The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer
The Europeans is a fresh and entertaining weekly podcast about European politics and culture, recorded each week between Paris and Amsterdam with fascinating guests joining from across Europe. This multiple award-winning podcast fills you in on the major European politics stories and other European news of the week, as well as fun and quirky nuggets that have been missed by most media outlets.
Hosted by Katy Lee, a journalist based in Paris, and Dominic Kraemer, an opera singer in Amsterdam, The Europeans covers everything from elections and climate policy to the best new European films and TV shows. We also produce investigative podcasts about everything from the European farming lobby to oat milk. Yes, oat milk.
Katy and Dominic are old friends, and the warmth and intimacy of their conversations will soon make you feel like you’ve known them a long time too. They approach topics with a light and humorous tone that makes The Europeans stand out from other European news podcasts, while remaining journalistically rigorous and meticulously fact-checked. The Europeans has been recommended by The New York Times, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, The Financial Times, and many other outlets.
Katy Lee, a British-French reporter, has written for major outlets including The Guardian, Politico Europe, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Foreign Policy and The New Statesman for more than a decade, covering French and European politics and more recently, climate change. Dominic Kraemer, a British-German opera singer, performs across Europe when he is not co-hosting The Europeans, with roles recently at the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Dutch National Opera and the Münchener Biennale. The Europeans’ team is completed by producers Katz Laszlo in Amsterdam and Wojciech Oleksiak in Warsaw. You’ll hear them joining Katy and Dominic from time to time, particularly during investigative episodes like ‘The Oatly Chronicles’ and ‘The Big-Agri Bully Boys’.
The Europeans’ breezy, informal approach to covering European news has won awards such as a Covering Climate Now award for an episode about the Swiss women who sued their government at the European Court of Human Rights demanding more climate action; Germany’s prestigious CIVIS Media Prize for ‘Mohamed’, an episode that explores the everyday life of a young undocumented man in Amsterdam; and best LGBTQIA+ short at the MiraBan UK Film Awards for ‘Josh and Franco’, the coming-of-age story of a father and son, both gay.
Our guests have included everyone from major figures in European politics such as Alexander Stubb, now the President of Finland, and Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, to star chefs Asma Khan and Christian Puglisi, celebrated illustrator Christoph Niemann, and environmentalist George Monbiot. Since launching in 2017, we’ve talked about everything from elections in France, Italy and many more countries besides, to the politics of halloumi cheese in Cyprus, to why Donald Trump is so hard for TV interpreters to translate.
We pride ourselves on covering European politics, European news and European culture from a pan-European perspective. You’ll often hear stories on The Europeans from parts of the continent that don’t usually receive enough attention from major international media outlets, especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.
You might enjoy The Europeans if you also enjoy one of these other podcasts: The News Agents, On the Media, Today in Focus, Inside Europe, The Journal, EU Confidential, The Daily, The Globalist, Reasons to be Cheerful, The Media Show, Power Play, and The New Statesman. Whether you’re already a European news nerd, or simply someone who’d like to be better informed about what’s happening across Europe, The Europeans is the podcast for you.
Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/europeanspodcast
Hosted by Katy Lee, a journalist based in Paris, and Dominic Kraemer, an opera singer in Amsterdam, The Europeans covers everything from elections and climate policy to the best new European films and TV shows. We also produce investigative podcasts about everything from the European farming lobby to oat milk. Yes, oat milk.
Katy and Dominic are old friends, and the warmth and intimacy of their conversations will soon make you feel like you’ve known them a long time too. They approach topics with a light and humorous tone that makes The Europeans stand out from other European news podcasts, while remaining journalistically rigorous and meticulously fact-checked. The Europeans has been recommended by The New York Times, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, The Financial Times, and many other outlets.
