The Sobremesa Podcast
The Sobremesa Podcast
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The Sobremesa Podcast is about modern-day Spanish society, politics and history, without the stereotypes. Every week we have an update about the ongoing current affairs in Spain. We also have interviews from the world of politics, history, academia and art.
Follow us on Twitter @sobremesacast
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
16 Jan 2023
The Other Empty Spain with Nerea Fernandez Cordero
Nerea joins Alan to discuss why she is standing as a candidate for Izquierda Unida in for the regional parliament of Extremadura. Here they talk about some of the other factors around the 'empty Spain' and Extremadura in particular.
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23 Dec 2022
Spanish Politics: The Year in Review 2022
Alan and Eoghan are joined by IE University's Joe Haslam to discuss the year in Spanish politics - from Pablo Casado's political assassination in February to Pedro Sanchez creating his own luck in the Christmas lottery. Also a shout out to Popular Party MP Alberto Casero who voted mistakenly in favour of the coalition's labour reform, thus tipping the majority in favour of the legislation and saving the government from a potentially fatal parliamentary defeat. He tried to blame the electronic voting system but then made the same mistake again in September!
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5 Dec 2022
Masculinities and Aging with Jose Armengol
Jose Armengol, Professor of English at Castilla La Mancha University, joins Alan to discuss how masculinity and aging have changed in their form of representation in Spanish literature and film. Eoghan and Alan also discuss a closely related polemic that includes the Ministry of Equality and Minister Irene Montero.
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28 Nov 2022
Spanish Cinema 2022
Alcarràs, Cinco lobitos (Lullaby), En los márgenes (On the Fringe), El Agua, As bestas and Modelo 77 - 2022 has been a great year for Spanish cinema. Eoghan sits down with La Base's Anita Fuentes to review the year in film and discuss the impact a new generation of women and feminist directors are having on cinema in Spain.
Anita Fuentes is also the host of the English language Security In Context podcast :https://open.spotify.com/show/3hIPIuuHDMcr6br147HXTr
Anita's interview with En los márgenes director Juan Diego Botto for La Base is available here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4eO5ewPuMZFuhLL2AA96ma?si=C0zncS6VTpWYsmx2033JmA
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20 Nov 2022
The Political Uses of the Prado
In the wake of the recent climate protest at the Prado museum in Madrid, as well as the use of the museum for a dinner during this summer's NATO summit, Eoghan sit down with art historian Almudena Cros to discuss the relationship between the iconic gallery and politics. Cros argues that the Prado itself needs to become much more open to critical approaches to art history and explore the complex relationship between power, patronage and its collection, which represents one of the greatest in the tradition of European oil painting.
Details of Almudena's tours can be found here: https://www.acrossmadrid.com/en/
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31 Oct 2022
Javier Marías: An Uneasy Spaniard
This week Eoghan talks to Sebastiaan Faber about Spain’s best known contemporary novelist,Javier Marías, who died aged 70 in Madrid in September and who was the author of 15 novels including Todas Las Almas, Corazón Tan Blanco and Berta Isla.
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24 Oct 2022
A New History of Catalonia with Andrew Dowling
Andrew Dowling joins Alan to discuss his latest book A New History Of Catalonia (2022, Routledge)
Andrew Dowling is Reader in Spanish History at Cardiff University and researches the history and politics of Catalonia. He has previously published The Rise of Catalan Independence: Spain’s Territorial Crisis with Routledge in 2018 and Catalonia since the Spanish Civil War: Reconstructing the Nation (Sussex Academic Press, 2012).
Catalonia: A New History revises many traditional and romantic conceptions in the historiography of a small nation. This book engages with the scholarship of the past decade and separates nationalist myth-history from real historical processes. It is thus able to provide the reader with an analytical account, situating each historical period within its temporal context. Catalonia emerges as a territory where complex social forces interact, where revolts and rebellions are frequent. This is a contested terrain where political ideologies have sought to impose their interpretation of Catalan reality.
