Filling the Sink

Independence campaigns in Scotland and Catalonia – siblings or distant relatives?

Pro-independence parties in Scotland and Catalonia have enjoyed success in recent elections, but how much do the movements have in common and where do they go from here?  
Lorcan Doherty is joined by Laura Pous, Business and International Editor at the Catalan News Agency (ACN), and Guifré Jordan, Deputy Editor of Catalan News, to compare and contrast the independence campaigns in Catalonia and Scotland. 
With contributions from Esquerra Republicana MEP Jordi Solé, Scottish National Party MP Gavin Newlands and University of Glasgow Lecturer in Politics Robert Liñeira. 

Covid-19, Summer '21 and the end of the state of alarm

At midnight on Saturday night, May 8, the state of alarm in force for more than six months comes to an end. From May 9, there's no more curfew, bars and restaurants can open until 11pm and travel in and out of Catalonia is allowed again.
Scarlett Reiners and Cillian Shields join Lorcan Doherty to discuss the latest measures and the Covid situation in hospitals. With restrictions easing and the vaccination campaign stepping up, they look at how summer 2021 and the festival season is shaping up. 
Alan Ruiz Terol visits Catalonia's largest mass vaccination site, the Fira de Barcelona exhibition center, capable of administering 20,000 jabs a day. 

Last orders – Barcelona bars and restaurants' pandemic struggle

Cafe culture and eating out are at the heart of the Barcelona lifestyle, but the Catalan capital's bars and restaurants - all 9,000 of them nearly - have had a tough year trying to survive amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 
Roger Pallarols from the Barcelona Restaurant Association explains why he thinks the measures have been too restrictive and the financial help insufficient. 
Alan Ruiz Terol talks to the owners of two of his favorite spots about their struggles – Rafel Jordana of La Bodega d'en Rafel and Mario Pérez Ruiz of 7 Vides bookstore who used to run Pizzes l'Àvia in the Raval neighborhood. 
Cristina Tomàs White, Cillian Shields and Lorcan Doherty remember some of the iconic restaurants lost to the pandemic and ask whether the return of tourists to the city will be enough to ease the sector's woes. 

A wind farm off the Costa Brava - the debate is on

Catalonia needs to transition from 20% to 50% renewable energy by 2030 to meet its climate change goals but plans for an offshore floating wind farm in the Gulf of Roses have been met with opposition from environmentalists and businesses reliant on tourism.  
Cristina Tomàs White travels to Roses and Empuriabrava to find out what locals think and along with host Lorcan Doherty discusses the pros and cons of the debate, according to Parc Tramuntana project director Sergi Ametller, Sergi Saladié from the University of Rovira i Virgili and environmental activist Raúl Domínguez from IAEDEN-Salvem l'Empordà. 

Sant Jordi's Day – books, love and roses

April 23 is one of Catalonia's most important dates of the year, when the country celebrates its patron Sant Jordi (Saint George) in unique style. Love is in the air as people browse street stalls to buy books and roses as gifts for their loved ones. 
In this episode of Filling the Sink, writer, publisher and director of the Institut Ramon Llull, Iolanda Batallé Prats, joins Guifré Jordan and Lorcan Doherty to discuss what makes Sant Jordi such a special day and explains how Catalan literature is going from strength to strength as more and more works are published in English translation. 
The acclaimed Catalan writer Marta Orriols reads from her novel Learning to Talk to Plants (Aprendre a parlar amb les plantes), winner of the 2018 Omnium Prize for Best Novel, the NoLlegiu Prize, and the Illa dels Llibres Prize for Best Novel of 2018. Excerpt in English read by Scarlett Reiners. 
For a comprehensive list of books that have been translated from Catalan into other languages including English, go to Institut Ramon Llull's website. 
 

The truth about Catalonia's witches and witch-hunts

Sònia Casas from the Barcelona-based history magazine Sàpiens joins Alan Ruiz Terol and Lorcan Doherty to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the story of witch-hunts in Catalonia. As a recent Sàpiens issue dedicated to the subject puts it: They weren't witches, they were women. 
Pau Castell, a historian at the University of Barcelona who has dedicated his career to studying witches, talks about his research.  
Filling the Sink recreates the seventeenth-century trial of Elisabet Cerdana, which took place in the village of Castellterçol in central Catalonia. 

How religious is Catalonia today?