Katy Lee, a British-French reporter, has written for major outlets including The Guardian, Politico Europe, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Foreign Policy and The New Statesman for more than a decade, covering French and European politics and more recently, climate change. Dominic Kraemer, a British-German opera singer, performs across Europe when he is not co-hosting The Europeans, with roles recently at the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Dutch National Opera and the Münchener Biennale. The Europeans’ team is completed by producers Katz Laszlo in Amsterdam and Wojciech Oleksiak in Warsaw. You’ll hear them joining Katy and Dominic from time to time, particularly during investigative episodes like ‘The Oatly Chronicles’ and ‘The Big-Agri Bully Boys’.
The Europeans’ breezy, informal approach to covering European news has won awards such as a Covering Climate Now award for an episode about the Swiss women who sued their government at the European Court of Human Rights demanding more climate action; Germany’s prestigious CIVIS Media Prize for ‘Mohamed’, an episode that explores the everyday life of a young undocumented man in Amsterdam; and best LGBTQIA+ short at the MiraBan UK Film Awards for ‘Josh and Franco’, the coming-of-age story of a father and son, both gay.
Our guests have included everyone from major figures in European politics such as Alexander Stubb, now the President of Finland, and Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, to star chefs Asma Khan and Christian Puglisi, celebrated illustrator Christoph Niemann, and environmentalist George Monbiot. Since launching in 2017, we’ve talked about everything from elections in France, Italy and many more countries besides, to the politics of halloumi cheese in Cyprus, to why Donald Trump is so hard for TV interpreters to translate.
We pride ourselves on covering European politics, European news and European culture from a pan-European perspective. You’ll often hear stories on The Europeans from parts of the continent that don’t usually receive enough attention from major international media outlets, especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe.
You might enjoy The Europeans if you also enjoy one of these other podcasts: The News Agents, On the Media, Today in Focus, Inside Europe, The Journal, EU Confidential, The Daily, The Globalist, Reasons to be Cheerful, The Media Show, Power Play, and The New Statesman. Whether you’re already a European news nerd, or simply someone who’d like to be better informed about what’s happening across Europe, The Europeans is the podcast for you.
Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/europeanspodcast
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 25, 2025 • 54min
Are we all trapped in a transatlantic Truman Show?
Can we talk about Trump’s culture war, Putin’s war on inclusivity, and just about everyone’s unwillingness to pay teachers fair wages—and giggle throughout? You better believe it. Nina Lamparski is back in the hosting chair, and strap in, listeners, because this week’s show is a *ride.*
Our guest this week is the delightful and incisive political analyst Paweł Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Paweł returns to the podcast to tell us why Europe is living in a Truman-Show-style universe directed by Donald Trump and his international team. We pick Paweł’s terrific brain about what our leaders can do to build upon the growing pro-European sentiment (really!) and engage with the US as its peer, not its lackey. Plus: Nina raises a glass of crémant to Luxembourgish teachers, who had what seems to us like a very swanky Good Week. And Dominic awards Bad Week to Eurovision, which seems to be crumbling whilst Russia’s Intervision is back and creepier than ever.
Mentioned in this episode:
The European Sentiment Compass 2025 from ECF and ECFR, “Reality show: Why Europe must not cave in Trump’s culture war”
culture war”
Europeans jingles composer Jim Barne’s Broadway(!) musical, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
This live blog from Czech Radio’s Zlín service that tracked the movements of Emil the Elk all summer
This week's Inspiration Station recommendations are Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, a cookbook by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette, and Rejected: Designs for the European Flag by Jonas von Lenthe.
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 This podcast is co-hosted by a bionic woman
00:04:45 Good Week: Luxembourgish teachers
00:12:18 Bad Week: Eurovision
00:29:09 Interview: Paweł Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations
00:43:50 The Inspiration Station: The books Twelve Months of Monastery Soups and Rejected: Designs for the European Flag
00:50:14 Happy Ending: Central Europe adopts elk mascot
Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram | Mastodon | hello@europeanspodcast.com
17 snips
Sep 18, 2025 • 51min
Should we be worried about Russian drones in NATO’s skies?
Join Johanna Fabrin, the managing director at 21st Europe, as she dreams up transformative blueprints for Europe. Discussing the innovative Starline rail vision, she reveals how intercity travel could transform into a seamless metro experience. Johanna emphasizes the importance of optimism and design in shaping Europe’s future. The conversation also explores playgrounds as vital civic infrastructure, enhancing children’s well-being and community resilience against challenges. It's a blend of visionary ideas and actionable designs!
