Common Ground Berlin

Times are hard, but is money provided unconditionally by the government the best way to ease the burden? Pilots in three federal states are planned soon to test the feasibility of a universal basic income in Germany and host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks about that and the German plan to overhaul social and unemployment benefits with guests:Alexandra Borchardt, veteran journalist and media consultant.Jürgen Schupp, Senior Research Fellow at the German Institute for Economic Research. Laura Brämswig, co-founder of the German project Expedition Basic Income.This show was produced by Dina Elsayed.

Fussball may be king in Germany, but Deutschland is also said to be the biggest market outside of North America for a different football game – the American kind! It’s why the NFL decided to launch its new season in Munich this year, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play the Seattle Seahawks. Common Ground Berlin’s Dina Elsayed takes you into the competitive world of American football in Deutschland, where the NFL, a European league and a German league battle it out for status and fans.This episode is produced by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson and Dina Elsayed.

How are Germans responding to inflation? Do cheap transit tickets make up for it? And what should we make of President Joe Biden’s handshake diplomacy in the Middle East? Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson asks her guests to weigh in on these and other issues at Podfest Berlin 2022. Joining her for a chat and libation are: Agence France-Presse Correspondent Deborah Cole, Comedian Carmen Chraim and Podfest Berlin Founder Daniel Stern.Plus a special appearance by YouTube sensation and comedian Daniel-Ryan Spaulding during the Q&A. This episode was recorded live at Noisy Rooms on Jul.17, 2022 and produced by Dina Elsayed. 

In this “Transatlantic Takeaway” episode, hosts Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson and Rachel Tausendfreund debate the growing problems with plane, train, car and bike travel in Germany and beyond and government attempts to fix them. Their guests: Dirk von Schneidemesser of Changing Cities, an initiative specializing in democratic sustainability transformation.Katja Diehl,  host of the podcast: “She Drives Mobility” and author of “Autokorrektur – Mobilität für eine lebenswerte Welt.”  (Autocorrect: Mobility for a World Worth Living In).Peter Chase, GMF Senior Fellow in Brussels. This show was produced by Dina Elsayed. 

It’s been 18 months since Donald Trump left office, but with one global crisis after another, the relationship between the United States and Germany has not had time to rebound. But does it matter? Is Germany squandering an opportunity to set its own international agenda? Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson discusses the state of German-U.S. relations in these precarious times with:Jeremy Shapiro, research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former advisor to the State Department during the Obama administration;Joerg Lau, Die Zeit international correspondent; Laura von Daniels, head of the “Americas” research division  at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. This show was produced by Dina Elsayed. Note: This episode was taped before Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine on June 16th and announced Germany wants Ukraine to be admitted into the European Union. But extra steps are needed before that can happen.

Any day now, the Supreme Court of the United States will almost certainly overturn the landmark ruling known as Roe v. Wade. That will make it harder – if not impossible – for women to get abortions in dozens of states. But in Germany, the new government is headed in the opposite direction, trying (to a point) to ease access for women to abortion services. Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks about these impending, monumental changes and how they are linked with guests: Constance Chucholowski, a public affairs expert who chairs the Berlin chapter of Democrats Abroad;Dr. Caroline Scherf, a German gynecologist in Wales who in 2021 worked in a Bremen clinic run by ProFamilia, a government-funded NGO for reproductive rights;Alexandra Linder, head of the Bundesverband Lebensrecht, a Berlin-based association of German groups opposing abortion and which organizes the annual March for Life in Berlin.We also hear from Green Party activist Laura Sophie Dornheim about her struggle to get an abortion in Berlin. This show was produced by Abigail Megginson and Dina Elsayed. 

In this “Transatlantic Takeaway” episode, hosts Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson and Rachel Tausendfreund delve into scenarios to end Russian President Vladmir Putin’s war on Ukraine and how the conflict is changing the global order. Their guests are:Michal Baranowski, senior fellow and director of the GMF office in Warsaw.Gesine Dornblueth, co-author of “Ruhmlose Helden,” a book on a plane crash that changed German-Russian relations. She is a former Moscow correspondent for Deutschlandradio.Liana Fix, program director for international affairs at the Körber Foundation in Berlin.Joerg Forbrig, senior fellow and director for Central Eastern Europe at the GMF office in Berlin.This show was produced by Dina Elsayed.

Handy. Public Viewing. Home Office. Boostern – It’s hard sometimes to tell German from English. But is the incorporation of English into German a bad thing? Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson discusses the impact of the resulting hybrid called Denglish with Anatol Stefanowitsch, an English linguistics professor at the Free University of Berlin and Oliver Baer of the Verein Deutsche Sprache or German Language Society. This show was produced by Dina Elsayed. 

In this special episode, guest host Abigail Megginson examines the widespread use of American Indian imagery in German culture since the 18th century. But is it flattery or racism? Her guests are Renae Watchman, co-author of “Indianthusiasm,” which examines indigenous people’s responses to the German obsession with American Indians, and Florian Schleburg, chair of the Karl May Gesellschaft, a group dedicated to the prolific German author who fueled that obsession.This show was produced by Abigail Meginnson and Dina Elsayed. 

On April 20 – a date associated with marijuana – we hosted a spirited debate on Twitter Space about Germany’s controversial proposal to make personal cannabis use legal for adults.Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson moderated the talk with Steffen Geyer, legalization activist and longtime head of the annual “Hanfparade” or hemp parade in Berlin; Joa Helms, CEO of Green House Amsterdam coffee shops and Kevin Sabet, former White House Office of National Drug Control Policy advisor and founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM.)This show was produced by Dina Elsayed.