Lisa Burke Show

RTL Today
RTL Today

A place for conversation that spans life in Luxembourg and beyond. Each week an international guest list will reflect on the week’s news, plus a whole host of other topics: politics to pollination; education to entrepreneurship; science to singing. Luxembourg sits in the beating heart of Europe and its diverse population provides a global perspective on a number of world issues.

  1. 1d ago

    From a Mini Stroke to 30 Parliaments: A Father and Daughter on Democracy, 31/10/2026

    After a mini stroke changed his life, Nicholas Elliott set out to visit the world's parliaments. With daughter Julia, he asks why the young feel unheard. Three years ago, London teacher Nicholas Elliott sat down at home and suddenly couldn't speak. He felt dizzy, his left arm went limp and one side of his face froze. His daughter Julia, who was in the room, called an ambulance. It was a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), often called a mini stroke, and Nicholas says it made him a better person. He decided to see and do everything he could, from daytime game shows to something far more unusual: visiting parliaments. Since then he has independently toured more than 30 parliaments and legislatures across Europe, North America and the Caribbean, and this week he and Julia flew into Luxembourg to join me on The Lisa Burke Show. Why parliaments? For Nicholas, each one is a doorway into a country's politics, history and culture. He has a ritual too: the moment he lands, he jumps in a taxi and asks the driver about the country. Luxembourg gave him a lesson of its own. He paid 40 euros for a cab into the city, only to discover on the next bus that public transport here is free. "The taxi drivers always tell you about the country... and they don't hold back." Nicholas Elliott Over time, his travels have turned into a mission focused on young people. Nicholas remembers a school trip to Westminster at about 15 that felt like a museum visit, and he wants young people to learn, participate, get involved and, crucially, feed back. The standout so far is the Northern Ireland Assembly, which runs its own youth parliament rather than leaving it to an outside body. His next project looks to the Caribbean, where legislatures built on the Westminster model are trying fresh ideas, such as Trinidad and Tobago bringing young people from both islands together to discuss the national budget. Trinidad and Tobago, Belize and Montserrat have agreed in principle to take part in his research, and Nicholas wants to show what the Caribbean can teach the UK in return. "They're not the future, they are the now." Nicholas Elliott on young people Julia, who studies Politics and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, brought the view from her generation. She asked friends studying engineering and maths how they take in politics, and the answer was almost always short-form social media, clipped, algorithm-driven and prone to echo chambers. To understand views she didn't share, she spent time watching right-wing American commentators and noticed her own feed drifting further and further in one direction. Many of her friends, she says, simply don't know who to vote for, because the parties seem to have drifted from their ideological roots. "I almost saw it happening to me." Julia Kubianka-Elliott on the pull of the algorithm Both believe the problem is fatigue rather than apathy. Nicholas misses "kitchen table politics", when families argued about the news together, while Julia argues that in the UK political education comes far too late, only for those who choose it at A-level. She would like it built into everyday life studies at school, so that politics stops feeling like a subject for the privileged. Luxembourg's parliament open day gave Nicholas hope: children wandering the building and deputies wearing "Ask Me" badges, chatting freely with visitors. "You've cracked it here." Nicholas Elliott on the Chamber of Deputies open day Their parting messages were simple. Nicholas urged parents to sit down with their children tonight and talk, and encouraged anyone feeling isolated to look beyond the phone for information, to clubs, teachers and community groups. Julia's advice was to listen with an open mind and turn everyday conversations, gently, towards the things that shape our lives. You can follow Nicholas's journey as The Parliament Guy on Instagram and on LinkedIn. And if you or someone near you shows sudden signs of a stroke or TIA, such as a drooping face, a weak arm or slurred speech, call 112 in Luxembourg straight away. As always, I'd love your thoughts: how empowered do you feel as a voter, and what do you make of youth parliaments? "Everyone is a political person." Julia Kubianka-Elliott Links Nicholas Elliott, The Parliament Guy on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_parliament_guy Nicholas Elliott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-e-925677 About TIA (mini stroke) and its symptoms: https://nidirect.gov.uk/conditions/transient-ischaemic-attack-tia

  2. Oct 24

    Dagoberto Rodríguez in Luxembourg: art, satellites, the battle for our attention, 24/10/2026

