The Eurospeak Podcast

For our first episode of 2024, we are strapping on shinguards, putting on our kit, and launching ourselves into the world of football, or to use its full name, association football! BJ is joined by Professor Joan Ricart Angulo from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra to discuss the how the sport's consumption around the world, its connections with politics, and tips for first time football spectators.

On this episode, BJ explores the thrilling and maybe surprising history of Halloween. In it, he discusses how very old Celtic customs and Christian traditions have impacted the annual event in which we dress up in costumes, carve pumpkins, decorate our homes, and tell scary stories about haunted places.

Music Courtesy of Darren Curtis

On this episode, BJ is joined by Jorge Luengo, Associate Professor of History at the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain, to discuss Spanish Constitutionalism. During the episode, they examine how societies in India, China, and the Philippines were shaped by developments in Spain during the Napoleonic period.

On this episode, we’re busting out the ODM gear, preparing our thunder spears, and zip lining into the world of Shingeki no Kyojin, or to use its English name, Attack on Titan. The bestselling manga by Hajime Isayama was adapted as an animated series in 2013. Its global reach is massive, and this year, it was reported to be the fourth most popular television series in the world. The story depicts a near extinct human race that is under siege by thoughtless man-eating giants, called titans. On this episode, BJ and his guest discuss how German influences can be found in the anime series. 

This episode's topic is about the lore of League of Legends. Launched in 2009, the game is one of the top titles in the genre called multiplayer online battle arena, MOBA for short. Produced by Riot Games, League of Legends revolutionized the economics of video games being one of the first major free-to-play games in history. Although it costs nothing to play, the game’s publishers are able to make money through the sale of in-game character customizations. BJ and his guest will explore the European references embedded in the game and its lore.

On this episode, we’ll be turning our attention to history, but not the way we’ve done so in the past. This isn’t the kind of thing you’ll be reading about in high school textbooks. Instead, today’s subject is alternate history as we discuss The King’s Man, a movie released in 2021 starring Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, and Rhys Ifans.

On this episode, BJ and his guest take you to the fantasy world of Teyvat, where gamers from all around the world play an online open world RPG known as Genshin Impact. Developed by miHoYo, a Chinese video game company, it was released in 2020 around the time of the pandemic. The story centers around the Traveler, who is on a quest to locate their twin who they got separated from at the beginning of the game. While exploring the world, players can visit the seven major nations. Among them are Mondstadt and Snezhnaya, which they discuss as having European influences. 

Our third season will be releasing next week, and we’ve gone full on popular culture. From cinema, to anime, to video games, you’ll hear my conversations with guests about how Europe has influenced some popular media, such as The King’s Man, Attack on Titan, League of Legends, and Genshin Impact. We’re really excited to share these with you, so watch out for the Season 3 episodes, coming out starting next week.

On this episode, we share a recording of a forum hosted by BJ, with academics from the European Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University. They discuss their thoughts about the British monarchy, how we should think of the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II, and what we should expect from the royal family in the near future. We hope you find it to be an informative exchange.

We are still working on our third season, but this is a special episode that we are sharing because of what has happened in Ukraine. Our team felt that we would be remiss if we did not have content related to the crisis. On this episode, BJ will be sharing excerpts from a forum on the Ukraine invasion that he had the opportunity to moderate. The panel consisted of Jeric Tionloc and Jamina Jugo, both faculty members of the European Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. They discussed the crisis in general, the impact of sanctions directed against Russia, and how developments in Ukraine have implications on East Asia. 

The military conflict has polarized the world, but a humanitarian crisis continues as a result of the violence. As such, if you are willing and able, please consider providing assistance to UN agencies or international NGOs that are active in Ukraine right now.

