Episode

Do you also have a Monstera in your living room?

Podcast
The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
Published
May 14, 2026
Duration seconds
3542
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://europeanspodcast.com
Audio
https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/d161cd7d-f18b-41e5-ae80-fb5d8b5e571e.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102/episodes/do-you-also-have-a-monstera-in-your-living-room
Markdown
/podcast/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102/do-you-also-have-a-monstera-in-your-living-room.md

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Summary

Vinyl records, coffee table books, low-maintenance pot plants: from Dublin to Dubrovnik, all good hipsters have the same stuff. The Italian writer Vincenzo Latronico captures this boring international aesthetic beautifully in his hit novel ‘Perfection’, while skewering millennial life in general. Do you like hearing about Lisbon food, the internet vs real life, and everything that’s wrong with the word ‘expat’? Then you’ll love our inaugural book club conversation, even if you haven’t read the book. We’re also talking this week about a fugitive Polish politician’s transatlantic dash, and the questionable Frenchness of a celebrated giraffe. Listen to the end if you want to know why we are launching a side-business importing sun loungers. Our book club is brought to you in collaboration with the European Review of Books, featuring the magazine’s co-founder Wiegertje Postma along with Portuguese bookworm Teresa Bandeira de Carvalho. The latest issue of the European Review of Books is out today ! You can subscribe to Teresa’s excellent Substack here , and read her viral post on the word ‘expat’ here . This week’s Inspiration Station recommendations are the Zenodot website , where you can check if a book has been translated into your language, and the European Press Prize shortlist . NEED MORE BOOK CHAT? Subscribers of The Europeans have access to an extended version of our book club conversation – twice as long and packed with thoughtful observations about everything from whether or not this story has a happy ending, to... how to run a book club. If you’re not yet a supporter of the podcast but you’d like to hear the longer version of the conversation, you can sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast . The Europeans is made possible by listener contributions –…