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

Guenter Danner, our expert on the EU, and Andrew Sola discuss the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the EU, the 7-Year EU Budget, the final stages of Brexit negotiations, and the mood in Brussels and Berlin after Biden’s election win.

In this episode, Andrew Sola and Guenter Danner discuss Germany’s current six-month Presidency of the European Council. They discuss the history of the institution, Germany’s goals, Europe’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the problem of subsidiarity in the EU, and the ongoing immigration and debt crises. Lastly, they imagine what a successful presidential term would look like six months from now.

Dr. Danner, our expert on the EU, looks ahead to 2020 and discusses the likely course of Brexit, including the likelihood of Scottish independence and the prospects of an EU trade deal. Also, we discuss EU priorities for 2020 before analyzing the coming US presidential election and the Democratic primaries.

Dr. Günter Danner, our expert on the EU, discusses the results of the EU parliamentary elections at the end of May, the formation of different political blocks within parliament, and the priorities for the EU over the next five years. Lastly, he comments on the most important developments in the EU over the last thirty years and forecasts some challenges and opportunities we might be seeing in the next thirty years.

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 economy.

On November 6, 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 recent political developments in central Europe.

Dr. Alexander Phillips and Dr. 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.