When will Europe get the trains it deserves?
If you’ve ever wondered where all the affordable night trains are, or struggled to book tickets for an international journey, or spent hours of your one wild and precious life petitioning for compensation for a significantly delayed trip (*takes deep breath, collects self*)... let us introduce you to Jon Worth. This prolific train watcher and commentator is behind a new European Rail Passengers’ Union that is pushing for easier cross-border transit and may even help to resolve some people’s personal cross-border nightmares. Jon thinks Europe’s train travellers deserve better, and we tend to agree.
Also in this week’s episode: the latest in all those big moves to get European youth off of social media, and an Olympics opening ceremony broadcast debacle for the ages. And some crime-fighting llamas.
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COMING SOON
Inspiration Station recommendations:
The Spanish TV series Los Años Nuevos
Other resources for this episode:
“'I feel free': Australia's social media ban, one month on” – BBC, 9 January 2026
“Children should be at least 16 to access social media, say MEPs” – European Parliament, 26 November 2025
“France: TikTok still steering vulnerable children and young people towards depressive and suicidal content” – Amnesty International, 20 October 2025
Winter Olympics chaos at Italian broadcaster RAI (in Italian)
Mariah Carey’s performance at the opening ceremony in Milan
“Herd of crime-fighting llamas ‘make citizen’s arrest’ of man fleeing police” – @itvnews, 11 February 2026
Producer
Katz Laszlo and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering
Wojciech Oleksiak
Music
Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
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