This book situates Catalonia within the wider currents of European and Spanish history, from pre-history to the contemporary independence movement, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of nation-making.
Get it here from the publisher's website.
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6 Oct 2022
Spain's Budget 2023: A Social Democratic Response to the Cost of Living Crisis?
This week Spain's progressive coalition unveiled its budget for next year aimed at dealing with the cost of living crisis. Eoghan sat down with sociologist Carlos Delclós to analyse the package of measures that were agreed by the country's progressive coalition and to discuss what it says about Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's party political strategy as we enter a big election year.
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15 Sept 2022
Summers over! Global Tourism and the Catalan independence movement
Eoghan is back and he joins Alan in recounting some of their favourite news stories from the summer.
Max Ferrar joins Alan to discuss his project which links the effects of globalism on the modern day image and shape of the Catalan independence movement. Here they specifically discuss the effect mass tourism has had on the movement and the physical area of Girona itself.
If you have any suggestions for episodes or want to be a guest on the podcast get in touch at the.sobremesa.podcast@gmail.com
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22 Aug 2022
Scottish Volunteers and the International Brigades with Fraser Raeburn
Often when you read, watch or hear about the International Brigades, the United Kingdom and sometimes Ireland, are lumped together into one big group. In this episode Fraser Raeburn joins me to discuss how the 'Scottish context' was different. We talk about Aid for Spain and the ideological and political context that convinced so many Scots to join the brigades to fight fascism in Spain.
Fraser's book is called Scots and the Spanish Civil War: Solidarity, Activism and Humanitarianism. (Edinburgh University Press)
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10 Aug 2022
Spaniards in the British Army with Sean Scullion
Following the retreat of republican forces at the end of the Spanish Civil War, many people become refugees in France and North Africa. Whilst some would later return, many men of fighting age who had been in the Republican army could not. This is their story from how they ended up in refugee camps in the south of France to being members of the British army including members of the SAS.
Sean Scullion is currently writing a book on this topic. He also gives battle field tours and speaks on the subject at public events.
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20 Jul 2022
Spain's Democratic Memory Law Finally Approved!
Spain's Democratic Memory Law is passed by parliament after nearly 2 years of gruelling negotiations. The law aims to protects the rights of Franco's victims to truth and justice and includes a raft of advances but also runs up against major limits. Eoghan is joined by doctoral student Tom Wardle, a researcher into the country's historical memory movement from the University of Southampton, to discuss the new law and its background.
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12 Jul 2022
Exhuming Violent Histories: How to Tell the Story of Spain's Mass Graves
This week's guest is sociologist Nicole Iturriaga who Eoghan talked to about her new book 'Exhuming Violent Histories: Forensics, Memory and Rewriting Spain's Past'. The book provides a detailed case study of Spain’s best-known historical memory organization, the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory which since 2000 has been responsible for exhuming many of Spain's Franco-era mass graves. In the book, Nicole argues that part of the association's success has been due to its use of a depoliticised approach, i.e. using forensic science and family testimony, rather than overtly political arguments, to force the issue of Francoist state terror back onto the public agenda. It is available to buy on amazon (including in a very reasonable ebook version): https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B094YXN968/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0
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6 Jul 2022
The Making of Lavapies with Felicity Hughes
Felicity Hughes joins Alan in the real world to discuss the origins of Lavapies in Madrid and some interesting places that you would normally have just walked past.
Felicity Hughes is a professional writer and editor based in Madrid. Her work has appeared in a variety of different publications including Lonely Planet, The Guardian and Wire magazine. The Making of Madrid is a pet project that was born out of a desire to get to know her adoptive city better and share her passion for its history with other inquisitive individuals.
