The world's funniest superstate?

The world's funniest superstate?

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

May 28, 2026 · 31 min

About this episode

The episode features an interview with Susanna Kierkegaard about her entertaining book on the European Union.

The European Union is many things: an economic powerhouse, an improbably successful peace project, or a bureaucratic hellscape, depending on who you ask. Most people would probably agree on one thing that it isn’t: funny. So when Susanna Kierkegaard set out to write Sweden’s first genuinely entertaining book about the EU, many might have dismissed the idea as a fool’s errand. And yet she has somehow pulled it off. This week, we call up Susanna to share some of the best bits from her book Superstaten : EU och framtiden , from the MEP who expensed 250 kilograms of chocolate to the Italian whose unpaid electricity bills changed the course of European law. Susanna is a columnist for Aftonbladet . You can read her work here , and follow her on Instagram as well as TikTok . 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…

People in this episode

Hosts: Katy Lee, Dominic Kraemer

Guest: Susanna Kierkegaard

Topics covered

  • European Union
  • humor
  • politics
  • culture
  • books

Keywords

  • European Union
  • humor
  • Susanna Kierkegaard
  • politics
  • books

Sponsors

Euranet Plus

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Aftonbladet

Books & works: Superstaten : EU och framtiden

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