With Dili away for the week we need a guest host, preferably someone with some experience with this podcast malarkey. Lucky for us, we have the perfect guest to fill in, it’s the wonderful Shaun Behrens of the Everyday Germany podcast! We discuss the benefits of being totally unprepared for life in Germany, living in the Bavarian countryside, and the various projects Shaun has worked on.
Things are decidedly zen this week, with good vibes spread by Nic after he sat in total silence for three hour while invigilating exams. Perhaps it’s this peace of mind that leads to our first topic: creating a ten point plan to fix Germany. We also discuss the creation of new political parties, and Producer Simon takes a look at the current situation for Ukrainian refugees in Germany.
It was Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, and it turns out your co-hosts aren’t incurable romantics, if anything, we’re all very curable. We discuss plans for “the most romantic day of the year”, the state of traditional high streets of German towns and cities, Producer Simon's Chinese New Year, and we finish on xenophobic Fasching chants going viral.
New week, new episode, new cold for Dili. It’s not all negative though, this weeks variant has gifted Dili some Miley Cyrus level vocals. Speaking of music, Karneval, or Fasching, are rapidly approaching, which means playlist filled with Germany’s best/worst party tunes. Sadly this is as close as we might get to celebrating. We finish on the recent protests against the far-right and the AfD.
Nic celebrates an accidental Dry January, until Dili & Producer Simon point out a flaw in his logic. No matter, sobriety is overrated, but at least Nic can console himself with a conversation about brunch, or is that an argument about brunch? We also have updates on recent strikes & protests across the country, the “left behind” of Germany, and the resignation of Jürgen Klopp.
It’s a week of rather fruity voices as both Nic & Dili have varying degrees of cold, thanks to germ infested children and coughing commuters. Of course, that won’t stop the pod, and we kick things off with a forceful debate over the correct terminology for underwear. We also have updates on bakery goblins, farming protests, demonstrations against the far right, and the new German citizenship law.
After a microphone malfunction last week, Producer Simon is forced to eat a healthy slab of humble pie, much to Dili’s enjoyment. Once the admin is out the way, and Simon has finished crying, we turn to the important issue of Nic’s burgeoning hatred of a particular bakery employee. We also look at ongoing farming protests, scandals in the AfD, and how to ban right-wing politicians from elections.
Well, it’s finally happened, after weeks of low level insults, Dili decides to go on strike. Thankfully that’s a major topic in Germany at the moment, so at least one third of the podcast is on topic. We look at a famous botanical garden in Bavaria, the curious case of flood tourism, and the current farming and Deutsche Bahn strikes.
It’s the first podcast of 2024, and we’re still recovering from an action packed festive couple of weeks. Producer Simon enjoyed himself a little too much, Nic fought off a variety of flus & colds, and Dili is still traumatised by an unexpected meeting with her nemesis.
As 2023 begins to make itself scarce, we look back on a year of the weird and wonderful, not only in Germany, but among your podcast hosts. We go through some of favourite stories and general highlights from the pod this year. We also chat about the things we enjoyed in our own lives own lives through the year, and try to avoid making any bold, and inevitably inaccurate predictions for 2024.
It’s almost Christmas which means we throw off the shackles of podcast structure and unleash the festive chaos, although some of us may be more chaotic than others. It falls to your erstwhile Geordie co-host to enforce some much needed organisation, and what better way to do that than with a festive game! We also discuss Christmas plans, colonial cakes, sexy firefighters, and why competence is the most attractive trait in any partner.
This week, we discuss the best tea to cure a cold, liver & onions at the Weihnachtsmarkt, and we look at the results from the recent PISA study on education and ask if Germany is overly reliant on a flawed report to evaluate its education system.
Dragging himself from his sickbed, Nic debuts his new smoky radio voice, which frankly isn’t worth the suffering. Sick or not, this doesn’t stop him bringing up Euro 2024, much to Dili’s disappointment. We discuss the questionable social media use of a certain Bavarian politician, the politics of clearing snow, and why more booze isn’t always the right approach to cake baking.
After being inspired by talk of Christmas markets last week, Dili headed over to sample the delights her own town’s festive offering. While she ponders the right amount of condiments on a bratwurst, Nic is trying to work out how much porridge he can eat in 24 days. We discuss Thomas Gottschalk, the longtime host of “Wetten das…?”, and we wonder why speed limits are so controversial in Germany.
This week we look forward to the opening of Christmas markets, Dili is preoccupied with roasted chestnuts, Nic explains why there's a €60 billion gap in the government's budget, and Producer Simon discusses public bookshelves on the streets of Germany.
We learn how Nic’s history of drunken shenanigans actually makes him pretty useful in very specific parenting situations, and chat about the beginning of Fasching, St Martin’s Day festivities, and Dili’s hidden Birthday. We’re also delighted to welcome Radio Spaetkauf hosts Izzy Choksey & Anne-Marie Harrison to discuss their fantastic new podcast Sticking Point: Voices of Germany’s Climate Movement.
The adventures of parenthood continue as Nic deals with a sick child for most of the week, which Dili can sympathise with given she spends her days avoiding the Petri dish of small children in her classroom. To keep our minds off our germaphobia, we look a story about Bundeswehr food cuts, Simon takes us through a very German problem in New Zealand, and Dili goes hunting for a new shop.
Your trio of hosts are back together again and just in time for Halloween. With all those ghouls and ghosts knocking about, safety in numbers makes sense, you never know who might knock on the door at this time of year. We discuss posh pumpkins, dining alone, and a manifesto from Germany's most divisive tabloid.
With Dili away, Producer Simon wants to talk about the Rugby World Cup, while Nic would rather talk about something else, anything else in fact. Language is our main theme this week as your hosts discuss their less than straightforward paths towards improving their German, from the Volkshochschule to the various apps that have sometimes helped but also hindered their progress.
After a week off, Dili returns to the pod and just in time for some very important admin. With us approaching episode 150, it means that Dili has been co-hosting for nearly a year, which means only one thing: it’s annual review time!! We also discuss new immigration laws proposed by the German government, and a listener email asks why German radio seems so terrible.
