RTL Today - The Lisa Burke Show RTL Today

Europe for Europe – a wonderful opportunity for 18–23-year-olds to discover the EU together.



Ahead of Europe Day on 9 May, and the upcoming European elections, 6-9 June, my shows this week and next will have a distinctly European flavour.



To start with, Sasha is back with a chat about recent world news.



Anne Calteux, Representative of the EU Commission to Luxembourg, is entering a very busy period of work, sharing her passion and knowledge for the European Union. Anne is effectively the Commission’s voice in Luxembourg.



There were many steps, and setbacks to the European Union becoming what it is today. Luxembourg was one of the founding countries of the EU, along with Belgium, West Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. The creation of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) was a pivotal step however. From 1952, Luxembourg, Brussels and Strasbourg became temporary meeting-places for the ECSC. Since 1992, these three cities have become the HQ for all our European institutions. And today, more than 14,000 European civil servants and agents work for the EU institutions in Luxembourg.



Europe for Europe



Europe for Europe (E4E) is a programme designed for 18 to 23 year olds to tour the founding six member states of the EU. There is only one participant from each of the 27 member states, plus the UK (despite Brexit), vetted by the Rotary Club who designed the programme.



https://europe4europe.com



This experience lasts for three intense weeks in July, allowing for 3 days in each country, and they all have their own themes:



Italy - future industrial developments

France - historical heritage

Belgium - social responsibility

Netherlands - inclusivity

Germany - Ariane Space Project

Luxembourg - EU institutions

Roberto Mancina was a co-founder of Europe for Europe, having been involved with the Youth Exchange for many years. Whilst attending an EEMA congress in Istanbul, he had lunch with some French Rotarians from Thionville. They wanted to find a way to honour the memory of Robert Schumann, who was from Thionville and Founding Father of the EU. And so the idea of E4E was born.



Roberto was particularly interested in developing this project as the Rotary Club is American in origin, and he felt it needed a greater European focus.



Ellen Spencer is Coordinator of Europe for Europe (E4E) for the Rotary Clubs of Luxembourg. Ellen first became involved with the Rotary Clubs here when she moved to Luxembourg. Ellen has a son and has observed the benefits to him growing up as an EU citizen. She continues to work passionately to support young adult programmes that focus on engagement towards a common future for a better world.



The EU Youth Strategy and Erasmus+ are other places to discover programmes for young people, to enhance European values, tolerance, enhance skills and employability. To find out more information just contact the Rotary Clubs of Luxembourg (or indeed other countries across Europe) and the European Youth Portal.



https://youth.europa.eu/home_en



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Tune in on Today Radio Saturdays at 11am, Sundays at noon and Tuesdays at 10am.

This week, 1 May, marks 20 years of the rapid expansion of the EU with the accession of many former Soviet satellite states. Dr. Laima Andrikiené reflects on her role in the history of Lithuania's transformation and its current geopolitical challenges within the EU. While a well renowned Lithuanian choir are coming to Luxembourg.



20 years ago, the European Union grew bigger as, on 1 May 2004, the citizens of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia became citizens of the EU.



Laima Liucija Andrikiené is an ex-politician, now working at the European Court of Auditors. She was instrumental to the independence of Lithuania, as a signatory of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania.



In this conversation, Dr Andrikiené talks about the Lithuania of her youth, of her parents youth and how the hope for independence never dimmed. Laima poignantly describes her parents meeting in Siberia, when they were both sent to the Gulag amongst many other family members. Her Grandmother always believed that her children and grandchildren would live to see a free Europe. They were right.



Dr. Andrikiené remembers the day the last Soviet Troops pulled out of Lithuania and the work that had to be done then: starting an economy from scratch, giving people property back, opening up and processing tenders for foreign investment.



Given the proximity to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, we also talk in depth about what is happening in Russia / Ukraine right now. Laima has a strong message for Russian people - they also hold responsibility for what is happening and can act.