The Blog: https://themakingofmadrid.com/
Her husband's petition: https://www.change.org/p/paremos-la-cesi%C3%B3n-gratuita-en-usera-de-un-terreno-valorado-en-millones-de-a-la-iglesia
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29 Jun 2022
Massacre in Melilla
In this week's episode we talk about the brutal killing of 37 migrant people at the hands of Moroccan security services along the border of the Spanish enclave of Melilla, as well as discussing the fallout from the results of the Andalusian elections.
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15 Jun 2022
Andalusian Elections and Spain's Right-Turn
As Spain's most populous region Andalusia heads to the polls this Sunday, we preview this crucial regional election and ask if a likely right-wing victory points to a wider reactionary shift in the country more generally.
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8 Jun 2022
The Spanish Government's Historic Feminist Agenda
This week Eoghan speaks to academic Deborah Madden and journalist Laura Seoane about the feminist policies being advanced by Spain's coalition government, concentrating particularly on the country's new active sexual consent law (known as 'only yes is yes'). We also talk about how the debates among different strands of the country's feminist movement are playing out at cabinet, with major differences emerging on trans rights, prostitution and menstrual leave.
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31 May 2022
The Other Special Relationship: Aznar & Blair and the Iraq War with Nathen Jones
Nathen Jones joins Alan to discuss his research and book on the other special relationship between Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar. His book The adoption of a pro-US foreign policy by Spain & the United Kingdom: José María Aznar and Tony Blair's personal motivations and their global impact looks at how the modernisers of their day worked hand in hand on issues such as the EU and Iraq, but also shared similar outlooks on their respective parties and countries.
Nathan Jones is a lecturer in Politics in the Division of Politics and International Relations at Nottingham Trent University. He specialises in comparative European politics, party politics, elections and electoral systems, voter behaviour, and public opinion.
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25 May 2022
Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War
This week Eoghan talks to Nick Lloyd about his book 'Forgotten Places: Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War'. The discussion ranges from George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and the strategic dilemmas facing the Republican side during the 1936-9 conflict to the contrasting experiences of the war in Madrid and Barcelona.
You can find more information about the Nick's Civil War tours at his website: https://thespanishcivilwar.com/
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18 May 2022
Spain's new Abortion Law, Women's Rights and Menstrual leave with Deb Madden
In Spain this week there has been a lot of discussion around the age of gaining consent to get an abortion, should you need your parent's consent if you are between 16-18? This law says no. Internationally we have seen headline after headline talking about 'period leave' but unlike the Daily Mail says it is not unlimited.
Deb Madden is a feminist academic who joins Alan do discuss the history of the law, the wider global fight for women's rights and why Spain stands at the forefront of the global feminist movement.
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13 May 2022
Catalan Gate
The ‘Catalangate’ espionage case has rocked Spanish politics over the last month and has led to the sacking of the country's head of intelligence. The scandal, which involves the use of Pegasus spyware against Catalan and Basque independentists, also raises serious questions around the democratic deficiencies of Spain's post-Franco constitutional regime.
In this episode Alan and Eoghan discuss the fallout from the crisis.
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5 May 2022
Stalin's Niños: Educating Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the Soviet Union with Karl Qualls
Karl Qualls joined Eoghan and Alan to discuss his book Stalin's Niños: Educating Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the Soviet Union
Here they talk about how the 3,000 Spanish children ended up in the USSR and what happened during their childhood there. They also speak about the education they received and why they were considered hero children in the eyes of the Soviet Union. They also explore why it was important for them to keep their Spanish culture but also develop a Soviet way of thinking. Finally, they explore what we can learn from this in the context of today's war in Ukraine.
You can buy the book here
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17 Apr 2022
The Industrialization of Asturias with Luke Bowe
Luke Bowe, a PhD candidate from New York University, talks to Alan about the cultural depictions of Asturias via the medium of novels, short stories and film. Asturias often gibes of two images: natural and peaceful or working class and industrial. Here they explore how these myths and identity were portrayed and the connected contradictions that go with them.
