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The Europeans | European news, politics and culture

Are we all trapped in a transatlantic Truman Show?

The Europeans | European news, politics and culture

Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer

Society & Culture, News

4.8274 Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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. 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. Mentioned in this episode:  The European Sentiment Compass 2025 from ECF and ECFR, “Reality show: Why Europe must not cave in Trump’s culture war” culture war” Europeans jingles composer Jim Barne’s Broadway(!) musical, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) This live blog from Czech Radio’s Zlín service that tracked the movements of Emil the Elk all summer  This week's Inspiration Station recommendations are Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, a cookbook by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette, and Rejected: Designs for the European Flag by Jonas von Lenthe.   This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it’s contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible—we could not continue to make the show without you! If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (in many different currencies), or you can gift a donation to a superfan. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number.   00:00:47 This podcast is co-hosted by a bionic woman00:04:45 Good Week: Luxembourgish teachers00:12:18 Bad Week: Eurovision00:29:09 Interview: Paweł Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations00:43:50 The Inspiration Station: The books Twelve Months of Monastery Soups and Rejected: Designs for the European Flag00:50:14 Happy Ending: Central Europe adopts elk mascot Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech OleksiakMixing and mastering: Wojciech OleksiakMusic: Jim Barne and Mariska MartinaYouTube | Bluesky | Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0

This podcast has been produced in cooperation with Uranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news.

0:11.4

But this podcast would not be possible without the incredibly generous support of our amazing listeners who donate a little bit each month at patreon.com forward slash Europeans

0:22.8

podcast. Hello and welcome to the Europeans, the podcast that talks about Europe every week, despite having zero celebrity hosts, no billionaire backers,

0:57.4

yeah, and somehow we're still here eight years in.

1:00.6

I'm Dominic Kramer speaking to you from an autumnal Amsterdam, and I've got our favorite Luxembourg in Paris.

1:07.7

Nina Lamparski down the line.

1:09.8

Welcome back, Nina.

1:12.9

Thank you, Dominic. Would you mean no celebrity hosts? Yeah, apart from you, of course, but yeah. No, not just me, you and Katie. I mean,

1:19.7

I feel like this is at this stage, a very, very popular podcast. Whenever I say that I have the

1:25.6

privilege of co-hosting a little bit, everyone goes, oh my God, wow.

1:29.3

So I feel like you can claim the fame.

1:32.3

Oh, that's sweet. You say that. I did actually have one person approached me on the Metro,

1:35.3

asking me if I was Dominic from the Europeans, and it was maybe the best thing that's ever happened to me.

1:40.3

If you were that person, thank you for making my day.

1:43.3

And it wasn't like a troll.

1:45.4

It wasn't someone mad about the curry-voost comments.

1:48.4

Fortunately not this time.

1:50.8

Anyway, how are you doing, Nina?

1:52.7

How am I doing?

1:53.8

I feel a little bit bionic today

1:56.6

because I had my very own plasma injected into my elbow today.

2:01.9

Wow. I mean, I didn't do it for fun, by the way.

...

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