For Lithuania, being a part of the European Union has meant 20 years of peace, security and financial aid- almost 30 billion euros of financial aid to build infrastructure, schools and hospitals. Life in Lithuania is now incomparable to the past under Soviet rule. Lithuanian youth recently ranked number one for happiness across the EU. It is a dynamic and competitive country .



Vilnius Choir



To mark 20 years of being part of the EU, a cultural delegation from Lithuania has come to Luxembourg, including Maestro Artūras Dambrauskas, the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Vilnius Choir, along with Gitana Krikščiūnaitė, Concert Activity Manager. Vilnius Choir was founded in 1970 and is recognised as a curator and ambassador of Lithuanian choral music.



Professor Artūras Dambrauskas, Head of the Department of Music Theory and Pedagogy at the Kaunas Vytautas Magnum University, also conducts the Lithuanian Song Festivals, is a member of the Jury of the Lithuanian and International choral competitions, and is the Artistic Director of the International St James Festival.



The Lithuanian Song Festival (also known as The Baltic Song and Dance Celebrations) celebrates 100-years this summer. The Baltic Song and Dance Celebrations is included in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2008.



You can hear their music at the end of the show and find out more here. http://en.chorasvilnius.lt/

From soft diplomacy to block voting, Luxembourg's last entrant in 1993 to Tali, this show is full of Eurovision fun & folklore before the big day in May!



Eurovision!



We’re almost there!



Eurovision 2024 will take place in Malmö, Sweden, on 11 May with semi-finals on 7 and 9 May. It is the third time that Malmö has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest following 1992 and 2013 editions, and the seventh for Sweden. It’s happening in Sweden of course because of Loreen’s win in Liverpool in 2023.



Tali Golergant, the artist representing Luxembourg, will be performing in the first of the two semi-finals. The ‘big five’ (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) are pre-qualified for the Grand Final.



The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is the single biggest event to bring Europeans (and a global audience) together. It was even sponsored by the European Commission for some time. More people vote in this competition than the European elections. It is a strong tool of cultural diplomacy.



Dr. Dean Vuletic has given the Eurovision Song Contest deep academic analysis. He designed the world’s first university course on Eurovision, which he taught at New York University. Whilst a researcher at the University of Vienna, he researched and wrote the first-ever scholarly book on the history of Eurovision, Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest. He currently teaches at the University of Luxembourg, amongst other roles. You can find Dean’s commentaries, interviews and op-eds across global media. Dr. Vuletic can also be seen featured in films such as ‘When Franco Stole Eurovision’ and ‘Eurovision: Secrets and Scandals’, amongst others.



The competition has been in existence since 1956, and Luxembourg will be taking part for the first time since 1993 when Jimmy Martin performed. Jimmy talks about performing in Millstreet, County Cork, and the changes to Eurovision since that time. Jimmy was already an established rock musician before Eurovision and has continued to make that his career.



The BBC used the phrase ‘United by Music’ and that’s now been taken as an official slogan for the contest going forward. The Eurovision Lights serve as the theme art which is meant to conceptualise the northern lights and sound equalizers.

And 37 public broadcasters will be present.



Eric Lehmann is Head of the Luxembourgish Delegation and has attended the ESC since 1998. Eric talks about building the necessary team to support Luxembourg’s re-entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, and the pre-selection process through the Luxembourg Song Contest. Part of the team Eric had to build around Tali includes hair & make-up. And in that position is the very talented Luca de Michèle who has worked on many fashion shows around the world.



Roger Saurfeld has attended Eurovision since 2000 and is one of the organisers for the Eurovision Previews such as that in Bissen on 19 April where all the Luxembourg Song Contest candidates will perform their entries with money donated to the LUkraine asbl.



Rafaela Teixeira, or Rafa Ela, one of the eight finalists of the Luxembourg Song Contest, talks about the family built through the competition process and her own music writing as a form of connection with others and to her own life experiences.



