A podcast series that takes a closer look at the challenges we face on the path to a fair and inclusive Europe and brings open conversations on how research, innovation and policy-making support people, strengthen Europe’s social model and ensure a just transition for all.
Publisher
Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Beyond income: the new inequalities of the climate transition
Political expert Laurent Standaert interviews Salvador Barrios about ensuring the climate transition benefits everyone, not just the wealthy, by considering diverse impacts beyond income.
22 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Home Sweet Home: where affordability meets sustainability
Political scientist Mikael Leyi, Anna Iafisco, and Federica Rotondo discuss making European housing affordable and climate resilient.
19 Jul 2026TRANSCRIPT
The power of doubt: how climate disinformation delays action
Max Falkenberg, Jennie King, and Paul Nemitz discuss how climate disinformation stalls progress and what Europe does to combat it in this interview.
28 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT
Can learning stay fair and human in the age of AI?
Host [Host Name] interviews education experts Tobias Ley, Diletta Huyskes, and Niels Kerssens about AI's potential to create a fair and inclusive European education system.
3 Jun 2026TRANSCRIPT
From grey to green: cities that belong to us all
Host Francesco Pilla interviews Sarah Stein Lubrano and Karen Vancluysen about designing fairer, greener cities that benefit everyone, especially the vulnerable.
5 May 2026TRANSCRIPT
Jobs that work: safe and fair in a changing world
Professor Maria Albin, Klaus Heeger, William Cockburn Salazar, and Robert Marinkovic discuss ensuring safe and fair jobs in a changing world during this interview.
31 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
Ethics and the green transition: Just for all?
Host Barbara Prainsack interviews Kirsten Dunlop, Anna Sekula, and Daniel Botha about ensuring a fair and inclusive green transition for everyone.
5 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
One step beyond - GDP and into wellbeing
Professor Mario Biggeri, Philippe Lamberts, and Sandrine Dixson-Declève discuss measuring European success beyond GDP to prioritize citizen wellbeing in this interview.
19 Jan 2026TRANSCRIPT
Making the link – jobs in Europe and global supply chains
Holger Görg, Giles Dickson, and Román Arjona discuss how global supply chains impact European jobs and the just transition in this interview.
4 Nov 2025TRANSCRIPT
From classroom to workforce: exploring migrant integration
Host Dr. Sacha Garben interviews Dr. Teresa Sordé Martí and Professor Olaf van Vliet about migrant integration in Europe, exploring educational projects and economic contributions.
22 Oct 2025TRANSCRIPT
Keep learning! – everyone onboard for a just transition
Elisa Gambardella, Frank Siebern-Thomas, and Nora Fahy discuss how adult lifelong learning equips Europe with essential skills for a just transition, ensuring no one is left behind.
25 Sept 2025TRANSCRIPT
Smart, fair, wise: keeping strong social sciences and humanities in Europe
Vera Jourova and industry experts discuss the vital role of social sciences and humanities in fostering a competitive, cohesive, and democratic Europe.
4 Sept 2025TRANSCRIPT
Fighting Poverty: work, wealth, and the 1%
Host [Host Name] interviews Olivier de Schutter, Maxime Cerutti, Slavina Spasova, and Luca Ratti about the EU's Anti-Poverty Strategy and policies to combat poverty and support employment.
10 Jul 2025
Cake, trains and collective dreaming: Just Transition goes global
Host Nthabi Mohlakoana and guest Detlef Van Vuuren explore global perspectives on Just Transition, revealing how diverse contexts shape sustainable economic shifts.
7 May 2025
Fair enough? Unpacking sustainable lifestyles
Our third episode is all about ‘Sustainable lifestyles’.
What does it mean to live a sustainable life and how realistic is it? Can research insights help make the choices that are good for the planet also people’s default option, and what role can local communities play in all this?
We delve into two key research projects funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. Our guests, researchers Rosie Robison from the ‘Shared Green Deal’ project and Lewis Akenji from the ‘Positive and Sustainable Lifestyles’ project, unpack the findings from their work and what they could mean for policymaking.
We also dropped into a Brussels market to hear shoppers talk about their buying habits.
2 Apr 2025
Union of Skills: game on!
Our second episode in this series is ‘Union of Skills: game on!’ – a plan to improve high-quality education, training, and lifelong learning to help workers respond to changes in the economy and stay competitive in the labour market.
The Union of Skills also aims to bridge the gaps in skills that are hindering European competitiveness.
The episode is built around the recent European Social Forum, which featured a demonstration by the EU-supported Megaskills project, demonstrating how gaming can help people of any age to develop soft skills – such as problem-solving, resource management and critical thinking – that employers are increasingly looking for.
Our guests include a partner in the EU Megaskills project, Afonso Araujo; psychologist and researcher Sergio Alloza; European Social Forum youth dialogue participants Jan Holý, Diana Voutyrakou and Miruna-Ioana Sandor; digital skills expert Professor Katriona O’Sullivan; and Mario Nava, director-general of the European Commission’s directorate-general for employment, social affairs and inclusion.
4 Mar 2025TRANSCRIPT
Left behind: fact or feeling?
This episode examines the challenge for policymakers at all levels – European, national, regional and local – of addressing European citizens’ concerns that they and their communities may not benefit from economic, social and technological change. We look at this question from various perspectives with guests including Lars Katzmarek, a German policymaker and rapper chronicling the challenges facing his home state of Brandenburg; researchers James Scott and Žarko Šunderić, both participants in research projects looking at the concept of leftbehindedness from different angles; and Judit Carreras, director of Spain’s Just Transition Institute, who shares with us her country’s pioneering work to ensure that policymaking for the future leaves no-one in the past.
Inside a recent episode
Beyond income: the new inequalities of the climate transition
Published 15 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] They are much more encompassing because climate change confronts us with unique constellation of new inequalities the exposure is different the floods the heat the pollution the quality of water if we do not address it from an eco-social perspective in terms of protection so defining a new welfare system that we cherish so much in europe then we will reinforce inequalities salvador what would you add to that Well, my perspective is not political, it's from the research perspective. So to put it simply, I'd say that the digital and green transition represent deep structural changes in many different ways. […]
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