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30 Mar 2022
Pedro Sanchez and Western Sahara with Nazha Elkhalidi #Saharalibre
Alan and Eoghan (the new co-host!) discuss recent events linked with Pedro Sanchez and Western Sahara, the last part of Africa to have not been through the decolonization process that Spain is still responsible for. We talk about how it is related to Spain's monarchy and the history of its occupation.
Following this Eoghan interviews Sahrawian journalist Nazha Elkhalidi for further discussion on this geo-political issue.
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7 Jan 2022
Episode 44: The Symbolic State with Karlo Basta
Welcome back to the Sobremesa Podcast in 2022!Karlo Basta is a politics lecturer at Edinburgh University and his book the Symbolic State is out now. Here we discuss multi nation states and the four examples he has analysed in his book of course with an emphasis on Spain and Catalonia. Hope you enjoy it and Feliz Año a todos!
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21 Nov 2021
Episode 43: Why doesn't Spain have a Green Party with Xan Lopez from Contra el Diluvio
Xan Lopez from Contra el Diluvio, (a green think tank without money) talks with me about ecology and the problems specific to Spain. We also discuss ecological movements and of course green politics. Check out his group's blog for more infohttps://contraeldiluvio.es/
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22 Oct 2021
Episode 42: Riders Law with Ben Wray from Brave New Europe’s Gig Economy Project
Ben Wray is a freelance journalist leading Brave New Europe’s Gig Economy Project. He joins me to explain how the Riders law came about in Spain, and why it is needed. Ben also explains some of the problems that there have been on the way.
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22 Aug 2021
Episode 41: Exhuming Franco with Sebastiaan Faber
The Sobremesa Podcast has slowed down for August like the rest of Spain. But here is some summer listening for you, no matter where you are!Sebastiaan Faber, professor of Hispanic studies at Oberlin College, joins me to discuss his latest book Exhuming Franco What is left of Francisco Franco's legacy in Spain today? Franco ruled Spain as a military dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975. In October 2019, his remains were removed from the massive national monument in which they had been buried for forty-four years. For some, the exhumation confirmed that Spain has long been a modern, consolidated democracy. The reality is more complicated. In fact, the country is still deeply affected—and divided—by the dictatorial legacies of Francoism.In one short volume, Exhuming Franco covers all major facets of the Francoist legacy today, combining research and analysis with reportage and interviews. This book is critical of Spanish democracy; yet, as the final chapter makes clear, Spain is…
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19 Jul 2021
Episode 40: The Future of Unidas Podemos
Sorry this episode is a bit late but I have covid!Recorded two weeks ago, Nerea Fernández Cordero, Co-coordinadora at IU Exterior (Izquierda Unida), and political journalist Eoghan Gilmartin join me to discuss the coalition party called Unidas Podemos. We talk about how it came to be and where it goes from here that their founding leader has left politics, and now that they are part of the first left wing coalition since the second republic.
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30 Jun 2021
Episode 39: Catalan Political Prisoners Get a Pardon With Andrew Dowling
Following last weeks news on the pardon of the 9 Catalan political prisoners, jailed following the referendum in 2017, I discuss the issue with Andrew Dowling, a lecturer in Catalan and Spanish history. If you want to hear more about this issue, take a listen to our previous episodes on the matter.
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21 May 2021
Episode 38: Nazi Germany and Spain with Dr Mercedes Peñalba-Sotorrío
Dr Mercedes Peñalba-Sotorrío, a lecturer and researcher from Manchester Metropolitan University, joins me to discuss the relationship between Nazi Germany and Spain before, during and after WW2.
Her research involves looking at how Nazi propaganda inside Spain which influenced the country's foreign and domestic policy during the time. We also discuss the concept of neutral countries and how the relationship with Germany changed as the war advanced.
