyrinthian bureaucracy.With Lynn being a translator, we finish things off by finding out how AI is impacting her job, and whether it will replace professional translators in the future. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

On this week’s pod, we inject a little mystery into proceedings as we’re joined by our first unnamed guest, Kinocow! We ask about useful pseudonyms, social media anonymity, and whether cows really do have interesting opinions about Germany.Perhaps the reason our guest would rather not offer their real name is due to their controversial opinions about mangos, which is enough to bring our resident fruit expert Dili to the boil. Luckily Kinocow has more to say about Germany than exotic fruit, as he explains how he found his way to Germany from India.We discuss dealing with loneliness, why Germany isn’t a country for beginners, and why Berlin is the only place to live. We also find out why Hanuta and German knives are the most desirable objects to take back when visiting family. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

After three weeks of general calm, we welcome Nic back to the podcast, fresh from some serious holiday adventuring. Before we can get to that though, there’s some admin to cover, and an important question to ask: how come the podcast gets the best reviews when Nic is away? We probably all know, but better not to tell him…We take some time to pick through the recent and rather depressing results from state elections in Sachsen & Thuringia, and ponder how to form a government from the disparate selection of political parties that have been elected. On a less serious note, we finish the show on Nic’s time away, and find out whether eating lamb for every meal is a good idea, and find out what it’s like to be 300 meters away from Adele. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß

Once again we're "Nic-less" this week (let's hope he still remembers how to pod when he does finally return!), leaving Dili and Kat to helm our way through another episode.Thankfully, we have a great new guest to welcome the show, Berlin-based writer Jacinda Nandi! Jacinda first came to Berlin in 2000, spending only a year there, but returned in 2002 after completing her degree and has called Berlin home ever since.Jacinta talks about the pre-Euro days when everything in Germany seemed so affordable, and how the British seem to forget that the UK is not that far away from Germany. As a mother of 2 bilingual sons, she explains that trying to do the right thing by speaking English with them can lead to some odd situations, especially in public spaces.We compare various cultures' attitudes to swearing and ask Jacinta to share her experiences of the German health system as an immigrant.For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 Grenzen

This week's show is again hosted by Dili and frequent guest Kat, and they're delighted to be joined by friend-of-the-show, Scandi Tina. Tina was born in Norway but spent her childhood in Africa before moving to the UK as a adult. She and her partner now call the south of Hesse home, having left the UK during the pandemic. With such an international upbringing, our talk with Tina inevitably turns to the meaning of "home", how we define it and where we locate it.We also hear about Tina's German-language journey, and how mastering English and Afrikaans were her first challenges beyond Norwegian. Those challenges were necessitated by some complicated family arrangements, which Tina details.Finally, Frankfurt's newest resident, our very own Dili, wants to know if Tina has any tips and recommendations for newcomers to the nation's financial capital. For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees 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 GrenzenTheme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß