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Lisa Burke Show

RTL - Lisa Burke

A place for conversation that spans life in Luxembourg and beyond. Each week an international guest list will reflect on the week’s news, plus a whole host of other topics: politics to pollination; education to entrepreneurship; science to singing. Luxembourg sits in the beating heart of Europe and its diverse population provides a global perspective on a number of world issues.

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  • August 22 · 57 min

    Hooked: Screens, AI and the Battle for Our Attention, 22/08/2026

    Four experts join Lisa to unpack why our attention has become the world's most valuable currency, and what that means for both our children and ourselves. Picture a baby in a highchair, eyes fixed on a glowing screen while the adult beside them tries to make contact. It is an ordinary scene, almost too ordinary to notice. Yet it helped prompt Luxembourg’s National Addiction Prevention Service, CNAPA, to launch its campaign Kanneräe liichten offline méi hell, or Kids’ Eyes Shine Brighter Offline. On The Lisa Burke Show, four experts examine what happens when digital technology enters human life before language, judgement or self-control have fully developed. Anouk Hinger, Tania Hemmer, Dr Andreas König and Dr Nora Schleich take the conversation from infant attachment to parental burnout, behavioural addiction, data capitalism and AI systems capable of detecting the precise moment when our resistance is weakest. The first battle is for a baby’s gaze Anouk Hinger, Director of CNAPA, describes “technoference”, the interruption of human contact by technology. When a caregiver’s attention repeatedly moves towards a device, a baby can lose some of the eye contact, responsiveness and reassurance through which security and trust begin to develop. Young children learn through movement, touch, language, facial expression and shared experience. Anouk argues that excessive screen exposure during the crucial early years can crowd out the experiences through which communication, empathy and problem-solving grow. “What children need most is their parents and the interaction with their caregivers.” Anouk Hinger, CNAPA The message is serious, although it is not intended to bury already exhausted parents beneath another layer of guilt. Parents are tired too Tania Hemmer works with parents through Eltereschoul Janusz Korczak and specialises in parental burnout. She knows the reality behind the rules: work, shopping, cooking, school messages, appointments, laundry and a child who needs attention just as the adult’s own energy disappears. A screen used briefly while a parent regains composure is very different from a device becoming the family’s permanent babysitter. Context matters. So does compassion. “It is better for your child to watch ten minutes of a video and for you, as a parent, to calm yourself before you break down.” Tania Hemmer, Eltereschoul Her advice is practical: remain curious about what children do online, avoid mocking their digital interests, create screen-free periods and keep the conversation alive through adolescence. Rules matter, although relationships carry more weight as children grow older. The slot machine inside the smartphone Dr Andreas König, Executive Director of Luxembourg’s Center for Excessive Behavior and Behavioral Addictions, explains why some digital habits become so difficult to stop. Social media feeds and games use variable rewards. Each swipe may reveal something funny, affirming, shocking or entirely forgettable. The unpredictability keeps us moving towards the next possibility. Dopamine, König explains, is closely linked to the expectation that a reward might be coming. Heavy use alone does not automatically amount to addiction. The warning signs include a persistent pattern, loss of control, the activity taking priority over other parts of life, and continued use despite harm to health, education, work or relationships. AI intensifies this machinery. It can study what we click, how long we pause, when we become frustrated and when we are preparing to leave. “The thing I find most troubling is that algorithms with AI are increasingly good at targeting you at your weakest moment.” Dr Andreas König, ZEV When your context has been chosen for you For philosopher Dr Nora Schleich, the issue reaches far beyond screen time. Digital platforms collect behavioural data, build psychological profiles and use prediction to shape the material placed in front of us. “Who has data has AI. Who has more data has more efficient AI.” Dr Nora Schleich, EwB asbl Our surroundings have always influenced how we perceive the world. The new difficulty is that much of our digital environment has been personalised to retain attention, provoke emotion and generate profit. We may believe that we are independently choosing what to watch, buy or believe while algorithms are quietly arranging the menu. This has consequences for individuals, families and democratic societies. When different groups receive increasingly different versions of reality, the common ground on which public conversation depends begins to shrink. Give boredom back to children One of Anouk Hinger’s most provocative recommendations is also one of the simplest: allow children to experience frustration. “Frustrate your kids. We live in a society where we are constantly entertained, and boredom has no space. We think it is important to give it back.” Anouk Hinger, CNAPA Boredom creates room for invention. Frustration teaches emotional regulation. Solving small problems develops self-efficacy, the belief that we can act, cope and influence what happens next. Tania tells the story of a parent using an app to calculate every element of her child’s food intake. The data said the child had eaten enough. The child was thin, hungry and waking at night. The human signs were present, although the parent had learned to trust the tool more than her own observation. “You have to watch your child to see your child.” Tania Hemmer, Eltereschoul Community may be our strongest defence The show closes with a reminder that social media succeeds because it draws upon a real human need. We want to belong. We want to be seen, heard and welcomed into a community. Digital platforms simulate much of this beautifully. A like resembles approval. A follower resembles a friend. Constant connection resembles company. The body, however, still knows the difference between a notification and another person laughing beside us. Nora Schleich calls for more room for meals, games, concerts, conversations, touch, humour and shared physical life. “All these moments create a much bigger energy than scrolling and posting. We need to make room for that again.” Dr Nora Schleich, EwB asbl The answer to digital addiction will require education, thoughtful regulation, responsible design and support for families. It may also begin with something wonderfully analogue: looking up, noticing who is beside us and giving them our full attention. Guests and organisations Anouk Hinger Director, CNAPA, National Addiction Prevention Service https://www.cnapa.lu Tania Hemmer Projects and Quality, Eltereschoul Janusz Korczak, Kannerschlass Foundation https://www.kannerschlass.lu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Eltereschoul/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eltereschoul/ Dr Andreas König Executive Director, ZEV, Center for Excessive Behavior and Behavioral Addictions https://www.zev.lu Dr Nora Schleich Directrice, EwB asbl https://ewb.lu RTL episode link: https://perma.rtl.lu/a/2710427

  • August 8 · 58 min

    What’s Really in Your Water? Tap Water, Bottled Water and the Chemicals We Leave, 08/08/2026

    Professor Emma Schymanski reveals what water carries, why bottled may offer no advantage, and how our daily choices flow back into every glass. We turn on a tap, fill a glass, make a cup of tea (many cups, in my case) dozens of times a day without thinking twice. But our water carries traces of everything around it: the medication we take, the cosmetics we wear, even the flame retardants in our sofas. Some of it is monitored closely. Some of it we're only just learning to detect. And water, of course, doesn't stop at a border. To unpack all of this, I sat down with Prof. Emma Schymanski, Head of Environmental Cheminformatics at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg, and an FNR ATTRACT Fellow. Her work combines chemical detective work with high resolution mass spectrometry to find chemicals hiding in water that nobody knew to look for, and to trace them back to their source. The Water Cycle Ignores Borders Water moves the way weather does: without any concern for what is a political border. Rain falls, rivers carry it across countries, and it sinks into groundwater that doesn't recognise a map. For Luxembourg, sitting downstream of its neighbours, that means inheriting chemical traces long before they reach a Luxembourg tap. Even in the Alps, even in Antarctica, contamination that starts on one continent eventually cycles back down in rainwater on another. Your Water's Fingerprint When people hear "water contamination," pesticides usually come to mind first. But that's a small part of the picture. Emma's team also finds pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, flame retardants, anti icing agents and dyes, everyday traces of everyday life. During the pandemic, her team watched caffeine levels in wastewater drop as the working population stayed home, and medical imaging dyes vanish almost entirely as routine cancer diagnostics paused. Antidepressant levels rise every winter. Antihistamines spike every spring. The Detective Work So how do you find a chemical when you don't know it's there? Emma's team runs water samples through mass spectrometry and looks for anomalies: a signal spiking above baseline, or one that suddenly disappears (in one case, tracing back to a factory shutting down for a six week holiday). It's forensic work, applied to a glass of water. That same technique now underpins wastewater epidemiology, used across Europe to trace drug use, and even, in one memorable case, to work out how drugs were getting into a prison. Tap Water vs Bottled Water Now here's a way to save money and perhaps stress. Emma's own research compared tap and bottled water across Luxembourg and found no statistically significant difference between them. The only real difference was between filtered and unfiltered tap water, and even filtering introduced its own new, if fewer, unknowns. She drinks from the tap herself, no filter at home. Even reverse osmosis, often floated as the ultimate fix, has a catch. It strips out almost everything, including the minerals your body needs, meaning treated water then has to have things added back in. "If you're drinking snow only, it won't quench your thirst, because it will actually start to strip the salt from your body," Emma explained. What You Can Actually Do This isn't a call to panic. It's a case for informed, small choices: Let the tap run cold for a couple of minutes before drinking, especially in older buildings, to clear water that's been sitting in the pipes. Favour metal, ceramic or glass over soft plastics for reusable bottles and cups. Don't assume "eco" means chemical free. Some paper straws are treated with solvents to stop them going soggy. Wash new clothing before wearing it. The New Frontier: Data Centres AI and water is a massive discussion right now. Emma noted that the cooling systems have their own knock on contamination risks. This is perhaps a conversation for another episode. Where to find the show: The Lisa Burke Show airs on RTL Today, RTL Play, and RTL Today Radio, and is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Guest links Prof. Emma Schymanski, LCSB profile: http://www.uni.lu/lcsb ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6868-8145 PubChemLite for Exposomics: https://pubchemlite.lcsb.uni.lu/ NORMAN Suspect List Exchange: https://www.norman-network.com/nds/SLE/ MassBank: https://massbank.eu/MassBank/ MetFrag: https://msbi.ipb-halle.de/MetFrag/ patRoon: https://rickhelmus.github.io/patRoon/

