PODCAST PORTUGAL

About PODCAST PORTUGAL

A weekly podcast in English about Portugal´s culture, history and daily life with various guests. Living in Portugal, moving to Portugal or visiting Portugal? Podcast Portugal is your essential resource for everything Portugal in English.

Publisher

PODCAST PORTUGAL

Category

history · news · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 Dec 2024

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

93 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Oct 2026

   Columbus: A Portuguese Prince? Dr Manuel Rosa on His New Book.

   Was Christopher Columbus a Portuguese prince born in Madeira? Dr Manuel Rosa on his new book, a vanished Polish king and a secret kept for centuries. For more than five centuries, Christopher Columbus has been remembered as an Italian weaver from Genoa. Dr Manuel Rosa believes that story is wrong. In this episode, Justin West welcomes Dr Rosa back to Podcast Portugal to discuss his new book, Colombo – Um Príncipe Português, the culmination of 35 years of research and the first in which he commits fully to his conclusion: that the navigator was born in Madeira, the son of King Władysław III of Poland. Dr Rosa revisits the Battle of Varna in 1444, where the young king was said to have died. Letters written in 1445 describe him as alive and well, and a later letter from a monk points to his survival. According to Dr Rosa, Władysław chose not to reclaim his throne, made a pilgrimage as penance for breaking a truce, and settled in Madeira under the name Henrique Alemão, where he was granted lands confirmed by the Portuguese crown. His disappearance allowed his brother Casimir to take the Polish throne, and the truth was kept hidden at the highest levels of European power to prevent civil war. The conversation explores how the names Colón, Colombo and Columbus became confused, beginning with an error in Rome in 1493, and how nineteenth-century historians attached the navigator's life to a Genoese weaver of the same name. Dr Rosa argues that a weaver could never have married into the nobility, as Columbus did when he wed Filipa Moniz, nor risen to become admiral and viceroy. Growing up in Madeira, where villages were linked by sea and his father owned boats, the young heir would instead have learned navigation from childhood. Dr Rosa sets out the documents behind his case, including archival letters, chronicles and a Lithuanian genealogy linking the Polish royal house to the Colón family. He also explains why, as heir to the thrones of Poland, Hungary and Lithuania, Columbus's true identity had to remain a secret, and previews his next book, which will examine the 1492 voyage as a covert Portuguese mission against Spain. Colombo – Um Príncipe Português is available now in Portuguese from bookshops across Portugal, with an English edition still to be announced.

2. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Queuing Overnight for a Residency Card: Noah Hallett on the Reality of Moving to Portugal.

   Noah Hallett, a US startup consultant in Lisbon, shares his honest experience of moving to Portugal, from AIMA residency card queues to its startup scene. Moving to Portugal is often presented as a story of sunshine, safety and quality of life, and much of that is true. It is also worth hearing the other side, which is exactly what Noah Hallett brings to this episode. Originally from rural California, Noah is a fractional Chief Customer Officer and strategic advisor to fast-growing startups, and he moved to Lisbon with his family after a careful, data-driven comparison of destinations. That comparison, built in spreadsheets and informed by safety statistics, education outcomes, cost of living and an international network, kept returning to the same conclusion. Concerns about the American school system, safety and rising living costs pushed the family to look abroad, and Lisbon's weather, quality of life and accessible immigration routes made it the clear choice. Noah first came to our attention through a TikTok video in which he vented about queuing for his youngest son's residency card at AIMA. While three of the four family members received their cards smoothly, his son's case turned into six days of waiting, more than 24 hours in line, an all-nighter and repeated biometrics. The card, it transpired, had simply been returned to AIMA after a missed postal delivery. Noah chose not to hire a lawyer so that he could experience and document the process first-hand, and he shares candidly what he saw: limited daily tickets, inconsistent information and people in the queue risking their jobs to be there. Justin and Noah discuss the simple fixes that could transform the experience, from online appointments and real-time status updates to better postal handling and digital PO box services. They also look at why bureaucracy of this kind is an opportunity for startups and technology entrepreneurs, and why so many of these headaches can be avoided altogether with the right relocation support. The conversation then widens to Portugal's startup ecosystem, which Noah sees changing quickly, with new founders, accelerators, government initiatives and funding, and a surprisingly close-knit community of experienced founders supporting newcomers. They consider the limits of a small domestic market and why the strongest businesses use Portugal's talent, costs and quality of life while selling internationally, the role of tourism, and the pressure that modest salaries and rising property prices place on local families. They also cover the shift in the Golden Visa towards genuine residents and business creation, and compare Portugal's income equality and cost of living with the United States. Finally, Noah explains how his TikTok channel, Portuguese Word of the Day, began as a way to hold himself accountable while learning the language, and how it attracted a warm and encouraging Portuguese audience. It is a reminder that a little effort to integrate is met with real generosity. Whether you are planning a move, already here and battling the paperwork, or building a business in Portugal, this is an honest and balanced conversation about what relocating really involves.

