# How Ireland proved a basic income for artists actually works

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102/how-ireland-proved-a-basic-income-for-artists-actually-works
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102/how-ireland-proved-a-basic-income-for-artists-actually-works.md
Podcast: [The Europeans | European news, politics and culture](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102)
Published: 2025-11-20T04:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://europeanspodcast.com
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/3b49b323-93d7-4f80-8131-38491a469cc0.mp3
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Duration seconds: 2934

## Resource

We don’t often get to cover joyful policy news on this podcast, so this week we’re delighted to be discussing that rare thing: a European country that’s investing serious money in culture. For three years, Ireland has been experimenting with paying artists, musicians and other creative workers a basic income. And guess what? The scheme has worked so well that they’re keeping it going. But is the policy all it’s cracked up to be? This week we speak to John Baker, a co-founder of the Equality Studies Centre at University College Dublin and one of the coordinators of Basic Income Ireland , about the logic and limits of Ireland’s Basic Income for the Arts. In sillier policy news, we’re looking at why Slovakia has been regulating the speed of kids cycling on the pavement. And we’re diving into Ukraine’s massive corruption scandal: what exactly happened, and just how bad is it for Volodymyr Zelenskyy? You can read interviews with the artists who’ve been receiving Ireland’s Basic Income for the Arts here . 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. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number. This week’s Inspiration Station recommendations: ‘ Dopamine ’ by Robyn, ‘ Choke Enough ’ by Oklou, ‘West End Girl’ by Lily Allen and ‘ La symphonie des éclairs ’ by Zaho de Sagazan. Other resources for this episode ‘The EU Parliament…

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