On the show this week:

Simon is away on holiday in the UK this week, but the show must go on, even if half of the show is knee deep in sausage rolls and pints of warm beer. Luckily for Nic, we’ve been able to secure a fantastic guest as we welcome historian and journalist Katja Hoyer to talk about dealing with British greetings and how to correctly pronounce the word “scone”.

It’s rather lucky we have a historian with us after a week of deep historic importance. Nic and Katja discuss the death of Queen Elizabeth II and preparations for the funeral on Monday. Nic finds out what it’s been like in Britain since the news dropped, we talk about the meeting of “Ancient customs” and 21st century realities, and we wonder why Paddington Bear plays such a prominent role.

We didn’t just ask Katja on to talk about current events though. As the author of Blood and Iron: the Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871 -1918, Katja is the perfect person to ask about how Germany was unified, the connecting lines from 1871 to modern day Germany, and why Bismarck doesn’t get much love, in Bayern at least.

Decades from Home - A podcast about Germany

For those of you looking to support Ukraine or the many refugees currently fleeing the conflict, please take a look at these different charities and consider donating if you can:

Ukraine Crisis Media Centre - A list of different donation pages to help the Ukrainian military response.

Disaster Emergency Committee - Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal

Save the Children

Ärzte ohne Grenzen

Image Credit

Photo by Craig Bradford on Unsplash

Theme tune courtesy of Kloß mit Soß