  • August 1 · 58 min

    Pelvic Floor Health, Postpartum Care and Empathy in Medicine, 01/08/2026

    Physiotherapist Sarah Elmquist and Dr India Pinker explain why incontinence is treatable and empathy can transform healthcare. We prepare women extensively for birth. We discuss scans, nutrition, pain relief, breathing techniques and the safe arrival of the baby. Then, remarkably often, the conversation stops. The woman who has carried and delivered that child is expected to return to work, family life and household responsibilities, while the physical aftermath of pregnancy and birth remains largely invisible. On The Lisa Burke Show, physiotherapist Sarah Elmquist and healthcare communication researcher Dr India Pinker joined me to discuss two areas of medicine that are easily dismissed as private, awkward or somehow secondary: pelvic floor health and empathy. Yet both affect something fundamental, our ability to feel safe and understood within our own bodies and within the healthcare system. The great silence after birth Sarah works in postpartum rehabilitation and pelvic floor physiotherapy. She describes postpartum care as far more than the weeks immediately following delivery. “Postpartum is everything that happens after giving birth. Everybody is different and every body is different.” Sarah Elmquist Pregnancy and childbirth can affect the abdominal muscles, pelvic floor, internal organs and a woman’s entire perception of her body. Yet many women are quietly absorbing symptoms that should be discussed and assessed. They avoid trampolines, running, lifting shopping bags, laughing too freely or playing energetically with their children because they fear leaking urine. The most troubling part is that many do not consider this a medical problem. They assume it is simply the price of motherhood. “It’s almost normalised as part of motherhood. ‘It happens to me as well. It’s just how it is.’ It doesn’t have to be.” Sarah Elmquist Incontinence can affect women and men, and it can appear long before old age. Shame can gradually restrict exercise, intimacy, travel and social life. Because people rarely talk about it, the true scale of the problem is difficult to measure. It is never too late to seek help Luxembourg has an advantage in offering many women pelvic floor reeducation after childbirth, sometimes before any serious problem has developed. Sarah compares this to strengthening any other muscle group as protection for the future. For those who never received postpartum care, the message is equally important. “Things can be reversed. Just as you can retrain a leg muscle, the same goes for the pelvic floor. You can always train it again.” Sarah Elmquist Pelvic floor physiotherapy is not simply about preventing an embarrassing moment. It is about restoring choice. A woman who can laugh, jump, exercise or move without fear has recovered a degree of freedom. As Sarah put it, learning to sense and control this frequently ignored part of the body can itself be empowering: “If you can feel your own body and know how to engage those muscles, that’s empowerment as well.” The Empathy Gap Nobody Measures Dr. India Pinker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Health working on healthcare communication in oncology, brought a different but connected angle: the taboo isn't just about what patients won't say to doctors, it's about what medicine itself doesn't know how to teach. Pinker's PhD research at the University of St Andrews looked at clinical empathy: not the everyday kind, but a trainable, boundaried skill doctors need to protect both the patient and themselves. "Empathy is arguably one of our most natural sort of elements of conversation, elements of connection as human beings. However, it's highly controversial, believe it or not, in medicine itself." Her research has found that empathetic communication correlates with higher diagnostic accuracy, better patient adherence to treatment, and, counterintuitively, lower burnout among healthcare professionals themselves. She pointed to universities like St Andrews and Leicester that now build communication skills training in from year one, producing measurably more confident clinicians by graduation. Where AI fits and where it does not One of the more striking threads of the conversation: patients increasingly turning to AI chatbots as informal counsellors. Pinker flagged the risk plainly. "AI is usually, depending on how you program it, essentially made to please you... it's not going to push back at key moments where you need pushback from a trained professional." She noted that AI is fairly predictable: patients, and good clinical care, are not. Validation without push-back can feel good in the moment, but it isn't the same as care. The Common Thread Whether it's a pelvic floor exercise a doctor never prescribed, or a diagnosis delivered without space to ask a second question, both guests circled the same idea: powerlessness follows patients who aren't given information, and communication, spoken or physical, is the cheapest, least-used treatment in medicine. As Pinker put it: Connect with our guests: Sarah Elmquist — Instagram: @liewenshaus.wormeldange | Website: osteopathie-greif.com Dr. India Pinker, PhD — LinkedIn: india-pinker-phd | Luxembourg Institute of Health | EACH – International Association for Communication in Healthcare Listen to the full episode on RTL Play, RTL Today Radio, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

  • July 31 · 59 min

    Can Business Repair Society? Inside Luxembourg’s SIS Impact Economy, 31/07/2026

    Four Luxembourg entrepreneurs tackle wasted energy, hidden disability, unaffordable housing and litter through the SIS model. Most companies begin with a product. My four guests began with an irritation they couldn't ignore: buildings leaking untracked energy, disabilities hidden from view, workers priced out of the housing market and pointless litter on streets, forests, rivers and coastlines. Their response was to build a business around the repair job. Luxembourg has a legal structure for precisely this kind of ambition. A Société d’Impact Sociétal, known as an SIS, remains a commercial enterprise, but its social or environmental purpose is written into the company itself. Its impact must be measured, reported and defended. At the time of our conversation, Luxembourg has 92 registered SIS companies working across 12 broad areas, including housing, health, education, climate, food and the circular economy. First, find out what the building is doing Virginie Ducommun, founder of Indoor Forest, calls her philosophy “efficient sobriety”. Her smart sensors can be installed in existing buildings without ripping through walls or replacing entire systems. They expose where energy and water are going, helping owners decide what genuinely needs changing and what can safely remain. Luxembourg has developed a habit of destroying and rebuilding, Virginie argues, even when buildings still contain decades of useful life. A pink wall can be repainted. A functioning heating system can be maintained. Demolition should require a better excuse than age. “Data is gold. Before you do anything, you need to know what’s happening.” Virginie Ducommun, Indoor Forest A sunflower that makes the invisible visible For Jana Degrott, founder of Real Impact Hub, the mission is deeply personal. Her brother has a hidden disability. Her company represents the Hidden Disability Sunflower programme in Luxembourg, allowing someone to wear a discreet sunflower lanyard when they may need greater patience, understanding or support. Jana spent two years pursuing the idea before securing Luxembourg Airport as her first major client. She then approached the international Sunflower organisation with a compelling entrepreneurial argument: the concept had already been sold, so perhaps it was time to answer her emails. Today, the programme is expanding into organisations including CFL. “I have something you don’t see with your eyes. Please be patient, understanding, don’t judge me.” Jana Degrott, Real Impact Hub The lanyard does not reveal a diagnosis. It asks the rest of us to pause before turning difference into judgement. That small pause could be one of the most valuable services any organisation provides. The housing crisis hiding inside Luxembourg’s success Joe Schmit spent more than 15 years in real estate before co-founding Simpact, Luxembourg’s first private social property developer under the SIS structure. Its model combines state support, private financing and long-term rental housing whose income is designed to cover costs. The need extends far beyond a narrow group. Young families, couples, single parents and much of Luxembourg’s working population can struggle to find secure, affordable housing. Simpact has signed a convention with the state targeting 250 units, Joe said, although Luxembourg will require many more organisations operating at that scale. “The housing market doesn’t follow the growth.” Joe Schmit, Simpact Housing exposes the full machinery of a country. Land, construction costs, interest rates, municipal permits, schools, transport and public infrastructure all turn together. Build 25 homes in a small commune and it may also need classrooms for 50 children. A housing policy is quietly a policy for almost everything else. One bag becomes a global movement César González Fernández began picking up litter in 2018 because it bothered him. Five minutes, one bag, one cleaner patch of ground. That private act became Clean Something For Nothing, an app recording cleanups through location data, time, volume and weight. At the time of recording, its community had collected approximately 926,000 kilograms of litter and was closing in on the one million kilogram mark. Its “Pick and Plant” programme also allows companies to fund one tree for every kilogram collected. “Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.” César González Fernández, Clean Something For Nothing His deeper target is behavioural change. Once somebody has bent down and picked up another person’s cigarette butt, plastic bottle or food wrapper, litter becomes harder to ignore and much harder to drop. Profit with proof attached An SIS must still sell, recruit, pay salaries, manage cash flow and generate profit. The difference lies in what happens next. Impact shareholders do not receive dividends, profits remain inside the company and the organisation must prove that its promised social or environmental value actually occurred. That makes the SIS label less of a halo and more of a discipline. These founders are asking Luxembourg to take impact companies seriously as economic actors, open procurement opportunities to them and help them reach the scale their missions demand. “Doing good business doesn’t mean not making any money.” Jana Degrott “There are so many returns on nature and society.” César González Fernández Four founders, four very different businesses and one provocative question: what might happen if every company had to describe what it repairs as carefully as it reports what it earns? Guest and organisation links Virginie Ducommun, founder of Indoor Forest, about smart sensors, energy waste and why Luxembourg should stop demolishing buildings that still have decades of useful life. Website: https://indoorforest.lu B Smart: https://b-smart.lu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginie-ducommun-indoorforest-impactluxembourg Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indoorforest Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bevakasha.bsmart/ Jana Degrott, founder of Real Impact Hub, about hidden disabilities, accessibility and the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower programme. Real Impact Hub: https://www.realimpact.lu Be Human: https://www.behuman-asbl.com Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Luxembourg: https://www.hdsunflower.com/lu Joe Schmit, co-founder of Simpact, about Luxembourg’s housing crisis and a new model for creating affordable rental homes. Simpact: https://simpact.lu César Gonzalez Fernandez, founder of Clean Something For Nothing, about behavioural change, global cleanups and the journey towards one million kilograms of litter collected. Clean Something For Nothing: https://cleansomethingfornothing.com/contact/ Entrepreneurs d’Impact Luxembourg: https://entrepreneurs-impact.lu Watch or listen through RTL Today: https://perma.rtl.lu/a/2710421 What should business be expected to contribute to society? Should companies measure what they repair as carefully as they measure revenue? Tell us what you think in the comments. #Luxembourg #SocialImpact #ImpactEntrepreneurship #AffordableHousing #HiddenDisabilities #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #TheLisaBurkeShow

  • July 25 · 1 hr

    Albania’s EU Accession Sprint: Will Europe Keep Its Side of the Bargain?, 25/07/2026