    Cuban artist Dagoberto Rodríguez and Violeta Frank explore information, technology, memory and why our minds still need training. “I am a Cold War product.” Dagoberto Rodríguez Information used to be scarce. Now we are drowning in it. That contrast sits at the heart of my conversation with Cuban artist Dagoberto Rodríguez and Violeta Frank, founder of Luxembourg-based VF Art Projects, ahead of Rodríguez’s first solo exhibition in Luxembourg, Broadcasting the Unknown. Rodríguez grew up in Caibarién, Cuba, in the 1970s. His father was an active member of the Communist Party, yet at night listened to the Spanish-language broadcasts of Voice of America. For the young Rodríguez, information felt precious. “At that time, information was really, really important for us,” he told me. “It’s not like now, that we are confused about the amount of information that we have.” That childhood tension between what we see, what we are told and what might exist beyond our field of vision has stayed with him ever since. From three toys a year to Los Carpinteros Rodríguez also grew up in a world where objects were frequently made rather than bought. He remembers Cuban children being allocated just three toys a year, one important toy and two cheaper ones. For much of the rest of the year, children made things themselves. Growing up beside the sea, surrounded by workshops repairing large wooden ships, he turned scraps of wood and cork into miniature boats. That physical relationship with materials later became central to his art. “That relation with my hands, as an adult, as an artist, provided me the security to do things with my own hands.” Dagoberto Rodríguez At art school, Rodríguez and Alexander Arrechea began making work from wood. People started calling them Los Carpinteros, “The Carpenters”. At first, Rodríguez admits, they wanted a grander name. Eventually they realised that the accidental name was almost perfect. It positioned them somewhere between craftspeople and artists, observers who could enter the art world from an unexpected direction. The collective would go on to work together from the early 1990s until 2018 and become internationally renowned. Rodríguez believes the restrictions they experienced in Cuba helped shape their creative language. “Sometimes censorship and limitation make you better,” he said, because artists are forced to experiment, search for different materials and find less direct ways of expressing difficult ideas. For Rodríguez, art requires something deeper than technique. “You need to have an obsession. You need to have a problem.” Dagoberto Rodríguez A lawyer jumps into the art world Violeta Frank arrived through a very different door. Born in Argentina, she studied law because she originally envisaged a diplomatic career. Once immersed in the subject, she discovered that she genuinely loved it. But by her thirties another world was beginning to pull. Friends working in major productions gave her a glimpse behind the scenes. Others introduced her more deeply to contemporary art. Slowly, the certainty of a legal career gave way to the possibility of something more creative. “I didn’t see myself forever being a lawyer,” she told me. Together with another lawyer, she founded the Melian Foundation for Latin American Art and Culture. Her description of that decision is one many career changers will recognise. “Let’s jump into the pool, even if we don’t know if there’s water there.” Violeta Frank Yet the lawyer never really disappeared. Negotiation, organisation, communication and the ability to hold her ground all became useful tools in producing increasingly ambitious art projects. Frank eventually moved to Europe, founded VF Art Projects in Luxembourg and began creating a bridge between Ibero-American artists and European audiences, while also taking Luxembourgish artists abroad. And how did she first approach Rodríguez? Instagram. He initially thought the message looked suspicious. From an Instagram message during the pandemic came studio visits, conversations about Jorge Luis Borges, friendship and eventually Broadcasting the Unknown. Satellites made from clay The Luxembourg exhibition seems almost uncannily suited to Rodríguez. Frank can see the historic RTL antennas at Junglinster from her gallery. Around 12 minutes away lies Betzdorf, home to one of the world’s great centres of satellite communications. One landscape contains the history and future of broadcasting. Rodríguez’s terracotta satellites sit directly inside that story. Clay, he points out, carries some of humanity’s earliest written messages. Now he uses that ancient material to recreate one of the defining technological objects of the modern world. His fascination with space also stretches back to childhood. Born in 1969, the year humans first walked on the Moon, Rodríguez grew up following the Soviet space programme from Cuba. Today his questions are less about conquest and more about dependence. Satellites shape banking, navigation, communication, surveillance and much of our daily lives, often invisibly. “We don’t have a real idea of the impact of these devices in our everyday life.” Dagoberto Rodríguez His landscapes similarly challenge the old idea of simply standing before a view and painting what the eye sees. We now see Earth through satellites, thermal cameras, digital sensors and machines orbiting hundreds of kilometres above us. Technology has acquired its own eyes. What book does your mind need? Then comes my favourite idea in the exhibition: The Gymnasium of Thought. Inside the former church at Al Kierch in Roodt-sur-Syre stands something resembling a gym or temple devoted to physical exercise. Rodríguez developed the idea after reading philosopher Byung-Chul Han and thinking about a society increasingly focused on the exterior body. We can calculate our calories. We measure our sleep. We know which supplements or exercises might build muscle. But what builds the mind? Rodríguez put it beautifully: “You know perfectly the amount of calories you need for living... but people don’t know what book you need to grow, to develop your mind.” His answer to becoming intellectually fitter is disarmingly simple. Read. His mother, a nurse who collected books in the hope of eventually finding time to read them, introduced him to Dostoevsky. Years later, her influence remains present in an installation encouraging others to rediscover literature. Rodríguez half-jokingly describes the work as “marketing for books”, a nostalgic defence of a world of knowledge increasingly pushed aside by screens. Art beyond the capital The exhibition also raises another important cultural question for Luxembourg: why should ambitious art remain concentrated in capital cities and conventional museums? Broadcasting the Unknown stretches across two unusual locations, the former church at Al Kierch in Roodt-sur-Syre and the Annexes of Château de Bourglinster. Frank deliberately champions projects in non-traditional spaces. “They have such a magic that you cannot find in a contemporary building,” she said. Rodríguez agrees. Artists, he argues, cannot spend their lives waiting to be discovered by museums. “We have a short life,” he said. “We cannot be waiting for a museum to discover us.” Perhaps that is the deeper message running through this conversation. Make things. Question things. Find another route. Read. Think. Collaborate. Look again. For Frank, art has become essential precisely because the world feels increasingly difficult. “Art brings us beauty, brings us light, brings us reflection. We talk about reality in a different way.” Violeta Frank And after leaving law for this uncertain new world? “I cannot conceive my life without art right now.” Broadcasting the Unknown Dagoberto Rodríguez 24 October to 29 November 2026 Locations: Al Kierch, Roodt-sur-Syre Annexes of Château de Bourglinster Opening hours: Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 7pm Guests and links VF Art Projects https://www.vfprojects.com Instagram: @vf.art.projects LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vf-art-projects/ Violeta Frank Instagram: @violetaafrank LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/violeta-frank-00050223/ Dagoberto Rodríguez Instagram: @dago_rodriguez_carpintero LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dagoberto-rodriguez-9381933a/ VF Art Projects videos https://www.youtube.com/@vfartprojects1242/videos

