Three Rivers and a Sausage Fight

Three Rivers and a Sausage Fight

Author: Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer August 22, 2025 Duration: 52:51

It’s our second week of “cucumber season” programming, and fair warning: we’re really leaning into the late-summer goofiness. This week, we go hard on German gastronomy, with a deep dive into Europe’s declining alcohol consumption and a recap of the utterly absurd row over the origins of Bratwurst.

Because we don’t want you to think we’ve totally lost the plot, we also had a perfectly civilised conversation with Robert Winder, the prolific author and sometime editor of The Independent and Granta whose new book, Three Rivers, comes out next week. Robert spoke with our producer Katz about the waterways that shape Europe as we know it—and about their future in a warming climate. You can purchase the book here on 28 August. 

This week's Inspiration Station recommendations are the Danish film The Guilty and the audio recordings of Colm Tóibín’s novels Brooklyn and Long Island. Our Happy Ending comes from Helsinki, which managed to go an entire year with no traffic fatalities! You can read more about the milestone achievement here and how they did it here.

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 Welcome back to cucumber season!
00:03:09 Good Week: European livers
00:16:29 Bad Week: Bratwurst ensnared in national feud
00:31:16 Interview: Robert Winder reconnects us with the poetry of rivers
00:44:00 The Inspiration Station: the film The Guilty and Colm Tóibín’s novels Brooklyn and Long Island 
00:49:11 Happy Ending: Helsinki successfully stamps out road deaths

Producers: Morgan Childs, Katz Laszlo, and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | 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
When will Europe get the trains it deserves? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:37
If you’ve ever wondered where all the affordable night trains are, or struggled to book tickets for an international journey, or spent hours of your one wild and precious life petitioning for compensation for a significa…
What do the Epstein files reveal about Europe’s elite? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:00
It has been an absolutely Awful Week for everyone who has been paying attention to the latest release of the Epstein files, both on this continent and around the world. We’re taking a look at what the documents reveal ab…
The Europeans: Ask Us Anything [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:46
A very special bienvenue to this very special episode of The Europeans! This week, the entire team gathered in person in a swanky studio in Paris to answer some of your burning questions, from “How do you stay sane when…
A European social network for the WTF era [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:30
By popular demand (and thanks to Dominic’s singing schedule), our silly, brilliant Luxembourger-in-chief Nina Lamparski is back in the hosting chair – and she’s brought her longstanding grudge against Elon Musk with her.…
The UK and the EU: best buds again? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:23
You’d be forgiven for forgetting that Europe is bigger than Davos this week, but we’ve got three great stories to remind you. First up: it’s been a good week for Berliners making Kartoffelsalat, Kartoffelsuppe, Kartoffel…
ChatGPT is ruining weddings now [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:37
If you are the sort of person whose New Year’s resolutions read something like: “(1) Shoot for the moon, (2) Do what you love, (3) Change the world” – have we got a guest for you! We’re joined this week by former Iceland…
2026: The year Europe gets its act together? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:11
We are returning from our winter holidays feeling refreshed, renewed, and optimistic about 2026. Ha ha ha ha! No, but seriously, Trump’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores was the Ne…
Pavarotti is trapped in an ice rink [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:26
It’s that time of year when we gather together with friends from near and far, indulge in seasonal treats, and take a lighthearted look at the stories that are rounding out these past 12 wild months. It’s our annual Chri…
Can the EU make Poland recognise gay marriage? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:24
If the winter blues have got you down, these two things might lift your spirit: (1) the Christmas section at your local Lidl, and (2) the news that a same-sex marriage in one EU country must be recognised in another. But…
Europe's climate vibe has shifted. Now what? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:23
It hasn’t been a Good Week for the climate since, er, 1820-something? And it wasn’t last week, either. But it is a good week for The Europeans, because we’re joined by Luisa Neubauer, one of Germany’s best-known climate…