Are we all trapped in a transatlantic Truman Show?
Can we talk about Trump’s culture war, Putin’s war on inclusivity, and just about everyone’s unwillingness to pay teachers fair wages—and giggle throughout? You better believe it. AFP’s Nina Lamparski is back in the hosting chair, and strap in, listeners, because this week’s show is a ride.
Our guest this week is the delightful and incisive political analyst Paweł Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Paweł returns to the podcast to tell us why Europe is living in a Truman-Show-style universe directed by Donald Trump and his international team. We pick Paweł’s terrific brain about what our leaders can do to build upon the growing pro-European sentiment (really!) and engage with the US as its peer, not its lackey. Plus: Nina raises a glass of crémant to Luxembourgish teachers, who had what seems to us like a very swanky Good Week. And Dominic awards Bad Week to Eurovision, which seems to be crumbling whilst Russia’s Intervision is back and creepier than ever.
Why the Swiss women's climate victory is such a big deal
A group of Swiss women, all aged 64 and over, made history last week by winning the first ever climate case heard by the European Court of Human Rights. But what does their victory mean for climate policy across Europe? We ring up international courts reporter Molly Quell to find out. We're also talking about an artistic sense-of-humour failure, a Swedish app controversy, and why Polish kids are particularly big fans of the new government.
It's that damn bear again
This week, smart Finns and a very smart bear. Computer scientist Teemu Roos is on the line from Helsinki to explain why Finland is trying to educate its population en masse about artificial intelligence. And our Woman in Warsaw Ania Jakubek is back with the tale of a Polish wartime hero who just happened to be... a bear. Plus: Greek drama, Satanic tourism, and how to make the internet a nicer place.
Picasso, Poland & Pedagogy
This week, the story of one of Europe's strangest art heists keeps getting stranger; the fate of Poland's judges keeps getting more complicated; and a teacher in one of France's poorest towns refuses to give up on her kids. Juliette Perchais is on the line to talk about what it's like teaching in one of her country's toughest schools and how she traveled the world to bring back the best educational ideas out there.
WEB OF LIES
This week on the Europeans: bad Italian wifi, a bad Danish bank, and badly behaved Spanish politicians. And spiders, lots of spiders. The Financial Times' Madrid correspondent Michael Stothard is on the line (kind of) to explain Spain's growing plagiarism scandal. And as part of our new partnership with the uber-cool magazine Are We Europe, we chat with its editor Kyrill Hartog about their latest issue The Ocean Between Us, all about Europe's complicated relationship with America.
Check it out here — and if you too believe that print is not dead, buy a copy! www.areweeurope.com
The best place for our little sprouts
This week we're imagining a better future for baby Europeans and also what might happen after the nuclear apocalypse. Jennifer Pettersson is Swedish radio maker who's been based in Amsterdam for the last 20 years. She's always loved living in the city — until it came to putting her kids in school there. Dutch kids are famously supposed to be the happiest in the world, but is it really true?
Since we're planning for the future we might as look all the way ahead to Doomsday. Katy's been chatting to Asmund Asdal, the coordinator of Norway's Global Seed Vault, which keeps back-ups of the world's grains and seeds for use in case of disaster.
Also: good news for young Europeans with wanderlust, bad news for clocks, and some mile-high poetry.