Slovenia, aka Katy's favourite country, is increasingly drawing comparisons with Hungary and Poland when it comes to the state of its democracy. Can this worrying direction of travel be reversed? This week we ring up our favourite Sloveniologist Aljaž Pengov Bitenc to find out. We're also talking about Bulgaria's political rock star, and a shocking attack on a Dutch crime journalist. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Katla and an update from Death In Ice Valley. You should also check out our interview with Death In Ice Valley host Marit Higraff, from May 2018! Listen here. You can follow Aljaž on Twitter here and read his blog here. We're off on a little summer break! We'll be back in September. In the meantime, we think you'll love the visual version of our the first episode in our series This Is What A Generation Sounds Like, Josh and Franco, and the second episode, Denisa. 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. Senior producer: Katz Laszlo Producers: Priyanka Shankar and Andrei Popoviciu 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

Few people talk about bread in such magical terms as Apollonia Poilâne. This week we speak to the head of one of France's most prestigious bakeries about the secrets of sourdough and taking over the family company aged just 18. We're also talking about Iceland's four-day week experiment, a cyberattack that took out hundreds of Swedish supermarkets, and boosting body positivity in Norway. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Apollonia's book Poilâne, Eurocrats Who Look Like Europe (EU Scream), and Sweat. 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. Senior producer: Katz Laszlo Producers: Andrei Popoviciu and Priyanka Shankar 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 tend to talk about freedom of movement within the EU as an abstract concept. In reality, moving to a new place involves a million little moments of awkwardness, sweetness, and human vulnerability. This week, we bring you a story of what freedom of movement actually felt like, for a 14-year-old Romanian moving to Germany. This is the second episode from our series This Is What A Generation Sounds Like: intimate stories from young Europeans across the continent. A beautiful visual version of this podcast will be available soon! In the meantime, check out the first visual podcast in this series: Josh and Franco. This series is produced with Are We Europe and made in cooperation with Allianz Kulturstiftung, an independent not-for-profit cultural foundation committed to strengthening cohesion in Europe using the tools of art and culture. Find out more at kulturstiftung.allianz.de. Producers: Andrei Popoviciu and Denisa Harbuz Sound design: Andrei Popoviciu and Katz Laszlo Editorial support: Katz Laszlo, Katy Lee, Dominic Kraemer and Priyanka Shankar Music: Sat după sat by Robin and the Backstabbers; Limba Română and Frunzuliță, iarbă deasă by Subcarpați; Lavalamp by Phish Funk; Romcom and Days and Days by Gustav Kemps; The Way To Romania by She Said Destroy!; Chaos at the Spaceship by Out Of Flux; Follow The River by Delnova; Jim Barne. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions and Artlist. SFX from Freesound.org. 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. 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

Streets, cities, train stations: across the continent, they're likely to be named after men. What if the women who shaped Europe were given the recognition they deserve? This week, Katy speaks to the Irish journalist Mary Fitzgerald and Italian writer Francesca Cavallo, co-author of Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls, about a wonderful project which reimagines the Brussels metro map in celebration of brilliant European women. We're also talking about the row over LGBTQ rights at the Euro football tournament, and how unsexy-but-important housing policy brought down Sweden's prime minister. You can explore the Capital of Europe, Women of Europe map here. This week's Isolation Inspiration: We Are Who We Are (HBO); Lupin (Netflix); Ecotopia (Arte); Are We Europe: The Queer Issue. This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a brand-new 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. Senior producer: Katz Laszlo Producers: Andrei Popoviciu and Priyanka Shankar 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

A whole bunch of plastic objects are about to become illegal across the European Union: everything from coffee stirrers to straws and cotton buds. As we count down to the big day on July 3, we're revisiting last year's special episode about how the EU is even able to make laws like this for 27 countries. This week we're asking: "How the hell do you make an EU law?" Originally released in February 2020, this episode was part of our mini-series Bursting the Bubble, an attempt to explain how EU institutions work in the least boring way possible. Huge thanks to the European Cultural Foundation for funding this series. They support projects that promote Europe as an open and democratic space. Written and produced by Katz Laszlo, with help from Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer. 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. 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