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28 Apr 2021
Episode 37: #4M Madrid Elections 2021 with Caroline Gray and Eoghan Gilmartin
With the communidad elections less than a week away Caroline Gray and Eoghan Gilmartin both join me to discuss the political earthquake that led to the elections and why this election is about more than just the capital.
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25 Apr 2021
Episode 36: European Super League with Tommy Hay
This week, the European Super League launched but it hasn't gone smoothly. In the UK all 6 big teams were forced to pull out by their fans, the media and even Boris Johnson. Here in Spain the reaction has been very different. Tommy Hay joins me to discuss the issues behind this league and the Spanish reaction to it.
Tommy Hay is a football commentator here in Spain. He is the presenter of Speaking Football on Vaughan radio, co-host of
the Get Spanish Football News podcast, and he also appears on the show Aprende inglés para futbolistas on Radio MARCA
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2 Apr 2021
Episode 35: The Treatment of Sexual Minorities in the Late-Francoist Period with Sonia Cuesta Maniar
Sonia Cuesta joins me to discuss the treatment of sexual minorities by the Spanish state during the late period of the Francoist dictatorship.
Sonia Cuesta Maniar is a doctoral research student at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the relationship between Francoist repressive practices and accelerating socio-political change in the 1960s and 1970s Spain. More broadly, she is interested in the history of memory, violence, and repression.
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20 Mar 2021
Episode 34: Gender Violence with Dr Deborah Madden
Feminism is huge movement in Spain, but why?
Gender violence is a polemical topic in Spain. Dr Deborah Madden joins me to discuss how, in recent years, there have been several high-profile cases of rape that have brought about needed reforms to the Spanish law. This, along with a number of femicides in the country, has brought gender violence into the public domain.
Dr Deborah Madden is a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Feministas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her research interests centre on the intersection of culture, politics and history in twentieth-century Iberia, with a particular focus on feminist and leftist politics. Current projects include research into representations of the Spanish Civil War in popular culture, the intersection of feminist and memory politics and bio-politics in contemporary Spain.
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5 Mar 2021
Episode 33: Spanish Feminism with Elia Romera Figueroa
In recent years feminism has boomed in countries such as Argentina and Mexico. Likewise, in Europe the movement has been most active in the south, mainly in Italy and Spain. Since 2018, when the first massively followed International Women Strike took place, the movement hasn´t stop growing, and its effects are beginning to be felt. What are some of today’s discussions in Spanish feminism? and where was Spanish feminism before 2018?
I am joined by researcher Elia Romera-Figueroa to discuss the history of Spanish feminism, past and present debates within the movement and where it is going.
Happy International Womens' Day!! ¡Feliz y combativo 8 de marzo!
Elia Romera-Figueroa is a PhD candidate at Duke University. Her research focuses on female singers from the 1950s until the late 80s in Spain. She studies the engagement of protest singers with Second-Wave Feminists movements. At Duke she has been a graduate fellow at the Social Movements Lab directed by Michael Hardt and Sandro M…
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1 Mar 2021
Episode 32: Spanish Start Ups with Joe Haslam
The Spanish government recently announced 11 billion euros for small, medium sized companies in the hard-hit tourism sector. Will it be enough? And what is the longer term plan for the Spanish economy?
In the longer term, Spain has seen the need to reform its economy as the current model, heavily reliant on tourism, is unreliable. Many in the country also want self employment red tape cut and costs reduced.
Joe Haslam joins me to explain the long term cultural and systematic problems Spain faces in reforming itself into a country of start ups.
We also discuss 'Spain Entrepreneurial Nation' the new 10 year plan to set out by the government to help start ups in Spain grow.
Joe Haslam is the Executive Director of the Owners Scaleup Program at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. This is a program specially designed for small and medium sized companies that want to scale. He is also the presenter of the High Impact Online Program "Scaleup! How to Successfully Manage Growth" and the Aca…
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25 Feb 2021
Episode 31: Basque Nationalism: The Origins of Basque Nationalism and Anti-colonialist Rhetoric with Maria Reyes Baztán
Nationalism has made a comeback in the 21st century and Spain is not exempt.
