United Citizens of Europe Podcast United Citizens of Europe

In this week's episode, Sarah Durieux tells us a bit about her time at Change.org and the lessons she learned during her years there, starting as campaign manager until she became Executive Director. She is now co-director at Multitudes and still working on helping out people in campaign organizing.

Many people are precluded from the possibility of running an effective political campaign because of a lack of funding or a lack of connections/networking. Multitudes' goal is to be a facilitator and support future changemakers and give a helping hand to people of all backgrounds. 

Sarah is also part of the 2020 cohort of the Obama Leaders Program. As Sarah says during the interview, Leadership Programs are amazing for networking and learning how community organizing works in other countries.

Sarah gave many useful tips on how to become an effective changemaker.

Host of the episode: Luca De Cristofaro

Guest: Sarah Durieux

Follow United Citizens of Europe:

IG: @unitedcitizensofeurope

Twitter: @ucofeurope

Facebook: United Citizens of Europe

www.unitedcitizensofeurope.com

What will a Lula-led Brazil look like and what will it mean for Europe? What will happen to the EU-Mercosur agreement?

In this episode, Caterina Bruno and Bianca Cunha help us understand what is going on in Brazil, what happened to Lula and we try to foresee Brazil's role on the international stage.



Host of the episode: Luca De Cristofaro

Guests: Caterina Bruno, Bianca Cunha

Follow United Citizens of Europe:

IG: @unitedcitizensofeurope

Twitter: @ucofeurope

Facebook: United Citizens of Europe

www.unitedcitizensofeurope.com

In this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Maria Mayrhofer, founder and executive director of Aufstehn.
Aufstehn means "Stand up" in English, and the main goal of the organization is to help people manifest their dissent on various issues to their local, national and European elected officials. 

The digital-fist organization takes the best of both worlds, and Maria explains why their online presence is fundamental to their in-person demonstrations. 

Aufstehn can definitely be considered a success story, which is why Maria is part of the 2022 Obama Foundation Leaders of Europe. 

You can follow Aufstehn here



Host of the episode: Luca De Cristofaro

Guests: Maria Mayrhofer, #Aufstehn

Follow United Citizens of Europe:

IG: @unitedcitizensofeurope

Twitter: @ucofeurope

Facebook: United Citizens of Europe

www.unitedcitizensofeurope.com

In this episode, we discussed the results of the elections recently held in Italy.
We focused on the reception of the news by international media and how most of the international press describes as the winning coalition as an extreme right coalition, whereas the Italian press is describing it as center-right.
On the International field, we commented the possible European coalitions moving forward and Fratelli d'Italia's ties with Abascal's extreme right party "Vox" in Spain.

 The fear of a restriction of civil rights is growing amongst minorities in Italy. The LGBTQI+ community, women and migrants are the ones who might be the most targeted for possible repercussions. Despite Giorgia Meloni's possibility to become Italy's first female prime minister, many women fear her conservative views will put in danger the accessibility to safe abortions in Italy, as it already happened in the region of Marche, governed by Fratelli d'Italia.


Host of the episode: Luca De Cristofaro

Guests: Alessandra Santoro and Giuseppe Lipari

Follow United Citizens of Europe:

IG: @unitedcitizensofeurope

Twitter: @ucofeurope

Facebook: United Citizens of Europe

www.unitedcitizensofeurope.com

This week's episode is dedicated to understanding what is going on in Ukraine and Putin's decision to invade the country.
The invasion of Ukraine by Putin's led forces takes Western countries' diplomatic ties with Russia back to 1945 according to diplomat and former ambassador of Italy to Moscow, Guido Lenzi. The diplomat also added that Russia refused to take EU leaders seriously, their only interlocutors are the Americans. However, Putin's Russia must take the EU seriously, especially when it comes down to diplomacy. Other topics with Lenzi were the Bucharest Treaty, Minsk Agreements, "Compatriots abroad", history of EU-Russia relations and the escalation in Ukraine.

Our second guest is M.B., whose identity is not disclosed as she is doing a traineeship in an institution in Kyiv and, as we did not have the greenlight for the interview by the institution, she prefers to stay anonymous. She also added that everything she says is her own view and do not express the views of the institution she is working for.
M.B. talked about Ukrainian media, the press' reaction to the escalation and a comparison with Western media.

The interviews were recorded on 24/02/2022, therefore, any missing information or change of events might be due to the date.

Host of the episode: Luca De Cristofaro

Guests: Diplomat Guido Lezzi and our informant M.B. 

Follow United Citizens of Europe:

IG: @unitedcitizensofeurope

Twitter: @ucofeurope

Facebook: United Citizens of Europe

www.unitedcitizensofeurope.com

In this episode, we talked with Beatrice Chioccioli about her life working in the humanitarian field and how easy this sector can lead to burnout. We also discussed how and why she founded her Paris-based NGO that helps migrants and asylum seekers in the French capital (and now in Europe). Lastly, we briefly talked about who are the LinkedIn job fairies. 

Listen to the podcast to know more.

Host of the episode: Luca De Cristofaro

Guest: Beatrice Chioccioli

Follow United Citizens of Europe:

IG: @unitedcitizensofeurope

Twitter: @ucofeurope

Facebook: United Citizens of Europe

www.unitedcitizensofeurope.com