Filling the Sink

As the weather gets warmer, more and more people will want to go to the beach. But lately, some of the beaches in Catalonia have looked quite different.  In some places, the beaches look like they have been swallowed by the sea. The reason for this is the recent storm Nelson, which hit the Catalan coast during this past Easter. Nelson caused an unprecedented loss of sand on some of Catalonia’s bea...

Barcelona’s take on fashion week is the bi-annual event 080 Barcelona Fashion, which this season runs from April 9 to April 12. The event has been held at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site since 2013, and during the 33rd edition celebrated this week, a mix of 24 emerging designers and established brands presented their idea of what should be in vogue in 2024.  Over the years, 080 Barcelona Fashion has...

The number of indoor climbing gyms in Catalonia has multiplied by four in just ten years, making climbing a lifestyle phenomenon and another way of connecting with people.  At the same time, the mountainous landscapes of Catalonia have become some of the most visited destinations for outdoor climbing.   In this episode, Oriol Escudé Macià joins Lea Beliaeva Bander to chat about the Catalan boulder...

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the opening of the notorious La Model prison, located in the Eixample district of Barcelona.  The facility closed in 2017 and has since become a site for Catalan historic memory, open to the public. Behind its high beige walls lies the history of a prison that sought to be exemplary, but during the Franco dictatorship held thousands of political prisoners,...

In January 2024, the Catalan government joined other European countries in the fight to regulate the use of mobile phones by young children.   A new set of regulations restricting the use of mobile phones in Catalan primary or secondary schools starting from the 2024/2025 academic year saw the light of day.  But the idea behind the regulations didn’t come from the Catalan politicians themselves, b...

Society of the Snow and Robot Dreams miss out on coveted Academy Awards, but plenty of fun is had along the way.  In Los Angeles, Natàlia Segura catches up with the nominees – Barcelona filmmaker JA Bayona, director of Society of the Snow, Montse Ribé and David Martí, nominated in the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category for their work on the same film, and Pablo Berger, director of Catalan produc...

March 8 is International Women's Day. To mark the occasion, Filling the Sink pays homage to ten women who changed Catalonia.  Writer Caterina Albert (aka Victor Català), educator Francesca Bonnemaison, anarcho-syndicalist Teresa Claramunt, trans activist Silvia Reyes, flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya, operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé, singer and songwriter Rosalía, chef Carme Ruscalleda, middle-dis...

The world's biggest mobile technology fair is taking place in Barcelona once again, but Mobile World Congress goes way beyond phones. MWC 2024 showcases all kinds of emerging technology from tech giants such as Samsung, Google, Huawei and Microsoft, with artificial intelligence the buzzword on everyone's lips.  Lorcan Doherty chats AI with Mobileum founder Avnish Chauhan, Dell's beer guy (and busi...

All across Europe, farmers are protesting, stopping traffic with their tractors to sound the alarm on what many feel is the slow death of the agricultural sector. On February 6, Catalan farmers drove their tractors out of the fields, draped them with slogans such as “La nostra fi, la vostra fam”, or “Our end, your hunger” and marched slowly but determinedly toward Barcelona in one of the largest c...

Viquipèdia, the Catalan version of the free, collaborative online encyclopedia, is a real success story, with almost 750,000 articles and over 1,000 active editors. Wikipedians Xavier Dengra and Àlex Hinojo explain what drives them to volunteer their free time and contribute their knowledge to the project. Lea Beliaeva chats to Núria Ribas, president of Amical Wikipedia, and Carme Fenoll, a wikipe...

Record stores and listening bars are popping up everywhere in Barcelona. Vinyl sales in Catalonia surpassed CD sales in 2023 for the first time since the 1980s. Why has this old, impractical way of listening to music gained popularity in a time when everyone can access whatever music they want on their phones? Lorcan Doherty joins Lea Beliaeva Bander to chat about the vinyl revival. Carlos from Su...

Catalonia's number one football team has always been FC Barcelona, until now! Tiny Girona FC are making it big, battling it out at the top of La Liga in just their fourth season ever in Spain's top division. Cillian Shields joins Lorcan Doherty to chat about the players and manager making the miracles happen. Pepe Sierra, a Girona fanatic and president of the federation of Girona supporters' clubs...