  3. Oct 10

    Successful, Exhausted, Empty? Five Science-Backed Ways to Flourish, 10/10/2026

    Four Luxembourg voices explore how hope, self-esteem, belonging, purpose and meaning can protect us when achievement leaves us empty. Success is easy to display outwardly with money, promotions, degrees, the 'perfect' photos on social media; the polished biography, the child who comes first. Flourishing is harder to capture authentically but much more important to our lifelong health and ultimate sense of worth. It requires holistic work and thought and effort. Do we feel alive, connected and worthwhile? Are we constantly measuring ourselves against others or working with ourselves and our own unique situations? For World Mental Health Day, The Lisa Burke Show brings together Luanna Eroles, founder of Happy Kids Academy; neuroscientist and founder Dr Anita Chavan; HR and strategy professional Neha Verma; and Robert “Bob” Reuter, Assistant Professor and Head of the Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Luxembourg. Our discussion revolves around one question: are we building successful lives, or lives in which human beings can actually grow? Luanna talks about five pots that must not be allowed to run dry: hope, self-esteem, belonging, purpose and meaning. “For me personally, it’s when you want to give back” Bob expands the idea beyond the usual language of control and self-optimisation: “You have to confront the fact that life is uncontrollable, and that’s part of what it means to flourish." Perhaps flourishing is not mastery over life at all, but the capacity to remain open to it - even when it refuses to follow our plans. Hope, in this conversation, is not decorative optimism. It is a direction of travel, and something that can be practised. Chavan describes the brain’s instinct to detect threat, but also the power of changing the internal story we repeat during upheaval. Her own route from India to Australia, the United States, Singapore and Luxembourg was shaped by setbacks as much as milestones. “Every experience counts. Every experience is shaping you, is helping you become the person you are today.” The useful question after difficult situations may therefore be less 'Why did this happen to me?' and more 'What can I carry from it? The discussion becomes more uncomfortable when it turns to comparison. Schools (in Luxembourg) rank children; workplaces rate adults; social media gives everyone a public scoreboard. Yet Bob asks, “Should we be productive all the time? Why should we be so?” He argues that pleasure, rest and even boredom belong to a psychologically healthy life. Neha reaches the same conclusion from years in corporate HR: “Is it that important to be the best at everything? Because we’re not.” Performance can be measured without allowing the measurement to become a person’s identity. A spreadsheet may record output; it cannot calculate a human being’s worth. Belonging is just as resistant to metrics. A person can sit in a classroom, office or country for years and still feel outside that social community. Luanna says she finally felt more at home when she stopped sanding down the part of herself that seemed too exuberantly Brazilian: “I belong more to Luxembourg when I manage to be in my Brazilian-ness.” Anita offers an equally elegant reversal for anyone waiting to be welcomed: become the friend another newcomer needs. Belonging can begin when we risk the first hello. It is not sameness but the freedom to arrive whole. Purpose gives us goals; meaning connects those goals to something larger than ourselves. Small achievements can keep the brain moving, but transcendence asks who benefits when we move. Our call to action is so modest that it's entirely achieveable: Anita’s advice is: “Just go and say hello to the next person you meet.” In an age selling optimisation, perhaps flourishing begins with attention to the small leakages of ourself: water the neglected pot, protect time with nothing to do but be bored, question whose rules you are living by, and notice the person beside you. Success may tell the world that we have arrived outwardly. Flourishing asks whether we are becoming fully ourselves, according to our own rules. https://www.linkedin.com/in/luannaeroles/ https://happykids.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dranitachavan/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/m3trl-consultancy/home/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/neha-verma2000/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertreuter73/ https://www.uni.lu/en/

  4. Oct 3

    Independent Workers in Luxembourg, 03/10/2026

    Freedom, Flexibility... But Who Catches You When You Fall? Being your own boss promises freedom. But illness, unemployment and irregular income expose a very different side of independent work in Luxembourg. Being your own boss sounds rather wonderful. No manager. More control over when, where and how you work. And, perhaps most importantly, the chance to build something that actually belongs to you - true ownership and purpose. But independence has another meaning side. You are, often initially, the CEO, accountant, salesperson, administrator, marketing and IT department simultaneously. And when something goes wrong, you may also be your own safety net. This week, I spoke to three people living that reality: Daniela Clara Moraru, President of Luxembourg's Union of Independent Workers; Denton Lilley, an independent real-estate professional with HouseDream.lu; and Carrie Cannon MBE, nurse, public-health professional, health coach and co-founder of ThinkPinkLux. Are independent workers really independent? Clara made an important distinction at the beginning of our conversation. Independence gives people autonomy, but that should not automatically be confused with freedom. Independent workers remain dependent on clients, banks, invoices being paid and sufficient work arriving. And increasingly, becoming independent may not even be entirely voluntary. Clara pointed to research suggesting that around one third of new entrepreneurs in Luxembourg enter entrepreneurship through necessity, because they lack an adequate salaried alternative. As companies rethink employment and AI reshapes parts of the labour market, that distinction could become increasingly important. Denton, who moved from corporate life into independent real estate, described the attraction more simply: "It's us actually in charge of our own destiny." Although when I asked whether that made him mentally healthier, his answer was wonderfully succinct: "Depends on the day." What happens when you get sick? An employee who becomes ill normally has an employer standing between illness and the sudden disappearance of income. For a person whose business depends entirely upon their own ability to work, illness can simultaneously become a health crisis and a financial crisis. Carrie told us about an independent worker she knew whose business depended upon physically visiting clients. When illness prevented him from working, the income stopped too. "I don't think independent workers can afford to take sick days." Luxembourg's system does provide mechanisms for independent workers, including the possibility of joining the Mutualité des Employeurs for additional protection. But the discussion around the 77-day sickness-benefit mechanism exposed something many people may never consider until they need it: paying into a social-security system does not necessarily mean receiving protection in precisely the same way as a salaried employee. Freedom has a price There are other vulnerabilities. Independent income can be deeply irregular. A real-estate professional may work for months before a transaction produces commission. A consultant can spend hours marketing rather than earning. A health professional can find that doing the work they love is only one part of running the business that enables them to do it. Then there is the psychological dimension: no colleagues, no guaranteed monthly salary and sometimes nobody beside you when business goes badly. And yet none of my guests sounded as though they wanted independence abolished. Quite the reverse. Autonomy, creativity, purpose and control over one's work matter enormously. Is our social model keeping pace with our working model? Europe does not have one answer to the question. Different countries distribute the risks of self-employment differently between the individual, insurance systems and the state. But AI, automation, restructuring and changing employment models make the question increasingly urgent. If more of us become freelancers, consultants, creators, contractors, founders and one-person businesses, systems designed around the traditional employer-employee relationship may increasingly collide with the reality of how people actually earn their living. So perhaps the question is larger than how Luxembourg treats today's independent workers. If the future of work is becoming more independent, should the future of social protection become more independent of employment status too?