    Ferit Hoxha and Petras Auštrevičius on Albania’s rapid progress, EU reform, Kosovo, Bosnia and the security cost of delay. Last weekend, the first of my two conversations on the Western Balkans was released. This discussion examined the danger of leaving six European neighbours indefinitely in the EU’s waiting room. This conversation moved from the reasons for enlargement to the mechanics of making it happen. Billions of euros are being directed towards reforms, infrastructure and economic convergence, but money alone cannot build functioning institutions, settle historical disputes or manufacture political will. The European Union promised the Western Balkans a European future at Thessaloniki in 2003. Croatia joined in 2013, then enlargement largely stalled. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine changed the strategic calculation. The region is now seen less as a distant policy file and more as a space inside Europe where Russian influence, Chinese investment, disinformation and organised crime can exploit political uncertainty. Albania and Montenegro have emerged as the front-runners, while North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia remain caught in very different political knots. My guests could hardly have been better placed to examine both sides of the process. Ferit Hoxha, Albania’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, has spent more than 35 years in diplomacy. He has represented Albania at the United Nations, twice presided over the UN Security Council, and served as ambassador to the European Union, France and UNESCO. Beside him was Petras Auštrevičius, the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur on EU enlargement and the man who personally negotiated Lithuania’s accession as its chief negotiator from 2001 to 2002. From watching Europe to playing for Europe For Auštrevičius, membership changed Lithuania’s position fundamentally. A candidate country may align its legislation, contribute to European security and accept decisions made in Brussels, yet it still remains outside the room where those decisions are shaped. Joining that team is a formidable task. The body of EU law, the acquis communautaire, already ran to around 120,000 pages when Lithuania was negotiating. Accession, Auštrevičius stressed, is far more than a bureaucratic exercise in changing national laws. Governments must explain the process, secure public confidence, involve businesses and social partners, and prepare institutions to function within an entirely new system. The European Union can appear excessively complicated, but common rules also create common standards, consumer protections and access to one of the world’s largest markets. Auštrevičius described the EU as a globally exceptional project, imperfect and often cumbersome, yet still capable of turning former adversaries into partners. Albania’s 13-month sprint Albania has moved through the revised accession system at remarkable speed. It opened all six negotiating clusters within 13 months and has now passed the interim assessment of the Fundamentals cluster, covering the judiciary, fundamental rights, justice, freedom and security. That allows the country to begin the difficult final phase of closing individual chapters, with the ambition of concluding negotiations by the end of 2027. The European Parliament has praised Albania’s momentum while insisting that progress must remain strictly merit-based and that reforms must be implemented, not simply written into law. The country’s momentum is real, but the remaining work is extensive. Corruption, judicial effectiveness, media freedom, political pressure on journalists and environmental protection all remain under close scrutiny. Albania must show that reforms are durable and that its institutions can enforce the standards they adopt. Environmental rules are particularly demanding because protecting biodiversity, upgrading infrastructure and modernising public administration require time, expertise and considerable investment. Hoxha accepted that the list is long. “The negotiation is about the gap,” he said: where Albania is now, where it must reach and how the country intends to bridge the distance. Merit must work in both directions Auštrevičius described two possible models of enlargement. Under the “convoy” approach, every candidate moves at the pace of the slowest. Under the “regatta” principle, each country competes against the same standards and advances according to its own performance. “To be first is good, but you have to be the best. What is promised must be implemented.” Petras Auštrevičius That distinction matters because the Western Balkans are too often treated as a single political problem. Albania’s progress should not be slowed by another government’s failure to reform. Equally, geopolitical urgency cannot become an excuse to admit countries whose institutions, democratic safeguards or foreign-policy choices remain incompatible with membership. Hoxha agreed that the process must remain merit-based, but argued that reciprocity is essential to its credibility. A candidate that fulfils an agreed condition must be allowed to move forward. Otherwise, public trust deteriorates and reformers struggle to explain why difficult changes bring no visible reward. Hoxha’s response is to move before the political opportunity closes. Can countries begin joining before they become members? One answer may be gradual integration, giving reforming countries access to parts of the European system before full membership. This could include the single market, the SEPA payments area, EU programmes and eventually roaming without additional charges. Such measures make enlargement tangible to citizens who might otherwise wait years for its benefits. Albania already aligns fully with the EU’s common foreign and security policy, Hoxha said. European sanctions become Albanian sanctions, and European missions become Albanian missions. His question was direct: if Albania accepts and implements those decisions, why should its representatives not attend relevant meetings as observers? This would also allow Albanian civil servants to understand how European decisions are formed before they must help administer them as members. Accession brings access, influence and funding, but also competition, obligations and responsibility. Preparation inside the institutions may ultimately be more effective than preparation from outside them. Europe is not a menu The sharpest part of the discussion concerned strategic alignment. Some candidate countries seek EU investment while also cultivating Russian political ties or Chinese involvement in infrastructure, telecommunications and other strategic sectors. Auštrevičius questioned whether a country can claim that Brussels is blocking its progress while its own decisions repeatedly pull it away from European foreign policy. Hoxha’s answer was unequivocal: For Albania, European alignment is the first test applied to foreign-policy decisions. This is increasingly important because enlargement is intended to strengthen the Union. If new members carry the strategic influence of hostile powers into European decision-making, the process could weaken Europe from within. Auštrevičius compared accession to “a responsible marriage”. A country cannot demand solidarity, market access and financial support while refusing the political responsibilities that accompany them. Kosovo, Bosnia and the unfinished history of the region Kosovo remains unrecognised by five EU member states: Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Hoxha noted that practical relationships have nevertheless developed. Kosovo now has visa-free travel, its passports are recognised, and the five countries maintain varying degrees of contact. Yet the Serbia-Kosovo normalisation process remains slow despite dozens of agreements. The same tension is visible in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Peace Agreement stopped a horrific war and maintained peace, but the structure it created has also contributed to political blockages and competing centres of power. Hoxha argued that peace arrangements designed for an emergency should not automatically be considered permanent constitutional solutions. Yet Europe cannot simply impose unity upon a divided political system. “You cannot import a consensus. It has to be grown from within.” Ferit Hoxha The accession of Albania or Montenegro could provide the region with something it has lacked for more than a decade: visible proof that the door remains real. Citizens elsewhere may then exert greater pressure on leaders who use identity, history or institutional paralysis to avoid reform. The EU must also be ready to change Every stage of accession can be delayed by unanimity. Auštrevičius argued for qualified-majority voting on intermediate decisions, reducing the ability of one government to hold an entire country hostage to a bilateral dispute. This would not remove the final consent required for membership, but it could prevent accession from becoming an arena for historical retaliation. Hoxha went further, saying Albania would be willing to commit in its future accession treaty not to use a veto when it stood alone against every other member state. It was a striking promise from a country still outside the Union: Albania is already considering how to make Europe more functional once it enters. “Enlargement is our strength, not our weakness. Let us agree politically to do it on time.” Petras Auštrevičius Enlargement has always produced apprehension. Yet each previous expansion increased the Union’s population, market, influence and strategic reach. For Hoxha, Albania’s direction is no longer a question under discussion. The question is therefore no longer whether Albania wants Europe. It is whether Europe can reform itself, recognise progress when it occurs and act before another generation concludes that the promise was never meant to be kept.

  • July 17 · 55 min

    Western Balkans EU Enlargement: How Long Can Europe Keep Its Neighbours Waiting?, 17/07/2026

    North Macedonia has waited 21 years at the EU’s door. Zoran Dimitrovski and Linas Kojala ask what delay now costs Europe. Look at a map and the unresolved logic is striking. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are almost entirely surrounded by EU and NATO members. These countries are not on some distant European frontier. They form an enclave within the Union’s own geography. In 2003, at the Thessaloniki summit, the EU promised the Western Balkans a European future. More than two decades later, Croatia remains the last country to have joined, back in 2013. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, enlargement has shifted from a slow technical process to an urgent geopolitical question: what happens when Europe leaves a space inside its own borders unfilled? My guests brought two unusually powerful perspectives to that question. Zoran Dimitrovski, North Macedonia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, spent 35 years as a journalist before entering government. He edited some of his country’s leading newspapers, reported from Washington, wrote more than 1,500 articles and investigations, and continues to teach critical thinking and analytical writing. Alongside him was Linas Kojala, CEO of the Geopolitics and Security Studies Center in Vilnius and a lecturer at Vilnius University. A Fulbright scholar with studies at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, Kojala has written about Lithuania’s own journey into the European Union and has been ranked among his country’s most influential public figures. Twenty-one years at the front door North Macedonia became an EU candidate in 2005, around the same time as Croatia. Yet it still has not opened substantive accession negotiations. The country first faced a long dispute with Greece over its name, eventually resolved through the Prespa Agreement and the adoption of the name North Macedonia. That opened the way into NATO. A second dispute then emerged with neighbouring Bulgaria, involving language, identity, history and the recognition of a Bulgarian community within North Macedonia’s constitution. Zoran Dimitrovski did not deny the work still required within his own country. North Macedonia must continue aligning its laws with the EU, strengthening the judiciary and fighting corruption. His argument was that these shortcomings were not the principal reason the country had been stopped. This describes one of the demands that, in Dimitrovski's view, reach beyond the Copenhagen criteria governing democratic institutions, human rights, the rule of law and a functioning market economy. There is, however, responsibility on both sides of the border and both sides of the accession table. The European Parliament’s latest assessment expresses regret at North Macedonia’s lack of progress, calling for the constitutional amendments, stronger cross-party cooperation and deeper reforms. Yet that same resolution warns that bilateral disputes over language, culture and national identity should not be used to obstruct accession. This is the uncomfortable heart of the story: the EU must remain demanding enough for membership to retain meaning, while remaining fair enough for its promises to retain credibility. The rules were written for a different Europe Kojala argued that the enlargement machinery itself must adapt to a radically altered security landscape. The process still requires unanimity at critical stages, allowing one member state to hold up another country’s progress. Under normal circumstances, such caution might be defensible. These, he stressed, are not normal circumstances. The EU’s decision-making can be painfully slow because 27 governments must agree on decisions touching sovereignty, money and national interest. Kojala compared it to 27 friends attempting to choose a restaurant, except that several of them may not be friends and the decisions are monumental. The central question is therefore whether procedures devised 20 years ago are still adequate for a Europe facing war, cyber-attacks, sabotage, disinformation and growing competition from authoritarian powers. Railways, bridges and the architecture of security EU enlargement may sound abstract, but it rapidly becomes concrete. It is about railway lines, bridges, roads, energy systems and digital networks. Dimitrovski pointed to Corridors VIII and X, which cross North Macedonia and connect the Adriatic, Black and Aegean Seas with wider Europe. These routes matter for trade and daily life, but also for NATO’s ability to move personnel and equipment across the continent. A bridge too weak to carry military vehicles is simultaneously an infrastructure problem, an economic weakness and a security vulnerability. Kojala offered a useful challenge to the language of cost. Security spending is often discussed as money disappearing from productive use. Yet roads, schools, housing, communications and transport capacity remain in the communities where they are built. The same is true of enlargement: investment in the Western Balkans is not charity at Europe’s edge. It is investment in the resilience of the continent as a whole. A vacuum rarely stays empty Russia remains an influential force in Serbia and parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Chinese lending and infrastructure investment have expanded across the region. Dimitrovski was careful not to suggest that the Western Balkans would simply abandon Europe for Moscow or Beijing. His warning was more subtle. Prolonged uncertainty can produce weaker institutions, frustrated populations and a region increasingly exposed to financial pressure, political manipulation and disinformation. Europe therefore faces a choice that is larger than whether another flag appears outside the institutions in Brussels. It must decide whether the Western Balkans are genuinely part of its future, and demonstrate that belief through fair conditions, credible timelines and visible results. Kojala described the European Union as something close to a “boring miracle”: cumbersome, imperfect and endlessly predicted to collapse, yet remarkably capable of adapting and surviving. That miracle now requires another act of political imagination. The Western Balkans have spent more than 20 years hearing that their future lies inside the European Union. Europe may now need to ask a harder question of itself: how long can a promise remain credible before waiting becomes its own form of rejection?

