Small Ex-Soviet Satellite State My Ass
The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer
0.0 • 0 Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we're heading to a small country with a big bold foreign policy. Czechia, aka the Czech Republic, has won international praise by negotiating a desperately-needed ammunition deal for Ukraine. Why did it succeed where others have failed? And why is its government so much less scared of China than most others in Europe? We ring up Jakub Janda, Czech security expert and author of a certain viral tweet, to find out. We're also talking about a glimmer of hope for some of Italy's rainbow families, and the scandal rocking Finnish journalism.
Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month at patreon.com/europeanspodcast (many currencies are available). You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review or giving us five stars on Spotify.
Jakub is the director of the European Values Center for Security Policy. You can find him on Twitter here.
Resources for this episode:
European Tree of the Year https://www.treeoftheyear.org/
Aamulehti's apology for Matti Kuusela's dabblings in fiction https://www.aamulehti.fi/uutiset/art-2000010312503.html
Jakub's viral tweet https://twitter.com/_jakubjanda/status/1769350483695522197?s=46&t=yPKV1bu1u0kKSIiRrTkIXg
00:22 Once more with feeling
03:19 Good Week: Padua's rainbow families
09:35 Bad Week: When fact meets fiction in Finland
19:52 Interview: Jakub Janda on 'small ex-Soviet satellite states' and Czechia's bold foreign policy
36:51 Inspiration Station: A tree scandal special edition
41:14 Happy Ending: Germany's extra-relaxed Easter Monday
Producers: Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Okay, from the beginning, from the beginning again? |
| 0:24.9 | This time I'm recording. |
| 0:26.1 | Hi, Dominic. |
| 0:27.0 | Hi. |
| 0:28.4 | How long have we been making this podcast? |
| 0:30.7 | Yeah, I don't know. |
| 0:32.2 | We just recorded. |
| 0:33.9 | Full intro for you, listeners. |
| 0:36.2 | But my microphone was off. So let's take it from the top. |
| 0:39.4 | Welcome to the Europeans. |
| 0:41.2 | Your weekly dose of stories from across this complicated continent we call home. |
| 0:47.2 | I'm Katie Lee in Paris. Who are you? Put some energy into it. |
| 0:51.1 | I'm Dominic Kramer, an opera singer living in Amsterdam that knows how to turn my |
| 0:56.2 | microphone on. Well, aren't we professional? How are you, Dominic? We've had a week off. |
| 1:02.1 | I'm fine. Are you feeling refreshed and revived? No, I definitely didn't have a week off from my |
| 1:08.3 | singing career. But I do have a week off this week other than the podcast. |
| 1:12.5 | So I'm feeling very excited about the coming Easter weekend and enjoying the brighter weather. |
| 1:18.6 | Yeah, it's nice and springy here in Paris as well. It's sort of been alarmingly nice. I feel |
| 1:23.8 | like climate change has really robbed me of the ability to ever enjoy warm weather without feeling anxious about it. |
| 1:30.0 | But now it's back to being cold and sunny, which is much more appropriate for March. |
| 1:33.8 | So I'm feeling happy about that. |
| 1:35.0 | Very appropriate. |
... |
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