Latest / 20 Percent Berlin Podcast / #32: Union's female coach, failing referendums, murderous doctor

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#32: Union's female coach, failing referendums, murderous doctor · 20 Percent Berlin Podcast

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Hello and welcome to the 20% Berlin podcast,
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the companion podcast,
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the 20% Berlin newsletter.
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SPEAKER_00: I am co-founder and co-writer Andrew Boakley.
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SPEAKER_00: And I'm joined as always by Maurice Frank.
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SPEAKER_00: It's Maurice Frank, right?
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SPEAKER_00: Is that the new running joke?
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SPEAKER_00: Maurice Frank?
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I just think it's funny how you have a German last name and a
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British first name.
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SPEAKER_00: Maurice Frank.
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SPEAKER_00: Things happen.
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SPEAKER_00: Maurice Frank.
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SPEAKER_00: Maurice Frank.
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SPEAKER_01: I was born a German expert in England.
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SPEAKER_00: You know,
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SPEAKER_00: we,
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SPEAKER_00: at this media thing,
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SPEAKER_00: we had a big discussion about expat that we don't say expat anymore.
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SPEAKER_00: And now everybody says internationals.
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SPEAKER_00: And I think like,
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SPEAKER_00: I think it's kind of funny because we need,
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we're obviously something like we're a group of something and
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you have to define it
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SPEAKER_00: somehow.
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SPEAKER_00: And I think like, okay, call it internationals.
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SPEAKER_00: And in 10 years we can argue why that's elitist and not the right term.
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SPEAKER_00: We'll come up with another term.
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SPEAKER_00: It's like,
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you remember when craft breweries were called microbreweries
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and we had to change
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SPEAKER_00: the name for some reason.
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Yeah,
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it's because the craft breweries got big,
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and now they're going away again.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, because they got all bought up.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00: And they all taste the same.
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SPEAKER_01: I don't care about the expat, immigrant, migrant, internationals debate.
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SPEAKER_01: I just don't care about it.
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SPEAKER_01: I don't either.
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SPEAKER_01: It's weird.
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SPEAKER_01: Say whatever you want.
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SPEAKER_01: That's what I think.
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SPEAKER_00: I feel like you've got to identify somehow, pick a word.
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SPEAKER_01: But apparently, anyway.
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SPEAKER_00: I just use my name when I identify myself.
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SPEAKER_00: But what is your name?
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SPEAKER_01: Maurice, except to my family.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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SPEAKER_01: How are you doing, Andrew?
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SPEAKER_01: What's going on?
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SPEAKER_01: Hey, you must be loving the maths government.
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SPEAKER_01: You must be loving the tank rabat that you're going to get in May.
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SPEAKER_01: I don't even really pay attention to it at this point.
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SPEAKER_01: You as a diesel driver are going to be paying $0.17 million.
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less per liter wow i tell you it's like two we had this
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discussion this weekend we
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visited some friends on the island of pearl which by the way in
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their backyard it
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was timmy the whale so i got to see did you see the whale i
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actually saw the whale
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i have now seen i have now seen a humpback whale and a gray
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whale live uh in the
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ocean okay so i did see timmy the whale we had this discussion
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that neither of us
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none of us actually pay attention to the cost of gas because
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you have to buy it
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SPEAKER_00: it's like you don't pay attention to it and now suddenly we are
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SPEAKER_01: I mean, 17 cents is not that much.
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SPEAKER_01: It's still like way over two euros a liter.
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SPEAKER_00: It was down at like, I think 160 or 180 a liter or something.
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SPEAKER_00: And now it's up.
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SPEAKER_00: I think I paid 215 this weekend.
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SPEAKER_01: I mean, do you drive, find yourself driving slower because of it?
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SPEAKER_00: No,
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I drive slower just because I'm a human and I don't need to
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prove my masculinity on
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SPEAKER_00: the Autobahn.
