Germany, France, Estonia The Europeans Germany, France, Estonia The Europeans

Russia's mysterious sabotage campaign

Arson, vandalism, attacks on NATO vehicles: around Europe, mysterious acts of sabotage have been multiplying. And there's a pattern: the perpetrators were recruited on Telegram via accounts linked to Russian agencies. This week, we hear from Marta Vunš about how she and other journalists went undercover to figure out how this recruitment actually works. We're also asking whether Germany's nausea-inducing opera deserves its scandalised headlines, and why France has been low-key obsessed with a treasure hunt for the past three decades. 

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What do the European Union and Barbie have in common?

Are European leaders living in a Barbie-like dreamworld? This week, the idealised fantasy of the EU versus its awkward reality. Far from being a continent of grateful europhiles, a lot of people feel apathetic about the European project at best. Paweł Zerka joins us to discuss why non-white, young and Eastern Europeans feel especially left out of the EU, and what we can do to fix this.

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Why is European cinema so different from Hollywood?

Fewer expensive car chases, more moody shots and ambiguous endings: movies made in Europe are often very different from those made in the US. But Europe's more arty film output isn't just a product of our culture — it has a lot to do with how the industry is financed. This week, we're asking: why is European cinema the way it is, and should we be trying to change it?

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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.

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Less Beyoncé, more bouzouki

This week, music and politics collide. We're talking about Greece's plan to enforce quotas for Greek-language lyrics on the radio, and the racist backlash against Aya Nakamura's rumoured booking for the Paris Olympics. Plus, a great interview with Politico's senior climate reporter Zia Weise about the EU's once-trumpeted nature restoration law. Can the EU still claim to be a world leader when it comes to going green?

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Guide to a Non-Existent Country

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.

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Wikipedia's Missing Women

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.

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Quarantainment

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.

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Long Distance

This week, the distances travelled in search of love and safety. The Finnish novelist and playwright Saara Turunen has written beautifully about what it's like to navigate a relationship between Helsinki and Barcelona. We chat to her about European culture clashes and what feminism looks like in the two countries she lives between. Plus, Europe's failed refugee policy, magical taps, and ill-chosen words by a billionaire populist (no, not that one).

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Why is Greece's refugee policy such a mess?

In 2015, the 'migrant crisis' was the front page story of every newspaper in Europe. Today more than 42,000 people are still stranded on the Greek islands, in shameful conditions — and yet we barely talk about it. Migration researcher Apostolis Fotadis joins us from Athens to explain why Greece's refugee policy has become such a disaster. Also this week: big changes in Portugal, criminally-bad (?) singing in Croatia, and a Finnish mystery.

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What's going on in Malta?

“There are crooks everywhere you look now," Malta's top investigative journalist wrote on her blog in 2017. "The situation is desperate.” Half an hour later, Daphne Caruana Galizia was dead.

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The Other Europeans

This week we’re celebrating Europeans who refused to let boundaries get in the way of things. The historian Orlando Figes is here to talk about the continent-crossing lovers at the heart of his new book, the brilliantly-named ‘The Europeans’. The poet Christopher Hütmannsberger reads us a beautiful new work to mark 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Plus, wild borders and the Gentle Revolution.

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A Polish teenage diarist

Renia's diary spent decades locked in a bank vault. Like many teenagers, she had used it to vent about stupid fights with her friends and to record the thrill of her first kiss. And when the war came, she used it to document the relentless killing of Jews in the town where she lived. Ania Jakubek is on the line from Warsaw to tell us the extraordinary story of Renia Spiegel, and why it stayed unknown for so long. We're also talking about promising signs that Europeans are becoming less bigoted. Oh, and there's a dog.

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Invisible ink

This week, the female writers that Europe forgot. Carme Font Paz is leading a fascinating project aimed at uncovering the scribblings of European women from centuries ago and giving them their rightful place in the literary canon. Plus, Poland's election, posthumous comedy and why the EU won't be expanding east any time soon

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Podchraoladh

This week, the beauty of the Irish language. Our guest is Darach Ó Séaghdha, whose wonderful book and podcast are a celebration of a language that may only have about 74,000 daily speakers but is very much alive and kicking. Also: the right to be forgotten, the Ukrainian side of the Trump impeachment inquiry, and treasures hidden in plain sight.

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Hiphopo

... or 'hiphop' in Esperanto. This week we're talking about how the internet shook up the world's most idealistic language, with Federico Gobbo, professor of Esperanto at the University of Amsterdam. We're also talking about the furore over a rapper involved in a Swedish assault case, and the Dutch kid behind one of the most successful beats of all time.

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When politicians talk about love

This week we’re talking about what happened when Actress, the electronic musician also known as Darren Cunningham, made British and Dutch politicians debate the meaning of love. We’re also talking about French extravagance, the gentrification of Berlin, and the magic of medicine. 

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Eldorado

This week, the strange and rather wonderful story of how the BBC tried (and failed, pretty badly) to create a European soap opera back in the 1990s. Former 'Eldorado' star Kai Maurer reflects on how his unlikely role playing a German beach bum kicked off his acting career and how the show was ahead of its time. Plus: a landmark Spanish court ruling and the ugly realities of European consensus politics. Read the article that sparked Katy's El Dorado obsession here. Should we launch a campaign to get the BBC to bring it back?

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Europe needs culture

Hands up if you've got a better idea of what's happening in American politics than European politics, despite living on this side of the pond? This week André Wilkens, the new director of the European Cultural Foundation, argues that Europeans need to get better at telling their own story — whether it's in the form of a Hamilton-style hit musical or otherwise. Also: scooter wars, holograms, and when the left gets tough on immigration.

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Syria, Kosovo, Brussels and the mountain

Countries all around Europe are dealing with the same dilemma: what to do with citizens who went to join ISIS. Tiny Kosovo is alone in opting to bring back a large group of its citizens when other countries are turning their backs. To find out why, Dominic talked to AJ Naddaff, who spent months researching why so many left Kosovo to fight, and the country's humane response to bringing people back. 

Over on the western edge of Europe Katy's been chatting to the French writer Maxime Calligaro about why the Brussels bubble is a surprisingly great place to set a crime novel. Maxime and Katy also spoke at the Ancienne Belgique last week about how to make Europe less boring (you can watch it here). Thanks Liveurope for hosting! 

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