Often people mistake Spain for a large country, when in fact it is a large block of several regional identities. Famously, the Catalan independence movement has highlighted this fact and also caused a rise in the national Spanish identity.
However this is not a new phenomenon. Spain's regional identities have challenged Spanish nationalists desired unity since at least the 19th century
Whilst the regional identities often get along well together, this has not always been the case. During Franco's era, regional identities were suppressed, and following his death the rise of ETA in the Basque country and beyond came to overshadow any talk of the Basque identity.
Maria Reyes Baztán, a researcher from Warwick University, joins me to explain the history of Basque nationalism and the origins of the anti-colonial rhetoric they still use to this day.
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21 Feb 2021
Episode 30: The Catalan Elections (and the following week)
Andrew Dowling joins me again to discuss the Catalan election results.
We also discuss and analyse the protests/riots that have followed the arrest of Spanish rapper Pablo Hasel.
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9 Feb 2021
Episode 29: Catalan Politics 101 with Andrew Dowling
On Sunday the 14th February, Catalonia will go to the polls, this time to elect a regional government.
This is the second regional election since the October 2017 independence referendum. The first in December 2017 was called by then Spanish President Mariano Rajoy, in that election the biggest party Cuidudanos won the most seats but could not form an administration. A regional government was formed by independence forces JuntsxCats/ERC/CUP. Quimm Torra was elected as regional president.
In the April 2019 general election, Torra went against Spanish election rules. After many long judicial battles, Torra was dismissed as regional premier and forced to call regional elections. These are those elections.
Since the 2017 elections much has changed in Catalan politics and national politics. Both are intertwined and can effect each other.
Here is my interview with Andrew Dowling. A lecturer at Cardiff University and author of the book The Rise of Catalan Independence
Spain’s Territoria…
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5 Feb 2021
Episode 28: Vox and Spanish Nationalism
Vicente Rubio-Pueyo is a Spanish academic based in New York.
In the second part of my interview with him we discuss Spanish nationalism and the rise of far right party Vox.
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31 Jan 2021
Episode 27: Spanish municipalism with Vicente Rubio-Pueyo
Vicente Rubio-Pueyo is a Spanish academic based in New York and member of Minim, a municipalist observatory.
He sat down with me to discuss modern day Spanish municipalism and the effect it has had on politics and the cities it governed.
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21 Jan 2021
Episode 26: Territorial politics in Spain with Caroline Gray
In this episode of the Sobremesa podcast I interview Caroline Gray. Here we talk about territorial politics of both the left and right in Spain since the financial crisis.
Caroline Gray is Lecturer in Politics and Spanish. She specialises in the politics of Spain and wider Europe, focusing on territorial politics and party systems. She is the author of Territorial Politics and the Party System in Spain: Continuity and Change since the Financial Crisis (Routledge, 2020).
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13 Jan 2021
Episode 25: 15-M, 10 Years On: In conversation with Cristina Flesher Fominaya on her recent book Democracy Reloaded: Inside Spain’s Political Laboratory from 15-M to Podemos
10 years ago in 2011, Spain went through a crisis of representation. Until then, Spain had been praised as exceptional for its peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in the late 1970’s. Yet with the arrival of economic problems, that soon changed. On an international scale, the world was still struggling in the aftermath of the 2007-8 financial crisis. The Great Recession had begun. In Europe, the Eurozone debt crisis was underway. By 2011, Greece and Ireland had already had their first bailouts and at the beginning of the year Spain’s neighbour Portugal would also request help from the EU as it could not meet the targets it was set. Spain would be next. Struggling with the growing economic crisis, the PSOE government, led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, would make unpopular reforms to both the labour laws and pension system in late 2010.
