Filling the Sink

On March 5, 2023, a cyberattack wreaked havoc on Hospital Clínic, one of Barcelona's leading public hospitals, causing surgery and appointments to be cancelled and forcing staff to work with pen and paper. Marc Torrens of ESADE Business School explains how ransomware attacks like this work. Jordi Hernández of the Autonomous University of Barcelona tells Cristina Tomàs White the lessons they learned after a data breach in 2021. Plus the thoughts of David López, a cybersecurity expert at IPM, and Tomàs Roy, director of the Catalan Cybersecurity Agency. This week's Catalan phrase is "jugar al gat i la rata," to play cat and mouse (or rat, literally). Presented by Lorcan Doherty with Cillian Shields. 

In January 2023 US-born Catalan woman Maria Branyas became the oldest verified living person in the world and on March 4 she celebrated her 116th birthday. To mark the occasion, Guifré Jordan revisits an interview he did with Maria in 2019. Sam Green, an American filmmaker who recently travelled to Catalonia to record with Maria for his documentary The Oldest Person in the World, tells us why he thinks people find the subject so captivating. This week's Catalan phrase is "és de l'any de la picor." Literally "it's from the year of the itch," it refers to a plague in Catalonia in 1471 and is used to describe something very old. Presented by Lorcan Doherty. 

Filling the Sink travels to a SIE center that helps women affected by gender-based violence to hear the story of one survivor and the thoughts of center director Susana Conesa. Tània Verge, Catalan equality and feminism minister, explains what action the government is taking to tackle violence against women. Lorcan Doherty is joined by Cristina Tomàs White and Guifré Jordan to discuss high-profile sexual assault cases involving footballer Dani Alves and journalist Saül Gordillo and the recent controversy over Spain's 'only yes means yes' consent law. This week's Catalan phrase is "estar-ne fins als ovaris," which means I've had it up to my ovaries or I've had it up to here. It's a modern twist on "estar-ne fins als collons," with collons being a slang term for testicles. 

One year on from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Filling the Sink hears stories from Ukrainian refugees and Russian dissidents who have fled to Catalonia. Fashion designer Ksenia Karpenko talks about the fear of losing people back home and how she has tried to adapt and keep her brand going. Anna Vykhovanets, Tatiana Hulevets and Olena Kol explain why they chose to start working in the Costa Brava hotel where the Red Cross had sent them to stay. Dissidents Anna Shevchenko, Nikita Kazantcev, and Andrei Paniushkin describe their run-ins with the Russian authorities and why they fled to Catalonia.   This week's Catalan phrase is 'no tenir solta ni volta'. A hard one to translate literally, it is used to describe something that does not make any sense. Presented by Lorcan Doherty with Cillian Shields. 

Filling the Sink travels to two coastal towns famous for their carnival shenanigans – Vilanova i la Geltrú and Sitges. Expect food fights and raucous parades! Carnival is a big deal in Catalonia – a hedonistic week of music, dance, dressing up, copious amounts of food and general revelry before Lent. Lorcan Doherty gets the lowdown from Catalan News' very own Carnival King and Queen, Gerard Escaich Folch and Cristina Tomàs White. This week's Catalan phrase is 'Per carnaval tot s'hi val' – For carnival, anything goes!

It's ski season! Wrap up warm, grab your goggles and gloves, this week Filling the Sink heads to the slopes with a guide to skiing in the Catalan Pyrenees. But hold on, with the climate emergency and ongoing drought, does it make sense to be going? Guifré Jordan travels to Cerdanya to hear both sides of the debate, with La Molina's Marta Viver, and Marcel Sangenís, from the Stop the Winter Olympics group. This week's Catalan phrase is 'trencar el gel'. It means 'to break the ice', and is used just like in English. Presented by Lorcan Doherty.   

Lauded by Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro, Barcelona-born J.A. Bayona is the director of movies like The Impossible, A Monster Calls and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. On the red carpet at the 2023 Gaudí Awards, Bayona chats to Filling the Sink about the ups and downs of his career to date, and his upcoming movie, Society of the Snow. Cillian Shields talks to two of his former teachers at ESCAC film school – Jaume Macià and Joan Marimón – to find out if the young Bayona was always destined for success. This week's Catalan phrase is 'ser el dolent de la pel·lícula'. It means 'to be the baddy in the film', but it is used in real life too. Presented by Lorcan Doherty with Gerard Escaich Folch.  

What do Rosalía, Nike, Dua Lipa, Apple, Tame Impala and IKEA have in common? They have all had videos made for them by CANADA – a Barcelona-based production company with a knack for the weird and wonderful. Lope Serrano, Co-Founder and Creative Director, and Alba Barneda, Global Head of Production, chat about their meteoric rise from making videos for their mates to becoming one of the pop world's go-to video producers. They share anecdotes about their creative process and what to do when something goes drastically wrong. Spoiler alert - sometimes, it turns out better! This week's Catalan phrase is 'tocar de peus a terra': keep your feet on the ground. Presented by Lorcan Doherty with Gerard Escaich Folch.  

George Orwell, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel García Márquez. Just some of the 20th Century's greatest writers who for a time called Catalonia home. Tadhg Prendiville from Barcelona Literary Tours takes Cillian Shields on a trip around the city. Cristina Tomàs White joins Lorcan Doherty to discuss the international poets, novelists and journalists who came to Catalonia – some during the Civil War, some fleeing dictatorships in South America, and others, simply for the adventure. This week's Catalan phrase is 'estar escrit'. Literally 'to be written', it means something is decided, set in stone. The following is a list of writers – and one influential literary agent – mentioned in the podcast.  George Orwell  Pablo Neruda  Isabel Allende  John Dos Passos  Simone Weil  Muriel Rukeyser  Colm Tóibín  Louis MacNeice Langston Hughes  Ernest Hemingway  Martha Gellhorn  Roberto Bolaño  Gabriel García Márquez  Carmen Balcells  Manuel Vázquez Montalbán  Mario Vargas Llosa  Truman Capote  Eduardo Galeano  Cristina Peri Rossi  Cristina Rivera Garza  Mathias Énard  Denise Duncan 

Guifré Jordan joins Lorcan Doherty for this guide to Catalonia's high-speed rail connections. Cristina Tomàs White takes a trip to Paris from Barcelona with SNCF. Romain Payet, co-founder of Midnight Trains explains why he is intent on bringing international night trains to Catalonia soon. Adrià Ramirez, head of the PTP group lobbying for better public transport explains what improvements he would still like to see. This week's Catalan phrase is 'deixar algú amb la mel a la boca'. Literally 'leave someone with honey in their mouth', it means to deprive someone of something pleasant that they were beginning to savor or enjoy.