The Europeans

Being able to move freely around 27 countries is one of the biggest benefits of living in the EU. In reality, this is pretty hard if you’ve got a disability. This week we speak to Alejandro Moledo, deputy director of the European Disability Forum, about plans to start addressing that. We’re also diving into Greece’s elections and, with the help of producer Katz Laszlo, the decision to halt Iceland’s summer whale-hunting season...

It's easy to feel doomed when it comes to climate change. In her latest book, the Italian political scientist Nathalie Tocci makes the case for cautious optimism about Europe's climate and energy policies. We chat to her this week about the opportunities and challenges of the European Green Deal, as well as how to interpret the death last week of Silvio Berlusconi...

Last week, dozens of NATO peacekeepers were injured after violent protests broke out in northern Kosovo. What is going on, and why do Kosovo's problems seem so hard to fix? This week we dig into the deeper context behind the unrest with political analyst Agon Maliqi. We're also talking about why much of Europe is antsy about who's going to be steering the EU next year, and a bizarre dispute in the art world...

The last time we interviewed the physicist Meganne Christian, she was working on the French-Italian research base on Antarctica. Now she has her eye on outer space. We ring her up to find out more about her new life as a reserve astronaut for the European Space Agency, and Europe's role in the new commercial space era. We're also talking about Pedro Sánchez's Spanish election gamble and a hopeful court verdict for same-sex Romanian couples...

We usually see young people as the face of climate activism. This week, we find out how 2,000 Swiss women, all over the age of 65, took their government to court in a case that could change climate laws across Europe. And along the way, we figure out once and for all how the European Court of Human Rights actually works...

We've been glued to the Turkish elections over the past week. But what does Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's victory in the first round mean for the country, and for Europe as a whole? This week we ring up political scientist Ahmet Erdi Öztürk to find out. We're also talking about a big boost in Germany's support for Ukraine, a fake tan controversy, and the teeny tiny bridge behind the Mona Lisa.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT HERE: https://europeanspodcast...

This week is a bonanza for fans of Europe's two favourite competitions: the Champions League football tournament and the Eurovision Song Contest. Both are held up as events that bring Europeans together, but which one does the job better? This week we aim to settle the debate once and for all with a face-off between sports commentator Barbara Barend and Eurovision historian Dean Vuletic. We're also talking about a €300-million EU pension black hole and France's first rap awards...

The EU is a lot of things. But is it funny? And would Europe be a better place if we *could* find it funny? This week we're talking to Lise Witteman, one of the co-founders of live comedy show The Schuman Show, about finding humour in the Brussels machine. We're also talking about Pope Francis' face-off with Viktor Orbán and the Italian tourism campaign that spawned a thousand memes...

Mapping our genes has already allowed humanity to make huge strides in medicine. But the vast majority of the genomes we’ve decoded are those of people of white European heritage. Why is that a problem, and how do we fix it? This week we talk to the Nigerian geneticist Segun Fatumo about fixing the genome gap. We’re also talking about Andalucía’s bid to protect flamenco, and why Europe’s most powerful media mogul is in hot water...

What comes to mind when you imagine a library? Rows of books, probably. But across the continent, libraries are transforming into places that serve communities in all sorts of other ways. This week we hear from two very different libraries about how they're doing just that: Bojana Grujic of the Novi Sad City Library in Serbia and Myrto Tsilimpounidi from the Feminist Library at the Feminist Autonomous Centre in Athens...