The Europeans: Ask Us Anything

Europe

5 Feb

A very special bienvenue to this very special episode of The Europeans! This week, the entire team gathered in person in a swanky studio in Paris to answer some of your burning questions, from “How do you stay sane when you’re immersed in the news?” to “Is there a favourite bird?” (i.e. the simple to the deeply complex). Plus: Wojciech’s dream of being a “failed sportsman”, the unvarnished truth about the team’s vegan/teetotaling façade, and… The Europeans Matchmaking Agency?!

We’ll be back with a regular episode next week. In the meantime, subscribe to our cheeky new newsletter! If you like this here, we think you’ll enjoy that there.

DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Hello and welcome to The Europeans, a very special episode of The Europeans. We're all sitting in a very fancy studio together in Paris.
KATY LEE:
Woohoo! Bienvenue, everyone.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It's not just me and Katy, we also have Morgan Childs, Katz Laszlo, and Wojciech Oleksiak, our three producers with us.
MORGAN CHILDS:
Hi.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
HeY.
KATZ LASZLO:
Hello.
KATY LEE:
How are you guys finding Paris so far? Have you been enjoying my militarily planned schedule?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yes, and I've been enjoying the fact that Katie only booked breakfast for me at the hotel and no one else, so I was sitting there all on my own.
KATY LEE:
I can't believe you actually ate it.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Well, I'm not gonna...
KATZ LASZLO:
I watched you eat your breakfast without me.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
I'm not gonna waste free food.
KATY LEE:
Well, it's very lovely to have you all here. And we're actually here for a special behind the scenes episode today. We thought we'd do a little Q&A since we're all gathered here together. So we've got some questions here that listeners have been sending in that we're going to try and answer for you as best we can.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Are you going to be question master?
KATY LEE:
I am a question master. We're going to start with one that we got by voice memo from Paige.
[AUDIO CLIP]
Hi there, this is Paige in Slovenia. And I do have a question for all of you guys. And that is, how do you guys maintain your sanity, being so immersed in the news and doing the research that you guys do on a daily basis? Because I have to say, even though I live a continent away from America now, and my job is not the news, I constantly feel like I'm about to lose my mind. So what are the strategies that you guys use to help you feel normal and feel sane with these days? Thanks so much for everything that you guys do. The podcast is amazing.
KATY LEE:
Oh, thank you, Paige.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, good question, how do we stay sane?
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK AND KATY LEE:
Do we?
KATZ LASZLO:
One of them is, I don't look at my phone at the moment for the first hour of the day. That really helps.
KATY LEE:
That's why it's so hard to get hold of you.
KATZ LASZLO:
It’s really been a game changer, though. I really, my brain feels completely different. And I feel like I have a lot of friends who aren't journalists and never look at the news and that really helps, even though it feels a bit alienating when something massive happens because I only talk about it with you guys on WhatsApp. And then the last one is I move a lot, like a lot of the things I do outside of work are like dancing and stuff like that, which is just a totally different type of brain activity. That really helps me.
MORGAN CHILDS:
I sort of think that we're in a privileged position because we can do something with it. It's our jobs to do something with the news. And I think the people who struggle, who I see struggling the most with the news are those who feel like they read it and they can't sort of metabolise it and process it in a sort of active way. And we have the luxury of being able to turn it into something for other people.
KATY LEE:
That's a really nice way of putting it. Yeah. I often feel more sane at the end of planning, for example, like a Good Week, Bad Week that is about something miserable, which I know sounds crazy, but I think just the first step to figure out what to do about something is to understand it, right? That's one of the bases of this podcast. What we're trying to do is figure out what is happening around this continent so that we can make sense of it and hopefully do something about it. So just in the process of sitting down and untangling something really complicated, like, OK, what the hell is this trade deal, or whatever it is that we're talking about that week makes me feel better about it.
And then we do where possible try to be sort of solutions focused, as they would say in the journalism jargon of the era. And yeah, try and talk about the news in a way that feels vaguely constructive where possible, rather than just saying, “ah, everything is terrible”. It's about thinking, OK, well, what can be done about it? What can be done to make it better?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah. And we also try to balance our episodes so that they're never just full of the darkest, most serious and concerning stories. And we also all come at these stories from different perspectives. And that always opens my mind when I realise, oh, this feels really big to me today, but something else feels big to Katz or Wojciech, depending on what's going on in their life or where they are in the world. So I find that quite inspiring.
