Common Ground Berlin

Affordable housing in German cities is increasingly hard to find. What went wrong and can it be fixed?  Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks with Berlin housing activist Thomas McGath of Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen und Co; Barbara Steenberger, head of the EU Liaison Office of the International Union of Tenants and Konstantin Kholodilin, senior economist at the German Institute for Economic Research. ...

Where are we in the fight to curb climate change? And will having Joe Biden as the U.S. president help?  Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks to Douglas Hengel, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund who writes about global energy, climate and resource challenges; Tim Gore, head of the Low Carbon and Circular Economy Program at The Institute for European Environmental Policy in Brussels, and co-fo...

Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks to Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, founder of the news literacy project Lie Detectors in Brussels; Lisa Dittmer, Reporters without Borders’ advocacy officer in Berlin for internet freedom; Damaso Reyes, multimedia journalist and founder of Clarify Media; and Jacob Mchangama, founder of the Copenhagen-based think tank Justitia.  This show is produced by Dina Elsayed....

The coronavirus vaccination efforts in Germany and the EU are a mess. Why are some countries so much better at getting people inoculated? Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by Die Welt Middle East Correspondent and author Christine Kensche in Tel Aviv; Wall Street Journal Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov in Dubai and ARD Radio Correspondent Helga Schmidt in Brussels. This s...

E-learning isn’t working the way many students, teachers and parents would like. Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson explores the ramifications with psychologist Dr. Ilka Wolter, diversity consultant and parent Annette von Wedel and Berlin teachers Ryan Plocher and Adrianne Oldham.  This show is produced by Dina Elsayed. 

The California company's new facility in Brandenburg is set to open this summer, leaving Germany’s auto giants scrambling to retain their dominance in the global luxury car market. Common Ground host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks to Jens Hanefeld, who is in charge International and European Policy at Volkswagen, and Bloomberg Correspondent Stefan Nicola about the future of German electric cars.  Th...

 Unprecedented bans by the U.S.-based tech giants are sparking debate in Germany over who should control social media. Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by German MP (Greens) Renate Künast, Bloomberg Opinion’s Andreas Kluth, digital rights blogger and lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel and Jillian York of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.  This show is produced by Dina Elsayed

On the last episode of Common Ground in 2020, host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks to a man who has profoundly influenced Berlin and transatlantic relations for many decades: Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, John Kornblum.  Tune in to hear about key moments in Berlin and the Cold War, the public radio station in the German capital he helped create, and the future of transatlantic relations.  This s...

During KCRW Berlin’s last week on air, we're sharing the story behind the story. Listen to the second of a special, two-part episode in collaboration with Studio Berlin, where we reflect on our favorite on air moments from the past year and look ahead to 2021. This show was produced by Monika Müller-Kroll.

Tune into the first part of a special, two-part episode with Studio Berlin.  This show was produced by Monika Müller-Kroll. 

Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by Christian Gräff, CDU member of the Berlin House of Representatives; Christian Stender, culture manager at Ketering GmbH that organizes the Lucia Christmas Market at Berlin’s Kulturbrauerei, and our Studio Berlin co-host Sylvia Cunningham.  This show was produced by Dina Elsayed.

Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks to Helen Arvanitakis, director of London's new Design District ; James Andrade, senior vice President and Head of Learning and Innovation at CapitaLand in Singapore and in Düsseldorf, Hans-Hermann Aldenhoff, country head and law partner at Simmons and Simmons. Also featuring Die Linke Berlin ’s Tobias Schulze . This show was produced by Dina Elsayed. 

Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by Bundestag member Daniela De Ridder (SPD), who is vice-chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Bloomberg Opinion columnist Andreas Kluth;  Stormy-Annika Mildner, who heads the external economic policy department at the Federation of German Industries e. V. and Jana Puglierin, who heads the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. This...

Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by Said Ahmad Arif, Imam at the Khadija mosque in Berlin; David Wengenroth, editor at the Lutheran news outlet, Idea; Sadiqu Al-Mousllie, Central Council of Muslims in Germany board member; and Ernesto Grueneberg, immigration lawyer in Berlin. This show was produced by Dina Elsayed

Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by John Emerson, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany; Kathryn Watts, Pendleton Miller Chair in Law at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle; Peter Beyer, Germany’s Transatlantic Coordinator; and Ralph Freund, Vice President of U.S. Republicans Abroad in Germany. This show was produced by Dina Elsayed

Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson talks to Wenke Christoph, state secretary in the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing , Christian Eckart, an attorney and partner at Redeker Sellner Dahs and Daniel Hofmann, housing market researcher at the Hamburg-based institute for urban, regional and housing research ( GEWOS ).  This show was produced by Dina Elsayed

The EU’s Digital Services Act - What does it mean for Big Tech and for YOU? Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by Alexandra Geese , Member of the European Parliament with the German Greens; Travis Todd, co-founder of Berlin’s startup community Silicon Allee ; Mackenzie Nelson, researcher and project manager at AlgorithmWatch , and Lina Rusch , a journalist with Der Tagesspiegel who writes about...

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on people’s travel plans and decimated the tourism industry and airlines. The German government’s guidance on travel is ever-changing and often confusing, making business and leisure travel difficult at best.  With a new coronavirus wave erupting in Germany, across Europe and in parts of the US, will we see more border closures and quarantine rules? Or can increased...

What many people feel about the upcoming U.S. presidential election can be described in one word: Fear.  Some worry there won't be a peaceful transition of power following the vote next month. Others wonder whether democracy and women’s rights in the United States will radically change with a new Supreme Court. There is also anxiety over U.S. foreign policy, and the tone of the recent presidential...

Is it safe to be Jewish in Germany? Should German authorities be doing more to stop rising anti-Semitism? Host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by Germany's Federal Commissioner for Jewish life and against anti-Semitism Felix Klein; Sigmount Koenigsberg of the Jewish Community of Berlin ; Sharon Kuckuck of Berlin’s Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom and Biplab Basu of ReachOut Berlin , who debate these q...

Frustration is high in Berlin over the rights of cyclists vs. drivers. But what about the rights of Berlin’s pedestrians vs. cyclists? We explore that fraught relationship and other human-powered, sustainable mobility conflicts in Berlin on the third episode of Common Ground with guests Carolina Mazza of ADFC (German Cyclists Association), Roland Stimpel of FUSS e. V. (Organization for Pedesterian...

When Google announced plans to open a campus in the Berlin neighbourhood of Kreuzberg, local opposition was so loud that it ground the tech giant’s plans to a halt. A similar wave of protests hit Friedrichshain earlier this year against Amazon’s plans to erect a 140 meter-tall office building. In this episode, host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is joined by Nina Monaghan, the vice-chairwoman of the Free...

John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech was embraced by an overwhelming majority of city residents nearly six decades ago. But these days, there’s a lot of disagreement over who gets to call themselves a Berliner as the German capital rapidly evolves into an international city with immigrants from around the globe. In the hour-long premiere of “Common Ground”, host Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson i...