In this near-final episode of 2025, the three co-hosts of Talk Eastern Europe reflect on the key political, social and geopolitical developments that shaped the region over the past year. They discuss waves of protest across several countries, the resilience of civil society, and the evolving security environment and geopolitical shifts since the start of 2025, including the impact of the new US presidency. The conversation also looks ahead to 2026 and considers what listeners should be watching in the year to come.

The opening part concludes with a reflection on the success of Talk Eastern Europe in 2025, as the co-hosts share their favourite episodes and recommend past conversations worth revisiting.

In the second part of the episode, Nina speaks with Owen Hatherley, a British writer, journalist and cultural critic known for his work on architecture, urbanism and politics, particularly modernism and communism. Together, they explore the profound influence of Central European émigrés on British architecture, culture and literature in the mid-20th century, tracing how these figures reshaped Britain’s intellectual and cultural landscape during and after the Second World War.

These themes are explored in depth in Owen’s book The Alienation Effect: How Central European Émigrés Transformed the British Twentieth Century: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/311898/the-alienation-effect-by-hatherley-owen/9780241378205

Some figures and references mentioned in the interview:

• Otti Berger – Croatian designer
• Eugene (Evžen) Rosenberg
• Josef Herman – Polish-British painter
• Jankel Adler – Polish painter
• Jan Tschichold – German calligrapher and typographer
• Hans Schmoller – German and British graphic designer
• Romek Marber – Polish-born graphic designer behind Penguin’s ‘Marber Grid’
• Walter Neurath and Eva Neurath – founders of Thames & Hudson
• Berthold Lubetkin – architect associated with Soviet Bauhaus and Vkhutemas
• Ernő Goldfinger – Hungarian architect, designer of London’s Balfron Tower and Trellick Tower
• Karel Čapek – Czech author and his book Letters from England
• Bertolt Brecht – German theatre practitioner, and the author of the Alienation theory (Verfremdungseffekt)
• Otto Neurath – Austrian polymath
• Dua Lipa – British-Albanian pop singer, born to Kosovar Albanian parents

For Talk Eastern Europe Patrons, Owen Hatherley stayed on for an extended discussion on Polish milk bars and their cultural significance which can be heard here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/249-bonus-polish-146141039

Help us reach our goal of 75 podcast patrons! Join us at www.patreon.com/talkeasterneurope.

Adam and Alexandra open this episode with the latest news from the region. They look at the importance of the mass protests in Bulgaria and later discuss Czechia’s new/old prime minister and balloons over Lithuania. They also briefly discuss the latest developments surrounding the peace process aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For the main interview, Adam is joined by Georgian activist Mariam Japaridze to discuss a turbulent year of mass protests and growing authoritarianism after the Georgian Dream government halted the country’s EU integration in 2024. She describes the dramatic escalation of repression, from rigged elections to the use of violence and even chemical agents against demonstrators as uncovered recently by the BBC. Despite the challenges, she shares why activists remain determined and what international support Georgia urgently needs.

Read more on the Bulgarian protests in this week’s Brief Eastern Europe: https://briefeasterneurope.eu/p/december-8-2025

Read "One year of Georgia’s unbreakable resistance, as told by its prisoners of conscience" https://neweasterneurope.eu/2025/12/05/one-year-of-georgias-unbreakable-resistance-as-told-by-its-prisoners-of-conscience/To learn more about the political prisoners in Georgia you can visit a site set up by the IliaUni Student Movement: https://politpatimrebi.ge/?lang=en

In this episode, Adam and Nina are together in Brussels recording the latest updates on the news from the region. The biggest discussion is around the diplomatic flurry over the last week and the remodelled 28-point peace plan between the US, Russia and Ukraine. Adam reflects on the current situation and discusses what might be next. They also discuss Viktor Orban’s visit to Moscow

Later, Nina sits down in Brussels with Peter Vermeersch, a professor of Politics and Eastern European Studies at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium), and a writer of essays, reportage, and narrative non-fiction. They discuss his latest book Pollslag (Pulse) and, more broadly, the role of music as a form of resistance against authoritarianism beyond Belarus.

During the interview, Peter mentions several artists featured in this Spotify playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3YmjGTewBHutfgJWUOASiD?si=jcJ-lu-OSj6dr8csRAf8PA

Pollslag was initially written for a Belgian audience, and Peter is now planning to translate it into English. In the meantime, you can read his non-fiction story about his family to get a sense of his narrative style: https://petervermeersch.craft.me/hbzUOUDh9tgMxI

Peter is also part of the Forum on Central and Eastern Europe at the University of Leuven, which aims to bring insights from the region to Belgian audiences: https://fcee.be

The Forum also produces its own podcast, Studio Central Eastern Europe, offering brief and concise insights into new research on the region for English-speaking audiences: https://soc.kuleuven.be/lines/fcee/fcee-studio/studio-cee

Peter also works as a researcher–photographer. His photographs from Minsk (2016) can be found here: https://vsco.co/petervermeersch/journal/belarus

And read Adam’s op-ed on the Ukraine peace talks via Brief Eastern Europe: https://briefeasterneurope.eu/p/december-1-2025

For our Patrons, Peter stayed on to speak about visual art and Belarusian pro-democracy activism outside of Belarus. The bonus content can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-247-145134701