  5. Aug 22

    Hooked: Screens, AI and the Battle for Our Attention, 22/08/2026

    Four experts join Lisa to unpack why our attention has become the world's most valuable currency, and what that means for both our children and ourselves. Picture a baby in a highchair, eyes fixed on a glowing screen while the adult beside them tries to make contact. It is an ordinary scene, almost too ordinary to notice. Yet it helped prompt Luxembourg’s National Addiction Prevention Service, CNAPA, to launch its campaign Kanneräe liichten offline méi hell, or Kids’ Eyes Shine Brighter Offline. On The Lisa Burke Show, four experts examine what happens when digital technology enters human life before language, judgement or self-control have fully developed. Anouk Hinger, Tania Hemmer, Dr Andreas König and Dr Nora Schleich take the conversation from infant attachment to parental burnout, behavioural addiction, data capitalism and AI systems capable of detecting the precise moment when our resistance is weakest. The first battle is for a baby’s gaze Anouk Hinger, Director of CNAPA, describes “technoference”, the interruption of human contact by technology. When a caregiver’s attention repeatedly moves towards a device, a baby can lose some of the eye contact, responsiveness and reassurance through which security and trust begin to develop. Young children learn through movement, touch, language, facial expression and shared experience. Anouk argues that excessive screen exposure during the crucial early years can crowd out the experiences through which communication, empathy and problem-solving grow. “What children need most is their parents and the interaction with their caregivers.” Anouk Hinger, CNAPA The message is serious, although it is not intended to bury already exhausted parents beneath another layer of guilt. Parents are tired too Tania Hemmer works with parents through Eltereschoul Janusz Korczak and specialises in parental burnout. She knows the reality behind the rules: work, shopping, cooking, school messages, appointments, laundry and a child who needs attention just as the adult’s own energy disappears. A screen used briefly while a parent regains composure is very different from a device becoming the family’s permanent babysitter. Context matters. So does compassion. “It is better for your child to watch ten minutes of a video and for you, as a parent, to calm yourself before you break down.” Tania Hemmer, Eltereschoul Her advice is practical: remain curious about what children do online, avoid mocking their digital interests, create screen-free periods and keep the conversation alive through adolescence. Rules matter, although relationships carry more weight as children grow older. The slot machine inside the smartphone Dr Andreas König, Executive Director of Luxembourg’s Center for Excessive Behavior and Behavioral Addictions, explains why some digital habits become so difficult to stop. Social media feeds and games use variable rewards. Each swipe may reveal something funny, affirming, shocking or entirely forgettable. The unpredictability keeps us moving towards the next possibility. Dopamine, König explains, is closely linked to the expectation that a reward might be coming. Heavy use alone does not automatically amount to addiction. The warning signs include a persistent pattern, loss of control, the activity taking priority over other parts of life, and continued use despite harm to health, education, work or relationships. AI intensifies this machinery. It can study what we click, how long we pause, when we become frustrated and when we are preparing to leave. “The thing I find most troubling is that algorithms with AI are increasingly good at targeting you at your weakest moment.” Dr Andreas König, ZEV When your context has been chosen for you For philosopher Dr Nora Schleich, the issue reaches far beyond screen time. Digital platforms collect behavioural data, build psychological profiles and use prediction to shape the material placed in front of us. “Who has data has AI. Who has more data has more efficient AI.” Dr Nora Schleich, EwB asbl Our surroundings have always influenced how we perceive the world. The new difficulty is that much of our digital environment has been personalised to retain attention, provoke emotion and generate profit. We may believe that we are independently choosing what to watch, buy or believe while algorithms are quietly arranging the menu. This has consequences for individuals, families and democratic societies. When different groups receive increasingly different versions of reality, the common ground on which public conversation depends begins to shrink. Give boredom back to children One of Anouk Hinger’s most provocative recommendations is also one of the simplest: allow children to experience frustration. “Frustrate your kids. We live in a society where we are constantly entertained, and boredom has no space. We think it is important to give it back.” Anouk Hinger, CNAPA Boredom creates room for invention. Frustration teaches emotional regulation. Solving small problems develops self-efficacy, the belief that we can act, cope and influence what happens next. Tania tells the story of a parent using an app to calculate every element of her child’s food intake. The data said the child had eaten enough. The child was thin, hungry and waking at night. The human signs were present, although the parent had learned to trust the tool more than her own observation. “You have to watch your child to see your child.” Tania Hemmer, Eltereschoul Community may be our strongest defence The show closes with a reminder that social media succeeds because it draws upon a real human need. We want to belong. We want to be seen, heard and welcomed into a community. Digital platforms simulate much of this beautifully. A like resembles approval. A follower resembles a friend. Constant connection resembles company. The body, however, still knows the difference between a notification and another person laughing beside us. Nora Schleich calls for more room for meals, games, concerts, conversations, touch, humour and shared physical life. “All these moments create a much bigger energy than scrolling and posting. We need to make room for that again.” Dr Nora Schleich, EwB asbl The answer to digital addiction will require education, thoughtful regulation, responsible design and support for families. It may also begin with something wonderfully analogue: looking up, noticing who is beside us and giving them our full attention. Guests and organisations Anouk Hinger Director, CNAPA, National Addiction Prevention Service https://www.cnapa.lu Tania Hemmer Projects and Quality, Eltereschoul Janusz Korczak, Kannerschlass Foundation https://www.kannerschlass.lu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Eltereschoul/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eltereschoul/ Dr Andreas König Executive Director, ZEV, Center for Excessive Behavior and Behavioral Addictions https://www.zev.lu Dr Nora Schleich Directrice, EwB asbl https://ewb.lu RTL episode link: https://perma.rtl.lu/a/2710427

  6. Aug 8

    What’s Really in Your Water? Tap Water, Bottled Water and the Chemicals We Leave, 08/08/2026