In the wake of the Arab Spring, Spain started to mobilise against what a good deal of people felt was an unrepresentative democrac…
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31 Dec 2020
Episode 24: Brexit Special: One Leaver, One Remainer. Both Live in Spain
In this one-off special episode, I discuss brexit with two Brits that live in Spain. One voted leave and the other voted remain. Here is why.
Richard Thompson lives in Sant Joan in Mallorca. He is a business owner and local town councillor with Assemblea per Sant Joan. We talk about voting remain and the stereotypes of Brits in Spain.
Timothy Appleton has lived in Madrid for 15 years. He is a lecturer in the Camilo José Cela University, editor of the magazine #lacanemancipa and author of the book “Escupir en la iglesia: un sí de izquierdas al Brexit”, (“Spitting in church: a left-wing yes to Brexit”) Here we talk about his book and why he would still vote leave.
Happy New Year!!
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23 Dec 2020
Episode 23: After the Fall with author Tobias Buck
Here I got to interview author and former Financial Times Spain correspondent
Tobias Buck.
We talk about corruption, austerity, Rajoy, Podemos and Catalonia.
At the end of the episode I also talk about my plans for the podcast in 2021.
Merry Christmas from all at The Sobremesa Podcast!
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16 Dec 2020
Episode 22: History of Anarchism in Spain with Danny and Jim from the ABC Podcast Part Two
In this two part episode I spoke with Danny and Jim from the Anarchist Book Club Podcast.
We go all the way from the meaning of anarchism, its founding in Spain and further in this very exciting episode.
I learnt loads talking with both the guys. Please make sure you take a listen to their podcast and if you want to know more you can buy their books.
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16 Dec 2020
Episode 21: History of Anarchism in Spain with Danny and Jim from the ABC Podcast
In this two part episode I spoke with Danny and Jim from the Anarchist Book Club Podcast.
We go all the way from the meaning of anarchism, its founding in Spain and further in this very exciting episode.
I learnt loads talking with both the guys. Please make sure you take a listen to their podcast and if you want to know more you can buy their books.
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9 Dec 2020
Episode 20: Spain's new budget with EOGHAN GILMARTIN and TOMMY GREENE
"Spain’s Left Is Winning the Battle for Welfare — But Not the War on Neoliberalism"
This is the name of Eoghan and Tommy's new article available at jacobin.com. Here we discuss their take on Spain's first budget since Rajoy.
We discuss where Podemos is making gains and where the PSOE and EU are too. I hope you find this interesting take on the budget helpful. Please head on over and read their article for the full story.
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27 Nov 2020
Episode 19: A New Image of Spain? with Paul Burge from the When in Spain Podcast
CROSSOVER TIME!!
The Sobremesa Podcast has teamed up with the When in Spain podcast. Paul Burge has been running his podcast for the last 2 years and covers a whole range of things related to Spain. From pueblos to Hemmingway, it is all in there.
Here I interviewed Paul about tourism and the image of Spain, both from the outside and the image of the country that Spaniards have. If you want to hear Paul interview me about the EU covid fund and the future of Spanish politics, head on over to the When in Spain podcast to hear it.
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16 Nov 2020
Left Populism in Spain and the USA with Jorge Tamames
In this episode of the Sobremesa podcast, I chat with journalist and political researcher Jorge Tamames about the history and current state of populism in the USA and Spain. Jorge's book 'For The People: Left Populism in Spain and the US' concentrates on left wing populism.
Here he explains the conditions that led to the rise in Podemos and Bernie Sanders, and their differences. Later we discuss Podemos inside the government, republicanism, right wing populism and what covid-19 might mean for populism in the future.
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26 Oct 2020
The History of the Housing Crisis and the birth of the PAH movement with Sophie Gonick
This week the Sobremesa Podcast talks with Sophie Gonick from New York University about her up and coming book: Dispossession and Dissent.
