Happy New Year from the URSA team!

The first episode of 2023 features news headlines on the rescue of the last ‘restaurant bear’ in Albania, and how the Orthodox Church in Ukraine is allowing parishoners to decide when they celebrate Christmas. We also discuss Europe’s climate NIMBYism and how a revived local river in Madrid has brought back visitors, both human and animal, to the area.

We then hear from EU Scream, a progressive European politics podcast, about how EU politicians have been handling the discussion surrounding decolonization and how politicians can decolonize foreign aid.

Our second feature is produced by Julia Joubert and stems from her visit to the historied Major Oak tree in the UK. The adventure inspired an exploration of some of the famous trees of Europe, and awoke a desire to get to know them, properly know them.

Fantastic foodie Will Maidment discusses all things German food with us - and dare we say - gets us excited to get our hands on the next schnitzel we see! Jonny Tiernan of Lola Magazine chats about the Transmediale festival, upcoming music gigs, and much more!

Our artist spotlight is Cava, a local punk duo who makes raucous, melodic songs reminiscent of the early 90’s Riotgrrl era.

Our theme music is from Lucas Carey, with audio from Epidemic Sound. Cover art by Sian Amber Fletcher.

This episode is brought to you by Bear Radio. Special thanks to EU Scream and Julia Joubert for sharing their incredible work with URSA this month. Thanks also to our Food & Culture correspondents, Will Maidment and Jonny Tiernan of LOLA.

If you’re a producer based in Europe and have an idea for an URSA story, we’d love to hear from you! We’re always accepting new pitches.

Support for this podcast comes from our Patreon - if you like URSA and all the incredible stories that come with it - then please consider supporting us at patreon.com/ursapodcast. The price you’d spend on a coffee would go to supporting us and our contributors each month.