This week, the case for culture: keeping it free, and keeping it funded. We're talking about the state of artistic freedom in Poland; plus, the state of Europe's live music industry, with Elise Phamgia of Liveurope and Janine Cathrein of Swiss indie folk band Black Sea Dahu. Also on the agenda: what to do with problematic statues in Brussels. Black Sea Dahu are touring again! You can find tour dates and more on their website, and listen on Spotify. Isolation Inspiration: Liveurope's artists to watch out for in 2022; Ukrainian war literature in translation; Édouard Louis, 'Qui a tué mon père'. Bonus recommendations: Black Sea Dahu's new album, 'I Am My Mother', and 'Empireland' by Sathnam Sangera. 02:43 Good Week, or 'Constructive Ideas Week': Brussels' report on colonial-era monuments 12:17 Bad Week: Krzysztof Głuchowski and artistic freedom in Poland 21:53 Interview: Elise Phamgia and Janine Cathrein on the state of Europe's live music industry 34:21 Isolation Inspiration: Liveurope's new music for 2022; the new Ukrainian war literature; Édouard Louis, 'Qui a tué mon père' 37:46 Happy Ending: a boat trip 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. 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 Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

From Ireland to Croatia, the cost of housing has been shooting up across this continent, leaving rising numbers of people homeless and millions struggling to pay the rent. This week Amsterdam city geographer Cody Hochstenbach, whose new book Uitgewoond argues for a revolution in housing policy, is here to explain how we ended up in this mess — and what we might do to fix it. We're also talking about Spanish orcas, lost teeth, and a Europe without Facebook and Instagram. You can read El País' long read on the changing face of Spain's drug trade here, and check out Bruno Le Maire's unsmiling mug shots here. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Beautiful World, Where Are You and The Summit of the Gods 02:39 Bad Week: Meta in Europe 12:33 Good Week: Spain's orca drug plot busted 20:14 Interview: Cody Hochstenbach on fixing the housing market 33:08 Isolation Inspiration: Beautiful World, Where Are You and The Summit of the Gods 36:53 Happy Ending: Paul and his teeth, reunited 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. 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 Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

What do nuclear energy and whale-hunting have in common? They're both at the heart of controversial debates about whether they can ever be described as 'sustainable'. This week we delve into a questionable EU anti-greenwashing effort, as well as Iceland's mooted plan to put a ban on commercial whaling. We're also looking at the revamp of one of Venice's most historic buildings, the Procuratie Vecchie. Emma Ursich, whose NGO The Human Safety Net will be among its new occupants, is here to explain why the building is opening its doors after half a millennium closed to the public. You can check out Influence Map's investigation into the EU gas lobby here, and listen to our producer Katz Laszlo's beautiful piece 'Whale Fall' here. This week's Isolation Inspiration: The Trojan Horse Affair and Glória. 03:01 Bad Week: Gas, nuclear and the EU taxonomy 11:56 Good Week: Whales off the coast of Iceland 22:01 Interview: Emma Ursich on remaking the Procuratie Vecchie 31:53 Isolation Inspiration: The Trojan Horse Affair and Gloria 34:29 Happy Ending: amazing Swiss scientists 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. 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 Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

Taryn de Vere set herself a joyful challenge in January: to dress up each day as a household object, from a bottle of toilet cleaner to a sack of potatoes. This week, the person dubbed Possibly The Most Colourful Woman in Ireland joins us to make the case for injecting a little more fun into our wardrobes. We're also talking about ghost flights, a relaxing Berlin transport initiative, and whether Italy's 80-year-old president will ever be allowed to retire. You can follow Taryn on Instagram here and on Twitter here. This week's Isolation Inspiration: 'Into Eternity' and 'Courage'. This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a collective of independent European media. Find out more at sphera-hub.com. 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. 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 Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

When the European parliament elected a new president last week, many of the headlines focused on one thing: the fact that she's against abortion. But Roberta Metsola's public stance is not at all unusual in a country with one of the strictest abortion bans in the world. This week we're asking: where does this incredibly strong taboo come from? Researcher and activist Liza Caruana-Finkel is here to fill us in. We're also talking about Chinese influence at European universities, and the case of a toilet that went all the way to Italy's Supreme Court. 'Why it is vital to decriminalise abortion: the case of Malta' - The Conversation China's Magic Weapon - BBC Excellent tweets about embarrassing mistakes in a second (or third or fourth) language This week's Isolation Inspiration: The Investigation (Efterforskningen); Atlas Linguae This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a collective of independent European media. Find out more at sphera-hub.com. 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. 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 Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