Filling the Sink turns the spotlight on education after Catalonia finished almost bottom of the class in Spain in the latest PISA international tests, sat by students around the world in reading, maths, and science. The results have raised questions for Catalan schools: what's behind the decline, and what can be done about it? Have changes in education gone too far, or not far enough? Oriol Escudé...

The Museum of Forbidden Art is the first of its kind in the world, displaying art pieces that were censored or banned at some point in history and in various different countries. Whether the reason was political, social or religious, these works have now found a new home in Barcelona. In this episode, we’ll hear from the people behind the museum and look back at the history of censorship under Fra...

Romani is the main language of the Roma community, and one of the biggest minority languages in Europe - estimated to be spoken by millions of people. But because the Roma people have been persecuted for centuries, their language and culture have suffered tremendously. In this episode, we're going to talk about the origins of the Romani language and where it stands today. We're also going to hear...

Reporter Lorcan Doherty joins Lucía Benavides to take a look back at this year's top Catalan news. There were local and national elections, a new amnesty law for Catalan pro-independence leaders, the ongoing drought that's left reservoirs at 18 percent full. And there were also big-name celebrity break-ups and cultural heritage celebrations across the territory.  The Catalan phrase of the week is:...

Architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner is best known for designing Barcelona’s famous Palau de la Música Catalana and the Sant Pau Hospital, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites. But he was also a renowned professor, with big-name students like Antoni Gaudí, and a key figure in Catalan politics. This week marks a hundred years since his death on December 27, 1923. The Catalan phrase of the w...

This week marks 100 years since the birth of one of Catalonia's most renowned artists of the 20th century: Antoni Tàpies. He's best known for his abstract art and avant-garde works, which experimented with materials such as wood, marble dust, chairs and socks. In this episode, we’ll hear from museum curators on why Tàpies’ work is still relevant today and get an intimate look into the artist’s hom...

Catalonia is experiencing the worst drought on record, with reservoirs as low as 18 percent and local governments preparing for drastic measures – such as shipping in fresh water. And this is due, in large part, to climate change. For years, the territory has been getting hotter and drier weather, leading to drained reservoirs, wildfires and lost harvests. In this episode, we’ll talk to an environ...

Catalonia has the most Michelin stars in all of Spain - with a whopping 70 in all. The last three stars were added just this week, at a gala held in Barcelona to announce the restaurants that would be included in the 2024 Michelin Guide to Spain. One of them is a Barcelona joint, Disfrutar, that was given its third star – the highest achievement in the guide’s ranking. In this episode, we’ll talk...

These days, going grocery shopping is making more of a dent in our wallets than usual. The cost of many basic food products – including olive oil, milk and eggs – has risen more than thirty percent in just two years. That’s due to several factors; among them, the ongoing inflation across much of Europe. But shoppers aren’t the only ones affected by price increases – farmers are just as fazed. In t...

Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez was sworn in as prime minister on Friday, bringing an end to a four-month long saga of inconclusive results from the July elections. The new coalition government with left-wing Sumar was made possible by the support of smaller parties like Catalan pro-independence Esquerra Republicana and Junts, securing Sánchez a total of 179 votes in the 350-member chamber. But the...

Catalonia has reached a new population record of 8 million residents. The growth has come quicker than ever before - jumping by 1 million inhabitants in just 17 years. And that’s despite having some of the lowest fertility rates in the world. So, how does the math add up? Well, there are two main factors at play: people are living longer and there are more foreign-born residents. In this episode,...

There are around 1.6 million foreign-born residents in Catalonia, almost 400,000 of whom live in Barcelona. They come from all over the world: Pakistan, China, Venezuela, Senegal, Romania. But the stats don’t tell us the full story. Why did they come here? Are they adapting to life in Catalonia? Do they feel at home or completely out of place? In this episode, we’ll hear from a number of migrants...

Barcelona has one of the lowest subsidy rates for public housing in all of Europe: only 1.7% of rental properties are designated for social housing. Compared to other EU countries, where the average rate is 18%, the Catalan capital's situation looks pretty grim. In this episode, we’ll learn about one of the first social housing projects in Barcelona, the cases barates of the Bon Pastor neighborhoo...