Latvia Weekly Interviews: Journalist Kārlis Streips

"Agri" and "vēlu" are the words of the week as this first episode of 2022 comes later than expected. Joe and Otto take a look back on some of the biggest happenings of the last month, such as the swearing in of the new cabinet, the lack of support for a proposed civil union law, the acquittal of former Mayor Ušakovs in lower court, the changing of street names related to the Russian occupation, increased minimum wage, a medical workers' strike on the horizon, Latvia's own lying lawmaker, and much more! To nominate people and stories for our year in review episode that will be recorded next week, please submit your choices here! https://forms.gle/U8XzFeL2Aq32opJW7 Theme song "Mēs esam ārzemnieki" by Aarzemnieki, used with permission Closing theme song: Think Tank by Audionautix audionautix.com​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/_think-tank​ Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/mbV9t1Z0rA8

5 Jan 20231h 3min

Australian-born Latvian Kris Akenfelds joins the show once again, this time to discuss his experience as head teacher of the ENGtegration for Ukraine project that provides free English lessons to Ukrainian refugees in Latvia, a project organized by Otto and Joe that's administered by the Baltic Security Foundation and generously funded with a grant from the US Embassy, Riga. If you are would like to donate in order to help keep the program going in 2023 after our current grant money runs out, you can do so here! https://gogetfunding.com/help-ukrainian-refugees-in-latvia-learn-english/

16 Dec 202217min

As Latvia hunkers down for an early winter blizzard, Joe and Otto take a look back on the almost complete coalition formation process and a number of other important stories from the previous month, including the de-licensing of a Russian language TV channel, more heating aid to Latvian households, the potential end of Russian language as a "second foreign language" in schools, and more! To donate to the ENGtegration for Ukraine project: gogetfunding.com/my-dashboard/ Theme song "Mēs esam ārzemnieki" by Aarzemnieki, used with permission Closing theme song: Think Tank by Audionautix audionautix.com​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/_think-tank​ Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/mbV9t1Z0rA8

12 Dec 20221h 2min

Joe takes a look back through the first half of October including significant potholes in the road to a coalition, major changes to Riga's public transit ticketing system, a shortage of antibiotics, ever-increasing energy prices, and more! To donate to the ENGtegration for Ukraine project: https://gogetfunding.com/my-dashboard/ Theme song "Mēs esam ārzemnieki" by Aarzemnieki, used with permission Closing theme song: Think Tank by Audionautix audionautix.com​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/_think-tank​ Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/mbV9t1Z0rA8 Picture: Ernests Dinka, Saeimas Kanceleja. Used with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License(CC BY-SA 2.0)

17 Nov 202244min

Otto and Joe are back to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the podcast and to break down the major stories of the last month such as the three-party coalition formation process that seems to be in its final stages, major energy initiatives, average speed cameras, the dismantling of more monuments, HIMARS for Latvia, and more! If you would like to donate to the ENGtegration for Ukraine project, you can do it here at the Baltic Security Foundation's webpage here: https://balticsecurity.eu/support/ Theme song "Mēs esam ārzemnieki" by Aarzemnieki, used with permission Closing theme song: Think Tank by Audionautix audionautix.com​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/_think-tank​ Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/mbV9t1Z0rA8

1 Nov 20221h 15min

With the 2022 Saeima (parliament) election finally in the books, Otto and Joe sit down for an extended discussion on the results and the many implications for the election's winners and losers, as well as the first steps towards building a new governing coalition. Opening and closing music: "Epic Cinematic" by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/cinematic-background-music/epic-cinematic/

4 Okt 20221h 41min

On the eve of the 2022 Saeima election, Joe and Otto take a look back on some of the most important stories of the last few weeks such as a narrowly avoided teachers' strike, new energy saving measures, major decisions adopted by the outgoing parliament on education, a look at the regional security situation, and much more! Theme song "Mēs esam ārzemnieki" by Aarzemnieki, used with permission Closing theme song: Think Tank by Audionautix audionautix.com​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/_think-tank​ Music promoted by Audio Library youtu.be/mbV9t1Z0rA8

30 Sep 202253min

With just a few days to go before the 2022 Saeima Election, Joe sits down with some of his 12th grade students, many of who are about to vote for the very first time in their lives, to find out what issues are most important to them and how they feel politicians are doing at engaging with people their age. Here is a link to the Election Guide spreadsheet and Otto and Joe created that is mentioned in the episode: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F…/edit?usp=sharing Opening and closing music: "Epic Cinematic" by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Ho…pic-cinematic/

27 Sep 202221min