The Trans-Atlanticist

In Episode 3, host Douglas Cowie and his guest, science fiction writer Adam Roberts, discuss The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, an ambitious novel set in the near future that tells the story of a global effort to slow impending environmental collapse. Please also see Adam Robert's post about the novel here https://sibilantfricative.blogspot.com/2020/10/kim-stanley-robinson-minist...

We celebrate Women's History Month with an episode about women and politics. In the second episode of LadyFiction Stefanie Schaefer discusses First Ladies and “First Lady Fiction” with her guest Dr. Katharina Gerund from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In January 2021, the arrival of new First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, an educator who has said she will keep working during her time in the White Ho...

March is Irish-American Heritage Month in the United States. In Episode #2 of NovelROMANtics, host Douglas Cowie and his guest Shane Carmichael discuss Apeirogon by Colum McCann, an Irish storyteller living in New York. They discuss the intersection of storytelling, conflict, and global politics with respect to McCann's multifaceted novel.

The Trans-Atlanticist launches its second new podcast series called LadyFiction. In the first episode, our host Dr. Stefanie Schaefer and her guest Prof. Alexandra Ganser-both from the University of Vienna-discuss Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. February is African-American History Month, and these books were chosen because Butler's Earthseed series provide profou...

February is African-American History month in the United States, and the Trans-Atlanticist is celebrating with a number of podcasts about African-American authors. For this first episode of NovelROMANtics, host Dr. Douglas Cowie and his guest, Dr. Oli Belas of University of Bedfordshire, discuss a pair of crime novels by Attica Locke: Blue Bird, Blue Bird and Heaven, My Home, both of which follow...

Dr. Stefanie Schäfer discusses the cultural history of the “first family,” the concept of civil religion in the US, the development of the academic specialty of First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) studies, the significance of the Obama presidency for race relations and identity politics, as well as the cultural impact of Michele Obama’s new autobiography, Becoming.

Renowned economist and expert on international trade, Prof. Gabriel Felbermayr explains President Trump’s economic policies. Topics include the Trump tax cuts, US-EU trade imbalances, Nordstream2, energy security, and Iran sanctions, as well as forecasts about the future of the US and the global economy.

On November 6, 2018, Americans went to polling places across the US to cast their votes in the mid-term elections. Prof. Bierling, a leading expert in transatlantic relations, discusses the election results and the consequences for the United States, Germany, and transatlantic relations in general.

Fifty years after the Prague Spring, Dr. Thomas Murphy discusses his new book, Czechoslovakia Behind the Curtain: Life, Work, and Culture in the Communist Era. Dr. Murphy and host Andrew Sola explore the history of Czechoslovakia, the events that led to the Prague Spring, the Soviet-led invasion of 1968, and the lives of ordinary people under communist rule. The episode ends with a discussion of r...

Dr. Alexander Phillips and Andrew Sola chart the history of ecological thinking and the origins of ecocriticism as a scholarly discipline and then discuss the importance of the environment in the works of German authors Wilhelm Raabe and Adalbert Stifter. The episode ends by assessing the importance of ecocriticism in the present.

In the June 2018 edition of “This Month at the EU with Dr. Danner,” Andrew Sola and EU insider Guenter Danner discuss Europe’s immigration and refugee crisis, the Latvian banking scandals, and the end of the Greek bailout.

In the April 2018 edition of “This Month at the EU with Dr. Danner,” Andrew Sola and EU insider Guenter Danner discuss the elections in Hungary, the state of the Greek economy at the end of the bailout, and China’s influence on the EU.

Professor Dieter Schulz and Andrew Sola discuss Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” and its influence on Dr. Martin Luther King.

German-American basketball legend Wilbert Olinde, Jr., and Andrew Sola discuss ways to maximize one’s potential, learn from life’s challenges, and cope with daily stresses. They also discuss immigration politics in Germany and lessons from Dr. Martin Luther King.

In the first installment of “This Month at the EU with Dr. Danner,” Andrew Sola and EU insider Dr. Guenter Danner discuss the elections in Italy, the formation of a coalition government in Germany, the latest in the Brexit negotiations, the effect of Trump’s tax cuts on the European economy, and Russian-EU relations.

Gideon Marks, from the Google Incubator Accelerator in Silicon Valley, discusses product creation, team building, mentorship, data privacy, Industry 4.0, as well as the importance of values and ethics in start-ups.

Torsten Jahnke from the American Poster Institute and Andrew Sola discuss the history of gig posters in the USA and Europe as well as gig posters as an art form.

Jackson Janes and Andrew Sola discuss how different presidents have affected the trans-Atlantic relationship in their first years before looking specifically at German-American relations during the course of Donald Trump’s first year.

Guenter Danner, our expert on the EU, and Andrew Sola discuss the riots at the US Capitol as well as the upcoming elections in Germany, the Brexit trade deal, and the EU-China Investment Treaty.