I think maybe I'm the person on the team that's most inclined to just like dissociate and focus on the stupid news of the day.
KATZ LASZLO:
An important role.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Let’s talk about the man who got a World War One piece of artillery stuck up his bum.
KATY LEE:
Oh, my God. I'm so sad that we're not doing a normal episode this week. So we can't talk about that at length.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
If we were, then that would definitely be my bad week. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go and Google it immediately.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
It just slipped, okay?
DOMINIC KRAEMER
He just slipped onto the bomb. Yes. He's okay. The bomb squad were called. It's been taken out.
MORGAN CHILDS:
Check out the show notes.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Yeah. So I just compartmentalise. Like I really get worried about the news. There's a lot to worry, especially living where I live. And then there's just the other life I have, which is very cool. And I have a family and friends and I bike and I climb.
And that's just, you know, kind of I'm trying to keep saying I had a point where I was really worried all the time. And then I just, it was my wife who said like, you're not helping anyone just being constantly worried and constantly down and just being, you know, sombre. So I was like, yeah, that's a very fair point.
And yeah, just I just divided in like two halves. And there's eight hours where I worry and there's the other 16 hours where I don't. I try not to worry.
KATZ LASZLO:
I do think it's also helpful to have each other. Like I found it really a privilege to be able to talk to you guys for the past seven years or whatever it's been. And like digest what's happening over time.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
But I hope that some of you listening also have that after listening to us. I definitely have after recording an episode that even if it's been a really heavy episode, by the end of it, I'm like, oh, I'm glad we talked about this.
KATY LEE:
It’s therapy, but for global events.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Great question, Paige. Thank you.
KATY LEE:
Thank you, Paige.
All right. This one comes from Misa, who says, “The format of the show is obviously now somewhat different from when I first started listening as a university student, desperate to get a break from the barrage of Brexit news. And I'd be curious to hear a bit more about the process of tweaking the format and evolving the podcast.
“For example, are there any segments you thought about adding but decided against any features of older versions of the show that you miss or any particularly fun origin stories for the current segments? Thank you.”
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Good question.
I mean, actually, the format hasn't changed so much since we started. I mean, Good Week, Bad Week was there from the beginning and the interview.
KATY LEE:
Which is so weird because we just did it on a whim.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, you're right.
KATY LEE:
And it's sort of stuck because it's a quite satisfying way of talking about two news stories, even though we often find ourselves tying ourselves in knots trying to work out like, well, this is sort of a good week for someone.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It's true. The happy ending was there from the beginning as well?
KATY LEE:
You insisted on it. That's why it's called Dominic's Happy Ending.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yes, exactly. Again, going back to my insistence of talking about the silly and the happy things. But yeah, Inspiration Station came in more recently, but it's still been around for a while.
KATZ LASZLO
That was a Covid thing, no?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
That was a Covid thing, yeah. Isolation, Inspiration originally. And the one that I launched but then actually fell by the wayside is Commemoration Corner. I wanted to talk about something that was being commemorated. There were always things like Independence Day somewhere in Europe. I wanted to talk about all these things, but it wasn't so successful.
KATY LEE:
Well, it's funny you say that because Misa added at the end of her email, I, for one, sometimes miss the anniversary segment.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
OK, well, maybe 2026 is the year that will come back.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
I guess you could go for a spontaneous, like not regular commemoration corner if something happens. That's true. We could, but the show has already got so much longer over the last few years. And thank you to everyone that filled in the survey, by the way, recently. We had like an equal split of people who said the show is too short and the show is too long. I think that probably means it's about the right length. But I think it would quickly get too long if we added anything else. So we'd have to take something out.
KATY LEE:
But I mean, we mess around with the format of the show more broadly quite often.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah.
KATY LEE:
So we've done a few more episodes of late that have been just one long conversation with someone, which I think we'd like to do more of.