    Professor Emma Schymanski reveals what water carries, why bottled may offer no advantage, and how our daily choices flow back into every glass. We turn on a tap, fill a glass, make a cup of tea (many cups, in my case) dozens of times a day without thinking twice. But our water carries traces of everything around it: the medication we take, the cosmetics we wear, even the flame retardants in our sofas. Some of it is monitored closely. Some of it we're only just learning to detect. And water, of course, doesn't stop at a border. To unpack all of this, I sat down with Prof. Emma Schymanski, Head of Environmental Cheminformatics at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, and an FNR ATTRACT Fellow. Her work combines chemical detective work with high resolution mass spectrometry to find chemicals hiding in water that nobody knew to look for, and to trace them back to their source. The Water Cycle Ignores Borders Water moves the way weather does: without any concern for what is a political border. Rain falls, rivers carry it across countries, and it sinks into groundwater that doesn't recognise a map. For Luxembourg, sitting downstream of its neighbours, that means inheriting chemical traces long before they reach a Luxembourg tap. Even in the Alps, even in Antarctica, contamination that starts on one continent eventually cycles back down in rainwater on another. Your Water's Fingerprint When people hear "water contamination," pesticides usually come to mind first. But that's a small part of the picture. Emma's team also finds pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, flame retardants, anti icing agents and dyes, everyday traces of everyday life. During the pandemic, her team watched caffeine levels in wastewater drop as the working population stayed home, and medical imaging dyes vanish almost entirely as routine cancer diagnostics paused. Antidepressant levels rise every winter. Antihistamines spike every spring. The Detective Work So how do you find a chemical when you don't know it's there? Emma's team runs water samples through mass spectrometry and looks for anomalies: a signal spiking above baseline, or one that suddenly disappears (in one case, tracing back to a factory shutting down for a six week holiday). It's forensic work, applied to a glass of water. That same technique now underpins wastewater epidemiology, used across Europe to trace drug use, and even, in one memorable case, to work out how drugs were getting into a prison. Tap Water vs Bottled Water Now here's a way to save money and perhaps stress. Emma's own research compared tap and bottled water across Luxembourg and found no statistically significant difference between them. The only real difference was between filtered and unfiltered tap water, and even filtering introduced its own new, if fewer, unknowns. She drinks from the tap herself, no filter at home. Even reverse osmosis, often floated as the ultimate fix, has a catch. It strips out almost everything, including the minerals your body needs, meaning treated water then has to have things added back in. "If you're drinking snow only, it won't quench your thirst, because it will actually start to strip the salt from your body," Emma explained. What You Can Actually Do This isn't a call to panic. It's a case for informed, small choices: Let the tap run cold for a couple of minutes before drinking, especially in older buildings, to clear water that's been sitting in the pipes. Favour metal, ceramic or glass over soft plastics for reusable bottles and cups. Don't assume "eco" means chemical free. Some paper straws are treated with solvents to stop them going soggy. Wash new clothing before wearing it. The New Frontier: Data Centres AI and water is a massive discussion right now. Emma noted that the cooling systems have their own knock on contamination risks. This is perhaps a conversation for another episode. Where to find the show: The Lisa Burke Show airs on RTL Today, RTL Play, and RTL Today Radio, and is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Guest links Prof. Emma Schymanski, LCSB profile: http://www.uni.lu/lcsb ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6868-8145 PubChemLite for Exposomics: https://pubchemlite.lcsb.uni.lu/ NORMAN Suspect List Exchange: https://www.norman-network.com/nds/SLE/ MassBank: https://massbank.eu/MassBank/ MetFrag: https://msbi.ipb-halle.de/MetFrag/ patRoon: https://rickhelmus.github.io/patRoon/