  • July 11 · 1 hr 9 min

    African disapora in Luxembourg & global finance, 11/07/2026

    Four Africans living in Luxembourg share why the future of Africa-Europe capital is ownership, not aid, & the people structuring it are already in the room There is a moment in the conversation when Cheikh Ndiaye, a fund lawyer at Elvinger Hoss Prussen who was born and raised in Senegal, describes his job in one word: plumbing. He designs the structures that let capital move across borders, legally and at scale. It is an unglamorous metaphor for a profound idea, and it reframes everything the African diaspora in Luxembourg is trying to do. Around the studio table at RTL City sat four people whose journeys began in Cameroon, Algeria, Mauritania and Senegal, and converged in one of the world's largest fund centres. Burrel Ngatcha, founder of the African Luxembourg Community (ALC), brought them together. Sonia Brahmi runs a boutique tax advisory firm. Dr. Leila Kamara builds sustainable investment funds. What they share is a conviction that the old story about Africa and money has expired, and that they are the ones positioned to write the new one. Why all of Africa, not just the countries? Luxembourg holds roughly 700,000 inhabitants and an outsized share of the world's investment funds. Ngatcha arrived in 2023, joined Société Générale, and quickly noticed how hard it was to find people who shared a common history. So in May 2025 he launched a LinkedIn group. It has since grown into a network of more than 1,400 professionals. "Africa has 54 countries, from the north to the south, the east to the west. It was making sense for me to create something for all the continent, not only for Cameroon." Crucially, the ALC is not a closed door. Ngatcha is direct about who belongs: the point is not heritage but curiosity about the continent's dynamics. "It's not about being African who matters the most. It's about being conscious and curious about the dynamics that happen in Africa." The diaspora's real asset is proximity The sharpest idea of the conversation came from Ndiaye, who pushed back on the reflex to equate diaspora capital with remittances. Money sent home, he argued, is love, but it is not leverage. The leverage is something far rarer. "We're not standing outside of global finance. We are in the machinery, right here." There are people of African origin in Luxembourg structuring funds, running compliance and sitting on management committees who understand both European regulation and the reality back home. That double fluency, Ndiaye said, is the whole game. "The lever is turning that proximity into vehicles, people who can make an African asset legible to European capital and root it back as ownership, not aid." The numbers most investors are missing Ask anyone to picture African investment and they tend to picture risk. Ndiaye offered a corrective that should make any allocator pause: ten of the twenty fastest-growing economies in the world are African. He pointed to Niger growing at around 11 percent a year, precisely the kind of country most European investors would never consider. His point was not naivety about risk. It was that treating a continent of 54 distinct economies as a single block is itself the error, and that local knowledge is a competitive advantage hiding in plain sight. "If you have boots on the ground, if you know the country, there are a lot of opportunities. There are a lot of success stories, but you don't know them." Blockchain as a bridge, not a buzzword Brahmi, who grew up in a third-generation Algerian family in France and now works heavily in crypto and tax, made the case for digital assets as practical infrastructure rather than speculation. Banking access across much of Africa is expensive and slow, and the continent's many currencies complicate even neighbourly trade. Stablecoins, she argued, lower the friction. She and Ngatcha recently ran a conference on exactly this, titled Digital Assets Without Borders. Her argument is that transparency, not hype, is the real promise, since transactions on a public ledger can be tracked and proven in ways paper never could. "We don't need ink signatures, because everything is documented. It should lead to better governance in the end." Sustainability as a financial strategy Kamara relocated from Paris five years ago, having grown up in Mauritania, and recently founded Kamara Advisory after three years of doctoral research into socially responsible investment. Her conclusion reshaped her career: the real gap is not in avoiding heavy emitters but in financing their transition. That insight became NZiFund, a Net-Zero Innovation Fund built to channel capital toward green technology and toward the high-emitting companies that most need to change. Her framing rejects the idea that sustainability is a compliance cost. "We really need to support them in their transition, rather than divesting from them when we are practising sustainable investment." She is candid that climate finance has a long way to go, a view shared by the wider industry. Private money, she and the table agreed, is still far from where it needs to be, and de-risking it remains the central challenge. The thread that ties it together What emerges across these four stories is a single argument made four ways. Identity is something you choose and carry rather than something assigned to you. Africa is plural, not monolithic. And the diaspora's true value is that it sits inside the machinery of global capital while understanding the ground back home. At 29, Ngatcha has built that bridge faster than most. As Brahmi put it, watching her younger colleague work, the energy and commitment to bring African voices to a platform is rare. The conversation has moved decisively away from aid and toward ownership, and these are some of the people doing the plumbing. Guests and links Burrel Ngatcha, Founder and President, African Luxembourg Community Sonia Brahmi, CEO, Kairō (LinkedIn) Dr. Leila Kamara, CEO, Kamara Advisory (LinkedIn) Cheikh Ndiaye, Counsel, Elvinger Hoss Prussen (LinkedIn)

  • July 7 · 55 min

    When Books Become Lifelines, 07/07/2026

    From testicular cancer to children’s stories, book clubs and summer reads, this episode celebrates the healing power of books and community. Books can entertain us, educate us and carry us away for a few precious hours. But sometimes, they help us survive. In this edition of The Lisa Burke Show, Lisa is joined by writer, translator and lifelong bookworm Tom Weber, Mariana Mendes, founder of Between the Lines, and Maïté Ademes and Hendrik Dennemeyer from Luxembourg City Library’s children’s projects team. Together, they explore summer reading, Luxembourg’s open-air library D’Stad liest, the magic of book clubs and the inner strength that reading can give us when life turns serious. The conversation begins with Tom Weber’s courageous account of being diagnosed with testicular cancer very recently aged just 29. What began as pain and a visit to his GP rapidly became blood tests, a urologist appointment, emergency hospital care, surgery and confirmation that two tumours had been found. “Earlier this month, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. And that came a bit out of nowhere. I didn’t see this coming at all,” Tom's candour is striking. The surgery went well, scans showed the cancer had not metastasised, and he is now waiting to see whether chemotherapy will be needed. But his most urgent message is clear: men and boys need to check themselves. “If you do have testicles, do a self-check once a month. And if you feel any sort of hardening, or anything that’s unusual, you should immediately go to your GP.” What makes Tom’s presence so moving is the way he holds fear without being consumed by it. Having previously spoken on the show about his late autism diagnosis, he explains that his philosophy is to focus on what can be done, rather than spiral into what cannot be controlled. “There’s not really any point in worrying about things that you have no control over, because at that point, you’re just adding to it” From there, the conversation turns naturally to reading, as a way to make sense of life and emotions. Tom read voraciously as a child, then lost that habit during depression and personal struggle in his early twenties. After his autism diagnosis, therapists encouraged him to think back to what he loved before masking and social pressure took over. The answer was obvious: books. “I always have a book in my hand now. And it cured a lot of the things.” This is where the episode opens into its wider love letter to libraries. Luxembourg City Library’s D’Stad liest, meaning “the city reads”, began in 2021 during the pandemic years, when open-air cultural life became a way to gather safely. This summer, the open-air library moves to the Grund district, at Place St Ulric, where readers can settle into books and magazines from Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 6.30pm. Hendrik Dennemeyer and Maïté Ademes explain that the library’s children’s mascot, Tuffi the fox, represents their mission to foster a love of reading among children, while multilingual storytelling sessions, author readings and workshops make the library feel alive for families. “Most kids still love books,” Hendrik says, adding that comics, manga and graphic novels remain a powerful doorway into reading. Maïté highlights Saturday morning storytelling sessions, including inclusive events and a new collaboration with the Centre de Logopédie, where stories will also be translated into German sign language. Community is also at the heart of Between the Lines, the English-language book club founded by Mariana Mendes. What began four years ago as an Instagram page, shared with a few friends, has grown into monthly discussions of around 20 to 30 readers. You can follow the club at https://www.instagram.com/betweenthelines.lu/. Mariana speaks about the sensory pleasure of physical books: the touch, smell, colours, covers and bookshop browsing experience that no screen can fully replace. She also organises book swaps, where the exchange becomes personal. “People bring the books that they like and they really want someone else to read it. And maybe it’s not life changing, but I think it gives you a piece of someone else.” In a world often accused of being too digital, Mariana also points out that BookTok and Bookstagram have helped make reading feel social, visible and even trendy again. Tom’s summer reading list brings the episode its intellectual sweep. The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins takes listeners into the Indonesian massacres of 1965 and 1966 and the political shadows of the Cold War. What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama becomes, in Tom’s words, “like receiving a warm hug from a very dear friend”. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado explores psychological abuse in a queer relationship through an inventive literary form. Salt Houses by Hala Alyan follows a displaced Palestinian family across generations, with prose Tom describes as lyrical and deeply moving. Finally, Rob Hopkins’ From What Is to What If closes the show on imagination and possibility. “If we want to create a better future for all of us, we need imagination,” That, perhaps, is the perfect ending to an episode that begins with illness and moves towards courage, community and creative life. Books do not remove pain. But they can give us language, companionship and a way to imagine what comes next. Links Between the Lines Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betweenthelines.lu/ Luxembourg City Library website: https://citybiblio.lu/ Luxembourg City Library Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LetzebuergCityBibliotheque/about/ Luxembourg City Library Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letzebuerg_city_bibliotheque/ D’Stad liest events with Between the Lines: https://citybiblio.lu/event/between-the-lines--d-stad-liest-2 https://citybiblio.lu/event/between-the-lines--d-stad-liest-3 Polly Dunbar at D’Stad liest: https://citybiblio.lu/event/polly-dunbar--d-stad-liest Audrey Martin at D’Stad liest: https://citybiblio.lu/event/audrey-martin--d-stad-liest Ville de Luxembourg newsletter: https://newsletter.vdl.lu/

  • June 30 · 1 hr 59 min

    Asteroid Day in Luxembourg: How Scientists Are Learning to Defend Earth, 30/06/2026