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SPEAKER_01: Okay.
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SPEAKER_01: All right.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00: No, I don't.
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SPEAKER_00: I think there should be a speed limit on the Autobahn.
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SPEAKER_00: I think guns should be illegal in America.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, they shouldn't be illegal, but they should be much more regulated.
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SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so no, but I actually, I used to like driving long distances.
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SPEAKER_00: I really
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SPEAKER_00: like to road trip, but Deutsche Bahn has cured me of that.
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SPEAKER_00: I would much rather take a train.
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SPEAKER_01: Road trips in Germany are no fun because of the lack of a speed limit.
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Sometimes you're on a two-lane Autobahn and you want to go
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faster than the trucks,
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SPEAKER_01: but you don't want to go 220 in the left lane.
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SPEAKER_01: So you're always weaving between the really slow lane and the death lane.
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SPEAKER_01: It's quite relaxing.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
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SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I had to drive back from Polo this weekend.
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SPEAKER_00: What was I saying?
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
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SPEAKER_00: so I guess I'll be enjoying a tanker,
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SPEAKER_00: but I'm actually,
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SPEAKER_00: like,
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SPEAKER_00: there's no reason for me to have that car.
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SPEAKER_00: I have that car, there's no reason.
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SPEAKER_01: Sell it.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, no.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, because the problem is, my kids have driver's license.
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When they're here,
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they like to drive,
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and that's a liability nightmare,
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rental cars and stuff.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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SPEAKER_01: So much for Generation Greta.
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SPEAKER_01: Like, don't they care about pollution and climate change?
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I think you have a fatalistic view of it.
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SPEAKER_00: It's like they're not the ones who ruined the world.
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SPEAKER_00: They're happy to do what they can.
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SPEAKER_01: My daughter still insists on taking the train everywhere in Europe.
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SPEAKER_00: You can.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean, the thing is, it's not like flying is convenient.
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SPEAKER_00: Like getting to BER is not convenient.
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SPEAKER_00: And then wherever you land,
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SPEAKER_00: then you've got to figure out how to get from that airport into the city.
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SPEAKER_00: Right, but she's doing an internship in northern Sweden.
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SPEAKER_01: So taking the train there took two days.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay, that's a pain in the ass.
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SPEAKER_01: Anyway, do you want to hear about my life?
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SPEAKER_00: Well,
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SPEAKER_00: I was going to,
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SPEAKER_00: you were just,
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SPEAKER_00: you were in a foreign country that,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: you don't like people to know about your travel.
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SPEAKER_00: So I guess you're not, you're back from the foreign country.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was in a foreign country.
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SPEAKER_01: Um, but something interesting happened, uh, to me the other day.
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SPEAKER_01: Um, I heard about, you know, Dietzeit, the German newspaper, uh,
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as a new search engine to find out whether your relatives were
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in the NSDAP,
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SPEAKER_01: the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Weiterpartei,
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SPEAKER_01: aka the Nazis.
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SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh yeah, I had some relatives who were around back then.
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But then I realized that actually some of these archives are
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actually freely
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SPEAKER_01: accessible without getting its site subscription.
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SPEAKER_01: So I ended up going into the National Archives of the United States.
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SPEAKER_01: Which they just opened a couple weeks ago.
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SPEAKER_01: Oh,
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and probably the site just got an AI thing and then sucked up
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the stuff from the
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SPEAKER_01: National Archives.
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SPEAKER_01: So anyway,
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SPEAKER_01: in the National Archives,
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I discovered my grandfather's membership card for the National
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Socialist Party.
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SPEAKER_00: Was he still alive?
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SPEAKER_00: No.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, then you can't go kill him.
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SPEAKER_01: I mean, I knew he was a Nazi and he wasn't a mega, super convinced Nazi.
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SPEAKER_01: He was more of like a military man.
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SPEAKER_01: I don't want to excuse anything he did or didn't do.
