The Europeans

Igor Levit, as the New Yorker put it, "Is Like No Other Pianist". This week we chatted to the German-Russian superstar about playing for 15 hours straight, why he staged 50 concerts from his living room, and Germany's ongoing struggle against systemic racism. We're also talking about France's "green wave" and Romania's very expensive super-church. Thanks for listening! If you like the show, you can chip in a few dollars a month to help us keep running at patreon.com/europeanspodcast...

This week we're celebrating those moments when Europeans are actually nice to each other. Rafael Loss, data wizard at the European Council on Foreign Relations, is on the line from Berlin to explain why he built an online tool to track solidarity during the C-word crisis. We're also talking about Serbia's elections, Croatian bees, and awake brain surgery.

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy the show, please consider a small monthly donation to help keep us running: https://patreon...

Communist Bulgaria was home to a furtive cooking craze on a massive scale: women swapping recipes on scraps of paper, with strangers on trams, even at funerals. The historian and writer Albena Shkodrova sees this fascinating phenomenon as a form of subversion; we called her up to ask why. Also this week: Happy Birthday Schengen, an accidental invasion, and an end to Sweden's longest-running murder mystery...

Protests over the death of George Floyd have been spreading on this side of the Atlantic, from Britain to Hungary. This week we're talking about what makes the European anti-racism protests different, with the artist and cultural critic Quinsy Gario. We're also talking about Prague's mysterious poisoned suitcase, and a possible post-COVID rail revolution.

Amsterdam protest recording by Katz Laszlo...

You can blame Dominic for the pun. This week, as tensions between the United States and China reach fever-pitch, we're asking: does Europe need to pick a side? Tom Wan, Research Director in European Politics at the Global Studies Institute in Hong Kong, is on the line to explain what's at stake in Europe's relationship with China. Also this week: reproductive rights, a badly-behaved prince, and what lies beneath the floorboards.

In memory of Christo: https://www.theatlantic...

The Italian journalist and travel writer Giovanni Vale is used to writing tourist guidebooks, but usually they're for countries that still exist. We rang him up to ask why he's turned his attention to 'extinguished' countries, starting with the Venetian Republic which sprawled across the Mediterranean for more than a millennium. Also this week: Polish punk and Europe's organic revolution.

Giovanni's guide to the Venetian Republic is available for pre-order here: https://bit...

Less than a fifth of the biographies on Wikipedia are those of women; Rebecca O'Neill is part of a movement to fix that. We talk to her about her quest to write famous Irish women into the Wikiverse, as well as how the site helps minority languages to stay alive. Also this week: Merkel rises above it, and theatre gets political in Albania. Find Rebecca's Wikipedia tutorials on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/smirkybec/videos And on YouTube: https://www.youtube...

Last July, a group of fishermen near the coast of Norway were surprised to see a submarine burst out of the water in front of them. A terrible disaster had struck the Losharik, a highly advanced Russian vessel that had been lurking on the seafloor. But what happened? And what was the submarine doing so close to European shores?

This mystery has fascinated the Norwegian journalist Thomas Nilsen, one of the authors of a New York Times investigation into the Losharik disaster...

This week we've got a cultural bonanza for you. We're talking about Poland's Netflix tax and the new drive-in cinema in Vilnius, as well as all the TV and online concerts we've been bingeing on. Plus, a great interview with the French screenwriter Noé Debré about Parlement, the European satire we've been waiting for.

Thanks to all the generous supporters who are helping us keep this podcast running right now. If you have a few dollars to spare a month, you can chip in at patreon...

This week we bring you: coal, chess, and the circular economy. We speak to Esther Goodwin-Brown of Circle Economy about the economic model that's getting environmentalists all hot and bothered. We're also talking about why Europe's fallen out of love with the black stuff and why chess is getting a revamp...