    Four women, three missions, one artist and a comet parked in space. Inside the Asteroid Day Festival episode of The Lisa Burke Show. For the Asteroid Day Festival in Luxembourg, four remarkable women came into the RTL City studio, three scientists and one artist, each travelling through heat, early flights and long journeys because they care deeply about how we explore, understand and protect ourselves from objects in space. My guests were Dr Stefania Soldini, Associate Professor in Space Engineering at the University of Liverpool and Director of the new Zero-G AstroLab; Sabina Raducan, planetary scientist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Royal Observatory of Belgium; Professor Kathrin Altwegg, Professor Emeritus in Space Research and Planetology at the University of Bern; and Aura Satz, a London based artist working with film, sound, performance and sculpture. What asteroids are, and why we chase something so small and so far away An asteroid, as Stefania Soldini explained, is a small rocky object that never became a planet. That is exactly why it matters. These bodies preserve information from the birth of the Solar System more than 4.5 billion years ago. They may carry clues about planets, water and perhaps even how the building blocks of life came to Earth. “We scientists are interested because they retain some clues of maybe how life has been brought to Earth.” Stefania worked at Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, on the famous Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu. Hayabusa2 is still working and will fly past a new asteroid on 5 July 2026. Sending a spacecraft to a body around one kilometre across, about 100 million kilometres away, with a communication delay of around 40 minutes, is engineering on a scale that is hard to hold in the human mind. Hayabusa2 collected material twice: once from the surface and once from below it after creating a crater. Those samples were then returned to Earth, giving scientists access to material from a world we could never touch with human hands. “When you see the object for the first time, you think, oh wow, it’s nothing like we thought it was.” That sentence captures the drama of asteroid exploration. The maths can take you there, the engineering can keep you alive, but the asteroid itself still has the power to surprise you. Hayabusa2 and DART: touching an asteroid, then deliberately hitting one From Hayabusa2, we moved to Sabina Raducan and NASA’s DART mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. This was the world’s first real attempt to deflect an asteroid by deliberately crashing a spacecraft into it. The target was Dimorphos, a tiny moon around 160 metres across, orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos. The spacecraft was moving at more than six kilometres per second and had to find its target autonomously. The main asteroid became visible only about an hour before impact. The actual target appeared only minutes before the spacecraft hit it. “It was a complete success. So we can all feel safe. So far.” It is an extraordinary thing to hear. Humanity has tested a way to move an asteroid. It was real planetary defence, built on decades of maths, modelling, engineering and international collaboration. “The actual target became visible only a few minutes before the impact.” Hera: the European mission going to inspect the aftermath Because DART was destroyed on impact, we still do not know exactly what happened to Dimorphos. Did it leave a crater? Did it reshape the asteroid? How much material was thrown out? How did that ejecta change the momentum of the system? That is the job of Hera, the European Space Agency mission now on its way to the Didymos system. Both Sabina and Stefania work on Hera, which will inspect the result of DART and help turn a successful test into knowledge we can use if Earth ever needs protecting. “We know the asteroid was not completely destroyed. But we don’t know what the crater looks like. If there even is a crater.” Whatever happens in geopolitics, science continues to show what collaboration can look like at its best. Rosetta and the comets: an archaeologist in space Professor Kathrin Altwegg then took us from asteroids to comets. A comet, she said with characteristic humour, is cooler than an asteroid in every sense. It is much colder, around minus 240 degrees, and it contains ices preserved from the early Solar System and beyond. As Principal Investigator for the ROSINA instrument on ESA’s Rosetta mission to comet 67P, Kathrin helped analyse some of the most pristine material we have ever encountered. Rosetta found water, gases, organic molecules and amino acids, the building blocks of life. She was very clear: this is prebiotic material, not life itself. But the implication is enormous. “It’s archaeology, but with a lot of zeros in the years.” For Kathrin, cometary science reaches into the great questions: where do we come from, where are we going, and are we alone? She explained that some of the material found in comets is older than our Solar System. If it is universal, then what happened here on Earth could have happened elsewhere. Her answer on life beyond Earth was characteristically direct: almost certainly yes, but probably microbes rather than life as we are. “A comet is just a more cool asteroid.” Rosetta was also a lesson in human commitment. This was a mission measured in decades: 10 years of planning, 10 years of building, 10 years of cruise through space, two years of measurements, then many more years of data analysis. When I asked how anyone stays committed for that long, her answer was unforgettable. “You get high on comets.” Apophis in 2029, and an honest answer about the risk In 2029, an asteroid called Apophis, around 300 metres across, will pass extremely close to Earth, at roughly the distance of geostationary satellites. Once considered a possible risk, it has now been ruled out as an impact threat. It will not hit Earth. Still, the conversation gave us an honest and useful way to think about risk. Dinosaur scale impacts are extraordinarily rare. Smaller objects, around 30 metres and under, are usually dealt with by Earth’s atmosphere. The objects that deserve real attention are around 100 metres across: big enough to cause serious local damage, but small enough that we may be able to act. “These are the ones that we can do something about.” Kathrin would not offer false comfort for the truly enormous asteroid scenario. Planetary defence is therefore not about panic. It is about seeing early, understanding properly and acting in time, if we can. The artist in the room: how we listen to warnings Aura Satz came into the conversation from a different direction. She is not an asteroid scientist, but her work on sirens, sound and emergency listening felt unexpectedly central to Asteroid Day. Her film Preemptive Listening explores how we hear warnings, how we respond to alarm and whether emergency signals can do more than frighten us. Her work asks a question that belongs in planetary defence too: how do we listen to danger before it is too late? “Does an alarm have to be alarming?” Aura described a siren as a call to attention, something that gives an instruction and points to a possible future. In that sense, an asteroid warning system is also a kind of siren, one aimed not at panic, but at survival. “It points to the possibility of survival.” Her film installation is currently on display as part of the exhibition état bruit at Konschthal Esch in Luxembourg. This is exactly the kind of outreach the scientists said they need. The science is extraordinary, but it has to be heard, understood and felt by the public. Advice for anyone who loves space but fears the maths One of the most encouraging parts of the conversation came when I asked whether there is room in space science for people who are not brilliant mathematicians or engineers. The answer was yes. There is room for communicators, artists, outreach specialists, technicians, geologists, chemists, programmers, observers and people who can help translate difficult science into public understanding. “You don’t have to be very good at mathematics. There are ways around it.” From Stefania and Sabina came advice that applies far beyond space: follow your passion, take opportunities when they come and keep going. In missions that last years or decades, perseverance matters as much as brilliance. One last image: a spacecraft parked in space, waiting My favourite image came from Kathrin. The next comet mission, Comet Interceptor, is planned for launch in 2028 or 2029. But it will not fly to a known target. It will park in space and wait, sometimes for years, for a brand new comet entering the inner Solar System for the first time. A spacecraft, waiting patiently in space for a comet that has not yet arrived. A target that does not yet have a name. “It depends on the patience you have. I told you it’s a fun mission.” So we will keep watching that little parked spacecraft. We will think of these four women, and of everything they have given to science, space engineering, art and public understanding. Asteroid Day is about rocks in space, yes. But it is also about us: how we listen, how we collaborate, how we imagine the future, and how we learn to defend the only planet we currently call home. Links and further reading Stefania Soldini, Zero-G AstroLab at the University of Liverpool: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/research/space/space-robotics/ Stefania Soldini on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-stefania-soldini-42524651 Sabina Raducan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabina-raducan-bb511a71/ ESA Hera mission overview: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera/Hera_mission_overview Kathrin Altwegg and ESA’s Rosetta mission: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosetta Aura Satz: https://aurasatz.com Instagram: @aurasatz Konschthal Esch, Luxembourg: https://www.konschthal.lu

  • June 27 · 57 min

    Luxembourg's Video Game Industry Levels Up, 27/06/2026

    Fred Neuen, Annabel Schoellen, Daniel Klautsch and Monica Serban on the LVGA, indie hits, cosy science games and why everyone is secretly a gamer. Video games are now the biggest entertainment economy on the planet, bigger than music and film combined, and Luxembourg is quietly building its corner of it. I welcomed four guests who each see it differently: Fred Neuen, president of the Luxembourg Video Game Association (LVGA) and the Luxembourg Film Academy; Annabel Schoellen, Secretary of videogames.lu; indie developer Daniel Klautsch of Team Iota; and game developer and environmental economist Monica Serban. I began this interview a reluctant gamer and left convinced I had simply never noticed I was one (in a very tiny capacity). Fred founded the LVGA in 2024 on three pillars: developers, education and the events and e-sports scene. Expecting a handful of local names, he found a thriving ecosystem. Some Luxembourg studios already succeed abroad: Rooftops and Alleys has sold hundreds of thousands of units across PC, PS5 and Switch, while retro specialist Sebastien Kotzka sees his work in Japanese arcades. If Fred is the structure, Annabel is the heartbeat. Through videogames.lu she runs the GamingCafé, a free, near monthly event built around the motto "spill mat," Luxembourgish for "play with us." She was candid about the abuse women still face online, recalling comments like "go back to the kitchen" while leading raids in Guild Wars 2. Yet the room she describes is the opposite of the stereotype: wide ranging in age, increasingly female, and visibly welcoming to its queer crowd. Daniel offered the founder's view. With BTS Game graduates Julie Fies and Steven Van Dorp, he formed Team Iota and released Sacrifice For Sale on Steam, then Switch, PS5 and Xbox. His hardest lesson was that making the game is the easy part, and that zero budget marketing is the steepest climb. The breakthrough came from collaboration, not cash. On AI in coding, he offered a framing worth keeping: "Treat it as a very enthusiastic intern. They will make progress fast, but the accuracy of it will not always be there." Daniel Klautsch Monica made the case for games as a force for change. A screenwriter and lifelong gamer, she uses the cozy live sim format, in the spirit of Stardew Valley, for real scientific communication. In Scarletto Beetle and the Unseen World, built with the Museum of Natural History, the player is a ladybug learning how pollination and ecosystems work. After a Climate Futures game jam, she is now in a French German accelerator and heading to Gamescom in August. What united all four was a sense of standing at a frontier, from gamified education, with professors already using Assassin's Creed to teach history, to the harder questions of addiction and manipulative design. Fred's boldest dream is a curated, Cannes style festival for games, hosted in Luxembourg, possibly next year. "We are all pioneers right now. It's like the Wild West, something to explore." Fred Neuen His definition of a gamer is wide enough to include his own mother, who plays daily Sudoku on her phone. On paper, he admitted, she games more than he does, and I suspect the same is quietly true of many of us. Links and where to follow the guests LVGA (Luxembourg Video Game Association) https://www.lvga.lu Fred Neuen, president of LVGA and the Luxembourg Film Academy Radar: https://thisisradar.com FDI Group: https://www.fdi-group.eu Luxembourg Film Academy: https://filmakademie.lu Annabel Schoellen, Secretary of videogames.lu https://videogames.lu/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/videogameslu Daniel Klautsch, indie game developer, Team Iota Team Iota on X: https://x.com/TeamIotaGames Team Iota on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/teamiota.bsky.social Press kit: https://team-iota.klautsch.lu/press/ Sacrifice For Sale on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2809090/Sacrifice_For_Sale/ Monica Serban, game developer and environmental economist LinkedIn post on the Science Center event: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maria-monicaserban-2a085419_climatechange-euclimatepact-biodiversityactivity-7435435012902039552-QABg

  • June 20 · 56 min

    Miami University in Luxembourg: MUDEC director Raymond Manes retires, 20/06/2026

    As MUDEC's first Luxembourgish Executive Director retires after 24 years, Raymond Manes shares the love story behind Miami University in Luxembourg. For almost six decades, a slice of American university life has been quietly thriving in the Grand Duchy. The Miami University John E. Dolibois European Center, known to most simply as MUDEC, has welcomed students from Ohio to Luxembourg since 1968. This month, its first Luxembourgish Executive Director, Raymond Manes, closes a 24 year chapter as he steps into retirement. He arrived at Miami in 2002, took the helm in 2020, and steered the centre through the pandemic when American students were able to continue their semester abroad while most universities on both sides of the Atlantic had gone fully online. "For me, it's a love story of 24 years. It has been really a wonderful time at Miami. But Miami is not in Florida." That last point is the one Raymond loves to correct. Miami University sits in Oxford, Ohio, roughly halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton, and its name traces back to the Myaamia tribe, whose people were later moved to Oklahoma. The connection runs deep today: tribe members study at Miami with free tuition, and of around 150 who have graduated, 45 have come through Luxembourg. The university's Myaamia Center leads the revitalisation of the tribe's language through dictionaries, educational platforms and storytelling. Luxembourg students are also allowed to study at Miami University in Ohio, with scholarship and tuition waivers. The D in MUDEC belongs to one extraordinary man. John E. Dolibois, a Luxembourger born in 1918, who emigrated to the United States aged thirteen without speaking English, became an American citizen in 1941, and graduated from Miami University. As a US soldier he returned to Europe near the end of the war and became one of the interviewers of Nazi war criminals, first at Mondorf and later at the Nuremberg Trials. The moment that changed everything came on holiday in Venice, when a waiter relayed a phone call from "the President." "He thought it was the president of the university, his boss. He picked up the phone: 'Yes, this is John Dolibois.' 'Yes, sir, this is Ronald Reagan.'" Reagan appointed Dolibois US Ambassador to Luxembourg in 1982, the seed that grew into the centre bearing his name in 1988. Raymond knew him and his wife Winnie right up until his death in 2014, visiting John at his retirement home near Cincinnati, where a glass of Luxembourgish wine would loosen the stories, including the time he interviewed Hermann Göring in his cell. That bond between America and Luxembourg sits at the heart of the programme's founding philosophy, captured in three words: Study, Engage, Travel. The host family tradition was born of gratitude, with Luxembourg families opening their homes to young Americans as a way of saying thank you after the war, and out-of-class learning, from the military cemeteries to the museums of Diekirch and Ettelbruck, remains central. If there is a tension running through American higher education, it is that high tuition turns students, and their families, into clients. Raymond is candid about the pressure that creates, where nearly everyone expects an A, and about the parents who can make an educator's autonomy a daily negotiation. "We call them the helicopter parents, always watching, hovering; and the mowing parents, who try to clear every obstacle from their child's path." Across 24 years, the student has changed too. The year-long students who once crossed by boat, taking classes onboard during the week-long voyage, have vanished, replaced by shorter, faster, more individualised semesters. Cell phones keep students tethered to home, the humanities are quietly retreating, and AI is reshaping the classroom faster than anyone can plan for, a worry Raymond shares with University of Luxembourg Rector Jens Kreisel: nobody knows how to design a classroom for the next five years. What endures is the 13,000-strong alumni network that funds, mentors and champions the centre, and a successor, Stephanie, ready to carry it forward. Retirement, Lisa suggested, need not mean stopping, and Raymond half-promised a draft course on school administration by this time next year. After 24 years of planting a quiet flag for MUDEC, few would bet against him. Watch and listen: The Lisa Burke Show is available on RTL Today, RTL Play, RTL Today Radio (now on FM), Apple Podcasts and Spotify. MUDEC and Miami University Miami in Luxembourg overview: https://miamioh.edu/global-initiatives/miami-in-luxembourg/ Myaamia Center: https://miamioh.edu/centersinstitutes/myaamia-center Follow MUDEC Instagram / Facebook: @mudec_luxembourg TikTok: @miamioh.luxembourg LinkedIn: Miami University John E. Dolibois European Center (MUDEC) in Luxembourg

