When will Europe get the trains it deserves?

Last weekend was a delicious reminder that sometimes, in spite of everything, things go right. As Serbians went to the polls to determine the fate of president Aleksandar Vučić and the future of the country’s momentous student movement, our reporter Wojciech Oleksiak spent a heady few days in Belgrade capturing the Student List victory in real time. Wojciech takes us through his pulse-quickening weekend and answers our questions about where the country goes from here – and what this extraordinary victory might mean for other protest movements around the world. For more on Wojciech’s trip, check out his videos on our Instagram. Special thanks this week go to Filip Djordjevic, Matija, Vladimir Radinović, Milica Mihajlović, Marko Kordulup, and Daniela Vancić. Resources for this episode: Our episode featuring Matija from last summer, “Is real change coming to Serbia?” Wojciech’s “Report from Novi Sad”, recorded on the first anniversary of the train station disaster “Insider Blows Lid on Serbian Ruling Party’s Use of Hired Thugs” – Balkan Insight, 14 October 2026 Vladimir Radinović’s podcast aggregator Podcast.rs and production company VisionsHQ Naša posla, Vladimir’s narrative podcast about the Balkans Dnevnik jedne mladosti, Milica Mihajlović’s award-winning podcast about life as a young person in Serbia

Europe is getting bigger, and so, it seems, are its problems. This week, Katy gives us a report from her home country of France, which for weeks has been embroiled in protests, some of which have brought significant destruction to French buildings and businesses. What began as a series of student demonstrations in early September has grown into a movement that has captured France’s growing anger over its government and the cost of living – grievances that are being echoed in similar protests across many other European countries as well.

Europe is in chaos, but we’re here to talk about it all, as long as the wifi holds out! This week, we’re chatting about Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s call for a snap election in light of his country’s recent housing demonstrations and a host of other controversies roiling Madrid. Please note: this podcast was recorded before news broke on Wednesday night of the death of Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction sparked Spain’s massive housing protests.

When it comes to the future of AI, we – like seemingly everyone else – have way more questions than answers. Could European legislation do anything to protect us from job losses and “rogue” models? Can the chatbots created on this continent compete with those being developed by the US and China? What would it mean to win (or lose) the “AI race”? And most importantly: how doomed are we?

When it comes to envisioning the future, what’s your type? The Positive? The Negative? The Uncertain? The Disconnected? No, these aren’t characters in a pop group or a teen movie – they’re the four ways of imagining a European future. So says Paweł Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a three-peat guest and true Friend of the Podcast. Paweł is back once more to walk us through this year’s European Sentiment Compass, “Future Nostalgia: Europe’s Unfinished Song”. Come for the Dua Lipa reference, stay because you’re a polling nerd like the rest of us. We’re also talking about British lawmakers’ quest to figure out why the UK does quite so badly at Eurovision and what the seizure of Nestlé and Auchan’s Russian assets says about the Kremlin’s finances.