Friends of Europe podcasts

This week on Keeping an Eye on the Geopolitical Ball, Jamie Shea, Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe, focuses on the outcomes of the 15th Annual Summit of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, China, India, China and South Africa) which happened this week. Those 5 countries have announced the admission of 6 more countries to the group: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Argentina and United Arab Emir...

On 20 June 2023, Friends of Europe held its annual Peace, Security and Defence Summit. For the first time, the summit was organised simultaneously in two cities, Brussels and Vilnius, ahead of the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital on 11-12 July. Welcoming government representatives, leaders from the private sector and NGOs, activists and researchers, the summit brought attention to the growing...

15 June 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Chris Kremidas-Courtney is joined by Audrey Tang, Taiwanese Minister for Digital Affairs, to discuss Taiwan’s approach to digital democracy.

This week on Keeping an Eye on the Geopolitical Ball, Jamie Shea, Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe, focuses on the law passed by the U.S. Congress last week that suspended the debt ceiling of the U.S. She reminds us that the current U.S. debt reaches $31.4 trillion dollars. Thus, to avoid an economic catastrophe, the U.S. Congress, with a strong bipartisan support, has passed a law that suspends...

25 May 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Chris Kremidas Courtney is joined by Nita Farahany, author of The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology, to discuss the ways in which neurotechnology can be harnessed for good and evil. Tune in to hear what our speakers have to say.

18 May 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Thomas Van Vynckt is joined by Robert Biedron, MEP with the S&D party and Chair of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM), to discuss a vision for gender equality for Europe. Tune in to hear what our speakers have to say.

17 May 2023: In this episode of the Dark Matter Podcast, join Germain Garreau and Kaustubh Hakim, two researchers who detect and study exoplanets – or planets that orbit a star outside our solar system. The podcast details their new techniques and nulling interferometry , which involves using several small telescopes instead of one large one. However, reaching near-perfect symmetry between the bea...

11 May 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Thomas Van Vynckt is joined by Ece Temelkuran, award-winning Turkish novelist, political commentator and author of ‘How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship’ and ‘Together’, to discuss the process by which our social contract has been eroding. Tune in to hear what our speakers have to say.

10 May 2023: In this episode of the Dark Matter Podcast, Nivedita Raju delves into the complex and fascinating world of space law and the challenges surrounding liability in space, focusing on the potential security risk in space debris interfering with satellites and other space-based assets. The podcast explores how a basic military test on Earth can have negative consequences for other stakehol...

3 May 2023: On our third episode of the Dark Matter Podcast, interdisciplinary researcher and social entrepreneur Sahba El-Shawa shares her journey and accomplishments, including founding the Jordan Space Research Initiative (JSRI) and her work with the Space Generation Advisory Council and the Moon Village Association. El-Shawa advocates for ethics, human rights and climate action in space and ch...

27 April 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Jamie Shea is joined by Senior Fellows for Peace, Security & Defence at Friends of Europe, Paul Taylor and Chris Kremidas-Courtney, to discuss the latest developments in Ukraine’s security. Tune in to hear what our speakers have to say.

26 April 2023: The second episode of the Dark Matter Podcast welcomes Kyzzhibek Batyrkanova, a trailblazer for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in STEM fields. Kyzzhibek is the Program Director of the Kyrgyz Space Program (KSP), a first-of-its-kind initiative in Central Asia that aims to empower girls and women to literally reach for the stars. She leads a passionate team wor...

20 April 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Dharmendra Kanani is joined by Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, and Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography, to discuss UNFPA's latest State of the World Population report entitled “8 Billion Lives, Infinite Possibilities: the...

19 April 2023: In this episode of the Dark Matter Podcast, Stephanie Tumampos speaks about her role as a scientist and a teacher, reflecting upon how she cultivated an appreciation for science from early childhood, and how space science such as geodata gathered from satellite technology can contribute to our abilities to monitor the world, improve our understanding of climate change and predict hu...

13 April 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Paul Taylor is joined by Chris Kremidas-Courtney, Senior Fellow for Peace, Security and Defence at Friends of Europe, and Jukka Savolainen, Director for Community of Interest – Vulnerabilities and Resilience at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE), to discuss the latest developments in seabed security. Tu...

6 April 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Paul Taylor is joined by Chris Kremidas-Courtney, Senior Fellow for Peace, Security and Defence at Friends of Europe, and Hanna Linderstål, CEO of the Earhart Business Protection Agency and Advisor at the Extended Reality Safety Initiative (XRSI), to discuss the latest developments in motion tracking, ChatGPT and TikTok.

23 March 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Seán Flynn discusses the need for a wholesale reform of the EU’s electricity market and the importance of Power Purchase Agreements. Tune in to hear what our host has to say. 27 March 2023 event: The European electricity market: fit for purpose? https://www.friendsofeurope.org/events/the-european-electricity-market-fit-for-purpose/

16 March 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Dharmendra Kanani is joined by Zarifa Ghafari, Founder of Assistance and Promotion for Afghan Women (APAW) and former mayor of Maidan Shahr, to discuss how to inspire women-led change in Afghanistan. Tune in to hear what our speakers have to say.

9 March 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Quinlan Rijks is joined by Ana Krstinovska, Founder and President of ESTIMA, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of China-Western Balkans relations and why Chinese influence in the Western Balkans is already a significant cause for concern. Tune in to find out what our speakers have to say.

2 March 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Chris Kremidas-Courtney is joined by Jamie Shea, Senior Fellow for Peace, Security and Defense at Friends of Europe, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Birgitte Ebbesen, Regional Director for Europe of the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC...

23 February 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Seán Flynn commemorates the first anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine War with a show dedicated to the resilience of Ukrainian people. We are delighted to be joined by Emine Dzapharova, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and 2023 European Young Leader (EYL40); Borys Tarasyuk, former Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs; Maryana Dr...

16 February 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Jamie Shea is joined by Vakhtang Makharoblishvili, Ambassador of Georgia to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Head of the Mission of Georgia to the EU, and Paul Taylor, Senior Fellow for Peace, Security & Defence, to discuss how Georgia represents a paradox for EU integration. Tune in to find out what our speakers hav...

9 February 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Jamie Shea is joined by Paul Taylor, Senior Fellow for Peace, Security & Defence, to discuss how things stand in the war in Ukraine. Ahead of the visit President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may pay in Brussels today – leaked by European Parliament officials – we delve into how a war of attrition has begun to wear armed forces down, and why now more t...

2 February 2023: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Seán Flynn is joined by Evan Da Costa Marques and Louis Augry, journalist at France Info and RFI to discuss to whether memes pose a threat to disinformation and whether the current form of the Digital Services Act is sufficient in dealing with them. Tune in to find out what our speakers have to say

15 December 2022: In this Frankly Speaking Podcast, host Jamie Shea is joined by Senior Fellows for Peace, Security and Defence, Paul Taylor and Chris Kremidas Courtney to hazard a personal prediction for what to expect geopolitically in 2023. Tune in to find out what our speakers have to say.