The Sobremesa Podcast

The ‘Catalangate’ espionage case has rocked Spanish politics over the last month and has led to the sacking of the country's head of intelligence. The scandal, which involves the use of Pegasus spyware against Catalan and Basque independentists, also raises serious questions around the democratic deficiencies of Spain's post-Franco constitutional regime. In this episode Alan and Eoghan discus...

Karl Qualls joined Eoghan and Alan to discuss his book Stalin's Niños: Educating Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the Soviet Union Here they talk about how the 3,000 Spanish children ended up in the USSR and what happened during their childhood there. They also speak about the education they received and why they were considered hero children in the eyes of the Soviet Union. They also explore...

Luke Bowe, a PhD candidate from New York University, talks to Alan about the cultural depictions of Asturias via the medium of novels, short stories and film. Asturias often gibes of two images: natural and peaceful or working class and industrial. Here they explore how these myths and identity were portrayed and the connected contradictions that go with them. 

Alan and Eoghan ( the new co-host! ) discuss recent events linked with Pedro Sanchez and Western Sahara, the last part of Africa to have not been through the decolonization process that Spain is still responsible for. We talk about how it is related to Spain's monarchy and the history of its occupation. Following this Eoghan interviews Sahrawian journalist Nazha Elkhalidi for further discussion on...

Welcome back to the Sobremesa Podcast in 2022!Karlo Basta is a politics lecturer at Edinburgh University and his book the Symbolic State is out now. Here we discuss multi nation states and the four examples he has analysed in his book of course with an emphasis on Spain and Catalonia. Hope you enjoy it and Feliz Año a todos!

Xan Lopez from Contra el Diluvio, (a green think tank without money) talks with me about ecology and the problems specific to Spain. We also discuss ecological movements and of course green politics. Check out his group's blog for more infohttps://contraeldiluvio.es/

Ben Wray is a freelance journalist leading Brave New Europe’s Gig Economy Project. He joins me to explain how the Riders law came about in Spain, and why it is needed. Ben also explains some of the problems that there have been on the way.

The Sobremesa Podcast has slowed down for August like the rest of Spain. But here is some summer listening for you, no matter where you are! Sebastiaan Faber, professor of Hispanic studies at Oberlin College, joins me to discuss his latest book Exhuming Franco What is left of Francisco Franco's legacy in Spain today? Franco ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975. In O...

Sorry this episode is a bit late but I have covid! Recorded two weeks ago, Nerea Fernández Cordero, Co-coordinadora at IU Exterior (Izquierda Unida), and political journalist  Eoghan Gilmartin join me to discuss the coalition party called Unidas Podemos. We talk about how it came to be and where it goes from here that their founding leader has left politics, and now that they are part of...

Following last weeks news on the pardon of the 9 Catalan political prisoners, jailed following the referendum in 2017,  I discuss the issue with Andrew Dowling, a lecturer in Catalan and Spanish history. If you want to hear more about this issue, take a listen to our previous episodes on the matter. 

Dr Mercedes Peñalba-Sotorrío, a lecturer and researcher from Manchester Metropolitan University, joins me to discuss the relationship between Nazi Germany and Spain before, during and after WW2. Her research involves looking at how Nazi propaganda inside Spain which influenced the country's foreign and domestic policy during the time. We also discuss the concept of neutral countries and how the re...

With the communidad elections less than a week away Caroline Gray and Eoghan Gilmartin both join me to discuss the political earthquake that led to the elections and why this election is about more than just the capital.

This week, the European Super League launched but it hasn't gone smoothly. In the UK all 6 big teams were forced to pull out by their fans, the media and even Boris Johnson. Here in Spain the reaction has been very different. Tommy Hay joins me to discuss the issues behind this league and the Spanish reaction to it. Tommy Hay is a football commentator here in Spain. He is the presenter of Speaking...

Sonia Cuesta joins me to discuss the treatment of sexual minorities by the Spanish state during the late period of the Francoist dictatorship. Sonia Cuesta Maniar is a doctoral research student at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the relationship between Francoist repressive practices and accelerating socio-political change in the 1960s and 1970s Spain. More broad...

Feminism is huge movement in Spain, but why? Gender violence is a polemical topic in Spain. Dr Deborah Madden joins me to discuss how, in recent years, there have been several high-profile cases of rape that have brought about needed reforms to the Spanish law. This, along with a number of femicides in the country, has brought gender violence into the public domain. Dr Deborah Madden is a Leverhul...

In recent years feminism has boomed in countries such as Argentina and Mexico. Likewise, in Europe the movement has been most active in the south, mainly in Italy and Spain. Since 2018, when the first massively followed International Women Strike took place, the movement hasn´t stop growing, and its effects are beginning to be felt. What are some of today’s discussions in Spanish feminism? and whe...

The Spanish government recently announced 11 billion euros for small, medium sized companies in the hard-hit tourism sector. Will it be enough? And what is the longer term plan for the Spanish economy? In the longer term, Spain has seen the need to reform its economy as the current model, heavily reliant on tourism, is unreliable. Many in the country also want self employment red tape cut and cost...

Nationalism has made a comeback in the 21st century and Spain is not exempt. Often people mistake Spain for a large country, when in fact it is a large block of several regional identities. Famously, the Catalan independence movement has highlighted this fact and also caused a rise in the national Spanish identity. However this is not a new phenomenon. Spain's regional identities have challenged S...

Andrew Dowling joins me again to discuss the Catalan election results. We also discuss and analyse the protests/riots that have followed the arrest of Spanish rapper Pablo Hasel.

On Sunday the 14th February, Catalonia will go to the polls, this time to elect a regional government. This is the second regional election since the October 2017 independence referendum. The first in December 2017 was called by then Spanish President Mariano Rajoy, in that election the biggest party Cuidudanos won the most seats but could not form an administration. A regional government was form...

Vicente Rubio-Pueyo is a Spanish academic based in New York. In the second part of my interview with him we discuss Spanish nationalism and the rise of far right party Vox.

Vicente Rubio-Pueyo is a Spanish academic based in New York and member of Minim, a municipalist observatory. He sat down with me to discuss modern day Spanish municipalism and the effect it has had on politics and the cities it governed.

In this episode of the Sobremesa podcast I interview Caroline Gray. Here we talk about territorial politics of both the left and right in Spain since the financial crisis. Caroline Gray is Lecturer in Politics and Spanish. She specialises in the politics of Spain and wider Europe, focusing on territorial politics and party systems. She is the author of Territorial Politics and the Party System in...

10 years ago in 2011, Spain went through a crisis of representation. Until then, Spain had been praised as exceptional for its peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in the late 1970’s. Yet with the arrival of economic problems, that soon changed. On an international scale, the world was still struggling in the aftermath of the 2007-8 financial crisis. The Great Recession had begun. In...

In this one-off special episode, I discuss brexit with two Brits that live in Spain. One voted leave and the other voted remain. Here is why. Richard Thompson lives in Sant Joan in Mallorca. He is a business owner and local town councillor with Assemblea per Sant Joan. We talk about voting remain and the stereotypes of Brits in Spain. Timothy Appleton has lived in Madrid for 15 years. He is a lect...