Terrible week for ABBA

Terrible week for ABBA

Update: 2025-09-11
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The music industry is reeling due to what’s being called the 'largest intellectual property theft in history' — we’ll dig into the fight between Big Tech and the people who make the music. Meanwhile, Sweden’s new cultural canon has people fuming — not least because it leaves out ABBA.


We’ll also hear from Der Spiegel’s Gunter Latsch about his chilling investigation into the shadowy world of organ trafficking. And we’ll finish, as always, with something a little lighter: archaeologists in Denmark have been uncovering a kind of Stone Age Atlantis beneath the sea and they’ve been using a funky underwater vacuum to do so.


This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: Addison Rae - 'Headphones On' | Behind the Song and Love in Five Acts by Daniela Krien (translated by Jamie Bulloch)


 


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.


 


Other resources for this week's episode:


No Abba, no meatballs? Sweden’s new cultural canon is a listicle that will soon be forgotten:


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/04/sweden-cultural-canon-abba-ikea-meatballs


 


Since we recorded this episode, a US federal judge has postponed approval of the $1.5 billion Anthropic copyright deal: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/anthropic-judge-blasts-copyright-pact-as-nowhere-close-to-done


 


Taskforce recommends prosecution of Mishra for alleged organ trafficking:


https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/health-science/article/2001525127/taskforce-recommends-prosecution-of-mishra-for-alleged-organ-trafficking 


 


00:00:47 Introduction: Emoji fuelled marital strife


00:04:26 Good Week: Sweden’s controversial ’cultural canon’


00:13:31 Bad Week: The fight between AI and musicians


00:27:05 Interview: Gunther Latch on Germans going abroad for kidneys


00:40:51 Inspiration Station: ’Headphones On’ and ’Love in Five Acts’


00:46:01 Happy Ending: Denmark’s Stone Age Atlantis


 


Producers: Katz Laszlo, Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak


Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak


Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina


Hosts: Nina Lamparski and Dominic Kraemer


 


YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | hello@europeanspodcast.com    

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Terrible week for ABBA

Terrible week for ABBA

Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer