The Another Europe Podcast

In this, the second part of our two part documentary The Forgotten Troubles, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper explore the contemporary politics of Northern Ireland and the extent to which the Good Friday Agreement makes it difficult to break out of sectarian division. They meet the Alliance Party on the campaign trail in the traditionally unionist area of Lagan Valley and ask whether it is possi...

Northern Ireland occupies a strange position within the Brexit debate. It is at once at the centre and at the periphery of the constitutional uncertainty and political crisis Brexit has created. Poorly understood in Britain even amongst the most well informed, the political future of those living on the island of Ireland has been thrown into huge doubt by the 2016 referendum. Hosts Zoe Williams an...

Hilary Wainwright and Mary Kaldor ... It seems almost everyone accepts there is a democratic crisis in Britain and Europe. But there is very little agreement what to do about it. For Brexiters satisfying the demand of the referendum in 2016 to leave the EU whatever the cost has become the catch-all solution to the country's democratic woes. Too many remainers, in contrast, deny there is even a pro...

Kojo Koram and Ana Oppenheim ... As Britain lurches into an unknown political moment we review the deeper issues and wider context. Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Kojo Koram, a lecturer at Birkbeck who has written widely on the colonial fantasies animating the Brexit project, and Ana Oppenheim, a staff member of Another Europe Is Possible and, when she's not busy with that, a Pol...

The best thing that ever happened for organised crime was financial globalisation. If you've stolen a massive wad of money there is an entire - largely legal - global infrastructure for you to pump it through. And if you've ever wondered why dark money loves the new far right, there's a simple reason: anyone who hates international cooperation is a friend of those moving dark money across borders....

In the latest episode of our Saving Europe From Itself series, we were joined by Cambridge scholar, Priyamvada Gopal. Her idea for saving Europe? Decolonise our politics and our entire way of thinking about global politics. This, she argues, can be the basis for a unifying narrative, that binds working class Europeans and the peoples oppressed by European empires together in a common, entangled hi...

Niccolo Milanese and Ruth Wodak ... What does it mean to say Europe is in a democracy crisis? And what exactly is the idea of illiberal democracy mobilised by the new far right? As the Austrian elections saw a drop in support for the far right did the centre-right just steal their clothes? Luke Cooper went to Vienna to talk to Ruth Wodak and Niccolo Milanese to find some answers.  

Expressing international solidarity is easy. But taking steps to build transformative change on a European and international level is much harder. At the World Transformed Festival, Another Europe's Zoe Williams hosted a discussion bringing together perspectives from two countries with quite different experiences of the EU: Portugal has been on the frontline of austerity and successfully stood up...

Jolyon Maugham QC ... Was the prorogation of Parliament illegal? And is the Supreme Court set to find against the Boris Johnson administration? As the British executive faces off against the two other pillars of the liberal democratic system - Parliament and the Courts - hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams talk to one of the barristers at the centre of the case. Quite sensationally he says the gove...

The Boris Johnson regime is moving from one crisis to another. And they are lashing out. This increasingly authoritarian government has even labelled the opposition traitors. As strategic debates break out on the left over how to defeat the most right wing government in Britain's post-war history, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to the economist James Meadway, the Labour MP Lloyd Russell M...

In this podcast Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams head to Parliament Square to join protests on the day that Boris Johnson announced his intention to shut down Parliament. We take in the atmosphere and discuss the constitutional crisis in Britain. Featuring a range of speeches and insights including from Nick Dearden, Amelia Womack, Owen Jones, Eloise Todd and Laura Parker.

Saving Europe From Itself is a new series from the Another Europe team. Each episode we’ll take one big idea, from one big thinker – and put it through its paces. In this show campaigner and broadcast journalist, Shaista Aziz argues that Europe needs to get serious about intersectional feminism. A former aid worker, who once described the culture in the sector as "patriarchy on speed", she picks a...