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SPEAKER_01: Was he in the SS?
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SPEAKER_01: No.
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SPEAKER_01: No, he was an officer in the Wehrmacht.
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He was involved in the invasions of France,
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North Africa,
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Greece,
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and Russia.
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SPEAKER_00: Wow.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
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SPEAKER_01: But anyway,
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SPEAKER_01: when in the age of 19,
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SPEAKER_01: sorry,
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SPEAKER_01: at the age of 19,
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SPEAKER_01: when he lived in Berlin,
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SPEAKER_01: Tegel,
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SPEAKER_01: he joined the Nazi party.
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SPEAKER_01: Wow.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay.
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SPEAKER_00: In 1934.
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Oh,
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that was,
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you know,
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if you were going to join it,
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that was a good time to join it.
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SPEAKER_01: I mean, I asked my mother about it.
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She said,
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well,
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he was in the scouts and basically you had to join if you're in
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the scouts.
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were the scouts called hitler youth i think no they this is
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just when they changed
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SPEAKER_01: the name to uh hitler youth from scouts to hitler youth so that may be an
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explanation he's not around i can't ask him my uh in-laws were
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it's a military
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family they weren't officers they were just grunts and uh i
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knew that my i guess i
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knew that my grandfather-in-law never met the guy uh was in the
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army or in the he
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SPEAKER_00: was actually in the wehrmacht he was in the nazi army and then after
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SPEAKER_00: when his wife died,
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SPEAKER_00: my grandmother-in-law,
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SPEAKER_00: we were cleaning out their house and found bunches of pictures.
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And there's a picture of him and his Wehrmacht buddies like in
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1944 standing there
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SPEAKER_00: in all their Wehrmacht uniforms.
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And then there's another one of them,
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the same guys in 1950 in their Bundeswehr uniforms.
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SPEAKER_01: Very nice.
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SPEAKER_00: I was not allowed to take the two pictures with me.
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SPEAKER_00: I felt betrayed.
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SPEAKER_00: Nobody, I guess I didn't know he was in the Wehrmacht.
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SPEAKER_00: But there,
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SPEAKER_00: I mean,
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SPEAKER_00: when you visit old Germans,
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there's always pictures of Nazis on the wall because that was
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the last picture they
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SPEAKER_00: had of people who died.
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SPEAKER_00: Maurice is showing me,
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SPEAKER_00: for people on the podcast,
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SPEAKER_00: he's showing me his grandfather's NSDAP membership card,
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SPEAKER_00: written in hand,
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SPEAKER_00: entered the 1st of October,
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SPEAKER_00: 1934.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he was a member 1,998,192.
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I mean,
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I'm not proud of this,
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but there's a certain aspect to Germans digging up this stuff.
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SPEAKER_01: It's sort of like some kind of strange frisson that they get out of it.
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SPEAKER_01: Like, my Nazi relatives are worse than your Nazi relatives.
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SPEAKER_00: I am actually connected to history.
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So it's like you're just trying to trump each other with your
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Nazi relatives.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's gross, but I can't say it's not fascinating.
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SPEAKER_01: It gives me goosebumps as well to see the actual document.
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SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to make of it.
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SPEAKER_01: I actually now,
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SPEAKER_01: in the spirit of family research,
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I have sent in an application to the Federal Archive to get his
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documents related
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SPEAKER_01: to his time in the Wehrmacht.
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SPEAKER_01: So that's going to be interesting.
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SPEAKER_01: I sent it away today.
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SPEAKER_00: Good heavens.
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SPEAKER_00: Good heavens.
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SPEAKER_00: This sounds like an Update Germany post.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's my other newsletter, folks.
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SPEAKER_01: So yeah, Update Germany.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to our podcast.
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SPEAKER_00: Talking about Berlin news.
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SPEAKER_00: What do you got for us today?
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SPEAKER_00: Or I guess I could do the little summary that we do every time.
