The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
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
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Episodes
Tuesday Apr 09, 2019
Tuesday Apr 09, 2019
This week, a little glimmer of hope from central Europe in the form of a new Slovakian president who refuses to fight dirty. And a little glimmer of the future in the form of our guest, bionic woman and tech journalist Mimi Billing, one of a growing number of Swedes to have got themselves... microchipped? Plus: Russian whale jails, a decades-old French mystery, and germs at the opera.
Follow Mimi on Twitter here and read her great article about Swedish body-hacking here!
And for more on Slovakia's badass president-elect Zuzana Čaputová, there's no better place to start than the latest episode of the In Between Europe podcast hosted by our former guest Zselyke Csaky, which you can check out here.
A massive thanks to our growing army of Patreon supporters for keeping the show going. You can chip in at patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
See you next week, and in the meantime, see you online!Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcast
europeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Mar 26, 2019
Tuesday Mar 26, 2019
This week, like so many other weeks, it's been easy to take a look at the world and think: how did things get so polarised? Ahead of the European elections, the battle lines are already being drawn: nationalists vs globalists, liberals vs conservatives. But a fascinating project is trying to get Europeans from across the political spectrum to actually sit down and talk about their differences. Sebastian Horn, the deputy editor of Die Zeit online, is on the line from Berlin to explain the thinking behind the Europe Talks project. Plus: changing populist fortunes from Budapest to Amsterdam, and the mathematics of soap bubbles.
Sign up to take part in Europe Talks here.
Thanks so much to our listeners who've donated on Patreon! Every little helps and we're hugely grateful for the support. You can chip in at patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Thanks for listening.
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcasteuropeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
After the week it's been, we could all do with a break from the present. This week, we're venturing into Europe past -- about six thousand years ago, to a time when mysterious stone structures were springing up all around the continent. Today we call them megaliths, and there's a lot we still don't know about them. But one woman has been on a quest to work out how these extraordinary monuments spread around Europe. Archaeologist Bettina Schulz Paulsson is on the line from Gothenburg to talk about how early Europeans were exchanging knowledge and culture a good few millennia before the EU was invented. Also: a reverse art heist, a blow for the anti-vaxxers , and how to say no to big business.
Thanks so much to the new supporters who joined our Patreon this week! You can help us carry on making the show by chipping at https://www.patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Thanks for listening.
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcasteuropeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Mar 12, 2019
Tuesday Mar 12, 2019
This week The Europeans are heading underground to the nearest bunker. Julie McDowall, Cold War writer and expert on all things atomic, is on the line from Glasgow to talk about how different countries in Europe planned for nuclear war and what it’s like to visit Chernobyl, three decades after the disaster. We also talk about the woman shaking up Estonian politics, questionable ethics in Italian opera, and Slovenian sandwiches.
You can check out Julie’s excellent podcast The Atomic Hobo here and follow her on Twitter here.
Thanks so much to the new supporters who joined our Patreon this week! You can help us carry on making the show by chipping at https://www.patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Thanks for listening.
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcasteuropeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Mar 05, 2019
Tuesday Mar 05, 2019
This week we're talking about transgender rights in Europe with the author and activist CN Lester, whose wonderful book Trans Like Me gets its mainstream paperback release on Thursday. And on a continent where young people mostly stayed at home for the last elections, Mick ter Reehorst calls in to explain why he's launched a new campaign, #ProveThemWrong, to get out the youth vote in May. Plus: winter bacon, sticking it to the homophobes, and a mile-high culture clash between France and the Netherlands.
Check out CN's work at cnlester.com!
Get the youth vote out at provethemwrong.eu!
And watch this great video about women getting the vote in Switzerland!
Thanks so much to everyone who's started chipping in to our Patreon fund. Help us keep the show going at patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Thanks for listening.
🇪🇺
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcast
europeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Feb 26, 2019
Tuesday Feb 26, 2019
This week, the kid from Hamburg who grew up to become one of the most powerful forces in global fashion. Karl Lagerfeld built not one but three hugely successful brands. After his death last week at the age of 85, we're exploring the flaws, quirks and legacy of this complicated man with the help of Fiachra Gibbons, culture editor at Agence France-Presse and long-time observer of 'the Kaiser'. We also discuss Europe's rising problem with anti-Semitism, some good news for Serbia's gay first couple, and how to make it big in Finland.
Thanks to everyone who's started chipping in to our Patreon fund! Help us keep the show going at patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Thanks for listening.
🇪🇺
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcast
europeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Feb 19, 2019
Tuesday Feb 19, 2019
This week we're stretching the definition of Europe to the limit and travelling all the way down to the French-Italian research base in the Antarctic! By some miracle we managed to Skype the physicist Meganne Christian at the Concordia base about what it's like spending an entire year living in the most isolated place on Earth (albeit with decent Italian cooking). At the other end of the planet: bears, Viktor Orbán's bid to turn Hungarian women into baby-machines, and pop that pisses off the populists.
Thanks to everyone who's started chipping in to our Patreon fund! Help us keep the show going at patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Thanks for listening.
🇪🇺
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcast
europeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
Tuesday Feb 12, 2019
This week, the city where you can taste the air on your tongue. We're going to Skopje with the Macedonian writer Aleksandar Dimishkovski to find out what it's like living in the most polluted city in Europe. On the brighter side, we also have some Swedish bling, a badass Romanian anti-corruption crusader, and some long-forgotten treasures.
Interested in finding out why John Ruskin is so relevant? Click here.
Thanks so much to everyone who's signed up to support us on Patreon! If you like the show and have a tiny bit of cash to spare, you can join our kind donors at patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Thanks for listening. 🇪🇺
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcasteuropeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Feb 05, 2019
Tuesday Feb 05, 2019
This week's guest is ten years old and one of the fiercest, smartest people we've ever had on this podcast. Lilly Platt calls in from Zeist in the Netherlands to tell us why she's helping to lead the tens of thousands of children across Europe striking to demand action on climate change. And from skipping school to skipping the queue, anti-money laundering expert Laure Brillaud is here from Brussels to cast a light on the murky world of 'golden visas' for sale in Europe. Plus: positive pop, bad meat, and one very happy cellist.
You can follow Lilly's school strike and Plastic Pick-Up campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
Read Laure's report on golden visas for Transparency International here.
Thanks so much to everyone who's signed up to support us on Patreon! If you like the show and have a tiny bit of cash to spare, you can join our kind donors at patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Need a moment of calm? Check out this track by sexy 500-year-old composer Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina here.
Thanks for listening. 🇪🇺 ❤
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcasteuropeanspodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday Jan 29, 2019
Tuesday Jan 29, 2019
This week, two Kraemers for the price of one! Dominic's brother, BBC political nerd Daniel Kraemer, is here to explain why Britain has the weirdest parliament in Europe. Don't worry, we kept the B-word chat to a minimum. Plus: Macron and Merkel's Duolingo pact, Ronaldo's millions, and the kindest grandma on the continent.
Thanks so much to everyone who's signed up to support us on Patreon! If you like the show and have a tiny bit of cash to spare, you can join our kind donors at patreon.com/europeanspodcast.
Follow Daniel on Twitter @dcakraemer (if you have to follow one account tweeting B****t, this should be it).
Something we should be covering in your corner of Europe? We want to hear from you!
Twitter.com/EuropeansPodInstagram.com/europeanspodcastFacebook.com/europeanspodcasteuropeanspodcast@gmail.com
Thanks for listening.
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