From the Isle of Man to Svalbard, from New Caledonia to Sint Maarten, there are a lot of European "Dependant Territories". So, in Dan and Simon take a look at all of them and examine who they are, what they do, and what makes them special.

Check out pt 1 on YouTube, which released a few days ago: https://youtu.be/j8FVngMBkVM

Check out pt 2 on YouTube, which released a few days ago: https://youtu.be/GIpPe53TZUo

From Greenland to the Falklands, from Gibraltar to French Polynesia, there are a lot of European "Dependant Territories". So, in Dan and Simon take a look at all of them and examine who they are, what they do, and what makes them special.

Tune in in a few days for Part 2!

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/j8FVngMBkVM

A bit of a different podcast this time around: I read some books in 2024. Here, I review them with a mixture of emotions.

Watch this podcast in video format on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0C0MWkKfhU&t=9s.

Timestamps:

00:47 - The Mysteries (Bill Watterson & John Kascht)

07:23 - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)

10:50 - The Edible Woman (Margaret Atwood)

17:56 - Hollywood (Gore Vidal)

23:00 - The Last Empire (Gore Vidal)

29:14 - A Decent Life (Todd May)

34:47 - The Cider House Rules (John Irving)

39:22 - Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)

44:07 - Cocksure (Mordecai Richler)

47:11 - The Psychology of Money (Morgan Housel)

53:08 - Joshua, Then and Now (Mordecai Richler)

56:22 - Home Sweet Home (Mordecai Richler)

1:01:39 - Straw Dogs & The Silence of Animals (John Gray)

1:07:57 - Why Nations Fail (Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson)

1:14:10 - Picture This (Joseph Heller)

1:16:50 - A Sort of Life (Graham Greene)

1:22:44 - Life Before Man (Margaret Atwood)

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Music credits: Synth 52684 (1 with FX) by Beetlemuse. License: Attribution 4.0

From Qatargate to Hungarian MEPs and from Ibiza to Croatian "secret clubs", politics is filled with scandals. But scandals often say as much about the strength of our democracies as it does about the idiocrasy of those who get involved with them.

In this (very long) episode of the BRUBBLE podcast, join Dan and Simon as we navigate a tier list of over 35 recent European political scandals. We unpack a lot of terrible behaviour, but also take a look at how each scandal changed Europe - for better or worse.

And, of course, if you want to see our faces, check us out on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uRrc9Ma744

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**Please note that the BRUBBLE podcast is solely a personal project that contains only personal views and is not related to any entities or organizations*

Back for a summery-special, Dan and Simon take a look at 32 European tourism slogans to find out which one actually wants to make us go there.

From Slovakia (Come to Slovakia Good Idea) to the UK (See Things Differently) to Latvia (Magnetic Latvia), there's a range of tourism slogans out there, from corporate blandness to creative misses.

So, what makes a good slogan? Which nation really did it best? Well, listen and let us know!

And, of course, if you want to see our faces, check us out on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hEeKvfhD-N4

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**Please note that the BRUBBLE podcast is solely a personal project that contains only personal views and is not related to any entities or organizations*

As we head into the summer of 2024, we’re coming off the European parliamentary elections – a moment serving as the inflection point each 4 years for setting the agenda of European politics. But let’s rewind a few years to 2016, where digital emerged – and has remained – as a top priority for the EU. However, while we all agreed on the urgency, we didn’t all agree on the actions to be taken.

In this context, we saw a group of EU digital frontrunners form the “Digital 9” (or, D9) with the aim of growing the European digital market. Today, I’m joined by Clara – and we’re going to unpack who the D9 are, what they’ve done, and how we think they’ll grow and evolve into the next few years.

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Do check out Clara's recent publication for CEPA unpacking the D9+: https://cepa.org/comprehensive-reports/boosting-europes-digital-leaders-a-new-momentum-for-the-d9/

And, if you're in the Brussels area and would like to be on the BRUBBLE podcast, please contact Simon at [email protected] or connect with me on twitter @simon_vanhoeve)!

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**Please note that the BRUBBLE podcast is solely a personal project that contains only personal views and is not related to any entities or organizations*

Time is something universal that nobody escapes – not even the policy and advocacy people or our world! While we all know there are debates about issues like Daylight Savings Time and Time Zones, Time Policy is a field that can go much deeper to explore political, social, and economic inequalities.

Today, spend some time with us on the BRUBBLE podcast as I talk to Ariadna, who’s a full-time advocate of Time. She joins me to open our perspectives on what Time is, and how we can use it to explore some key challenges we face, from the local to the international level.

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And, if you're in the Brussels area and would like to be on the BRUBBLE podcast, please contact Simon at [email protected] or connect with me on twitter @simon_vanhoeve)!

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**Please note that the BRUBBLE podcast is solely a personal project that contains only personal views and is not related to any entities or organizations**

Every month or so, we sit down here at the BRUBBLE podcast to do a more fun episode looking at various parts of European culture...

From Picasso to Monet, and da Vinci to Munch, European countries have produced some great artists who've made some great paintings. But... which country has the best painting? Join Simon and Dan as we spend a few hours trying to figure that out!

And, go watch along on YouTube as well, where you can see all the paintings as we discuss! https://youtu.be/uRCZyQbaCl8

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And, if you're in the Brussels area and would like to be on the BRUBBLE podcast, please contact Simon at [email protected] or connect with me on twitter @simon_vanhoeve)!

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**Please note that the BRUBBLE podcast is solely a personal project that contains only personal views and is not related to any entities or organizations*

Financial literacy is one of the most important skills one can have. And while this skill is not exactly commonplace in Western Europe, the picture becomes even more drastic when looking at Eastern Europe – where in some countries, up to 80% of adults can be considered financially illiterate. In particular, woman can particularly be impacted by this gap.

Cristina saw this gap – and started FeminEast, a movement to educate more women in Eastern Europe about financial literacy. Join us today as we discuss why financial literacy is so important, how it impacts different people across Europe, and also examine what can be done from the European level.

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Feel free to connect with Cristina Reach on instagram @cristinapogo / https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristinapogo/

Check out FeminEast:

- Website: www.femineast.eu

- Instagram: @femin_east / https://www.linkedin.com/company/femineast

Learn more about some of the stats we mentioned:

- EU barometer survey: https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2953

- State of financial education in the EU: https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/state-financial-knowledge-european-union

And, if you're in the Brussels area and would like to be on the BRUBBLE podcast, please contact Simon at [email protected] or connect with me on twitter @simon_vanhoeve)!

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**Please note that the BRUBBLE podcast is solely a personal project that contains only personal views and is not related to any entities or organizations*

We know that the Russian aggression in Ukraine poses an existential threat not only to Europe, but also European values. Thus, Europe remains committed to Ukraine’s defence – a commitment that goes beyond just rhetoric. And in doing so, we’ve seen in recent months real questions being asked about the state and strength of Europe’s defense industrial base – resulting in the EC recently publishing the European defence industrial strategy in early March 2024.

So, what does this strategy mean for Europe? What do we think of its ideas? What implications will it have for our support for Ukraine? And how will this further Europe’s ambitions of Economic Security?

Joining me to dive into this topic is one returning voice for this podcast – Gareth – and one new voice, Lucia.

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And, if you're in the Brussels area and would like to be on the BRUBBLE podcast, please contact Simon at [email protected] or connect with me on twitter @simon_vanhoeve)!

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**Please note that the BRUBBLE podcast is solely a personal project that contains only personal views and is not related to any entities or organizations*