We're back for a brand new year of stories from across the continent. Top of the agenda is an issue that's been worrying a lot of Europeans: eye-wateringly expensive energy bills. Energy expert Marine Cornelis is here to explain why this is happening and what can be done about it. We're also catching up on Ukraine and a transatlantic cheese dispute. Marine is the founder of Next Energy Consumer and the host of the Energ'ethic podcast. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Young Royals, Stromae's new single, and Angèle. 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review. Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

We threw a little party for our last episode of the year! Producers Katz Laszlo and Wojciech Oleksiak join Katy and Dominic from Amsterdam and Warsaw to discuss elephant retirement, tree fraud, and festive traditions around Europe. Local snacks included. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Women at War, Draumalandið by Valgeir Sigurðsson, The Way Home: Tales from a Life Without Technology by Mark Boyle, and Are We Europe: Online Lies, Offline Lives. Thank you so much for listening to The Europeans in 2021. We'll be back on January 20. If you enjoy our podcast and would like to help us keep making it into next year, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review. This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a collective of independent European media. Find out more at sphera-hub.com. Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

It's that time of year when reindeer start cropping up on all kinds of Christmassy consumer goods, from snowglobes to Advent calendars. But for the indigenous Sámi people of northern Europe, herding these remarkable animals is a way of life — and one that is increasingly under threat. This week we speak to Sámi herder and climate change expert Jannie Staffansson about her community's intimate and profound relationship with reindeer. It's an animal-themed episode this week, so we're also talking about a bee miracle in the Canary Islands, and how a European sheep can somehow be rare and a threat to biodiversity at the same time. This week's Isolation Inspiration was brought to you courtesy of Arte. Check out their series Re: European Stories here. Dominic enjoyed this episode on tea farming in Georgia, while Frederic recommends you check out this episode on village shops. You should also check out the latest episode of NPR's Rough Translation podcast! It includes a version of 'Sara', one of the episodes from our mini-series 'This Is What A Generation Sounds Like', co-produced by our very own Katz Laszlo with Adelina Lancianese. This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a collective of independent European media. Find out more at sphera-hub.com. 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review. Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

Millions of us have spent this pandemic bingeing on international films and television, transported far away through the magic of the screen. But there's an underappreciated army of workers who make it all possible: the subtitlers. This week we chat to Russian subtitler Max Deryagin about how Netflix has shaken up the industry and why things sometimes get lost in translation. We're also talking about the new Germany, the failures of Britain's asylum policy, and the woman on Romania's new 20 lei banknote. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Steve Rosenberg's interview with Alexander Lukashenko, this episode of the BBC's Media Show podcast, and Lords of Scam. You can also check out this Twitter thread about a key problem with Netflix subtitles. This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a collective of independent European media. Find out more at sphera-hub.com. 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review. Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak Senior producer: Katz Laszlo Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com

'Move fast and break things' was Facebook's corporate philosophy in its early days. Europe now wants to do the opposite when it comes to the harmful effects of social media: move fast and fix things. This week we're taking a look at the EU's plan to rein in the tech giants with the help of one of our favourite European tech nerds, Guillermo Beltrà of the Open Society European Policy Institute. We've also got a special Outer Space edition of Good Week Bad Week. This podcast was produced in collaboration with the Open Society European Policy Institute. You can find out more about their work here and check out an episode we previously made with them about Europe's climate policy here. This week's Isolation Inspiration: The Unlikely Murderer (Den osannolika mördaren) and Tear Along the Dotted Line (Strappare lungo i bordi). This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a collective of independent European media. Find out more at sphera-hub.com. 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 euros / dollars / pounds a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast. You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review. Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak Senior producer: Katz Laszlo Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina This podcast is part of the Are We Europe family. Find more like-minded European podcasts at areweeurope.com/audio-family. Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | hello@europeanspodcast.com