When Syriza won the 2015 elections they were the first government of the radical left seen in Europe since the 1930s. Leading the people into a historic clash with the European Union they were left bruised and defeated when they were forced to accept a new round of austerity six months later. Today they have lost power to a new right wing government.  In this special edition of the Another Europe...

Nick Dearden ... As Boris Johnson enters number 10 the spectre of a post-Brexit trade deal looms large. Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams spoke to Nick Dearden, a long time champion of trade justice, about the horror of a trade deal with Donald Trump and how trade  affects every aspect of our lives. We also pick his brains on Brexit, globalisation and the rise of authoritarian nationalism.

Stephen Bush ... Following the Byzantine process for how the European Union selects its leadership is tough even for seasoned observers. Worry not. We have everything you need to know. Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Stephen Bush from the New Statesman to get their heads around the European corridors of power. 

Timothy Snyder ... The EU has a big historical narrative about itself. Once upon a time waring nation-states decided to finally put aside their differences. A project for peace and reconciliation was born. But what if the story is wrong? What if it's a myth? Luke Cooper caught up with Yale historian Timothy Snyder to get the alternative story on origins of Europe. He suggests Europeans keen to for...

Saving Europe From Itself is a new series from the Another Europe team. Each episode we'll take one big idea, from one big thinker - and put it through its paces. In our inaugural show Oxford professor and author of numerous books, Danny Dorling, tears up the brief and argues that, with some of the most equal societies in the world, Europe could actually tell us a thing or two about how Britain co...

Laura Parker and Amelia Womack ... What do the European elections mean for the European left in all its variety? Co-host Luke Cooper surveys the electoral scene across Europe and takes in the atmosphere at the Another Europe results night party. He spoke to Laura Parker, the national coordinator of Momentum, as she failed to win a seat in the European Parliament. She talks candidly about the probl...

Peter Oborne … Hosts Zoe Williams and Jamie Coward are joined on the show by Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne. In recent years Oborne has gained a reputation as the idiosyncratic representative of British conservatism. First he shocked polite opinion by having warm words for Jeremy Corbyn. Now he's expressed deep regret over Brexit, and the role he played as a columnist promoting it back in 2016....

Clive Lewis ... Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Labour MP Clive Lewis, who has been heavily involved in developing the ideas and campaigning initiatives we need to save the planet. We chat Extinction Rebellion and how to connect the goals of a climate revolution to social justice, asking whether there are opportunities as well as sacrifices ahead. We also link these huge global ch...

Ruth Wodak .... Has Britain exhausted the reserves of patience in Europe? As the extension is granted, but with no end in sight to the parliamentary deadlock, the Another Europe podcast heads to Vienna to find out. Co-host Luke Cooper is joined by Ruth Wodak, distinguished emeritus professor at the University of Vienna and expert on the European far right, to take stock of what it all means for th...

Owen Jones, Brian Carty, Elena Crasta, Alena Ivanova, Helmut Scholz, Luke Cooper ... As Britain stares down a "no deal" Brexit abyss, we head to Brussels to talk to groups across the European left. In the latest in our series of international live audience events, we place Brexit in the context of the upcoming European elections and ask whether there is a way out of this terrible mess.

Sam Tarry ... Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to Sam Tarry, national political officer from the TSSA union who has spent much of his time of late in Parliament convincing MPs to do the right thing on Brexit. After another extraordinary week in UK politics we talk to him about the next steps and whether hard Remainers are on the cusp of victory or defeat.

Alena Ivanova ... There is a new centrist party in Britain as the Brexit crisis rumbles on. The electoral coalition to deliver a radical political agenda suddenly looks in peril. So this hasn’t been an easy week for left radical Remainers – with the forces of the status quo centre suddenly looking stronger. How do we beat the centrists, deliver the socialist programme that Britain urgently needs a...

Ruth Wodak and Rafal Pankowski … Europe is facing an explosion of far right movements not seen since the Second World War. This new fascism is well financed, increasingly transnational, and intent on turning the clock back decades on democracy, human rights, gender politics and the freedoms of minorities. What is it that’s tantalising millions of Europeans into this hallucination of the past? And...