And Wojciech, you did your great piece of live reporting from Serbia at the end of last year. We definitely want to do more of that kind of thing.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
But we do almost always, when we steer away from our regular format, get some feedback from people being like, “I missed Good Week, Bad Week. That was a nice episode, but bring it back.” People seem to be really attached to Good Week, Bad Week. And maybe I am, too.
KATY LEE:
All right. Next question. Willem asks, “How far along are plans for Europeans franchising? I'm particularly looking forward to Europeans cheese, Europeans light bulbs and a Europeans comic book series. Can you point a Europeans branded LED flashlight onto the current expected timeline, please?” I love this question.
KATZ LASZLO:
I've been praying for socks for ages, but nobody will let me have the socks.
KATY LEE:
Socks are bad marketing. How many times? No one gets to see your feet.
KATZ LASZLO:
My socks are constantly exposed.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It's true. Katz always wears short trousers.
KATY LEE:
That’s true. Your socks have been on display a lot this week.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, we have looked into various merch options, but it's so expensive and often feels kind of a bit wasteful.
KATY LEE:
Yeah. People do like the tote bags, though, and the design has been the same since roughly 2018.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It’s true. They're kind of vintage now.
KATY LEE:
They are collecting lots of dust in both of our cupboards. So please sign up for our 20 euro Patreon tier so we can empty our cupboards finally. Wendy on Mastodon asks, “How do you decide on the topics? Is there a common list? Do you all attribute a certain amount of time to it?”
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It all happens on Slack.
KATY LEE:
We post a bunch of links and then we try to have a balance between sort of like something that feels really big and serious and needs to be talking about maybe something a little bit lighter. Then maybe something really stupid just for Dominic.
MORGAN CHILDS:
We sometimes get listener emails that are really helpful. That's true. We always love listener feedback and listener suggestions and sometimes like really great ideas totally pass us by. We're just five of us and we're very busy, but we get some brilliant stuff in our inbox.
KATY LEE:
We would never have had that Berlin potatoes item two weeks ago if it wasn't for somebody in Berlin saying, this crazy thing is happening. Everyone's getting free potatoes.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Yeah, especially it's still surprising to me how in this era of like everything being on the internet and so digitalised and like news spreading so fast, we really get hints about very interesting topics happening locally in one of the countries that were just never reported in English. We can't miss them unless someone gives us a tip.
KATY LEE:
So please do more of that, everyone.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah. And maybe this is slightly different to what the question was, but we are trying more and more to get input once we've chosen a topic from people who live in that part of the continent or are experts in that area. We're not experts in everything and we're trying very quickly to get a handle on something that we probably know very little about and communicate to you guys about it. And the more input we can get from people who are experts in it, the better it will be, we hope.
KATY LEE:
Yeah. So especially if you are maybe living in a fairly small European country or you have some specialist expertise, something that you work on, get in touch and just tell us that you're out there and you're listening to this podcast because we've we've got this kind of informal list of people who have offered to be our, like, sounding boards when we're covering complicated things or maybe countries that don't get enough coverage, news coverage in English. And it is so amazing just to be able to call someone and be like, OK, cool, we're going to call our resident Slovak expert. It's such a satisfying thing to be able to do.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
And we're really using that list like almost every week. So thank you, everyone, who's helping us out already.
KATY LEE:
Thank you so much.
@literallyhappy on Instagram asks, “How did you guys meet?”
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Well, Katy and I were the first two to meet of the people at this table. And we met on, I think –
KATY LEE:
20 long years ago.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Oh my goodness. Second day at university. We met on a bed. We were sitting on a bed at a house party next to each other.
KATY LEE:
And that was the closest I ever got to – should I confess this? I thought you were quite handsome at the time. Very clearly it was like, oh no, OK, he's not interested in the ladies.
And then we years later, you were living in Amsterdam and my boyfriend, now husband, was also living in Amsterdam. So he started hanging out a lot more.
KATZ LASZLO:
You must have met like the day after you met Dominic.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
She was very quickly scouting: who’s going to be my husband –
KATY LEE:
Who’s going to be my work husband?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
She found both in two days.
KATZ LASZLO:
Amazing.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Amazing.
