The Low Countries Radio

The Burgundian state in the mid-fifteenth century looked, from the outside, like one of the most formidable powers in Europe. But power is always partly performance, and behind the tapestries, the tournaments and the gilded ceremonies of the Order of the Golden Fleece, something was quietly comingapart.

Philip the Good ruled over a sprawling collection of territories  (Flanders, Brabant, Holland, Hainaut and more) that shared little beyond a common ruler. To hold them together, he built an ambitious centralising bureaucracy, appointing loyal outsiders as stadhouders to govern provinces on his behalf and restructuring the Chambers of Accounts. His most significant innovation was the Great Council, which became the highest court of appeal across all his lands, displacing local autonomy in favour of ducal authority. This bred real resentment among cities and nobles accustomed to governing themselves.

Dutch history, as we know it, leaves a lotunsaid. The voices of women, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ communities are toooften missing from the mainstream narrative. Elyzabeth Gorman is here to changethat. A former New York theatre professional turned Amsterdam tour guide, shedigs through the city’s archives to uncover the hidden and erased stories of the past. With her company Badass Tours, she brings these powerful narratives back to life. In this podcast, Gorman takes us deep into the queer history of the Netherlands.www.the-low-countries.com/podcast

Nestled in the leafy suburb of Tervuren just outside Brussels, the AfricaMuseum has long stood as a monumental symbol of Belgium’s colonial past. Founded in 1898, the museum once served as a powerful propaganda tool in the service of King Leopold II’s imperial ambitions in the Congo and Central Africa. Today, however, the institution finds itself at the centre of a very different mission: decolonisation. In this podcast, Bart Ouvry, Managing Director of the Africa Museum, speaks candidly about the challenges of leading this transformation.

On a crisp October morning, history came alive under the vaulted ceilings of Amsterdam's City Archives. A modest parchment, locked away for centuries, brought us face-to-face with the city's ancient origins. Known as the Toll Exemption Privilege, this document—dated 27 October 1275—marks the very first mention of Amsterdam. In this podcast, senior curator Erik Schmitz explains the significance of the Toll Privilege, describing it as "a tangible link to the foundation and resilience of the city," that now celebrates its 750-year jubilee. www.the-low-countries.com/category/podcasts

What is the difference between 'Dutch direct versus Midwest nice'? How do I survive the citizenship test in the Netherlands? What does the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration) have to do with the American Declaration of Independence? Why is pinda kaas not actually cheese? Is there such a thing as a single Dutch identity? Why is modern American culture more indebted to the Netherlands than we might think? Get the answers from comedian and author Greg Shapiro a.k.a. The American Netherlander a.k.a. the voice of Donald Trump in the "America First, the Netherlands Second" video. Greg shares his uniquely American insight into the Netherlands' history and culture, especially how the country relates to the United States. www.the-low-countries.com/podcast www.gregshapiro.nl photo Greg Shapiro © Adrie Mouthaan

They both lived during the Dutch Golden Age, grew up in Leiden, were taught by the same painter, shared a studio, received all the praise, and painted the rulers of their time. And yet, Jan Lievens is not as famous today as his friend Rembrandt. In this episode of The Low Countries Radio, we reconstruct the lives and works of these two giants of art, showing how trends and the zeitgeist can drive or hinder an artist's career, but how their legacy is bound to the whims of fate and fortune. Welcome to the world of the Dutch Masters. www.the-low-countries.com/podcast

In this episode, 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski talks about his spectacular escape from a deportation train to Auschwitz, why he befriended the son of Flemish Nazi supporters and reminds us why we must remain vigilant against political extremism. www.the-low-countries.com

In this podcast, we talk to Christine Kooi, professor of European History at Louisiana State University, about the turbulent Protest and Catholic Reformations in the Low Countries of the sixteenth century. In her latest book Reformation in the Low Countries 1500-1620, Kooi covers the key moments of both the Protestant and Catholic Reformations as they unfolded in both the Northern and Southern Netherlands in the sixteenth century. Synthesizing fifty years' worth of scholarly literature, the Canadian-American author and academic with Dutch roots focuses particularly on the political context of the era: how religious change took place against the integration and disintegration of the Habsburg composite state in the Netherlands. Special attention is given to the Reformation's role in both fomenting and fuelling the Revolt against the Habsburg regime in the later sixteenth century, as well as how it contributed to the formation of the region's two successor states, the Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands. www.the-low-countries.com

Why is the tulip a Dutch symbol even though this colourful flower comes from the Ottoman Empire? Why did owning tulip bulbs show your status and luxury in the 17th century? Why did a famous surgeon have his surname changed to Tulip? And to what economic disaster does Tulip Mania refer? In this podcast, we dig up the bulbs of the past, trim the stems of historical myth and emerge with a lustrous vase of understanding as to where the tulip came from, how it came into vogue in the Dutch Republic and what place the flower holds today in the Netherlands. Do you want to know more about Flemish and Dutch history and culture? Visit www.the-low-countries.com.