The Common Room

In our final episode in Krakow, Greta Scott, Aria Guevara, Beatrice Giovannoni, Jonah Zijlma and Friso van der Vijgh reflect on a year's podcasting. From those first heady days in Prague, to the beautiful whimsy of recording in Krakow, our podcast team is now walking off into the sunset together. Our last episode recording together before we split off into different cities promises to be nostalgic, unconventional, and of course chaotic.

This episode was recorded on the 24th of June 2022 at the Yolk recording studio in Krakow.

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to go to school in a different country?

In this episode of The Common Room, Jonah, Aria, Beatrice, and Greta take us on a trip down memory lane, and compare the different education systems in the Netherlands, USA, Italy, and in England. At what age do children start going to school in these countries? How old are they when they have to make the first important decisions about their future? And how much space do the different school systems dedicate to citizenship and religious education? These questions and many others will be answered in this episode and, as a bonus, you will get to hear some fun facts about our speakers' teenage years!

This episode was recorded on the 29th of March 2022 at the UJOT FM radio studio at the Faculty of Management of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków.

Give some love to our friends at @ujotfm!

Useful links:

For more information about systemic biases in the Dutch education system, see https://www.human.nl/klassen.html (in Dutch)

If you wish to take a look at the PISA report of 2018 mentioned by Beatrice, see https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/pisa-2018-results.htm (in English)

Aria Guevera, Catherine Wood and Friso van der Vijgh continue their discussion on Julian Assange and his impending extradition to the US. The central question: why do we need Assange?

This episode was recorded on the 23rd of June at the Yolk recording studio in Krakow.

Notes:

Sources we used for this episode:

As the summer slowly makes its exit, Beatrice Giovannoni, Greta Scott, and Jonah Zijlma come together to share some of the spicy political plays that have taken place. Pursuing like bears, our podcasters take you through an ensemble cast of governments, coalitions, parties, and the people in them. Why does an alliance turn into betrayal, or cooperation into dissolution? And how do different electoral frameworks affect the political landscape? From Italy to Kenya to the UK, we hope you're in tip-top shape for some top-tier toppling tales!

The episode was recorded on the 30th of August 2022 at the Radio and Television Laboratory in Prague.

The US calls him a spy, the rest of the world calls him a journalist. Aria, Catherine and Friso talk about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and how he ended up in a UK terrorist prison waiting to be extradited for espionage. Join us for a two-parter on America's 'public enemy number one'.

This episode was recorded on the 16th of May 2022 at the UJOT FM radio studio at the Faculty of Management of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków. Give some love to our friends at @ujotfm!

Notes:

Sources we used for this episode:

Academic paper about the ethics and worldview behind WikiLeaks: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09571-x

European Waves? More like European Slaves! No, don't leave, please do join Beatrice Giovannoni, Jonah Zijlma, and a majorly chipper Greta Scott as they take you through some of the hippest haters of Brussels and her Union. What does Euroscepticism really mean? How do its adherents profile themselves at home? And, gosh, whatever happened to that Brexit thing?

This episode was recorded on the 23rd of May 2022 at the UJOT FM radio studio at the Faculty of Management of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków. 

Give some love to our friends at @ujotfm!

Grocery shopping, cooking and eating are all part of our everyday life, and the choices we make about what we eat are very personal to us. But what are the political consequences of these decisions?

In this episode of The Common Room, Vivien Keenleyside, Friso van der Vijgh and Greta Scott discuss all things food. Can certain foodstuffs be instruments of xenophobia? How did we become so reliant on factory farming, and what are our politicians doing about it? And what is the future of food, better labelling or dishes prepared in a lab and not a kitchen?

This episode was recorded on the 30th of May 2022 at the UJOT FM radio studio at the Faculty of Management of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków.

Give some love to our friends at @ujotfm!

School's out but The Common Room's summer season is underway!

In this international episode, Mauricio Mandujano Manriquez, Jonah Zijlma and Greta Scott discuss the EU rule of law crisis. We had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Theuns, Assistant Professor of Political Theory and European Politics at Leiden University and an Associate Researcher at Sciences Po Paris, on the EU's response to the undemocratic and illiberal practices of Hungary and Poland. What is the future of Hungary and Poland in the EU, and what can and should the EU do to rein in its most problematic Member States?

This episode was recorded on the 24th of June 2022 at the Yolk Workspace & Community podcast studio in Kraków and the Digital Lab at Leiden University.

You can also listen to Tom Theuns here:

https://revdem.ceu.edu/2022/01/28/in-conversation-with-tom-theuns-an-eu-2-0-mass-withdrawal-of-pro-democratic-member-states/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=in-conversation-with-tom-theuns-an-eu-2-0-mass-withdrawal-of-pro-democratic-member-states 

@TomTheuns @MauricioMandu7 @gretascott13

Poland has won itself an unhappy reputation for being hostile to the LGBTQ+ community. What is the real-life impact of seemingly symbolic anti-LGBTQ+ policies and rhetoric? What role has the Catholic Church played in shaping attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community, and what is the future of this community in Poland? Beatrice Giovannoni, Roeland Endtz, Gijs Verhoeff, Bianca Cunha and Alexander Pachkov discuss all these issues and more in this episode of The Common Room.

This episode was recorded on the 8th of April 2022 at the UJOT FM radio studio at the Faculty of Management of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków.

Give some love to our friends at @ujotfm!

Reading:

Olena Yermakova, “PiS vs LGBT: The “Othering” of the LGBT Movement as an Element of Populist Radical Right Party Discourse in Poland,” Sprawy Narodowościowe 53 (2021). https://doi.org/10.11649/sn.2568.

Weronika Grzebalska & Andrea Pető, "The gendered modus operandi of the illiberal transformation in Hungary and Poland," Women's Studies International Forum 68 (2018): 164-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.12.001. 

Poland has been portrayed in the media as a friend to Ukraine in recent months, a country which has done its utmost to support its neighbour. But how much of that response has been government-led? In this episode of The Common Room, Aria Guevara and Greta Scott discuss the role of Polish civil society in responding to the crisis.

This episode was recorded on the 25th of March at the Yolk Workspace & Community podcast studio in Kraków.