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We're going to talk about a palliative hospice doctor in Berlin
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who's on trial for
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SPEAKER_00: killing 15 people.
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SPEAKER_00: He probably killed a lot more people.
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SPEAKER_00: Union Berlin has the first female coach in the Bundesliga.
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SPEAKER_00: And actually, well, we'll talk about it in a minute.
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SPEAKER_00: What do you got for us?
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SPEAKER_00: You love this true crime shit, don't you?
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SPEAKER_00: It doesn't.
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SPEAKER_00: And I've noticed statistically our readers don't.
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SPEAKER_01: Okay.
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SPEAKER_01: Still, you know, it's not all about making them happy.
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SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
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SPEAKER_00: It's about making us happy.
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SPEAKER_00: You're going to talk about two agendas that are failing in Berlin.
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SPEAKER_01: And also the dire state of the tourism industry.
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SPEAKER_00: Should we lead off with the true crime and just get that out of the way?
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
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SPEAKER_00: So a palliative hospice doctor in Berlin,
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SPEAKER_00: his court case started last fall for murdering 15 people,
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SPEAKER_00: first degree murder.
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He was just injecting them with muscle relaxants that would
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make them die as he was
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SPEAKER_00: caring for them.
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New information came out last week because the cops tapped his
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phone in jail and he
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SPEAKER_00: would talk with his wife.
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And we finally have a motive because he has not talked to
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investigators at all.
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He told his wife basically he was doing it because he thought
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that part of medicine
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SPEAKER_00: should be killing people who have no hope.
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SPEAKER_00: There's no possibility.
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SPEAKER_00: There were mercy killings is what he basically said.
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What's kind of creepy is that you're saying this with a smile
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on your face.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah.
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SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not at all.
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I was actually thinking about our conversation before where you
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were like,
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SPEAKER_00: they have phones in prison?
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SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of thinking, yeah, I guess they do.
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SPEAKER_00: But I mean, they have a pay phone on the wall, right?
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SPEAKER_00: And they just talk.
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SPEAKER_00: And how do you not know that they're not listening to you?
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SPEAKER_00: Like, it's a given that the cops are listening to you talk to your wife.
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SPEAKER_00: Dottenschutz?
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SPEAKER_00: Because he also,
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SPEAKER_00: then he also was trying to get her to find out how if they could,
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SPEAKER_00: if he could hide some of his other tracks.
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SPEAKER_01: So he told his wife about it?
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were talking about it.
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SPEAKER_01: He's like, well, I just thought I should do the favor.
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SPEAKER_01: I tried to help them.
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SPEAKER_01: Are they still together?
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SPEAKER_00: Apparently.
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And he was trying,
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but then he was also trying to get her to help cover up
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evidence.
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So he obviously knows there's more things out there that they
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could find out.
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SPEAKER_01: I mean,
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if this was somehow some kind of assisted suicide and the
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patients are somehow
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SPEAKER_01: involved in it,
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SPEAKER_01: or at least the relatives of the patients,
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SPEAKER_01: I would have some understanding.
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He claims that he talked to them before and got their approval
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to kill them.
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SPEAKER_00: But some of these people weren't even like,
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SPEAKER_01: In Germany, you have to have it in writing.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, anywhere you'd have to have it in writing.
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SPEAKER_00: You'd have to probably have a psychological profile before you could...
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's grim.
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SPEAKER_01: So what, 15 people?
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So he's in jail for life,
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which means like 10 years in Germany,
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in like a jail without walls.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, an open, an open on shot.
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SPEAKER_01: With like a nice gym and a swimming pool.
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SPEAKER_00: Work release.
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SPEAKER_00: I don't think they're not that.
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SPEAKER_00: I did a story with the BBC once on a work release.
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SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that nice.
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SPEAKER_00: Like it was an open prison, they call it.
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SPEAKER_00: So you go out the day, you just have to come back at night.
