Since joining the podcasting industry, one of the things that has fascinated me the most is how audio can connect listeners across borders and cultures through storytelling. That’s what made me fall in love with podcasting in the first place. But often audiences – and the industry itself – forget about the value of looking beyond your cultural bubble.
For the past few years, I have been writing about the best European podcasts and building an international community through Eurowaves, the first and only European podcasting newsletter. This list is a full-package introduction to European podcasting. It features shows from Switzerland, Germany, the UK, Spain, Romania, and beyond – all in English, with some in English and other languages – so you can enjoy them to the fullest.
Happy Eurosummer!
Lost Cells
I recently re-listened to Lost Cells, a cross-border trilingual production focusing on three moving stories about using stem cells to save lives. It’s a really beautifully crafted series, an original SWI swissinfo.ch, and in the episodes, they promote their other fascinating show, Inside Geneva. If you think this is a local-based podcast, let me correct you; it’s a show about global politics, humanitarian issues, and international aid, with huge appeal for wider audiences. I started with the episode asking "Is the UN still relevant at 80?" and it shares a lot of interesting insight through a critical lens. Lost Cells has been running since 2019 and it’s still going strong.
T&J: A Roman Empire Love Story
Christine Laskowski is an American, Berlin-based journalist who is behind T&J: A Roman Empire Love Story, a history podcast about how Europe became Europe. Not only is her voice the perfect mix of soothing and humorous, but she also blends it beautifully with sound design, music, and comedic timing. More than just an educational listen, T&J is a lot of fun.
Trying to make a history podcast approachable for a wide audience is a task in itself, but Christine does it very successfully. T&J is a great example of how podcasting can be used in teaching, and should be used as a template for others seeking to create an educational podcast.
Made For Us
Tosin Sulaiman is the wonderful host of Made for Us, an award-winning podcast about designing for inclusivity. The show's most recent episodes cover current trends like AI and brand efforts to build more inclusive tech. The episode I really enjoyed was with Lucy Edwards, a creator who is redefining how disability is perceived. Lucy tells her story with so much vulnerability and strength. She talks about how she lost her sight, but also so much more: her work, stories of her wedding planning and wedding day, her relationship with her mom, and her new make-up line. It’s a heartwarming listen, and Tosin is a thoughtful interviewer.
Echoes of Memory
The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture launched Echoes of Memory, a video history podcast about the Holocaust, in 2025. The first six episodes are out; in Episode 1, they explore topics like the deep significance of the Roma Memorial, its design, and the decades-long struggle for the recognition of the Roma victims of the Holocaust. The second episode discusses many of the communities targeted by the N*zis: queer people, people with disabilities, political dissidents, Black Germans, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others.
This podcast opens up crucial conversations about European anti-racism, especially concerning the Roma community. I love how it brings forth personal stories, systemic issues, and historical angles in an accessible and approachable format.
Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda
Aiwan and Tamanda have twenty years experience each in entertainment, research, and social justice. They run AiAi studios, an award-winning, UK-based storytelling and production studio working for clients globally. They’re also a married couple on their journey toward figuring out how to build a life and business together. On their podcast, Rigour & Flow, they cover topics like UK Black Pride, abuse in queer relationships, beauty standards, faith, and culture.
Aiwan and Tamanda’s energies complement each other so beautifully. It’s one of those podcasts where you feel like you’re listening in to a group of friends as they debate life and love – and you catch yourself answering before remembering you’re not in the same room. On top of being relatable, the quality is top notch and it a great example how to do a video-first podcast right.
CULMEA Curiozității
CULMEA Curiozității is a Romanian podcast for children and their parents built around questions, rather than lessons. Without screens and without haste, each episode invites play, observation, and simple conversations about nature and the world around us. Released once a season, CULMEA Curiozității follows the rhythm of Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn, serving as an invitation to slow down, listen, and spend time together, whether outdoors or at home.
The Brussels Playbook Podcast
Hosted by POLITICO's chief EU correspondent, Zoya Sheftalovich, The Brussels Playbook podcast runs Monday through Thursday, offering a clear, reporting-driven guide to EU politics in under 15 minutes. This daily news podcast is a perfect companion for your morning coffee. Each episode takes listeners inside the decisions, power shifts, and debates shaping the conversation in Brussels and explains how they connect to national capitals across Europe.
On Fridays, the same feed features a longer episode that goes deeper into the week’s biggest themes, offering context and analysis beyond the daily news cycle, with Sarah Wheaton behind the mic.
The Europeans
The Europeans is a podcast all about European news told in a fun, engaging way. Hosts Katy and Dominic also bring occasional narrative mini-series to the feed about economic or cultural stories.
One of those is The Oatly Chronicles. Europeans love dairy. In fact, as I will have learned from this series, Europeans consumed 220 kg of dairy per person in 2022. This mini-series is so well-done and brings forth so many strong, well-researched arguments about dairy consumption and its impact on the environment.
The Europeans’ catalogue is broad: along with impactful limited-series, it also has your classic chatty and informative episodes about European news.
EuroPod: Sea of Rage
The WePod Project had some of the best cross-border storytelling I’ve heard. EuroPod: Sea of Rage is co-produced by Podium Podcast and Chora Media. It was released this year in Spanish and Italian, and it just recently started releasing an English version. This podcast follows the streets of Barbate and Gioia Tauro to uncover the real stories of its inhabitants. They are almost 2,000 km apart, but these places share high unemployment rates, complaints against institutions, and another connecting link: drug trafficking.
The show's on-the-ground reporting, mixed with historical research and storytelling, makes it a fascinating listen. Hearing about the impact of trafficking first-hand is an important angle to the conversation. These issues are always more complex than they seems on the surface, and Sea of Rage illuminates new perspectives.
Titania
If you’re a fan of fiction podcasts or an audio nerd like myself, do yourself a favor and check these two podcasts out. Titania (Unleashed in English) is a branded audio thriller where “technology changes the rules of the game.” The sound design is top-notch and the acting absolutely lures you in; you've got to listen with headphones to do the production justice.
The series was originally made in Spanish and it made waves in the Spanish-speaking world. Titania won many well-deserved awards: “Best Podcast” in Premios Ondas 2023 and “Best Branded” in Premios Ondas Globales del Podcast 2023. The Spanish version will soon wrap up Season 2, and the English version was released this year. The series shows how creative these kinds of partnerships can be if brands are open to the possibilities of audio.