Sep 11, 2025 • 49min
Terrible week for ABBA
The music industry is reeling due to what’s being called the 'largest intellectual property theft in history' — we’ll dig into the fight between Big Tech and the people who make the music. Meanwhile, Sweden’s new cultural canon has people fuming — not least because it leaves out ABBA.
We’ll also hear from Der Spiegel’s Gunter Latsch about his chilling investigation into the shadowy world of organ trafficking. And we’ll finish, as always, with something a little lighter: archaeologists in Denmark have been uncovering a kind of Stone Age Atlantis beneath the sea and they’ve been using a funky underwater vacuum to do so.
This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: Addison Rae - 'Headphones On' | Behind the Song and Love in Five Acts by Daniela Krien (translated by Jamie Bulloch)
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.
Other resources for this week's episode:
No Abba, no meatballs? Sweden’s new cultural canon is a listicle that will soon be forgotten:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/04/sweden-cultural-canon-abba-ikea-meatballs
Since we recorded this episode, a US federal judge has postponed approval of the $1.5 billion Anthropic copyright deal: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/anthropic-judge-blasts-copyright-pact-as-nowhere-close-to-done
Taskforce recommends prosecution of Mishra for alleged organ trafficking:
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/health-science/article/2001525127/taskforce-recommends-prosecution-of-mishra-for-alleged-organ-trafficking
00:00:47 Introduction: Emoji fuelled marital strife
00:04:26 Good Week: Sweden’s controversial ’cultural canon’
00:13:31 Bad Week: The fight between AI and musicians
00:27:05 Interview: Gunther Latch on Germans going abroad for kidneys
00:40:51 Inspiration Station: ’Headphones On’ and ’Love in Five Acts’
00:46:01 Happy Ending: Denmark’s Stone Age Atlantis
Producers: Katz Laszlo, Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
Hosts: Nina Lamparski and Dominic Kraemer
YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram | Mastodon | hello@europeanspodcast.com
Sep 5, 2025 • 50min
Why is the EU not acting on Gaza?
This week, we’re dedicating the entire episode to Gaza. We have a lot of questions about the EU’s role in what’s happening there: Why is the EU not suspending trade with, or at the very least banning weapon sales to, Israel? Why is Israel being treated differently than the way Russia has been? And what will inaction mean for the credibility of the EU?
We put those questions to two esteemed guests: Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, who served as the EU’s representative to Palestine from 2020 until July 2023, and Shada Islam, Lahore-born, Brussels-based commentator who has recently written some incredibly moving and thought-provoking pieces about the EU’s complicity in the war in Gaza. And we round out the episode with a brief Inspiration Station recommendation: the book Enter Ghost by British-Palestinian author Isabella Hammad.
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.
00:00:46 Introduction: The cucumber season is over
00:02:53 What’s been happening in Gaza for the past two years
00:06:45 Interview: Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff
00:29:00 Interview: Shada Islam
00:46: 16 The Inspiration Station: the book Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Editorial support: Katz Laszlo
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne, Mariska Martina and Morrisella by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).
YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram | Mastodon | hello@europeanspodcast.com
Aug 22, 2025 • 53min
Three Rivers and a Sausage Fight
It’s our second week of “cucumber season” programming, and fair warning: we’re really leaning into the late-summer goofiness. This week, we go hard on German gastronomy, with a deep dive into Europe’s declining alcohol consumption and a recap of the utterly absurd row over the origins of Bratwurst.
Because we don’t want you to think we’ve totally lost the plot, we also had a perfectly civilised conversation with Robert Winder, the prolific author and sometime editor of The Independent and Granta whose new book, Three Rivers, comes out next week. Robert spoke with our producer Katz about the waterways that shape Europe as we know it—and about their future in a warming climate. You can purchase the book here on 28 August.
