The Sobremesa Podcast

Semana Santa is is one of the most important holidays of the year in Spain, with the main focus being on the popular processions organized by religious brotherhoods, or cofradías. Today on Sobremesa Podcast Alan and Eoghan are joined by the anthropologist Carlos Cañete to talk about both the oppressive and emancipatory sides of Semana Santa as a religious and cultural institution. Carlos is a tenu...

In this episode of The Sobremesa Podcast , Alan speaks with Alberto Corsín Jiménez , anthropologist and author of Free Culture and the City: Hackers, Commoners, and Neighbors in Madrid, 1997–2017 . They explore how the principles of free software, Creative Commons, and hacker culture shaped Madrid’s urban activism—especially in the lead-up to and aftermath of the 15M movement. From the Pardo Media...

Spain’s housing crisis has returned, but unlike 2008, there’s no financial collapse—just rising rents, increasing evictions, and a housing market that feels out of reach for many. What’s driving this crisis, and what can be done to address it? In this episode of The Sobremesa Podcast , Alan speaks with Dr. Koldo Casla, a Senior Lecturer in International Human Rights Law at Essex Law School, to exp...

Last weekend saw the European far-right once again converge on Madrid as Vox hosted a summit of party leaders from the European Patriots group. Already acting as an active lobby for Musk in the EU parliament to ensure there is no regulation of social media, the far-right grouping are jubilant at their prospects for the next 4 years after the election of Trump. That Vox’s Santiago Abascal was named...

This week writer and tour guide Nick Lloyd brings Catherine on a a more atypical historical route of Barcelona to uncover the lesser known layers to the city’s history. They start at Estació de França, a historic train station not far from the city’s port where the International Brigades arrived to Spain. They then walk down to Ciutadella Park, where Barcelona’s zoo is located to discuss the haunt...

This week Eoghan talks to author and journalist Dan Hancox about his new book 'Multitudes: How Crowds Made The Modern World’. It is a fascinating exploration of the collective joy and emancipatory  potential of different forms of mass gatherings while also tracing the obsession of elites and the forces of law and order in policing, delegitimizing and suppressing crowds. Throughout Multitudes Dan r...

It has been a year of near constant parliamentary deadlock for Spain's left-leaning government but also one of strong economic growth in comparison to other eurozone economies. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist Party won the Catalan elections in May and were once again the largest social democratic force in Europe after June's European parliament elections. Yet Sanchez and PSOE have also be...

This week Eoghan talks to the author and journalist Michael Eaude. Michael is the author nine books, including ‘Catalonia, a Cultural History’, ‘Triumph at Midnight of the Century - A Critical Biography of Arturo Barea’ and ‘Sails and Winds - A Cultural History of Valencia’. And during the last 25 years he has also worked as a self-described "necrologist",  writing some 70 obituaries for The Guard...

Writer and musician, Troy Nahumko, joins Alan to discuss his new book Stories Left in Stone, Trails and Traces in Cáceres, Spain. They discuss the old town of Cáceres, a UNESCO world heritage site, Game of Thrones, the world's oldest handprint, cave art and regional politics. You can buy Troy's book here If you like what we are producing, please consider making a donation at our Buy Me a Coffee pa...

130,000 people protested in Valencia last Saturday demanding regional premier Carlos Mazón resign from his post for his disastrous management of the floods which devastated the area two weeks ago. The death toll stands at 223 people while hundreds of thousands of others have had their homes and places of work gutted. Eoghan spoke to journalist Leah Pattem about the protests and the ongoing recover...

Last Tuesday evening as thousands of people were commuting home from work and many others continued at their jobs in supermarkets, cinemas, factories, beauty shops and restaurants, unprecedented flash floods hit the Valencia region. That morning at 8am the Spanish Met office issued its highest warning level of maximum red, warning of extreme danger. But the right-wing regional government of Carlos...

This week Eoghan talks to financial journalist Gareth Gore. In his new book Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church Gore opens the lid on the extremist, reactionary sect Opus Dei. Opus was initially set up against the tumultuous backdrop of 1930s Spain and went to play a leading role in the Francoist dictatorship - both in education and...

