Big announcement
We’ve been making award-winning podcasts about Europe for the past seven years. Now, we’re launching an experiment: a new investigative series, produced with 100% listener crowdfunding.
It’s a series that investigates which country in Europe has the smartest, most effective, and most imaginative policies on a particular issue, from childcare, to housing, to drugs. Presenting: ‘Who Does It Best?’
https://www.europeanspodcast.com/all-episodes/a-special-announcement-from-the-europeans
Europe is a giant laboratory for testing out policies. Across the continent, the systems that shape our lives look very different from country to country. Which makes Europe a great place for trying to figure out how different approaches actually impact people’s daily lives.
We want to find the places where housing is organised in a way that is affordable – but not only that, we also want to find social housing architecture that creates a sense of community and belonging, and maybe even buildings that promote fun.
We want to find out if there’s a European country whose childcare system helps kids to flourish while keeping their parents sane and able to work as much as they want or need, ideally without bankrupting them (surely there must be one?!).
And we want to know which country’s drug policy is best at achieving the tricky balance of respecting individual freedoms, keeping society as safe as possible as a whole, and treating addiction humanely.
The word ‘policy’ can sound boring and abstract, but the systems our governments design have a huge impact on our happiness.
In a grim time for politics, we hope this series will be a glimmer of light: a constructive, practical way of figuring out how all of our governments can make people’s lives better.
Plus, it goes without saying: we’re going to make a podcast series that’s really fun to listen to.
Throughout, we’re also going to be pulling back the curtain on how this kind of journalism gets made. We’ll be posting regular updates on how the reporting is progressing, why we’ve made certain decisions, and frankly, why this kind of journalism doesn’t come cheap.
If you’re curious to see where this experiment goes – and you’d like to support great European journalism in these troubling times – we’d love it if you’d consider contributing to our crowdfunding page:
@europeanspodcast I'm not sure if anything in Amsterdam can really be called affordable, but I think these are two projects in my vicinity are interesting examples:
https://dewarren.co/
https://schoonschipamsterdam.org/en/
Both projects were developed by the residents.
@chielk Thanks so much for this!
i just contributed to this experiment by the ever-inspiring @europeanspodcast - so should you!
over the course of the next year, they compare policies on central issues across different european countries based on their effect on peoples lives - self-funded, on a tiny budget.
politicians are quick to pull an international comparison from their hat (or where-ever) - but listening to this podcast, this type of important work is actually entertaining to consume.
also, i love how i get to feel extra-generous while remaining an absolute miser, since some anonymous donors are doubling the amount up to a total of 8000 euro! never has keeping half your money felt so philantropic
link: https://4fund.com/96hzr4
thanks and best of luck with the project!
@johannesrave Thank you so much Johannes, for donating and for sharing!!