KATY LEE:
But anyway, years later, yeah, you and I were just podcast nuts and always, always swapping podcast recommendations. And then I thought, hang on a second, I want to start a podcast about Europe. Who can I do that with? Maybe I'll ask my good friend Dominic Kramer.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
And then the next person we met was Katz, who just slid into our DMs.
KATZ LASZLO:
I slid into your DMs.
KATY LEE:
Before it was a thing.
KATZ LASZLO:
Yeah, it must have been like 2018. And I was living in New York. I had never felt so European. And then I listened to your show and I was homesick and was like, oh, these are the kinds of people that I resonate with and my friends are like, but I never hear them on the news except with you guys. And then I slid into your DMs and you and I went for a tea.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
We did. And back then we didn't have any Patreon. We didn't have any funding. We applied for some funding together with Katz from the European Cultural Foundation. Shout out to them. And they gave us the grant and we started making things together professionally for the first time.
KATY LEE:
And then Wojciech came along.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
You had a call out for pitches and I once pitched a story. And then I talked to Katy on Skype.
KATY LEE:
Did we talk on Skype?
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Yeah.
KATY LEE:
That’s amazing.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
So 2019, everything was going to shit in my country. I had to leave public media and I was like freelancing for a year, like full time freelancing while having a family to support. And it was really like difficult. And then I saw your job posting that was like interim contract for three months. And then I refused to leave.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
We refused to let you leave.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Five years later.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
And Morgan had also been on our radar for quite a long time. And we'd wanted to work with you for a long time. And then a year and a half ago, was it around that?
MORGAN CHILDS:
Going on two years. And actually, I mean, I was a listener, too. And I reached out to Wojciech for something because I was doing some reporting about countries that had accepted a lot of Ukrainian refugees. And we had a nice chat.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah.
MORGAN CHILDS:
And then you needed an editor. So I came in to do that.
KATY LEE:
Luca asks, “What plans do you have to grow as a show?” Should we pass over to our growth mogul, Wojciech Oleksiak?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Growth baron.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Growth baron. Yeah, so growth is really important to us because this is the only way we can eventually become a sustainable operation, which we've been striving for for many, many years now. And we're like, there is something on the horizon and we're getting there, but still not there. So, yeah, there are quite a few avenues through which we want to grow.
And the first one is that we are reaching out to multiple shows, thanks to Morgan and a person we're working with, trying to get ourselves interviewed by other podcasts and do more collaborations with other shows. That's a very important part. It's kind of a vintage way of growing. That's how podcasts have been growing in the past. We find it exciting and hopefully that will bring a lot of good results.
We've grown a bit, like we had a nice increase in listener numbers the last couple of months because we've been featured on a podcasting app, which is always a very good place to be.
And lastly, not lastly, but among others, we have just agreed on a new strategy for our social media content production, and we're going to invest more time into this. So, yeah, you may want to follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn and see how is it going and maybe give us some feedback because we really want to hear from you.
And most importantly, please tell your mom, your auntie, your friends, your dog about the podcast and subscribe for them on their phones. So then they could listen to us. That's the best part for us to grow.
KATY LEE:
Oh, you want people to actually lean over their mums’ phones and click subscribe.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Yes, exactly.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
I still have people who like ask me, oh, how's your blog going? They don't really understand. And we do now have a great newsletter, so they can subscribe to the newsletter as well if they don't listen to podcasts. But yeah, I do think it's a good idea to take people's phones and then give them back.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Did you know what my mom said recently? We had the dinner and my mom said like, oh, what are you up to? And I said like, yeah, you know, I'm really tired, I just capped off like two big projects. I'm not sure what's next. And my mom was like, how about you try podcasting?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
What?
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Yeah. I mean, my mom doesn't really speak English or understand English. Like she's not a listener to the show. But I mean, this really took me by surprise. Of course, I mean.
KATY LEE:
What do you think you've been doing?
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Mom, that's probably a good idea. I'm going to give it a shot.
KATY LEE:
Natalie asks, “If you could live anywhere in Europe, where would it be?”
MORGAN CHILDS:
You would say Slovenia, right?
KATY LEE:
Obviously, I'd say Slovenia. No contest. Specifically the Slovenia-Italy border. I would just eat stuff.
KATZ LASZLO:
I've got my eyes on Sicily. It's so nice. I just went for the first time and it is amazing. I knew that Katy had cried at breakfast there once.