  • June 13 · 56 min

    The €8.3 trillion question: Can Luxembourg build the talent to match its money?, 13/06/2026

    ALFI's Serge Weyland and McGill's Patrick Augustin on funds, Europe's pension time bomb, and why financial literacy may be its most urgent lesson. Luxembourg is known to many as the heart of European finance, yet the story of how it earned that title is one we rarely hear told plainly. On this episode, I sat down with two guests perfectly placed to tell it: Serge Weyland, CEO of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), and Patrick Augustin, Associate Professor of Finance at McGill University and Director of the new McGill Luxembourg Centre for Finance. The conversation ranged from the founding milestones of the fund industry to the looming pension challenge facing the entire continent, and landed somewhere unexpectedly personal: how few of us were ever taught to handle our own money. The scale of what Luxembourg has built is genuinely difficult to picture. As Serge explained, the industry traces back nearly 40 years, to 1988, when Luxembourg became the first EU Member State to transpose a directive that let an investment fund created in one country be sold across all the others. That foresight attracted the world's major asset managers, and the result today is staggering. The fund industry now employs roughly two-thirds of the 50,000 people working in Luxembourg's financial services sector, an industry that accounts for a quarter of the country's GDP. "Luxembourg today is home to 8.3 trillion. So that's a lot of money." Serge Weyland, CEO of ALFI Serge described the European Passport as one of the great commercial successes of the bloc, and one of its quietest. Of the 25 trillion euros in funds domiciled in Europe, around 6 trillion belongs to investors outside the continent who trusted its regulatory safeguards. It is, in his words, a success story we simply do not hear often enough. For Patrick, the foundation under all of it is not capital or regulation but people. Luxembourg has long held the operational infrastructure, what some politely call the back office, but as markets shift toward private equity, tokenisation and digital assets, the bottleneck changes too. "Talent is the infrastructure of the financial industry. If you don't have good talent, you're at the risk of failing in the longer run." Patrick Augustin, McGill University That is the gap McGill has come to fill. The Centre is a joint initiative with the Ministry of Finance, the banking association ABBL and ALFI, and its flagship offering is a two-year, part-time Master of Management in Finance, taught on weekends by McGill faculty in Luxembourg. Its standout feature is that students manage a real, regulated fund through Desautels Capital Management, filing compliance, executing trades and defending their investment pitches to outside investors who can scrutinise them hard. Patrick put the case for learning by doing with a simple question: if you wanted to learn tennis or the piano, would you watch videos, or would you play? What both guests kept returning to was the ecosystem itself, the close dialogue between academia, industry and policymakers that Luxembourg's flat hierarchy makes uniquely possible. "The secret sauce is the closely knit community. When there is a need for the industry, we know we have a direct line into the legislator." Serge Weyland, CEO of ALFI The conversation then turned to the issue closest to both men's hearts: pensions, and the financial literacy that underpins them. A joint ALFI/McGill study examined how Europeans save, and the numbers are sobering. European households sit on roughly 14 trillion euros in cash and savings, around 41 to 42 percent of household savings, against just 14 percent in the United States. That cash quietly loses value to inflation year after year. The study's counterfactual was striking: if France and Germany alone reformed their pension systems along the lines of Sweden or Denmark, they could unlock an additional 10 trillion euros over time. Sweden, Serge noted, went from funded pensions worth around 12 percent of GDP twenty years ago to roughly 120 percent today, a tenfold rise. Yet none of this works without education, and education, both guests agreed, has to start far earlier than the lecture hall. "Personal finance essentials should be mandatory, bottom up, from an early age, of course in an age appropriate way." Patrick Augustin, McGill University Serge made the point personally. After 40 years in finance, he reckons that had he invested regularly from the start, he would have five or six times the money he has today, simply because no one ever taught him how. The encouraging note he ended on is that the barrier to entry has never been lower. Through tokenisation and fractional fund units, investing can now begin with 30, 40 or 50 euros a month, held in a digital wallet at a fraction of the traditional cost. The technology is still niche in Europe, though already mainstream among retail savers in parts of Asia. We agreed that crypto, stablecoins, the digital euro and tokenisation each deserve a show of their own. For now, the message from both guests was clear: Luxembourg has the capital and the regulation, and with the right talent and the right financial education, it has every chance of future-proofing both its industry and its citizens. Links and further reading McGill Master of Management in Finance, Luxembourg: https://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/programs/mmf/luxembourg McGill Luxembourg Centre for Finance on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mcgillluxembourgcentreforfinance/ Contact the MMF Luxembourg programme: mmfluxembourg@mcgill.ca Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI): https://www.alfi.lu ALFI's investment in higher education: https://www.alfi.lu/en-gb/pages/about-us/what-we-do/investment-in-higher-education ALFI/McGill study, Europe's productive capital gap (2025), and the ALFI Blueprint for Savings and Investments: available via https://www.alfi.lu

  • June 6 · 49 min

    Beauty entrepreneur puts Luxembourg on the business map, 06/06/2026

    Henrietta Orosz reveals how beauty became her business, moving from service-provider to judge, author and inventor. It was a genuine pleasure to host Henrietta in the studio. Her story is a reminder that the most interesting careers are usually the ones that require courage, and that Luxembourg is slowly becoming a place for beauty businesses too. “Beauty is not just surface. It is psychology, communication, self-care and business.” Beauty entrepreneur Henrietta Orosz challenges the idea that beauty is superficial. For her, the beauty industry is not a simple story about lashes, make-up or appearance, but a world of hard business, psychology, precision, communication and self-worth. In Luxembourg, a country better known for finance than beauty, Henrietta is helping to prove that this fast-growing industry deserves to be taken seriously. Born in Hungary and now also Luxembourgish, Henrietta originally trained in economics and worked in marketing. But the traditional nine-to-five path never felt like the right fit. Her entry into beauty began with a personal desire to learn make-up for herself, which opened up an entirely new creative world. “The biggest shift in my career happened when I stopped seeing myself only as a service provider.” Henrietta’s journey has taken her far beyond the service provider model. She is now an international judge, educator, conference speaker, author, competition organiser, app founder and creator of her own CURLx technology. She recently won gold at a major beauty competition in Düsseldorf, representing Luxembourg on an international stage and helping place the country on the beauty map. Luxembourgish make-up artist Luca also won first prize in a different category at this event. Henrietta knows that beauty professionals must never forget the person behind the treatment. In lash artistry it is not enough to focus only on the millimetres in front of you, technique or trends. The work begins with understanding the client’s lifestyle, facial structure, personality and needs. In that sense, beauty becomes a highly personal form of care which can give people confidence and a rare moment away from the visual overload of modern life. Henrietta’s resilience is also deeply personal. Having lost her mother to cancer as a teenager, she speaks about turning pain into power and choosing to live with courage. That same courage shaped her move from employment to entrepreneurship, her decision to compete again after years as a judge, and her willingness to create new methods rather than simply follow old rules. “Creativity requires risk, but staying in the comfort zone can cost even more.” For anyone dreaming of building something of their own, Henrietta’s story is a reminder that niche expertise can become global influence. Beauty may still be underestimated, especially in finance-focussed Luxembourg, but Henrietta shows that with skill, originality and courage, a beauty professional can become an innovator, educator and international voice.

  • May 30 · 57 min

    How do we educate people for a future that no one can predict?, 30/05/2026

    AI, Talent and the Future of Europe: Why Universities Matter More Than Ever As AI reshapes jobs, health and society, University of Luxembourg Rector Jens Kreisel explains why universities matter more than ever. The future belongs to people who can learn, adapt and think critically. That was the central message from University of Luxembourg Rector Jens Kreisel when he joined The Lisa Burke Show for a wide-ranging conversation on artificial intelligence, education and Europe's future. As AI transforms almost every aspect of life, Kreisel argues that universities have never been more important. Their role extends far beyond delivering degrees. They educate future generations, drive research and innovation, connect knowledge with society and increasingly provide lifelong learning for people whose careers will evolve multiple times throughout their lives. "The future challenge is not knowledge alone," he suggests, "but wisdom, ethics and contextualisation." One of the most striking revelations concerns Luxembourg itself. The University of Luxembourg attracts students from more than 100 nationalities and retains around 70% of its graduates after they finish their studies. In a country facing the same demographic challenges as much of Europe, the university has become a powerful engine for attracting and retaining global talent. "We bring them in, and Luxembourg makes them stay." The discussion also explored AI's extraordinary potential in medicine and biology. Kreisel points to breakthroughs such as Nobel Prize-winning AI systems that can predict protein structures at unprecedented speed, potentially accelerating drug discovery and transforming healthcare. Yet he warns that AI also raises profound questions around trust, manipulation, democracy and truth. As machines become more persuasive, the ability to question information may become humanity's most valuable skill. "Universities are not just educating students - they are shaping the future of a country." That is why Kreisel believes the humanities are becoming more important, not less. Historians, philosophers and social scientists are trained to analyse sources, understand context and challenge assumptions: skills that may prove essential in an age of synthetic media, misinformation and algorithmic influence. "Welcome to the club," one historian told university leaders when ChatGPT emerged. "We've been questioning sources for 400 years." "The ability to question information may become humanity's most valuable skill. Humanities may become more important, not less, in the age of AI." Ultimately, Kreisel believes the university of the future must combine deep expertise with intellectual curiosity across disciplines. In a world where careers are no longer linear and technologies evolve at digital speed, success will belong not simply to those who know the most, but to those who know how to learn, think and adapt. For Luxembourg, Europe and the next generation, that may be the most important lesson of all. "Success will belong not to those who know the most, but to those who know how to learn."