3. 

   1 Oct 2026

   James Bond, Spies and the Battle of Aljubarrota: Portuguese History with Tomás Pedrosa of Paths of History.

   Tomás Pedrosa of Paths of History explores Portuguese history, from WWII spies in Estoril and the James Bond story to the Battle of Aljubarrota. Portuguese history is far more connected to the wider world than most people realise, and few people tell that story with as much enthusiasm as Tomás Pedrosa. A licensed tour guide of nine years, working across Leiria, Sintra, Lisbon and central Portugal, Tomás is the founder of Paths of History, and in this episode he explains how a schoolboy who disliked history became one of its most passionate storytellers. Tomás and Justin begin with the idea that history is, at heart, storytelling rather than a list of dates and facts. They discuss why so much of what we know comes to us indirectly through archives and secondary sources, and why the way history is taught, including the gaps around the royalist and dictatorial periods in Portuguese schools, shapes what people understand about their own country. From there the conversation turns to identity. Drawing on DNA evidence and his own ancestry results, Tomás describes Portugal as a genuine melting pot, shaped by centuries of migration, conquest and trade, and by explorers who carried Portuguese influence around the globe. He argues that sharing this history helps counter nationalism and the "us versus them" mindset, and helps us avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. The centrepiece of the episode is the extraordinary story of Portugal in the Second World War. As a neutral country leaning towards the Allies, Portugal became a haven for exiled royals, diplomats and spies, with Estoril and Cascais at the heart of the intrigue. Tomás recounts the tale of Dusko Popov, the real-life double agent who operated in Estoril and inspired Ian Fleming to create James Bond, and points out where Bond's screen adventures were filmed in Portugal. He also explains Portugal's delicate diplomacy, including the decision to allow British and American bases in the Azores in 1943. That balancing act rested on the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, formalised in the treaties of 1373 and 1386 and recognised as the oldest military alliance in the world. Tomás also shares some lighter examples of the connection, such as Queen Catarina introducing tea drinking to England. Finally, the pair go back to the moment that made Portugal an independent nation. When King Ferdinand died without a male heir in 1383, Portugal faced annexation by Castile. At the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, around 6,000 Portuguese and English troops defeated a far larger Castilian and French army of some 33,000, through superior tactics and knowledge of the terrain. The victory brought the Avis dynasty to the throne, led to the marriage of João I and Philippa of Lancaster, and produced the "illustrious generation" that included Henry the Navigator, setting the stage for the Age of Discovery.

Who has been a guest on PODCAST PORTUGAL

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• DeskAmigo
• Margarida Beja
• Dan Luger
• José “Zé” Ferreira
• Dr Vera Azevedo

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

1,622,868

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.0 / 5

2 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 60 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

69

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

32

Contact PODCAST PORTUGAL

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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Questions about PODCAST PORTUGAL