The island of El Hierro is at the centre of the Canary Islands’ current surge in irregular migration, receiving 13,000 refugees and immigrants this year – 2,000 more than its total residents. As hundreds die every month on the passage from West Africa to the popular tourist islands, the Spanish right are now weaponising the issue. Leader of the far-right Vox Santiago Abascal denounced what he char...

This week Catherine talks to Sophie Turbutt about one of the most widely read anarchist magazines in 1930s Spain, La Revista Blanca, Founded by the Montseny family, this anarchist magazine featured a novelty for the time, an advice column that offered answers to questions about gender, women's bodies, sex and sexuality. - topics that were limited in their discussion and clouded by taboos, rumours...

Berna León, Javier Carbonell and Javier Soria join Alan to discuss to discuss the book La desigualdad en España (Inequalities in Spain) published by Lengua de Trapo. The book includes a prologue from Thomas Piketty and over 30 - international and national - experts examine inequalities in Spain, from the historical and ongoing causes to symptoms and possible cures. The three editors discuss how th...

This week Eoghan is joined by journalist Richard Fitzpatrick to discuss Spain’s incredible victory at the European Championships in Germany. Energised by its two daredevil wingers, Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, Spain won all seven matches at the tournament, while playing wonderful attacking, flowing football. Yet if Yamal and Williams offered the world another, more multicultural image of Spain,...

Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, an Ethnomusicologist from the University of Aberdeen, joins Alan to discuss the world famous dance from Spain. In recent years, the Andalusian Government has embarked on an ambitious project of developing flamenco as a symbol of regional identity. But in this episode, Matthew offers an alternative and more complex history of its origins and development - from early Arab...

Heidi Backes joins Alan to discuss the haunted houses, silent spaces and traumatic memories often seen in post-Franco gothic fiction, such as in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's international bestseller The Shadow of the Wind. ' Her new book Spectral Spain looks at how Gothic literature has become a leading genre in contemporary Spain - one capable of confronting the traumatic memories of the country&#...

Alan is joined by the podcast's new co-host Laura Seoane, together they talk with political philosopher Tim Syme about the results of the European election, Yolanda Diaz's resignation, the breakthrough of Se Acabó la Fiesta (SALF) and what a rightward shift means for the European Union. If you enjoy what we produce then please give us a review on your preferred podcast platform and conside...

This week Eoghan talks to researcher and sociologist Iago Moreno about the evolution of online politics in Spain from the techno-optimist vision of the 15M movement in 2011, with its promise of networked democracy, to the rise of the contemporary fachosfera - the far-right and reactionary online eco-system. Iago also talks about the emergence of a new extremist platform to the right of Vox, Se aca...

This week Catherine talks to historian Brendan Von Briesen about how the organisation of skilled labour in medieval and early modern Barcelona, in the form of journeyman's guilds, can be seen as the foundation of the city's later labour and trade union movement. If you enjoy what we produce then please give us a review on your preferred podcast platform and consider donating to our buy me...

This week Eoghan is joined by historian Andrew Dowling to discuss yesterday's historic Catalan election, which saw a definitive end to the decade long push for independence known as the procés . For the first time since 2012, the pro-independence parties failed to secure a majority of seats in the new parliament. As the Socialists secured historic gains, the progressive nationalist vote collap...

This week Alan is joined by culture critic and researcher Anita Fuentes to discuss Spanish celebrities and politics. Should celebrities use their platforms to stand up for injustices like the genocide in Palestine and a recent revival in the Spanish MeToo movement? Furthermore, Rosalia is often claimed to have a progressive image, but is she? From real estate to cultural appropriation much would i...

After announcing last Wednesday that he was considering stepping down as Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez revealed this morning he was staying in the job so to fight for "the democratic renewal" of the country. In a move straight out of his favourite TV series Baron Noir, he has orchestrated another theatrical gesture or 'golpe de efecto' so as to rally the Left and upend th...

This week Eoghan is joined by journalist Ben Wray to discuss last night's Basque elections, which saw historic gains for pro-independentist left EH Bildu - with the new Basque parliament being the most nationalist in 40 years. But Ben argues that this does not mean that independence is any closer but in fact the results reinforces Pedro Sanchez's centrality within the current governing arr...