This week's Inspiration Station recommendations are the Danish film The Guilty and the audio recordings of Colm Tóibín’s novels Brooklyn and Long Island. Our Happy Ending comes from Helsinki, which managed to go an entire year with no traffic fatalities! You can read more about the milestone achievement here and how they did it here.
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 Welcome back to cucumber season!
00:03:09 Good Week: European livers
00:16:29 Bad Week: Bratwurst ensnared in national feud
00:31:16 Interview: Robert Winder reconnects us with the poetry of rivers
00:44:00 The Inspiration Station: the film The Guilty and Colm Tóibín’s novels Brooklyn and Long Island
00:49:11 Happy Ending: Helsinki successfully stamps out road deaths
Producers: Morgan Childs, Katz Laszlo, and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram | Mastodon | hello@europeanspodcast.com
8 snips
Aug 14, 2025 • 51min
Save the games! Preserve the bread! Guard your rabbits!
Karl De Smedt, the head of the Puratos Sourdough Library in Belgium, shares his passion for preserving sourdough starters, likening them to the rich tapestry of European cultures. He discusses the ethical dilemmas surrounding animal conservation and highlights the unique role his library plays in documenting breadmaking biodiversity. The conversation also touches on quirky topics like the cultural significance of strawberry pasta and a provocative zoo program in Denmark, blending humor with serious issues of preservation and identity.
Jul 3, 2025 • 56min
Hungary's Pride ban goes up in smoke (and glitter)
This year’s Budapest Pride was banned in March under the Orbán government’s contentious “child protection” law. Demonstrators were threatened with hefty fines for participating, and the government said it would employ facial-recognition technology to identify and potentially prosecute those who turned out to take part at the march on 28 June.
Did the ban work? Not in the slightest. In fact, more people than ever in the 30-year history of Budapest Pride showed up to celebrate their rights as LGBTQ+ human beings.
The massive Pride march brought a glimmer of hope to some Hungarian citizens, including this week’s guest, writer Krisztián Marton. We spoke with Krisztián about the lead-up to the event, the thrill of being on the ground last Saturday, and what might be next for Hungary, now that Viktor Orbán finally has a formidable challenger in Péter Magyar. We also chatted with Dominic’s husband, Thomas Lamers, a philosopher and dramaturg who hit the streets for us, mic in hand. (Thanks, Thomas, we owe you!)
Krisztián Marton is a screenwriter and novelist. You can follow him on Instagram here and read an excerpt in English of his Margó Prize-nominated novel Crybaby here. You can donate to Thomas’s fundraiser to pay some of the fines that may be incurred by Pride attendees here.
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 do it 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.
This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: the recent episode of Zakia Sewell’s Radio 6 series Dream Time, “Solstice selections…with Zakia,” and the Ukrainian band The Sixsters, winners of the European Emerging Bands Contest.
00:00:46 A sweltering hello and a tick PSA
00:03:44 Bad Week: Venetians overrun by billionaire wedding
00:11:45 Good Week: Owners of Danish faces (and their copyrights)
00:21:13 Interview: Thomas Lamers on Budapest Pride and Krisztián Marton on the present and future for LGBTQ+ people in Hungary
00:49:57 The Inspiration Station: the BBC Radio 6 Dream Time episode “Solstice selections…with Zakia” and the Ukrainian band The Sixsters.
00:53:12 Happy Ending: Cannes caps cruise-ship tourism
Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram | Mastodon | hello@europeanspodcast.com
Jun 19, 2025 • 1h 13min
Toxic chemicals, abortion rights, and a Nazi-era train law
Depending on where you are in Europe, your right to a safe abortion — and reproductive care in general — can vary dramatically. This week, we speak to pioneering abortion activist Rebecca Gomperts about why she's hopeful that we can fight back against these inequalities as well as crackdowns on abortion access in other parts of the world. We're also talking about a rebel campaign in Germany to defeat a draconian Nazi-era law, and some disturbing research into the weedkillers used by many of the farmers who grow our foods.
Note: We updated this episode's audio on June 20, 2025. The original version incorrectly stated that glyphosate is sprayed directly on many European crops, which is not the case.