Let us know your thoughts on all things Eurovision! Will you be watching? Who’s your first choice? Do you believe Eurovision can be a cultural force for political good?



Subscribe to the Podcast and get in touch!



Please do subscribe to the podcast on Apple and / or Spotify. It would be great if you could rate and review too - helps others find us.



Tune in on Today Radio Saturdays at 11am, Sundays at noon and Tuesdays at 10am.











https://www.instagram.com/taligolergant/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanvuletic/

https://www.instagram.com/deanvuletic/

https://www.instagram.com/iamluca94/

https://www.instagram.com/jimmymartinmusic/

https://www.

Exciting launch! Our very first Book Club show with Today Radio's Vanessa Phelan and Sarah Tapp. Every month we'll share recommendations and take on a new book, as voted by our readers.



It all started with Sarah chatting about the wonderful interview she did with Dr. Susan Rogers on her tome about music cognition and cyberaustics: "This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You"



And then the conversation took a book curve into what we're reading, what we've enjoyed over the past few months, and we thought it would be great to build a community around our love of books and reading.



So here we are! We would love you to help build this community with ideas and recommendations.



Each month we will try to bring recommendations and also include YOUR recommendations.



You will have no doubt heard both of my colleagues on Today Radio as Sarah Tapp hosts The Hangover and Vanessa Phelan is a newsreader and contributing journalist for RTL Today.



Here's a bit more about us...



Well me you know about I guess as you're listening to the show. What's relevant and something I don't normally talk about is that I write and consult on children's science books for DK in the UK. You can find my books here. I love giving back to the science I once studied and with books, this is one avenue. I wrote the Mini Scientist series when my girls were tiny as I realised experimenting is our first language. Before words.



Vanessa grew up in the States and moved to Luxembourg in 2017 after 12 years in Dublin. Aside from her work at RTL, Vanessa also works for a publisher of Irish language children’s books. She is a lover of all kinds of fiction, whether mystery, romance, historical or just stories about people with messages and themes we can all relate to. She also loves to travel and so enjoys reading about far-flung and exotic places.



Originally from Hawaii, Sarah studied Zen poetry in college and spent almost 15 years in Japan before relocating to Luxembourg in 2016. When she’s not hosting The Hangover on Today Radio, Sarah is an avid reader who loves literary fiction, poetry, classics and memoir. Her unchecked obsession with One Direction fanfiction and inability to pronounce words correctly when reading aloud keep her from being an insufferable snob.





Subscribe to the Podcast and get in touch!



Please do subscribe to the podcast on Apple and / or Spotify. It would be great if you could rate and review too - helps others find us.



Tune in on Today Radio Saturdays at 11am, Sundays at noon and Tuesdays at 10am.



Vote on our next book



We would really love you to vote on our next book!



Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner



Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt



Milkman by Anna Burns



Books mentioned on today’s show



We spoke about so many books on this show. Let us know what you think of them!



This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas



My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry and other books by Fredrik Backman



The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman



Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt



Olive Kitteridge and other books by Elizabeth Strout



A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara



The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk



Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason



Fanfiction (we recommend Archive of Our Own (AO3))



Yellowface by R.F. Kuang



The Wife's Tale: A Personal History by Aida Edemariam



Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling by Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen



The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese



Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts



No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani



Chocolat and Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris



Beach Read by Emily Henry (Sarah said “Book Lovers” but this is the one she meant!)



The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd



Hamnet and other books b

Melody Funck, Zenia Dutta Roy and Elena Gromova brighten Lisa's studio with their artistic fashion stories.



Melody Funck rose to fame in Luxembourg as 'la fille aux robes' with her social media sites, Instagram, TicTok and YouTube, during covid times. Since then, she has garnered more attention as one of the hosts of the Eurovision Luxembourg Final earlier this year.