  • May 23 · 49 min

    Europe's quiet banker is now buying rocket launchers and bridges, 23/05/2026

    The man who helps finance Europe's defence: Robert de Groot, vice president of the European Investment Bank There is a particular kind of power that comes with someone who decides, quietly, which ideas get funded and which don't. Robert de Groot, and his team, holds that power over an extraordinary range of things: military bridges in Poland, rocket launchers in Spain, satellite-to-smartphone startups in Luxembourg, drone intelligence software in Estonia. As Vice President of the world's largest multilateral lender, the EIB sitting on the Kirchberg plateau, his brief covers security, defence, space, and innovation. It is, as he puts it with characteristic understatement, "quite a new direction" for a bank that, not long ago, wouldn't touch defence at all. That has changed. Dramatically. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EIB has rewritten its mandate, opening five distinct financing pillars across the defence and security ecosystem, from large-scale infrastructure to venture equity for startups building things that didn't exist five years ago. De Groot has spent the last two years touring every European capital, sitting down with defence, finance, and interior ministers, and asking “What does Europe actually need, and can we finance it?” "The urgency I hear in private is far greater than what you see in public." What he found on the road was a continent with a perception gap. The Baltic states are operating in a different psychological reality from much of western Europe. For Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the threat from the east is not geopolitics but geography. However, de Groot is cautiously optimistic. Germany has made a near-complete reversal on defence spending in three years. The Nordics have joined NATO. Ministers of Interior are now showing up to defence finance meetings, because the boundary between military security and civil security has dissolved. Cyber attacks, compromised energy grids, sabotaged undersea cables are happening now. The physical problems, meanwhile, are startlingly concrete. Bridges that cannot carry battle tanks. Ports unable to defend against unmanned underwater vehicles. Roads along NATO transit routes from Antwerp through Germany deep into Poland that haven't been maintained to handle today's military hardware. "It sounds absurd," de Groot says, "until you realise it's a multi-billion euro problem." The financing exists. The fixes are underway. But getting three countries to agree on a shared corridor before one of them goes its own way remains the harder challenge. For innovators and entrepreneurs building the dual-use technologies that now sit at the heart of European defence strategy, de Groot offers a map through the financing ecosystem. Early stage? Venture capital funds backed by the European Investment Fund. Series A and B? Venture debt, a product barely known in Europe five years ago, now scaling fast, with Luxembourg companies OQ Technology and Artec 3D among its beneficiaries. Series C and beyond? The European Tech Champions Initiative, designed explicitly to stop European unicorns from decamping to California. And for defence tech specifically, a new Defence Equity Facility of up to one billion euros: real, patient, European capital, with no American relocation clause attached. "The companies I meet across Europe mostly want to stay. We need to make sure the financing is there when they do." On the day of interview, a loan was signed for the Luxembourg Fire Brigade's logistics infrastructure. Security exists at multiple scales simultaneously, from orbital launch capability to the speed at which a fire engine reaches a crisis. Both matter and both require investment. Both represent the same underlying bet: that Europe, if it chooses to move with enough conviction, is more than capable of defending and financing its own future. De Groot, for his part, seems to believe it. The question, as ever, is whether the institutions can move as fast as the moment requires. Robert de Groot is Vice President of the European Investment Bank, responsible for Security, Defence, Space and Innovation Finance.

  • May 16 · 56 min

    Stop Shouting. Start Whispering, 16/05/2026

    From entrepreneurial burnout to authorship on realignment, Pascal Wiscour-Conter shares his learnings You know that feeling when someone speaks and every single word lands? Not because they're loud or made slick slides or rehearsed an elevator pitch to death, but because you sense they mean it? Pascal Wiscour-Conter calls this alignment and has spent three years building the science to prove it. Pascal is back in the studio: author, entrepreneur, strategist, and the kind of person who once convinced government ministers in a landlocked country to register mega-yachts. His new book, The Culture of Purpose: How to Communicate in the Age of Intelligence, is out now. "Shouting louder does not work anymore. The secret is learning how to whisper: clearly, meaningfully, and with impact." We are drowning in noise: more channels, content, AI-generated everything. And yet, nobody feels more heard. Pascal's counter-intuitive argument, backed by neuroscience, Havas research, and decades of entrepreneurial scar tissue, is that the answer is not volume but authenticity. Specifically: the alignment between what you believe, what you say, and what you do. It sounds simple. Of course it's not quite that simple. The Noble Cause Why do you do what you do? Before there's a pitch, a mission statement, or a marketing budget, there's a why. Pascal calls it the Noble Cause: the thing inside you that, when unfulfilled, leaves you hollow. Pair that with an Aspirational Goal: something that makes you want to get up every morning, and you have the roots of purpose. Here's the twist: you can't think your way to it. Your neocortex, the rational brain, is not where decisions are actually made. That happens in the limbic system, the emotional centre, the part that knows you love someone but can't explain why. "Ask 'why' seven times," Pascal advises. "Keep going deeper. Very often, the real answer takes you back to your adolescence - something that made you suffer, something you've been trying to solve ever since." "People think they rationally made a decision. What really happened is the brain decided emotionally and then rationalised afterwards." The Business Case Purpose isn't fluffy - it's financial. For the sceptics, and Pascal has met plenty, here are the numbers. Havas research shows that purpose-driven, meaningful brands are 100% more effective than their counterparts. On the stock exchange? A 133% premium. The Edelman Trust Barometer maps trust against competence and ethics. Deloitte can now measure it in five specific parameters. This is a competitive edge. Pascal's model, the Tree of Business Life™, maps it visually: roots (your vision), trunk (mission and value proposition), the prism of culture, and two ecosystems in the crown: outward communication to clients, inward communication to teams. When both ecosystems are aligned and self-sustaining, he calls it Comusynthesis™: converting the energy of ideas into the energy of communities. Just like photosynthesis. Just as essential. On AI & Being Human The beast is yours to harness. Pascal is not afraid of AI. He is, however, precise about what it cannot do. Curiosity? An LLM can't wonder. Transcendence? It cannot transpose one idea onto an entirely different domain the way Newton did when an apple fell on his head. Wisdom - the ability to use lived experience to make the right call in a new situation? Distinctly human. "Use AI as a tool," he says. "But harness it. Push the limits further. The questions just get harder, like the day you were allowed a calculator in a maths exam. The test didn't get easier. You just got to solve bigger problems." His term for this? Creative AI, as opposed to Lazy AI, where you prompt, copy-paste, and call it done. One of these will make you obsolete. The other will make you extraordinary. "The next ten years will compress an Industrial Revolution and a Renaissance into one decade. Step out of the comfort zone, or someone will do it for you." Physicians lack of self-compassion? Physicians in the USA have the lowest self-compassion of any workforce. That statistic, shared at a Stanford medical roundtable that Pascal sat on, is the kind of detail that stays with you. People who enter medicine to heal others, hollowed out by a system that forgot to ask why. It is, Pascal argues, the corporate culture problem in its starkest form: the gap between the values on the wall and the values in the room. Luxembourg, by the way, has one of the highest rates of active workplace disengagement in Europe. Numbers from the annual Gallup Quality of Work Life study don't lie, even when they're uncomfortable. The Culture of Purpose: How to Communicate in the Age of Intelligence Pascal Wiscour-Conter · Pascalogy · Published March 2026 · Available in ebook, audiobook, and paperback · https://pascalogy.me/

  • May 11 · 58 min

    Eurovision is never just a song contest, 11/05/2026

    Boycotts, soft power, and sequined bodysuits - the definitive guide to Eurovision 2026 with two of Luxembourg's sharpest voices If you think Eurovision is nothing more than glitter, key changes, and strategic voting between neighbours, think again. Seventy years in, Europe's biggest song contest continues to be fun alongside the loaded messaging and controversy. Five countries are boycotting. The bookies are watching Finland. And Luxembourg's own Eva Marija is about to take a violin to the stage in Vienna and remind the world exactly why this small country has returned. This week, on The Lisa Burke Show, we sat down with two guests who between them know Eurovision inside out: Dr. Dean Vuletic, the world's leading academic authority on the history of the Eurovision Song Contest and author of the definitive book on its political and cultural significance; and Sarah Tapp, RTL Today presenter, graduate student in music business at Berklee College of Music, and the voice behind RTL's Eurovision commentary for the last two years. In this conversation we talk about contest and about what it tells us about the world we're living in right now.

  • May 9 · 1 hr 6 min

    What’s the capital of Europe - where does Europe live?, 09/05/2026

    A film about bureaucracy, jazz, and the story of how three cities:Strasbourg, Luxembourg & Brussels, became the unlikely home of a continent's big idea. It's the founding question nobody thought to ask. Six nations sat down after World War II, determined never to fight again, and forgot to decide where they'd actually meet. In the middle of the night on July 23rd, 1952, exhausted negotiators gave up trying to agree and said: let's just start in Luxembourg and see what happens. That glorious act of improvisation is the beating heart of Europe: Three Cities, One Roof, a new documentary by Luxembourgish director Donato Rotunno that lands just in time for Europe Day. And on this special Friday show, Lisa brings together three brilliant guests to dig into what Europe actually means right now, and what it should mean for the next generation. "We structured 70 years of European integration with a tone closer to a thriller and a crime drama than an institutional film." Donato Rotunno, director The film is extraordinary because it explains European institutions through the story of people who actually built them. Jean-Claude Juncker, Colette Flesch, Louis Michel, Catherine Trautmann: these are political titans, speaking freely now that the cameras of official duty have gone, mostly. What comes out is funny, candid, and unexpectedly moving. And the music? Pascal Schumacher locked himself and his musicians in a studio for three days before a single frame was shot. The jazz score came first: a deliberate choice, because jazz, like Europe, is built on improvisation, risk, and the hope that something beautiful emerges from the chaos. "For once, the music came before the images. Perhaps that is what creates this synergy - a process of trial and error, sometimes haphazard, spanning seventy years." Donato Rotunno On the show, Anne Calteux, Head of the Representation of the European Commission to Luxembourg, unpacks what the EU is actually doing right now, and why this year's Europe Day heads to Wiltz, in the rural north, as part of the campaign Hei & an Europa doheem! (Home here and in Europe). It's a bold, co-created initiative: five graffiti murals spread across the Grand Duchy, from Esch to Dudelange to Bissen, built on a simple truth: Europe isn't just a Brussels thing. It's everywhere, including in the places that rarely make the headlines. And Ellen Spencer brings a brilliant opportunity from the Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts ( https://lu.linkedin.com/company/rcl-hearts). She coordinates Europe 4 Europe ( https://europe4europe.com): a remarkable EU Rotary youth initiative that brings 27 young people - one from every EU member state - on a shared journey through the founding EU countries. The programme fosters connection, intercultural awareness, and civic participation in ways that no policy document ever could. Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts has been a quiet but powerful force behind this kind of grassroots European engagement for years, and Ellen's work is a perfect example of why. The friendships formed along the way, she says, are the most powerful outcome of all. "European identity isn't abstract, it's something young people experience very quickly when they meet, live, and travel together." Ellen Spencer, Europe 4 Europe coordinator, Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts Meet the guests Donato Rotunno - Director & Producer, Tarantula Born in Luxembourg in 1966, Rotunno founded Tarantula Luxembourg ( https://www.tarantula.lu) in 1995 and has produced over 50 feature films. A politically engaged filmmaker, his work on immigration, identity and European politics has twice represented Luxembourg at the Oscars. Anne Calteux - Head of the Representation of the European Commission to Luxembourg One of Luxembourg's most authoritative voices on EU affairs, Anne leads the European Commission's Representation here in the Grand Duchy. This Europe Day she's taking the celebrations somewhere unexpected - to the countryside - to prove that Europe lives in every corner of the country, not just the capital. Ellen Spencer - Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts · Europe 4 Europe A global citizen living in Luxembourg for nearly 20 years, Ellen coordinates Europe 4 Europe ( https://europe4europe.com) through the Rotary Club Luxembourg Hearts network — sending 27 young Europeans, one per member state, on a journey through the founding EU countries. Her mission: reach the young people who don't yet see themselves as part of the European conversation. This is Europe Day as it should be celebrated - a living question. What are we building? Who gets to be part of it? And why does it still matter? Tune in, follow along, and bring a friend who questions Europe. Listen & follow — The Lisa Burke Show RTL Play: https://www.rtlplay.lu RTL Today Website: https://today.rtl.lu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/lu/podcast/the-lisa-burke-show/id1598518705 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/the-lisa-burke-show RTL Today Radio: https://today.rtl.lu/radio