KATY:
I did.
KATZ LASZLO:
But still, it's just...
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Sorry, you need a bit more context. Like someone crying at breakfast isn't necessarily a reason to move.
KATY LEE:
Oh, sorry.
KATZ LASZLO:
Positive tears.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Positive tears because of the food?
KATY LEE:
Cried because the breakfast was so good. That is an important clarification.
MORGAN CHILDS:
That wasn't clarified in an episode a few weeks ago.
KATZ LASZLO:
No, it's so beautiful. And you can see so many different landscapes in such a small area. And like there's a volcano. There's like lush coasts. It's just, I mean.
MORGAN CHILDS:
I studied in Dublin briefly and was back there last spring. And it was really great. But I was in Cork for the first time ever.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
I love Cork.
MORGAN CHILDS:
The further west in Ireland you go, maybe the better it gets.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
I mean, the Balkans are just amazing. Everywhere I go, it's like every time. Ukraine was so cool before the war. Georgia is a place I could probably spend the rest of my life in. Very cool continent.
KATY LEE:
I agree. Cool continent.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It sure is.
I think as a musician and a queer person, I think it's a bit obvious, but Berlin would be the place I would want to live. But I think my quality of life in Amsterdam is also really good. So I'm happy where I am.
KATY LEE:
That's really nice to hear. All right. Let's hear another voice memo question now. And this actually comes from our sometimes co-host, Nina from Luxembourg. “The lady from Luxembourg”, as I think somebody referred to her in the survey.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
That's true.
KATY LEE:
And Nina has a question for us.
[AUDIO CLIP]
Hi, Nina here. I was wondering what jobs would you be doing if you weren't doing the podcast?
KATY LEE:
I mean, we should probably clarify that all of us have other jobs than our podcasts. And that is one of the reasons we are not a financially stable organisation.
MORGAN CHILDS:
I had a think about this last night. Actually, a number of years ago, I was commissioned by one of these big glossy magazines to do some reporting on a matchmaking agency for ultra high net worth individuals.
KATZ LASZLO:
Why has this never come up?
MORGAN CHILDS:
The story never ran. But I spent a lot of time with these matchmakers and I thought, this is my missed opportunity. I would have loved this work because at that level, it's not just like putting them on dates with people. It's also helping with their appearance, but also like pushing them to a therapist if that's what they need, like really trying to make them the well-rounded people that find love a little bit more easily than the rest of us who aren't so well-rounded.
KATY LEE:
Wow.
MORGAN CHILDS:
It was great fun. And I still think about that sometimes, like, oh, my God, how great to be a matchmaker, especially at that level.
KATZ LASZLO
I love that your form of fun is to push people towards therapy.
KATY LEE:
Do you have a history of matchmaking successfully, Morgan, in your life with your friends?
MORGAN CHILDS
No, never once.
KATY LEE:
But if you're paid to do it.
MORGAN CHILDS:
But if you're single, write in, maybe we can work something out.
KATY LEE:
Wouldn't it be great if two listeners of this podcast got married?
KATZ LASZLO:
Oh, that would be very exciting.
KATY LEE:
Morgan’s going to make it happen.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Oh, my God, this is the new segment that we need to discuss. Europeans blind date.
KATY LEE:
Wojciech, what would your dream other job be?
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
I think I would be a failed sportsman. I was always into sports. I was always terrible at it because that's how my body works. I was never fast or, you know, never had the endurance, I mean, necessary for being a pro sportsman. But actually, I relaxed mostly through doing sports. I love it.
So, yeah, I would be like, you know, playing in a fifth league of something or being the, you know, the cyclist that always, you know, rides in the back of the peloton. So, yeah.
KATY LEE:
I love how realist you are, even though we're talking about fanatasy.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
That's my fantasy, you know.
KATY LEE:
Dominic is the person here that actually has two really distinct jobs, more than anyone else.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah. So I find this a difficult question to answer because I'm an opera singer in my day job and then do the podcast on the side. So I already feel like I have my, like, fantasy two career things. So what would it be? I went to a seal sanctuary this weekend and I did think, oh, this is a nice way to earn a living to feed seals that need rehabilitating. Maybe that's my job. OK.