  7. Aug 1

    Pelvic Floor Health, Postpartum Care and Empathy in Medicine, 01/08/2026

    Physiotherapist Sarah Elmquist and Dr India Pinker explain why incontinence is treatable and empathy can transform healthcare. We prepare women extensively for birth. We discuss scans, nutrition, pain relief, breathing techniques and the safe arrival of the baby. Then, remarkably often, the conversation stops. The woman who has carried and delivered that child is expected to return to work, family life and household responsibilities, while the physical aftermath of pregnancy and birth remains largely invisible. On The Lisa Burke Show, physiotherapist Sarah Elmquist and healthcare communication researcher Dr India Pinker joined me to discuss two areas of medicine that are easily dismissed as private, awkward or somehow secondary: pelvic floor health and empathy. Yet both affect something fundamental, our ability to feel safe and understood within our own bodies and within the healthcare system. The great silence after birth Sarah works in postpartum rehabilitation and pelvic floor physiotherapy. She describes postpartum care as far more than the weeks immediately following delivery. “Postpartum is everything that happens after giving birth. Everybody is different and every body is different.” Sarah Elmquist Pregnancy and childbirth can affect the abdominal muscles, pelvic floor, internal organs and a woman’s entire perception of her body. Yet many women are quietly absorbing symptoms that should be discussed and assessed. They avoid trampolines, running, lifting shopping bags, laughing too freely or playing energetically with their children because they fear leaking urine. The most troubling part is that many do not consider this a medical problem. They assume it is simply the price of motherhood. “It’s almost normalised as part of motherhood. ‘It happens to me as well. It’s just how it is.’ It doesn’t have to be.” Sarah Elmquist Incontinence can affect women and men, and it can appear long before old age. Shame can gradually restrict exercise, intimacy, travel and social life. Because people rarely talk about it, the true scale of the problem is difficult to measure. It is never too late to seek help Luxembourg has an advantage in offering many women pelvic floor reeducation after childbirth, sometimes before any serious problem has developed. Sarah compares this to strengthening any other muscle group as protection for the future. For those who never received postpartum care, the message is equally important. “Things can be reversed. Just as you can retrain a leg muscle, the same goes for the pelvic floor. You can always train it again.” Sarah Elmquist Pelvic floor physiotherapy is not simply about preventing an embarrassing moment. It is about restoring choice. A woman who can laugh, jump, exercise or move without fear has recovered a degree of freedom. As Sarah put it, learning to sense and control this frequently ignored part of the body can itself be empowering: “If you can feel your own body and know how to engage those muscles, that’s empowerment as well.” The Empathy Gap Nobody Measures Dr. India Pinker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Health working on healthcare communication in oncology, brought a different but connected angle: the taboo isn't just about what patients won't say to doctors, it's about what medicine itself doesn't know how to teach. Pinker's PhD research at the University of St Andrews looked at clinical empathy: not the everyday kind, but a trainable, boundaried skill doctors need to protect both the patient and themselves. "Empathy is arguably one of our most natural sort of elements of conversation, elements of connection as human beings. However, it's highly controversial, believe it or not, in medicine itself." Her research has found that empathetic communication correlates with higher diagnostic accuracy, better patient adherence to treatment, and, counterintuitively, lower burnout among healthcare professionals themselves. She pointed to universities like St Andrews and Leicester that now build communication skills training in from year one, producing measurably more confident clinicians by graduation. Where AI fits and where it does not One of the more striking threads of the conversation: patients increasingly turning to AI chatbots as informal counsellors. Pinker flagged the risk plainly. "AI is usually, depending on how you program it, essentially made to please you... it's not going to push back at key moments where you need pushback from a trained professional." She noted that AI is fairly predictable: patients, and good clinical care, are not. Validation without push-back can feel good in the moment, but it isn't the same as care. The Common Thread Whether it's a pelvic floor exercise a doctor never prescribed, or a diagnosis delivered without space to ask a second question, both guests circled the same idea: powerlessness follows patients who aren't given information, and communication, spoken or physical, is the cheapest, least-used treatment in medicine. As Pinker put it: Connect with our guests: Sarah Elmquist — Instagram: @liewenshaus.wormeldange | Website: osteopathie-greif.com Dr. India Pinker, PhD — LinkedIn: india-pinker-phd | Luxembourg Institute of Health | EACH – International Association for Communication in Healthcare Listen to the full episode on RTL Play, RTL Today Radio, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

