Is this the end of Georgia's European dream?

Is this the end of Georgia's European dream?

Author: Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer October 31, 2024 Duration: 50:03

Georgia's pro-Russian ruling party claims to have won last weekend's election — a fraudulent election, according to a mounting pile of evidence. A country that was once on the path to EU membership is now veering much closer to the Kremlin. Is there any hope left? We ring Anna Gvarishvili, Tbilisi-based journalist and head of the Investigative Media Lab, to unpack what just happened and what might happen next. We're also discussing two suitably scary topics in this Halloween episode: France's money problems, and the noxious substances spewing out of your gas cooker. 

  This episode was recorded before Wednesday's devastating floods in Spain. You can donate to the Cruz Roja (Spanish Red Cross) relief efforts here.   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). If you're short on cash but still want to support us, it would be amazing if you could leave us five juicy stars, as Dominic put it, on Pocket Casts: https://pocketcasts.com/ratings.   This week's Inspiration Station picks: fave dei morti (recipe here) and the Swiss video game Mundaun.    Other resources for this episode   Search Engine: 'Why is it so hard to tax billionaires? (Part 1)', October 18, 2024 https://www.searchengine.show/listen/search-engine-1/why-is-it-so-hard-to-tax-billionaires-part-1    'They will protest ketchup': Hugh Vuillier's Europe Letter newsletter, October 3, 2024 https://hughvuillier.substack.com/p/french-budget-not-good    Universitat Jaume I's study on the health impact of gas stoves, October 28, 2024 https://repositori.uji.es/items/156fbd65-070d-4ca4-9856-9415513d505f    00:23 It's Halloween, but we won't be talking about He Who Must Not Be Named
02:15 Good Week: French efforts to tax the super-rich
16:42 Bad Week: Gas stove fans
24:55 Please rate us on Pocket Casts!
26:06 Interview: Anna Gvarishvili on Georgia's elections
43:26 The Inspiration Station: Fave dei morti and 'Mundaun'
46:08 Happy Ending (?): Norway's teen social media ban   Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak  Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina   Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠hello@europeanspodcast.com

Every week, Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer sit down to untangle the stories shaping the continent, moving beyond the headlines to find the human threads within European news, politics, and culture. Their conversations feel like joining two well-informed friends who are genuinely curious, offering clarity on complex political shifts in Brussels one moment and diving into a compelling film from Berlin or a novel from Lisbon the next. This isn't about dry analysis; it's about understanding the forces that define daily life from Dublin to Sofia. In this The Europeans podcast, you'll hear interviews with policymakers, artists, and everyday people, all contributing to a richer, more nuanced picture of a region in constant motion. The tone is engaging and accessible, designed for anyone who feels that Europe's narrative is too often reduced to stereotypes or institutional jargon. By weaving together current affairs with deeper cultural trends, each episode builds a more complete and surprisingly relatable portrait. If you've ever wanted to feel more connected to the ideas and debates circulating across the Channel and beyond, this is a consistent and thoughtful guide.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
Podcast Episodes
The world's funniest superstate? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:11
The European Union is many things: an economic powerhouse, an improbably successful peace project, or a bureaucratic hellscape, depending on who you ask. Most people would probably agree on one thing that it isn’t: funny…
What is life really like for Russians right now? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:37
The predictions began soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine: the collapse of the Russian economy was imminent. Four years later, it still hasn’t happened. And yet, the cracks are appearing: Ukrainian drones…
Do you also have a Monstera in your living room? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:02
Vinyl records, coffee table books, low-maintenance pot plants: from Dublin to Dubrovnik, all good hipsters have the same stuff. The Italian writer Vincenzo Latronico captures this boring international aesthetic beautiful…
Venice has a Russia and Israel problem [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:18
‘Art and politics can totally be separated!’ said no one ever – apart from the organisers of the Venice Biennale, a.k.a. the Olympics of the art world. This week we’re diving into the fallout from the Biennale’s decision…
Can Pedro Sánchez unite the global left? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:04
This week, we’ve got a little something for everyone: gambling! Kraftwerk! Blast from the recent US political past Tim Walz! It was a Good Week yet again for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the darling of the globa…
How did Ukrainians end up sailing in Russia's shadow fleet? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:04
Shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX swept in to restore internet connectivity to areas that had been affected by Russian attacks. But SpaceX and its interne…
Where are the Zohran Mamdanis of Europe? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:35
A few weeks back, we asked you to weigh in on a question that’s been on our mind a lot lately: Who are the Zohran Mamdanis of Europe, and when, pray tell, are they going to give our beloved, ailing continent a much-neede…
Can a group of strangers solve Europe’s biggest problems? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:26
If you got a knock on your door from someone inviting you to Brussels to hash out some EU policies…you’d think it was a scam, right? Us, too. At least, that was the case until last week, when our producer Wojciech went t…
The end of Orbán? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:00
It has been 16 years since Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party assumed power in Hungary – and it might have begun to feel like things could never change. But with a parliamentary election just around the corner, there’s now a gl…
Europe's anti-Elon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:34
Back when Elon Musk was challenging Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight, Eugen Rochko was building an open-source, non-problematic Twitter alternative, completely without fanfare. Last year, the Mastodon founder announced hi…