MCC Brussels Podcast
Discussions, event recordings, and updates from the team at MCC Brussels – the home for genuine policy deliberation about the EU and an in-depth exploration of the key issues facing Europeans.
Episodes
112 episodes
Why The Establishment Fears Populism
Britain’s political class thought populism could be contained through censorship, speaker bans and moral blackmail. Instead, the revolt is spreading.In this episode, host John O’Brien is joined by Frank Furedi and Richard Schenk to exami...
The Brexit Revolt Is Back I MCC Brussels Podcast
In this episode: Has Reform UK’s surge shattered Britain’s old Labour-Conservative order? Are the UN and EU using migration policy to weaken national control over borders? And has Eurovision become yet another stage for anti-Israel politics?
Germany Is Becoming Ungovernable I MCC Brussels Podcast
Germany’s governing centre is cracking, Europe’s energy follies are becoming impossible to ignore, and Brussels is spending millions telling citizens it protects democracy.In this episode, we ask whether Friedrich Merz survive Germany’s ...
Can Anyone Stop the EU Commission? I MCC Brussels Podcast
The European Commission has mutated from a body of cooperation into a monster that even its own founders no longer recognise.Host Jacob Reynolds is joined by Carl Deconinck of the Brussels Signal and MCC Brussels’ Richard Schenk...
Child access to trans ideology: The EU’s new “right"
The European Court of Justice has issued a first-of-its-kind ruling against Hungary, declaring its child-protection laws in breach of “fundamental EU values”. Celebrated in Brussels as progress, it raises a more troubling question: has the Cour...
The EU’s plans for Hungary after Orbán I MCC Brussels Podcast
Viktor Orbán’s 16-year tenure with a landslide victory. While the Berlaymont and the European mainstream celebrate the fall of their favourite villain, the MCC Brussels team digs into the uncomfortable reality of what this means for the Europea...
How Patriots Forced Deportations Back onto the EU Agenda I MCC Brussels Podcast
Brussels does not change course lightly. When it does, it is usually forced. This week, something shifted. Jacob Reynolds is joined by Marieke Ehlers MEP and Agnieszka Kołek to dissect a rare moment where the European Parliament mo...
Why Social Democracy Is Dying Across Europe I MCC Brussels Podcast
Europe’s old parties are losing their voters, free speech is coming under pressure, and trust in the media is collapsing.In this episode, we look at three fault lines running through European politics. Why are the old social democratic ...
The Hollow Flag: Why No One Will Die for Brussels | Deep Dive
While the Brussels machine churns out endless reports on "Strategic Autonomy," the reality on the ground different. Professor Bill Durodié joins us to expose the cavernous gap between EU security rhetoric and the stark reality of a continent th...
Don’t blame Iran war for Europe’s energy disaster I MCC Brussels Podcast
The war in Iran didn’t create Europe’s energy crisis, it hit a continent already drowning in Green energy chaos and sky-high taxes. This week on the podcast, John O'Brien sits down with Rebecca Mistereggen and Richard Schenk to discuss the ener...
The EU Commission’s War on Hungary I MCC Bussels Deep Dive
Brussels is terrified of a nation it cannot control. While the Euro-elites plot to unseat Viktor Orbán through legal warfare and funded proxies, Professor Werner Patzelt joins Richard Schenk to reveal the truth behind the "Brussels vs. Budapest...
Brussels’ Dirty Tricks Campaign Against Hungary I MCC Brussels Podcast
In this episode, we talk about the EU’s unprecedented digital interference in the Hungarian election, the undemocratic "Cordon Sanitaire" rigging French local politics, and the shameful rise of anti-Semitic violence in Belgium and the Netherlan...
Ireland: Europe’s capital of Woke Authoritarianism I MCC Brussels Deep Dive
The Ireland you remember- high-trust, community-led, and fiercely independent - is being systematically dismantled. Dr Eoin Lenihan joins John O'Brien to expose the "vandalism" of a nation by an elite class that never asked for the public’s per...
What’s the Endgame in Iran? | MCC Brussels Podcast
In this episode, we dissect the "asymmetric mayhem" of the Iranian conflict, the erratic "geopolitical" flip-flopping of Ursula von der Leyen, and the disturbing attempt to institutionalise the Cordon Sanitaire in Belgium. ...
Why the EU is Irrelevant in Iran | MCC Brussels Podcast
While the world burns, the technocrats are busy drafting press releases for a Monday that never comes. Host Jacob Reynolds is joined by MCC’s Richard Schenk and Jerzy Kwaśniewski (President of the Ordo Iuris Institute) to e...
Why Orbán says NO to Ukraine aid
Viktor Orbán is once again enemy number one in Brussels. This time, it’s because he has promised to halt EU aid to Ukraine until oil starts flowing again through a pipeline controlled by Ukraine. Is this “big bad Orbán” spoiling the EU’s ...
Marco Rubio’s Tough Love for Europe | MCC Brussels Podcast
This week, we ask whether anyone in Brussels is really listening to America’s wake-up-call, the chilling impunity of Antifa violence in France, the "Two-Speed" trap of the E6, and the populist earthquake in Japan. Host Jacob Reynolds is joined ...
Brussel's Great Anti-American Deflection
In this episode we talk about the EU’s cynical anti-American deflection strategy, the regulatory "death-loop" strangling the European economy, the "Poland Playbook" being readied for the Hungarian elections, and the collapse of the Franco...
Replacement Migration: From Conspiracy to Policy?
This week, we dismantle a three-pronged assault on the European way of life: leftist politicians who plan to import a new electorate, the EU's sorry dependency on rivals, and plans to further restrict the internet. Host Jacob Reyno...
What’s Really in the EU-India Agreement
In this week’s episode, MCC Brussels tears into Brussels’ trade-deal frenzy from Mercosur to India, the capital’s 600-day political paralysis, and Trump’s Peace Board challenge to the tired old international order.Jacob Reynolds, Head o...
Davos: Globalist Theatre Meets Geopolitical Reality
In this week’s episode Jacob Reynolds, with Richard Schenk and Carl Deconinck, cuts through the Davos charade, the EU’s flailing response to Trump and Greenland, and Brussels’ latest attempt to muzzle free speech via its crusade against X.<...
The Soft Power Delusion: Europe’s Arctic Wake-Up Call
When the world gets serious, the Berlaymont gets nervous.Greenland gets leaned on, farmers get sold out, and Hungary gets “managed” like a hostile province.John O’Brien sits down with Richard Schenk and Agnieszka Kolek to ...
The EU’s Quiet Power Grab | Deep Dive
Brussels insists it only acts where member states allow it. MCC Brussel's Deputy Research Director Philip Siegert shows that is simply untrue. h exists down with John O'Brien to talk about his latest report: Empire of Law: Pushing ...
Gender Studies vs Reality: The Flat-Earth branch of Academia | Deep Dive
This week, MCC Brussels’ John O’Brien sits down with Leonardo Orlando. He is an evolutionary psychologist, co-author of Sex, Science and Censure, and one of the harshest critics of gender ideology in Europe.Orlando makes a simple ...
2025: The year the people found their voice | MCC Brussels Christmas Special
This week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Pieter Cleppe and Anthony Gilland to review 2025 – the populist surge, the elite fightback on speech and elections, and Europe’s growing weakness from Washington to Ukraine.Populists surge – and th...