In the space of a generation the religious landscape of Catalonia has changed utterly. The number of atheists, agnostics and non-religious has skyrocketed as the influence of the Catholic Church has waned since the transition to democracy. 
At the same time, Catalonia is becoming more religiously diverse, with migration driving the growth of evangelical congregations and Islam. 
Dr Mar Griera, the director of ISOR (Research in Sociology of Religion) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, explains the reasons behind Catalonia's rapid secularization.  
Cristina Tomàs White and Cillian Shields join Lorcan Doherty to discuss Catalonia's current religious makeup and look at some of the Easter traditions that are still going strong. 

The crown in crisis: Corruption scandals rock the Spanish monarchy

Spain's royal family has been rocked in recent years by wave after wave of scandal and controversy. The former king, Juan Carlos I, fled to the United Arab Emirates last August amidst ongoing corruption investigations. 
In this episode of Filling the Sink, Swiss journalist Sylvain Besson describes how he broke the story of how Juan Carlos received 100 million dollars from Saudi Arabia and hid them in Switzerland. 
Cristina Tomàs White speaks to Albert Calatrava, one of the writers of The King's Armor (L'Armadura del rei), a book that examines how Spain has protected its scandal-ridden monarchy for the past four decades, turning a blind eye to its sins.  
Guifré Jordan and Alan Ruiz Terol join Lorcan Doherty to discuss the rise and fall of the monarchy's popularity, the current crises engulfing the crown, and whether there could be a republic in the future. 
And with the crown having the lowest approval rating in Catalonia out of any institution – 1.86 out of 10, according to the Center of Opinion Studies (CEO) – Scarlett Reiners asks the people of Barcelona what they think. 

First Catalan nanosatellite in space - small step, giant leap or a load of hot air?

As Catalonia launches its first nanosatellite, science writer and educator Joan Anton Català Amigó joins the Filling the Sink team to talk all things space. 
Catalan Digital Policies minister Jordi Puigneró defends the formation of the Catalan Space Agency and explains that it's clearly not "a Catalan Nasa." 
Alan Ruiz Terol takes a visit to Montsec Observatory and Astronomical Park in western Catalonia, where the nanosatellite – named Enxaneta – will be controlled from after taking off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 
And with Nasa's Mars Perseverance rover toiling away on the red planet, Dr Carolina Arnau Jimenez tells Cristina Tomàs White how the European Space Agency's research at the Autonomous University of Barcelona could pave the way for humans to follow suit in the future.  
Presented by Lorcan Doherty. 

Covid-19 – impact one year on and hopes for the future

Exactly twelve months on from the declaration of the state of alarm and first lockdown, a look at what's changed, what's stayed the same and what could happen in the months ahead.
Salvador Macip, a doctor, scientist and writer originally from Catalonia and now based at the University of Leicester gives his view on the vaccine rollout, the new variants, and the easing of measures in Catalonia compared to the UK.
Cillian Shields joins Lorcan Doherty to look at the trends in the current coronavirus figures and discuss the upcoming changes to Covid restrictions from March 15 and at Easter.
Cristina Tomàs White reflects on the social and economic impact of the pandemic. 

Gender inequality - at work, at home and during the pandemic

Ahead of International Women's Day on March 8, a look at the ongoing fight for gender equality and the impact the pandemic has had on women. 
Plus, four Catalan women – Núria Obiols Vives, the head of the maritime authority in Tarragona; Helena Guillén Díaz, a livestock farmer in the Pyrenees; Núria Martínez López, a process engineer in the automotive industry; and Montserrat Corominas, a businesswoman in Switzerland – on their experience as women working in sectors traditionally dominated by men.  
Laura Pous, Business and International Editor at ACN (the Catalan News Agency), and Cristina Tomàs White, Catalan News journalist, join Lorcan Doherty in Episode 18 of Filling the Sink
 

The wizard, the vampire and the curse – Dark tales from Barcelona's Old Town

Cillian Shields on the medieval wizard Astruc Sacanera. Still talked about 600 years later, he gave his name to a magical street in the city's Gothic Quarter, Carrer d'Estruc.
Maria Jesús Navarro from CultRuta recounts a dark tale of kidnapped children, of blood and bones and the bourgeoisie. Just over one hundred years ago, Catalan society was gripped when a young girl, Teresita Guitart, went missing. It's the story of Enriqueta Martí, The Vampire of Raval. 
Scarlett Reiners tells of the curse afflicting one of Barcelona's most iconic buildings, the Liceu. Burned down and bombed over the years, are the many disasters that have befallen the famous opera house the result of upsetting some angry monks? 
Presented by Lorcan Doherty. 
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Music: Vanishing by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4578-vanishingLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license