Ten years on, can we talk about 'the B word'?

Long-time listeners will know that in the early days of The Europeans, we had a semi-official ban on talking about a certain topic: Brexit, or as we liked to call it, ‘the B word’. A whole decade after the UK’s seismic referendum vote to leave the EU, have Katy and Dominic made their peace with the split? What kind of damage has it done, and is there any chance that it might one day be reversed? This week, with the help of some of our listeners, we’re facing the B word head on.

We also hear from someone whose experience mirrors that of our British-born, EU-dwelling hosts: Polish-born Londoner Piotr Cieplak, a writer, film-maker and academic. We chat to Piotr about his experience as an Eastern European in the UK, and why he decided to set his debut novel during the heady days of the referendum.

Piotr’s novel Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superior Detecting is out in paperback on 25 June and available to pre-order now.

FREE TONIGHT? COME HANG OUT WITH US! We’re holding our first ever Office Hour tonight (Thursday 18 June) at 9pm CET. Commune with us in silence about Brexit or ask 15 different questions, it’s up to you. Access is open to all listeners, not just subscribers. We’ll post a link on our website and all our social media channels an hour before the event.

This week’s Inspiration Station picks are Middle England by Jonathan Coe and Autumn by Ali Smith.

GOT A FAVOURITE SUMMER TUNE? Contribute to our Summer Playlist! We’re looking for uplifting songs from across the continent, especially from lesser-known artists who sing in less widely spoken languages. Send your picks to hello@europeanspodcast.com or @europeanspodcast on Instagram/Mastodon.

Resources for this episode:

• “Waking up to Brexit” – Katy’s blog post from the morning after the referendum, Agence France-Presse (AFP), 24 June 2017
• “How Brexit has made Britain poorer – in charts” – The Guardian, 14 June 2026
• “Measuring Brexit’s Economic Toll on the United Kingdom” - US National Bureau of Economic Research
• “To rejoin the EU, the UK must first understand it” – Timothy Garton Ash on Substack, 17 June 2026

This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it’s contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible—we could not continue to make the show without you! If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (in many different currencies), or you can gift a donation to a superfan. You can also donate via our website if you prefer. And finally: we'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number.

Produced by Monika Proba, Wojciech Oleksiak and Katy Lee

Mixing and mastering by Wojciech Oleksiak

Music by Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

The Europeans is proudly produced using Europe’s own Hindenburg.

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