Romanian Dispatch

Conversations with remarkable people who make the news.

Congested Bucharest (10 June 2021)
Guest in this week’s episode of Romanian Dispatch is civil engineer and urban planner Michael Horodniceanu. Romanian-born Horodniceanu was traffic commissioner of New York City and is an advisor to the recently elected mayor of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan. After Moscow, Istanbul and Kyiv, his city has the most traffic in Europe. Residents of Romania’s capital are in traffic 48% more than they need to, or 218 hours a year. To improve traffic flow in Bucharest in the short term, Horodniceau advocates for low-cost measures like a clearer parking policy and the use of artificial intelligence.

Against the European Trend (4 December 2021)
Guest in this episode of Romanian Dispatch is political scientist and historian Silvia Marton. In this podcast we will discuss Romania’s parliament, and how Romania with its five political parties is going against the trend of fragmentation of parliaments in most European countries, why the nationalist AUR party was elected into parliament overnight, and the role of the president in forming governments.

Promoting Democracy (11 December 2021)
Guest in this episode of Romanian Dispatch is Thomas Carothers, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. Mr. Carothers is an authority on international democracy assistance, human rights and rule of law, and good governance and civil society. One of Dr. Carothers’ first books was on international assistance to the transition in Romania, which was published in 1996. Today we will speak about the impact of 30 years democracy assistance in post-communist Europe, the pitfalls of international assistance and about his love for Romania.

Voetbal achter het voormalige IJzeren Gordijn

Bi-monthly podcast (in Dutch) about everything and anything around the beautiful game — on and off the pitch.

Coming soon!