We talk about how she documented the birth of the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) (Platform for People Affected by Mortgages), and she also explains the housing crisis that went with it. We later talk about housing policy and why council houses in Spain aren't really a thing
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19 Oct 2020
Doctor, Doctor give me some news...
In this episode of the Sobremesa Podcast, I talk to an old friend about an ongoing problem.
Doctors in Spain are threatening to strike from the 28th of October over a new law passed by the government. This law is to help increase the number of staff. So what is the problem?
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16 Oct 2020
An interview with Giles Tremlett: The International Brigades. Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War
Giles Tremlett joins me on the Sobremesa Podcast to discuss his latest book: The International Brigades. Fascism, Freedom, and the Spanish Civil War.
In this interview we cover how the book came about, the historical context in which the book is set, and the story of the Brigades.
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12 Oct 2020
The Dina Case with Tommy Greene
This week saw the end of the political jousting between the central government and the Madrid regional government. This reached a climax on Friday
Further court developments this week threaten to eat away at the coalition government's sense of legitimacy. This forms part of a larger ongoing investigation that has seen the presentation of the deputy PM go from being an aggrieved or injured party to one in which he may now figure as an accused party, following on from the judge's request to open an inquiry into Pablo Iglesias' role within the complex case.
Tommy Greene, a political journalist, joins me to discuss it further.
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5 Oct 2020
Back in Lockdown: Interviews with Sara Soto and Simon Hunter
Madrid has been placed in (partial) lockdown once again. In this episode I explore how this come about in two very different interviews.
Firstly, I speak with Sara Soto, Secretary of the Young Socialists of Vallecas. Here we talk about how the response to lockdown on the 18th September and the effects it has had over the past two weeks. We also discuss some of the inequalities that were already in the area but have been made worse by the pandemic.
Following on from this I catch up with Simon Hunter from El Pais in English. Here Simon tells me about the Que podcast; we also discuss the management of the pandemic from several points of view, and lastly we discuss the newest celebrity in Spain: James Rhodes.
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28 Sept 2020
Pandemic Politics: an Interview with Eoghan Gilmartin
This week (28/9/20) Eoghan Gilmartin joins me. As a political journalist based in Madrid, he has been covering the stories as they have unfolded.
Here we talk about the more immediate stories of the day such as the management of the virus in Madrid and the future for Spanish politics.
Later, we then go on to explore how this situation has come about, and how the quick politicisation of the pandemic has played out on a national level for both the left and right.
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21 Sept 2020
The New Democratic Memory Law: a discussion with Tom Wardle
In 2007, the Spanish government passed the historical memory law to address issues from the country's past. Since then the law has been starved of funding and criticised as not going far enough. The new coalition government has put forward a new law named the Democratic Memory. This law will look at exhumations of mass graves, education, prosecutions and the Valley of the Fallen. It is set to be brought before parliament this week.
Tom Wardle joined me to discuss the proposals.
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11 Sept 2020
Diada, The National Day of Catalonia: an Interview with Alícia Hernàndez Grande
In a special edition of Sobremesa, I interview researcher and Phd candidate Alícia Hernàndez Grande. Here she explains the history behind the independence movement and Diada, the national day of Catalonia. She also shares her observations from the 2017 referendum and where the Catalan identity comes from.
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7 Sept 2020
7/9/2020 Regional Identity and the EU: an Interview with Professor Sandie Holguin (part 2)
In this episode I interview Professor Sandie Holguin about the regional identities in Spain and how they interact with the national identity. We also discuss the EU and how it forms a part of the political scene in Spanish politics today.
Before the Interview I share an update on current Spanish affairs
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31 Aug 2020
The National Spanish Identity: an Interview with Professor Sandie Holguin
In this episode of Sobremesa we get an update on the national situation and an interview with cultural and intellectual historian Professor Sandie Holguin.
Here we talk about the construction of the national identity which in recent years has increased in its popularity.
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17 Aug 2020
Spain's Memory Wars: an interview with Tom Wardle
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