The Europeans

Hello from Paris and Amsterdam! Since we’ve seen a huge rise in listeners this week (welcome!) we’re in a giving mood, so we’re talking about organ donation. As countries across Europe weigh up how to save the most lives, transplant ethicist Greg Moorlock is on the line from Birmingham, England to discuss why Spain sees so many more donations than Germany and whether or not the Netherlands should make giving up our kidneys an ‘opt-out’ affair...

This week on The Europeans, two interviews about building things from scratch. We speak to in-house IKEA designer Sarah Fager in Älmhult, Sweden, about the philosophy that drove the company’s late founder Ingvar Kamprad to take over the world with his flatpack furniture. And in Milan, Andrea Venzon is on the line to give us the lowdown on the new pan-European political movement he’s just set up, Volt. Plus: gassed monkeys, dabblings in erotica by Jean-Claude Juncker, and a whole lot of oranges...

A war between France and the Netherlands over fish (trawling), a beginner’s guide to waltzing in Vienna (balling), and a tragic ski accident (falling). The Europeans comes to you from Amsterdam and Paris as always, but Katy and Dominic have both been in Austria this week and are taking a little inspiration from their (mis)adventures to delve into the traditions of the Viennese ball season...

Fake snus The Europeans let loose discussing snus and fake news. German journalist Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck tells us all about her plans to teach school kids across Europe how to spot propaganda and media bias on the internet with her new project Lie Detectors. And we delve into the world of Scandinavian snus tobacco, illegal in most of the EU. For the first time, it’s more popular in Norway than cigarettes...

Your favourite plucky Parisian reporter and glamorous Amsterdam opera singer are BACK. Episode 6 is about two people with bouffant hair but little else in common: Donald Trump and Catherine Deneuve. We’ve got a great interview with the voice of Trump on German television, Franz Kubaczyk, and his fellow interpreter Leonie Wagener about the perils of translating the most unpredictable president in US history...

Happy New Year, The Europeans are back! We’re kicking off 2018 by brushing up on our Luxembourgish, giving Nina Lamparski a call to find out why a language officially listed as endangered is making an unexpected comeback. And Georgi Gotev is on the line to talk about what we can expect from Bulgaria as the EU’s poorest country takes the helm as president for the next six months...

For the last episode of The Europeans before a little break to indulge in some festive merry-making, we talk to influential man about Brussels Ryan Heath of Politico about why the corridors of EU power are so goddamn white. Phosphate-laden euro kebabs and novelty avocados are also on the menu for our millennial listeners. And we give Dutch trans activist Jonah Lamers a ring to ask why the Netherlands picked ‘gender neutral’ as the most irritating word of 2017...

This week in The Europeans, we're looking at national icons -- the beloved, in the form of French rock star Johnny Hallyday who died this week -- and the controversial, in the form of the Netherlands' Black Pete. Dominic talks to Anousha Nzume from Dipsaus, the hit podcast for Dutch women of colour, about why the Netherlands insists on making blackface a festive affair at this time of year...

Episode 2 of The Europeans, in which Dominic stays in a German haunted house. It’s been a dramatic week on the continent, with a convicted war criminal committing suicide in the middle of a courtroom in The Hague. Elsewhere, we talk to journalist Claire Sergent about whether French could really one day be the world’s most widely spoken language, and to European gay travel supremos A Couple Of Men about their hugely successful blog...

Iiiiiiit’s the first ever episode of The Europeans! In which Katy smells the money wafting off European agencies and Dominic gets chased by angry French nudists. Elsewhere, we chat to journalist Frank Zeller in Berlin about Germany’s very un-German lack of a government, and Ania Jakubek in Warsaw about Frida Kahlo’s ties to Poland.