  8. Jul 31

    Can Business Repair Society? Inside Luxembourg’s SIS Impact Economy, 31/07/2026

    Four Luxembourg entrepreneurs tackle wasted energy, hidden disability, unaffordable housing and litter through the SIS model. Most companies begin with a product. My four guests began with an irritation they couldn't ignore: buildings leaking untracked energy, disabilities hidden from view, workers priced out of the housing market and pointless litter on streets, forests, rivers and coastlines. Their response was to build a business around the repair job. Luxembourg has a legal structure for precisely this kind of ambition. A Société d’Impact Sociétal, known as an SIS, remains a commercial enterprise, but its social or environmental purpose is written into the company itself. Its impact must be measured, reported and defended. At the time of our conversation, Luxembourg has 92 registered SIS companies working across 12 broad areas, including housing, health, education, climate, food and the circular economy. First, find out what the building is doing Virginie Ducommun, founder of Indoor Forest, calls her philosophy “efficient sobriety”. Her smart sensors can be installed in existing buildings without ripping through walls or replacing entire systems. They expose where energy and water are going, helping owners decide what genuinely needs changing and what can safely remain. Luxembourg has developed a habit of destroying and rebuilding, Virginie argues, even when buildings still contain decades of useful life. A pink wall can be repainted. A functioning heating system can be maintained. Demolition should require a better excuse than age. “Data is gold. Before you do anything, you need to know what’s happening.” Virginie Ducommun, Indoor Forest A sunflower that makes the invisible visible For Jana Degrott, founder of Real Impact Hub, the mission is deeply personal. Her brother has a hidden disability. Her company represents the Hidden Disability Sunflower programme in Luxembourg, allowing someone to wear a discreet sunflower lanyard when they may need greater patience, understanding or support. Jana spent two years pursuing the idea before securing Luxembourg Airport as her first major client. She then approached the international Sunflower organisation with a compelling entrepreneurial argument: the concept had already been sold, so perhaps it was time to answer her emails. Today, the programme is expanding into organisations including CFL. “I have something you don’t see with your eyes. Please be patient, understanding, don’t judge me.” Jana Degrott, Real Impact Hub The lanyard does not reveal a diagnosis. It asks the rest of us to pause before turning difference into judgement. That small pause could be one of the most valuable services any organisation provides. The housing crisis hiding inside Luxembourg’s success Joe Schmit spent more than 15 years in real estate before co-founding Simpact, Luxembourg’s first private social property developer under the SIS structure. Its model combines state support, private financing and long-term rental housing whose income is designed to cover costs. The need extends far beyond a narrow group. Young families, couples, single parents and much of Luxembourg’s working population can struggle to find secure, affordable housing. Simpact has signed a convention with the state targeting 250 units, Joe said, although Luxembourg will require many more organisations operating at that scale. “The housing market doesn’t follow the growth.” Joe Schmit, Simpact Housing exposes the full machinery of a country. Land, construction costs, interest rates, municipal permits, schools, transport and public infrastructure all turn together. Build 25 homes in a small commune and it may also need classrooms for 50 children. A housing policy is quietly a policy for almost everything else. One bag becomes a global movement César González Fernández began picking up litter in 2018 because it bothered him. Five minutes, one bag, one cleaner patch of ground. That private act became Clean Something For Nothing, an app recording cleanups through location data, time, volume and weight. At the time of recording, its community had collected approximately 926,000 kilograms of litter and was closing in on the one million kilogram mark. Its “Pick and Plant” programme also allows companies to fund one tree for every kilogram collected. “Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.” César González Fernández, Clean Something For Nothing His deeper target is behavioural change. Once somebody has bent down and picked up another person’s cigarette butt, plastic bottle or food wrapper, litter becomes harder to ignore and much harder to drop. Profit with proof attached An SIS must still sell, recruit, pay salaries, manage cash flow and generate profit. The difference lies in what happens next. Impact shareholders do not receive dividends, profits remain inside the company and the organisation must prove that its promised social or environmental value actually occurred. That makes the SIS label less of a halo and more of a discipline. These founders are asking Luxembourg to take impact companies seriously as economic actors, open procurement opportunities to them and help them reach the scale their missions demand. “Doing good business doesn’t mean not making any money.” Jana Degrott “There are so many returns on nature and society.” César González Fernández Four founders, four very different businesses and one provocative question: what might happen if every company had to describe what it repairs as carefully as it reports what it earns? Guest and organisation links Virginie Ducommun, founder of Indoor Forest, about smart sensors, energy waste and why Luxembourg should stop demolishing buildings that still have decades of useful life. Website: https://indoorforest.lu B Smart: https://b-smart.lu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginie-ducommun-indoorforest-impactluxembourg Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indoorforest Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bevakasha.bsmart/ Jana Degrott, founder of Real Impact Hub, about hidden disabilities, accessibility and the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower programme. Real Impact Hub: https://www.realimpact.lu Be Human: https://www.behuman-asbl.com Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Luxembourg: https://www.hdsunflower.com/lu Joe Schmit, co-founder of Simpact, about Luxembourg’s housing crisis and a new model for creating affordable rental homes. Simpact: https://simpact.lu César Gonzalez Fernandez, founder of Clean Something For Nothing, about behavioural change, global cleanups and the journey towards one million kilograms of litter collected. Clean Something For Nothing: https://cleansomethingfornothing.com/contact/ Entrepreneurs d’Impact Luxembourg: https://entrepreneurs-impact.lu Watch or listen through RTL Today: https://perma.rtl.lu/a/2710421 What should business be expected to contribute to society? Should companies measure what they repair as carefully as they measure revenue? Tell us what you think in the comments. #Luxembourg #SocialImpact #ImpactEntrepreneurship #AffordableHousing #HiddenDisabilities #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #TheLisaBurkeShow

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About

A place for conversation that spans life in Luxembourg and beyond. Each week an international guest list will reflect on the week’s news, plus a whole host of other topics: politics to pollination; education to entrepreneurship; science to singing. Luxembourg sits in the beating heart of Europe and its diverse population provides a global perspective on a number of world issues.

Information

  • Channel
    RTL Today
  • Creator
    RTL - Lisa Burke
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    95
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © CLT-UFA S.A.
  • Show Website
    Lisa Burke Show

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