You can find out more about Women on Waves here and Women on Web here. Read about the mifepristone study here.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcasts, we'd love it if you'd consider supporting our work. You can chip in to help us cover the weekly research and production of The Europeans at patreon.com/europeanspodcast (many currencies are available), or gift a donation to a super fan here. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast!
This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news.
This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: Secrets We Keep (Reservatet) and The Outlaw Ocean Podcast. Bonus entries: Vessel, a 2014 documentary about Women on Waves; A Sense of Quietness, Eleanor McDowall's audio documentary about abortion in Ireland; and Tending Grief by Camille Sapara Barton.
Other resources for this episode:
'Carcinogenic effects of long-term exposure from prenatal life to glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides in Sprague–Dawley rats' - Environmental Health, June 10, 2025
'Revealed: Monsanto’s secret funding for weedkiller studies' - The Guardian, March 12, 2020
'Europe likely to miss most green targets for 2030' - Politico Europe, February 20, 2025
'EWG’s 2025 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce' (USA) - Environmental Working Group, June 11, 2025
'Here’s why some people still evade public transport fares – even when they’re 50 cents' - The Conversation, February 13, 2025
00:00:46 Is it a Smörgåsbord? Is it a charcuterie board? No, it's The Europeans
00:04:56 Bad Week: Glyphosate
00:21:41 Good Week: Germany's freed fare-dodgers
00:35:22 Interview: Rebecca Gomperts on the state of reproductive rights in Europe
01:01:46 The Inspiration Station: Secrets We Keep and The Outlaw Ocean Podcast
01:07:10 Happy Ending: Beavers are back in Portugal
Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram | Mastodon | hello@europeanspodcast.com
Jun 12, 2025 • 1h 4min
Could Europe switch off big tech's algorithms?
The EU supposedly has some of the world's toughest laws regulating big tech. So why does it still feel like Europeans are being sucked into increasingly polarised online communities, and manipulated during our elections? Can we do anything about it? This week's guest, the Irish internet campaigner Johnny Ryan, argues that a pretty radical solution is within the EU's reach. We're also talking about the Dutch government's collapse, and why bear meat may soon be on the menu in Slovakia.
Johnny is the Director of Enforce. You can follow him on Bluesky here and read his article calling on the EU to switch off social media's algorithms here in The Guardian. A longer version of our interview with Johnny is available on our YouTube channel.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcasts, we'd love it if you'd consider supporting our work. You can chip in to help us cover the weekly research and production of The Europeans at patreon.com/europeanspodcast (many currencies are available), or gift a donation to a super fan here. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast!
This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news.
This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: Last One Laughing UK, LOL: Qui rit, sort, and 'The Mars House' by Natasha Pulley. Bonus: our interview in February with Jean Chalaby about the international TV format trade.
Other resources for this episode:
'Bears stray into political territory in Romania and Slovakia' - BalkanInsight, April 21, 2025
00:00:46 People, politics and peculiarities
00:02:45 Good Week: Dutch leftwing and centrist parties?
00:22:01 Bad Week: Bear meat on the menu in Slovakia
00:36:43 Interview: Johnny Ryan on why Europe's supposedly tough tech regulation isn't nearly tough enough
00:55:53 The Inspiration Station: Last One Laughing UK, Qui rit sort and 'The Mars House' by Natasha Pulley
01:00:52 Happy Ending: A condom masterpiece
Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram | Mastodon | hello@europeanspodcast.com
Jun 5, 2025 • 43min
Is real change coming to Serbia?
Serbia is at a pivotal moment as protests erupt over corruption and governmental accountability. The tragic railway collapse has ignited a nationwide resistance, fueled by student activism and calls for change. Personal stories reveal the challenges of life in Serbia, shaped by history and societal turmoil. The contentious Belgrade Waterfront project adds to the unrest, showcasing widespread dissatisfaction. Amidst this backdrop, the complex emotions tied to Serbian identity are explored, blending hope for a better future with deep-rooted frustrations.
