Dark skies, cheap shopping and an EU laser show

The Europeans | European news, politics and culture

Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer

Society & Culture, News

4.8 • 274 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nocturnal tourism is supposedly one of the big travel trends of 2025, and from star-gazing to truffle-hunting, there are plenty of places in Europe to do it. But where is this craving for darkness coming from? This week we speak to Anna Levin, author of two beautiful books about the impact of artificial light on the world around us, about why Europe's night skies deserve much better protection. We're also talking about the Baltic countries' move to cut their electrical cords with Russia, and the EU's attempt to tackle our cheap Chinese shopping addiction. Anna is the author of 'Incandescent' and 'Dark Skies'. You can find out more about her work here. This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: 'The Day of the Jackal' and 'Italia Express' from Radiooooo. Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcasts, we'd love it if you'd consider supporting our work in 2025. You can chip in to help us cover the weekly research and production of The Europeans at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (many currencies are available), or gift a donation to a super fan here. Other resources for this week's episode 'Baltic Energy Independence Day' aka the amazing EU laser show - European Commission livestream, February 8, 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeU829DcoKQ&t=24s 'EU toolbox for safe and sustainable e-commerce' aka the EU's proposed crackdown on cheap shopping websites, February 5, 2025 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/e-commerce-communication-comprehensive-eu-toolbox-safe-and-sustainable-e-commerce DarkSky International: All international Dark Sky Places https://darksky.org/what-we-do/international-dark-sky-places/all-places '"Must-have genre" for uncertain times: why spy thrillers have taken over TV' - The Guardian, February 2, 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/feb/02/spy-thrillers-television-must-have-genre-uncertain-world 'Beavers build planned dams in protected landscape area, while local officials still seeking permits' - Radio Prague International, January 31, 2025 https://english.radio.cz/beavers-build-planned-dams-protected-landscape-area-while-local-officials-still-8841536 Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina 00:22 Is Dominic ok?03:48 Good Week: The Big Baltic Electricity Switch13:58 Bad Week: Chinese e-commerce giants26:19 Interview: Anna Levin on the magic of Europe's dark skies44:42 The Inspiration Station: 'The Day of the Jackal' and 'Italia Express' by Radiooooo 49:01 Happy Ending: Industrious Czech beavers Bluesky | Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Europeans, a podcast that tries to make sense of this complicated continent that we call home.
0:30.7	I'm Dominic Kramer, I'm in Amsterdam, and I'm speaking to Katie Lee in Paris.
0:36.0	Hi, Katie.
0:37.0	Hello, how you doing?
0:38.2	Fine.
0:39.2	Well, I find it also very busy.
0:41.9	Oh, yeah?
0:42.5	A bit too busy, yeah.
0:43.9	And I've started doing a weird thing in the night.
0:48.0	Okay.
0:48.6	Where a few nights in a row, I've woken up and opened the curtains at 2 a.m. in the morning
0:56.0	and shouted, morning, at my husband.
0:59.0	What? Are you okay?
1:01.0	Like half in sleep. I don't know, but I think I'm just like so busy that I, my brain is like,
1:09.0	okay, time to get working again. I'm a little worried about you.
1:13.1	Although, aren't you just returning to your roots here? Because humans used to sleep in kind of two
1:17.3	shifts, didn't we? It's true. Quite often just do stuff in the middle of the night. So maybe
1:22.6	you should be getting up if that's what your body's telling you to do and just, you know,
1:25.9	getting some admin done.
1:32.2	Maybe I should just work on the podcast a bit more in the middle of the night. I think that is not the answer. It doesn't sound healthy. How are you? I'm good. I took my little boy this weekend
1:37.1	down to the south of Paris, which is where the main Chinatown is, for the end of the lunar New Year
1:43.6	celebrations. Happy year of the lunar New Year celebrations.
	...

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