  • May 7 · length unknown

    Stop hiding behind your slides, 07/05/2026

    Dirk Daenen, the man who brought TEDx to Luxembourg, reveals the science and the secrets behind becoming a truly confident speaker. You'd think the man who coaches Luxembourg's most compelling public speakers would have been born fearless on stage. You'd be wrong. Professor Dirk Daenen, communication expert, TEDx Luxembourg organiser, and the person quietly responsible for some of the most-watched talks ever delivered on Luxembourgish soil started out as an introvert dreading the spotlight. In this candid conversation on The Lisa Burke Show, he opens up about fear, failure, the science of self-confidence, and why one talk filmed in front of 75 people in Wiltz went on to rack up 13 million views. If you have ever frozen in front of a room, gone blank at a podium, or quietly vowed to avoid public speaking for the rest of your life, this one is for you. TED vs TEDx: What's the Difference? Most people have heard of TED Talks. Far fewer know what the differential for TEDx is, or how accessible it really is. A standard TED conference ticket starts at around $20,000. You'll be sitting next to the world's most powerful minds, but the barrier is enormous. TEDx events, on the other hand, are independently organised under strict licence from TED, run entirely by volunteers, and designed to bring big ideas to local communities. Here in Luxembourg, that licence belongs to Dirk Daenen, and he has been running it for years. "I'm used to being the smartest person in the room as a teacher," Dirk says with a grin. "And then suddenly I'm surrounded by the most impressive people I've ever met: graffiti artists, photographers, scientists, a Belgian pop star. No money could pay for that.” "Luxembourg is a small country. But the ideas we spread are HUGE. Over 20 million views and counting." The Fear Is Real — and It Starts at School Up to 80% of people report some fear of public speaking. The academic figure sits closer to 40%. But according to Dirk, the number is almost beside the point, because wherever you land on that scale, the roots are almost always the same. "We are doing a quantitative survey right now," he explains, "asking people about their childhood experiences. And what we are finding is that most people who identify as having a fear of public speaking can point to a specific moment at school where it all started.” A teacher who snickered or a classroom that laughed at you. A presentation that went badly and was never properly supported. These are not trivial memories. Dirk calls them out for what they are: trauma. "If you do it badly, you end up with people carrying post-traumatic stress disorder because of something that happened in front of a classroom.” It is why his PhD research [yes, he is also completing a doctorate] focuses on finding the most effective way to teach public speaking to 16-year-olds, with the minimum possible trauma and the maximum boost to self-confidence. His dream: one full year of public speaking on the Luxembourg school curriculum. Not optional. A core subject, like French or German. "Europe's biggest social failure?" he asks. "We have an amazing education system. And yet we do not teach the one skill you need in every single job, every single day." The Science of Self-Confidence Dirk is a researcher as much as a coach, and he brings the science of psychology into every conversation about communication. The key framework he returns to is the work of psychologist Albert Bandura, whose four sources of self-efficacy - your belief in your own ability to do something - underpin everything Dirk teaches. The first and most powerful source is mastery: actually doing the thing and surviving it. The second is vicarious experience: watching someone just like you nail it, and thinking: if they can, so can I. The third is social encouragement: the right kind of feedback, delivered with care. And the fourth is physiological readiness: understanding that the butterflies you feel before speaking are not a warning signal. They are energy. "I still get the butterflies. But I have taught them to fly in formation.” Self-confidence, he explains, is not some vague quality you either have or don't. It is the sum of two measurable things: self-esteem (how much you value yourself) and self-efficacy (how capable you believe yourself to be). Public speaking, done well and in a safe environment, is one of the fastest ways to build both. What Actually Works on Stage So what does Dirk actually tell the people he coaches? Here are some of the most practical insights from the conversation. Your body will move whether you plan it or not. When you're nervous, adrenaline floods your system. Oxygenated blood pumps into your muscles. If you don't channel that energy intentionally, your body finds its own outlet: clicking pens, rotating wedding rings, crossing arms, hands shoved in pockets, the classic 'fig leaf.' The fix is not to stand rigid. It's to plan your gestures in advance. Identify your key words and decide how to show them physically. Do this for six months and those movements become automatic. Preparation is not the same as memorisation. One of the most striking stories in this interview involves Emma Bale, the Belgian pop star who had performed for 60,000 people at Dour Festival but was terrified of a TED Talk. She memorised her speech so perfectly it sounded robotic. The humanity disappeared. Dirk had to coach her to re-introduce vulnerability: a planned, spontaneous-sounding moment at the start. 'It takes a lot of preparation to be spontaneous,' he says. Tony Blair knew this. So did every great performer you have ever admired. The top 10 most-viewed TED Talks have no slides. Think about that the next time you spend three hours building a PowerPoint. Structure matters, yes. But the elements almost nobody teaches: voice, body language, audience engagement, are what people actually remember. The information-heavy slide culture in European education has produced presenters who hide behind their decks. Stop hiding. You are the presentation. Watch people who are like you. Bandura called this vicarious experience. You don't need to imitate a world-famous orator. You need to see a normal person, someone at your level, stand up and do it well. That is why TEDx Luxembourg matters. Local people, on a real stage, sharing real ideas. 13 million views from a room in Wiltz. Proof that it is possible. Just do it. There is no way around this one. Toastmasters. Improv classes. The TEDx stage. The school debate club your child has been avoiding. The skill builds only through exposure. 'I was a chef allergic to food,' Dirk says. 'I ate the food anyway. It wasn't poison. It was the best meal of my life.'

  • May 2 · 1 hr 30 min

    Cycling Across Europe to Fuel Breast Cancer Research, 02/05/2026

    Entrepreneur René Beltjens pedals 7,000km from Estonia to Gibraltar with 2Wheels4Purpose to raise €1 million for breast cancer research at Saint‑Luc. René Beltjens is a brilliant business man, co‑founder of Alter Domus amongst many more accolades, but as a young family man he had to endure the very hardest family situation. His young wife was diagnosed with breast cancer aged just 30 right after the birth of their third child. Due to a new treatment at that time, she was given another few years of life, priceless for their entire young family. René is now giving back to Saint-Luc, the place where she was treated, by undertaking a cross-section cycle of Europe with teammates Sander van der Fluit and Marc Bijlsma to raise €1m towards specific breast cancer research. Two Wheels for Purpose began with a simple dinner between lifelong friends and grew into an ambitious cycling expedition from Tallinn to Gibraltar, 7,000km crossing 22 countries, matching physical endurance with the resilience of patients and families fighting cancer. Professor François Duhoux, Head of Medical Oncology at Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels, will be leading the research project from the money raised. Breast cancer treatment has evolved from a one-size-fits-all model to increasingly personalised care, using tumour characteristics, mutations and 3D organoids, ‘avatars’ of the tumour, to test which drugs may work best before treatment begins. Prof Duhoux also stressed that cancer care is no longer only about treating the tumour. At Saint-Luc’s Institut Roi Albert II, patients are supported by doctors, nurses, psychologists, dieticians, physiotherapists, social workers and volunteers, with art therapy and other wellbeing tools helping patients better tolerate treatment and improve quality of life. “We don’t treat tumours, we treat patients with cancer.” That holistic approach was echoed by Tessa Schmidburg, Secretary General of Fondation Saint-Luc, who described the foundation as a bridge between generosity and progress. She said its role is to accelerate “the excellence and the humanity” of care, supporting medical research, innovation and patient wellbeing through donations from individuals, families and companies. “It’s not a Tour de France Andy, it’s much harder.” Andy Schleck, former Tour de France winner lost his mother quite recently to cancer and in her final year during visits, Andy would always try to transit positive ideas. That was until she told her son that enduring the treatments is much harder than a Tour de France. Andy does have a little cycling advice (and perhaps it’s not just for the road) for René and his fellow cyclists: “When the road is long you go kilometre by kilometre. When the road gets hard you focus on the next corner.” “Cancer is a family disease.” Cancer reshapes family life during the treatment, and also aftwards. René described commuting between Luxembourg and Brussels, protecting weekends as sacred time with his children, and navigating the fear and uncertainty that comes with a diagnosis in the family. He also explained why his daughters’ decisions about genetic screening raised difficult questions about health, privacy and insurance, even though medical guidance strongly supports testing where there is a family history. “The first thing is awareness.” Nimkee Gupta was diagnosed with aggressive ovarian cancer in 2023. She spoke candidly about treatment in both India and Luxembourg, the difficulty in recognising ovarian cancer, and the importance of language in changing how people respond to the disease. Nimkee also speaks about how ovarian cancer and other women’s cancers remain under-researched. Data, scale and gender bias all matter. “There should be no shame through cancer.” Nimkee is passionate about the healing power of music, art, movement and food became part of her recovery, and she described learning to use minimal mobilisation, swimming, and Ayurveda as part of a sustainable approach to wellbeing. The conversation offered a thoughtful reminder that treatment does not end when chemotherapy or similar ends; recovery continues in the body, mind and family circle. Prof Duhoux also highlighted a crucial public-health message: breast cancer screening rates remain too low, and early detection makes a major difference. Beltjens said the goal of Two Wheels for Purpose aims to also create a ripple effect - a community of ambassadors who speak openly about cancer and encourage others to act. Purpose grows when people turn private pain into public progress. https://www.2wheels4purpose.com/ https://www.fondationsaintluc.be/

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