Melody's passion for stunning dresses is borne out each day as she frequently turns up to work in such attire. One might question how she can manage another job with the machine that is social media, and indeed Melody confesses it is hard. Social media requires hours of non-stop work daily. That has an effect on health and relationships, but Melody is blessed with continual support from family and friends.



Zenia Dutta Roy clearly has an eye for an impressive lady as she worked with Melody 'before' her fame rose. Zenia is the founder of Les Sûtras, a brand which embodies art, home-made fabrics of India, textures and weaves in clothing and homeware.



Zenia has talked openly about her own dark time in life, when trying to conceive a child, on this show, and she credits the work with the Indian artisans in helping her to refind herself.



Les Sûtras is a place where models of all ages, sizes and ethnicities come together to let the fabrics shine. Zenia has created a community in Luxembourg with these beautiful garments, whilst always giving back to the Indian ladies who create them.



Elena Gromova credits doing a stage of the Tour de France with her inspiration to know she could do hard things. Over the course of a couple of years, Elena gave up her finance work to create a couple of fashion brands, and Fashion Business Lab.



Elena's work first came to my attention with No. Rainer during Luxembourg Fashion Week. These colourful patterns of rainwear with the double impact of having mini-matching versions of children made everyone smile as they sashayed down the runway. Through her work at Fashion Business Lab, Elena helps anyone achieve their fashion goals globally.



Of all the days for there to be a studio malfunction this was the day and so there is no video this week - I'll just have to have them back!

Bias in LLMs, why the US is still great for start-ups, supercomputers, brain signals to combat cyber attacks, digital twins of ourselves, and the philosophy behind all of it.





My guests this week range from a research institution, a super-computer provider, two start-ups and a philosopher. This lateral discussion echoes the need for interconnected conversation to develop AI and its end-use.



Francesco Ferrero, Director of the IT for Innovative Services department at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), discusses the newly launched LIST AI Sandbox. This looks at 16 LLMs (large language models) and ranks them on their social or ethical biases including ageism, LGBTIQ+phobia, political bias, racism, religious bias, sexism and xenophobia. You can use this open source sandbox here:

https://ai-sandbox.list.lu/



Arnaud Lambert is the CEO of LuxProvide which works on digital intelligence using Luxembourg’s supercomputer MeluXina. LuxProvide is part of a broader European Supercomputing initiative.



LuxProvide, the University of Luxembourg and LuxInnovation jointly managing the Luxembourg National Competence Centre in High-Performance Computing (HPC). Their customer base is broad, as they encourage the use of HPC in data analytics and AI across industry, academia and public administrations.



Emil Jimenez is Founder and CEO of MindBank AI. The idea was sparked by his daughter having a conversation with Siri. Emil decided to build a digital twin of himself so that he can live forever. Since then, it has grown to become a generative AI Personal Digital Twin, learning algorithms to duplicate your mind, optimise your mental health, personal development, and ultimately achieve immortality.



Emil promotes the use of ‘Augmented’ rather than ‘Artificial’ Intelligence, to enhance our life from birth to death, and beyond.



Nathaniel Rose is a neuro-technology researcher and the Co-Founder of Lymbic AI. This uses biometric brain signals to build authentication, to combat cyber attacks. We are likely to see more of these brain-computer interfaces as authentication exploits keep pace with technology. Nathaniel talks about the state of neurotech, and its potential in combating synthetic fraud and deep fakes.



Both Emil and Nathaniel explain honestly why the US market is still great for start-ups.



Rick Serrano is, amongst other things, a philosopher. He co-authored "Artificial Intelligence: the need for a human-centric approach". Rick talks about the framework we need to keep ethics at the centre of the AI momentum: consciousness, transparency, traceability, responsibility, training, IP and regulation.



Subscribe to the Podcast and get in touch!



Please do subscribe to the podcast on Apple and / or Spotify. It would be great if you could rate and review too - helps others find us.



Tune in on Today Radio Saturdays at 11am, Sundays at noon and Tuesdays at 10am.