KATZ LASZLO:
I don't think I would have left biology if biology was still like when I was studying, it was like more and more coding. And I don't think I would have left if it was still like going out into the jungle and like counting birds or something.
KATY LEE:
It’s funny that all of us seem to want time away from our screens. That's our job. That feels like a running theme because I always had this dream double career. I want to spend half my time being a YouTube chef. So that is really screen based. But the other half being like a park ranger.
KATZ LASZLO:
Can I just say park rangers often have their socks exposed as well.
KATY LEE:
This is where we'll do our advertising.
KATZ LASZLO:
Yes, I've checked.
KATY LEE:
Such a big claim. We need our fact checking department to get on to that one.
KATZ LASZLO:
It's me.
KATY LEE:
This question comes from Peter.
[AUDIO CLIP]
Hello, the Europeans. I'm Irish Peter in Germany. Thank you for your show. I think it's really great. I think what it provides mostly is orientation and a lived example. I think it provides lots of things, but I think that's from where I'm sitting, the real value. I think people are just bombarded with too much. They need to be told it's OK to pause what life looks like. Sometimes you can be happy, sad, angry, confused, all of that. And how you work through it and just live it and try be a grounded, normal person. Like, should I worry about the microplastics in my soap or that I can't use public transport and feel guilty driving or don't use the expensive membership of the gym that I got? So now I'm lazy and I'm wasteful. Or, you know, I think people want to know what's normal, acceptable within the in the normal range of things. If I had money, you guys would get it. Sorry about that.
KATY LEE:
Oh, that's such a sweet message.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
That is sweet. It's not a question, but it is a really nice analysis of what we do and quite a good answer to the first question we were asked. One of the first questions about…
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
How do we keep sane?
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
About how do we keep sane, yeah. So thank you, Peter.
MORGAN CHILDS:
Also, I'm totally sympathetic to people who feel like they don't have money to give at the moment, but there are a lot of ways to support us that aren't monetary.
KATY LEE:
Absolutely. According to you guys, we should be grabbing people's phones out of their hands, subscribing to this podcast. So, Peter, feel free to do that to everyone in Germany.
KATZ LASZLO:
I also really like that he talks about, like, not being able to be perfect. I feel like a lot of people are feeling weird amounts of shame around not being perfect.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yeah, it's funny, actually. We were talking the other day about how Morgan, before she joined the team, assumed, because she'd listened to The Oatly Chronicles about oat milk and us talking about alcohol use and how bad it is, that we were all teetotal and all vegan.
MORGAN CHILDS:
But they're not, listeners. It's a facade.
KATY LEE:
I try and couch my statement sometimes with, like, I sometimes eat a burger or I'm thinking about buying a car. But apparently the general impression we give off is very holier than thou. I'm sorry about that.
DOMINIC KRAEMER
Katy, you were very open about the fact that you are a cheese addict.
KATZ LASZLO:
Yeah, you were definitely the cheese ambassador of that series.
KATY LEE:
Did you see what I fed you last night at my house?
DOMINIC KRAEMER
But I think, I really understand why Morgan thought that about us. And I was thinking about it last night. I was like, oh, are we like misleading people about our lives? And then I thought, no, it's like we have to allow ourselves to be hypocrites as well.
KATZ LASZLO:
We could talk more explicitly about, like, how hard it is to just do all the things you would like to do all the time. I really don't think the point is to, like, appear perfect. The point is, like, to understand how these systems work.
MORGAN CHILDS:
Yeah, we got a nice response. We wrote a Substack post last week about why we're using Substack, which is not a perfect platform. And some kind reader wrote us back saying, like, thank you for this. And also, I feel like the onus should not be on individuals. This is not a matter of individual responsibility, because there are reasons that a lot of us have to use these technologies and these platforms that we feel ambivalent about. And I feel the same about a lot of our personal choices when it comes to what we eat and how we travel, which is we have to remember that the problem is bigger than us as individuals and keep, like, trying to hold those larger forces accountable.
KATY LEE:
Yeah. While also not saying, well, we're all screwed anyway.
MORGAN CHILDS:
Without putting your hands up.