Some links are as follows:

For the UNHCR: https://donate.unhcr.org/int/en/ukraine-emergency

For UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/war-ukraine-pose-immediate-threat-children?gclid=Cj0KCQjw8_qRBhCXARIsAE2AtRa5g0LERIWSFRLvRm4zefQ_vXSaAG44JX2msCkfmPdILJoYD3SfEHAaAphnEALw_wcB

For the International Committee of the Red Cross: https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/ukraine

For Medecins Sans Frontieres: https://www.msf.org/donate

For the International Rescue Committee: https://help.rescue.org/donate-fr/ukraine-crisis?initialms=ws_modl_fy22_ukraine_mmus&ms=ws_modl_fy22_ukraine_mmus

On this episode, BJ and his guest bring together the topics of Catalan history, Nazi concentration camps, and photography as they discuss the 2018 film entitled “The Photographer of Mauthausen”. The Spanish film’s original title is El fotógrafo de Mauthausen. It is a biographical drama about the life of the Catalan photographer Francesc Boix, whose photographs would later be used as evidence during war crimes trials to implicate high-ranking Nazi officials such as Heinrich Himmler and Albert Speer.

On this episode, BJ and his guest grab their shields and spears, and travel back over two millennia to discuss the Battle of Thermopylae, one of the major battles between the Ancient Greeks and Persians. Their conversation examines the events surrounding the battle itself, and its legacy 2,500 years on.

On this episode, we’re sharpening our hidden blades, and preparing to take some leaps of faith as we explore the fictional universe of the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise. The series depicts a centuries-old struggle between the Assassins, who fight for peace and free will, and their adversaries, the Templars, whose machinations hope to bring about order and control. The pair turn their eagle vision at some of the historical figures that have been portrayed as villains in the series, and they assess whether or not they were actually as evil as they were portrayed in the game. 

As 2021 is an Olympic year, due to the event being postponed by the pandemic, BJ invited two guests to join him in a sport and fitness-related episode. The conversation compared the Ancient Greek Olympics with the modern spectacle of today. They discussed some of the events that are no longer part of the competition, as well as training regimes that could be useful for anyone looking to get fit today. 

On this episode, BJ and his guest discuss the naval mission led by the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, which has the distinction of being humanity’s first successful circumnavigation of the globe. They discuss the voyage's significance, and the legacies that it continues to have at present. This episode is The Eurospeak Podcast's contribution to global commemorations of the naval mission, which set of from Spain on September 1519, and returned in November 1522. 

Our guest for this episode published an article on Magellan's voyage, which can be accessed through the address below:

https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/01/29/new-money/

On today’s episode, we’re strapping on our harnesses, flight suits, and paragliders, and looking at the European influences on Korean drama, known for short as K-drama. In particular, we will be examining the show entitled “Crash Landing on You”, a story is about two star-crossed lovers, one a South Korean fashion entrepreneur, and the other a member of a North Korea’s political elite. From classical music, to traveling around Switzerland, to high fashion, the show about a love story between North and South Korean characters displays some unexpected connections with Europe.

On the first episode of the new season, BJ and his guest talk about pandemics. At the time that this episode was recorded, it had been over six months since the world was gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which the World Health Organization has referred to it as a ‘once-in-a-century’ heath crisis. In the 14th century, Europe experienced its own once-in-a-century pandemic in the form of the Black Death. On this episode, BJ and his guest turn their scanning electron microscopes on history to examine similarities between the ways that medieval societies dealt with their pandemic, and the techniques we are using to deal with ours.

Season 2 starts next week, and you'll find that it contains some  interesting new changes. Due to the lockdowns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, guests have been joining our recording sessions from their own homes, which means that we have had more time to discuss their topics. This season, we also decided to be more interactive, and let you, our audience,  take quizzes so you can see how much youʼve learned. If youʼd like to try it out, weʼll be posting questions on The Eurospeak Podcastʼs Facebook page.

Join BJ Enverga as he talks to his guests about various things European, and how they may impact our lives, even if we’re not actually in Europe. From Game of Thrones to Brexit, and from populism to Netflix’s Money Heist. BJ and his guests will be uncovering connections to Europe in some of our everyday experiences. This is The Eurospeak Podcast.