Ten years on, can we talk about 'the B word'?

Ten years on, can we talk about 'the B word'?

From The Europeans | European news, politics and culture by Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer

June 18, 2026 · 59 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of Brexit a decade after the referendum, featuring insights from guest Piotr Cieplak.

Long-time listeners will know that in the early days of The Europeans , we had a semi-official ban on talking about a certain topic: Brexit, or as we liked to call it, ‘the B word’. A whole decade after the UK’s seismic referendum vote to leave the EU, have Katy and Dominic made their peace with the split? What kind of damage has it done, and is there any chance that it might one day be reversed? This week, with the help of some of our listeners, we’re facing the B word head on. We also hear from someone whose experience mirrors that of our British-born, EU-dwelling hosts: Polish-born Londoner Piotr Cieplak, a writer, film-maker and academic. We chat to Piotr about his experience as an Eastern European in the UK, and why he decided to set his debut novel during the heady days of the referendum. Piotr’s novel Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superior Detecting is out in paperback on 25 June and available to pre-order now. FREE TONIGHT? COME HANG OUT WITH US! We’re holding our first ever Office Hour tonight (Thursday 18 June) at 9pm CET. Commune with us in silence about Brexit or ask 15 different questions, it’s up to you. Access is open to all listeners, not just subscribers. We’ll post a…

People in this episode

Hosts: Katy Lee, Dominic Kraemer

Guest: Piotr Cieplak

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superior Detecting, Middle England, Autumn

Places: UK, EU

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