KATY LEE:
And yes, I did eat all of the cheese. And I do apologise for that. I know it's not good for the climate, but wasn't it good cheese?
KATZ LASZLO:
It would be so sad if you weren't allowed to say anything about climate change unless you were like perfectly never going to eat a piece of cheese. Like, that's crazy. I don't think that helps anyone.
KATY LEE:
@wheresney asks, “Which European country have you not visited yet that is at the top of your list?”
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
That’s a great question.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
So many.
KATZ LASZLO:
Oh, so many.
MORGAN CHILDS:
Greece.
KATY LEE:
Oh, have you never been Greece?
MORGAN CHILDS:
No, never.
KATZ LASZLO:
It’s so nice. I went for the first time two years ago. I couldn't believe the food. I knew it was good, but still.
MORGAN CHILDS:
Good. Good for you, Katz.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Katz has been everywhere.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
I’ve been almost everywhere, too. I have not been to Iceland. Yeah. And my wife is really forcing me to go there. So I think I will end up there sooner than later. But I would really love to go to Moldova. I haven't been to Transnistria because, you know, a lot of things happen there. I'm really interested to, like, understand what's going on over there. So that's where I would like to go.
KATY LEE:
All right. We have a question from Party Plantain, great name, on Mastodon, who asks, “How do you work with neutrality in practical terms when preparing episodes?” With love from Urusen.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Good question.
KATZ LASZLO:
I’m one of those people who doesn't really believe anyone is neutral, but I do really try and like really extra fact check any of my biases when I'm reporting. So like if I can tell that I'm like leaning, like wanting something to be true, that I'm like, OK, I need to take a minute and like make sure there's actual evidence. I feel like because algorithms have gotten more difficult, it's harder to check if you're being neutral or not because it just mirrors back whatever you want. So I start researching the opposite opinion.
KATY LEE:
Do you know on that note, I've started recently, whatever thing I'm talking about that week, running a search for it on X just to see like, how are these people talking about this thing? I have to say it is quite a refreshing way of getting out of your bubble and seeing how people with maybe different ways of looking at the world are seeing things.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It’s especially tough with a podcast format like ours, where we really bring ourselves into the show, where we're not presenting the news just like a national broadcaster on television, like completely with no feeling and neutrality. We let our own emotions come into our reporting sometimes. And yeah, that does make it harder sometimes. But yeah, we do try to keep each other in check and edit each other. And if something does feel too biassed, then we say it and we change it.
KATY LEE:
You can take the facts and then be angry about what the facts tell us. And that, I think, is compatible with a form of neutrality.
I'm going to wrap this episode up on a bit of a wildcard question, which again comes from Willem in Belgium. And that is, “Is there a favourite bird?”
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
That’s my favourite question.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
There's a bird on the screen behind us. It's a macaw. And actually, to be honest, the macaw was my favourite bird growing up.
But at the moment, my favourite bird is the grote bontus pechter. What is that in English?
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
OK, that one.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
It's a kind of woodpecker. I can't remember what it is in English, but there's a woodpecker that lives in my garden. And that is my favourite bird.
KATZ LASZLO:
Got a lot of favourite birds, but my current favourite is a whole bunch of like different owls, because I just love that their legs are often wearing trousers.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Do they show their socks?
KATY LEE:
Do they show their socks?
KATZ LASZLO:
That is the theme. I just love that, especially when they run. And then you're just like, I didn't know that was what was going underneath.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Do owls run? Often?
KATZ LASZLO:
They can run.
KATY LEE:
OK, this episode has descended into chaos. We're going to wrap it up there. Thank you so much for listening.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Yes, thank you, everyone. This episode was produced by Katy Lee.
KATY LEE:
Oh, yeah.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Don't forget to subscribe to our wonderful newsletter written by Morgan, who's sitting in front of me.
KATZ LASZLO:
And to force everyone you know to subscribe our podcast by grabbing their telephone.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
And that we'll be back next week with a normal episode. Until then, have a great week, everyone.
WOJCIECH OLEKSIAK:
Ciao.
MORGAN CHILDS:
Ahoj.
DOMINIC KRAEMER:
Tschuss.
KATZ LASZLO:
Doei.
KATY LEE:
Bye.