Jens Thoms Ivarsson has one of this continent's most fascinating jobs: chief "rain man" for the city of Gothenburg. We chat to the creative director of Rain Gothenburg about the Swedish city's rather wonderful plan to become the best place in the world when it's raining. Also this week: expensive Finnish breakfasts, accidental asparagus, and why Budapest's plans to build a Chinese university campus have gone down so badly. This week's Isolation Inspiration: "Inside the last matriarchy in Europe", Zero, and "Portrait of a pigeon racer". You can read about Rain Gothenburg here in The Guardian. This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a brand-new 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. Senior producer: Katz Laszlo Producers: Andrei Popoviciu and Priyanka Shankar 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

This week, a murky spying scandal and a huge climate lawsuit. It seems that our American friends may have been using Denmark's internet cables to spy on European politicians. But how much did Denmark know about it? We're also talking about the landmark Dutch court ruling that could force Shell to drastically cut its carbon emissions. Plus, the European Review of Books! We chat to George Blaustein and Sander Pleij about why they're setting up a new magazine of ideas for the continent. You can help crowd-fund the European Review of Books here and read about the grime-eating bacteria in the Medici Chapel here. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Day X and The Mole. This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a brand-new 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. Senior producer: Katz Laszlo Producers: Andrei Popoviciu and Priyanka Shankar 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 have a very special episode for you this week. From the south of Italy, a father and son's coming of age stories, told in parallel. This is the first episode of our series This Is What A Generation Sounds Like: intimate stories from across the continent, as told by the young Europeans experiencing them. This series is produced with Are We Europe and made in cooperation with Allianz Kulturstiftung, an independent not-for-profit cultural foundation committed to strengthening cohesion in Europe using the tools of art and culture. Find out more at kulturstiftung.allianz.de. Producers: Katz Laszlo and Josh Prezioso Editorial support: Dominic Kraemer, Katy Lee, Andrei Popoviciu and Priyanka Shankar Music: Tarantella del Gargano by Marco Beasley & represented by Out Here Music; Italian Opera by UV Protection; Andante (Italian Concerto) written by Bach and performed by Catrina Finch; Amore Mio by Mina with Warner Music Italy; Tomb by Veshza; La Luna E Fisarmonica by Ziv Moran; Disco Ball by Evgeny Barduzha, and Jim Barne. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions: Kilkerrin by Scalcairn; Sylvestor by One Such Village; Angel Academy by Marc Oakley; Toby or not Toby by Mark Oakley. SFX from Freesounds.org: Wescwave; GeorgeHopkins; suonidigallipoli; samararaine; cmusounddesign; suonidibologna; wolkenunddreck; ancorapazzo; soundforest. 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. 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

This week, Eurovision, panthers, and a celebration of Cyrillic writing. Ahead of a Cyrillic national holiday in several Eastern European countries, we chat to typography designers Maria Doreuli and Krista Radoeva about what makes the script so special. We're also talking about the Paris mayor's war on cars, and why Slovenia's populist prime minister is really, really into panthers. Plus, a special edition of Isolation Inspiration for the Eurovision nerds. You can follow Maria and Krista here and here on Instagram and check out their Cyrillicsy design workshops here on Twitter. Donate to Covax | Donate to Medecins Sans Frontières The Swedish Ambassador's Guide to Eurovision can be found here. 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. Producer: Katz Laszlo Assistant producers: Andrei Popoviciu and Priyanka Shankar 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

Like everyone else, we Europeans have been watching a LOT of television over the past year. But something rather nice has been happening: we've been watching *each other's* television. Could streaming giants like Netflix be helping develop a shared European culture, as we all sit down to enjoy shows like Lupin and Money Heist? This week we speak to Jérôme Dechesne of European producers' group CEPI about the Europeanisation of binge-watching. We're also talking about the prince who apparently-accidentally shot Romania's largest bear, and the Belgian farmer who may have apparently-accidentally moved the French border. This episode was produced as part of Sphera, a brand-new collective of independent European media. Find out more at sphera-hub.com. This week's Isolation Inspiration: Quo Vadis, Aida?, Toksvig's Almanac 2021, and The Economist: How Netflix is creating a common European culture. 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. Producer: Katz Laszlo Assistant producers: Andrei Popoviciu and Priyanka Shankar 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