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SPEAKER_01: It's still prison, you know?
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SPEAKER_00: That's what we asked one woman.
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SPEAKER_00: She said, it's still prison, man.
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SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be here.
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SPEAKER_00: You're stuck here all weekend.
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SPEAKER_00: Like weekend's what you want.
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SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I don't know.
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SPEAKER_00: He'll probably get life, which is 23 years.
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SPEAKER_01: I mean, assisted suicide or assisted dying or whatever.
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SPEAKER_01: It's actually a weird gray zone in Germany.
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SPEAKER_01: I did an article about it for the Daily Mail of all people.
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And yeah,
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it's like pretty much you can just become a freelance
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euthanasist.
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SPEAKER_01: Like you don't have to have a qualification.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Remember Kevorkian in America?
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SPEAKER_00: Basically, just team up with a lawyer.
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SPEAKER_00: You can be anyone.
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SPEAKER_00: Just team up with a lawyer and you can do it.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you can't get the drugs.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: You can order them from other countries.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wait.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: I got to plug this in.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're not recording?
11:17
SPEAKER_00: I am recording.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: I just got to plug.
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SPEAKER_00: My power is dying.
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SPEAKER_01: But that was kind of dumb.
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SPEAKER_01: I mean,
11:23
SPEAKER_01: just from a purely logistical point of view,
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SPEAKER_01: that he told his wife about it on the phone.
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SPEAKER_00: That's what they were saying.
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SPEAKER_01: Well, he sent little WhatsApp voice memos.
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SPEAKER_01: Oh, he did it while he went from jail.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Oh, so you're ready.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: All right.
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SPEAKER_01: Well, how did he, how did they catch him the first time?
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SPEAKER_00: It just,
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SPEAKER_00: I think people just started noticing that like,
11:43
SPEAKER_00: an awful lot of your patients are dying and then they- Well,
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SPEAKER_01: it is a hospice.
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SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to die.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, but like, I mean, there's gotta be some statistic, right?
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SPEAKER_00: And then just like,
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and then they started doing autopsies and they had weird drugs
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in their systems,
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SPEAKER_00: I think.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: What do you got for us, Maurice?
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, tourism is down.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it has not recovered to its pre-corona levels.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: Apparently in English, we don't say corona, we say COVID.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sorry.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but we were here during COVID, so we say corona.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like we say Beamer, even though we made a projector.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, tourism is down.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: 2.5% over 2024.
12:21
SPEAKER_01: Is that what it is?
12:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:25
SPEAKER_01: So in 2025,
12:27
SPEAKER_01: there were 29.4 overnight stays,
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SPEAKER_01: which is down 1.2 million overnight stays over 2024.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's not growing.
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I mean,
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it's not a massive drop,
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but Berlin seems like it's no longer trendy.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: I think it's still trendy.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: It just didn't have the super duper hype it once had.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Now it's like,
12:46
SPEAKER_00: it's on everybody's map,
12:47
SPEAKER_00: kind of like how New York and Paris and it wasn't like,
12:49
SPEAKER_00: I have to go to Berlin and then I can go to my B sites.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Like now it's just part of the...
12:54
I mean,
12:54
people are saying that one of the problems is there are not
12:57
enough flights coming here.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Not enough long haul flights, like from the US, from Asia.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the story.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: The story you wanted to talk about, or did you want to talk about that?
13:08
SPEAKER_01: Oh,
13:08
SPEAKER_01: well,
13:08
SPEAKER_01: I also wanted to talk about,
13:09
SPEAKER_01: yeah,
13:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
13:10
the story I really wanted to talk about was the fact that the
13:12
Berlin government
13:13
SPEAKER_01: has,
13:14
SPEAKER_01: despite these numbers,
13:15
SPEAKER_01: has approved 116 new hotels,
13:19
SPEAKER_01: like the construction of 116 new hotels,
13:22
SPEAKER_01: with a total of 8,100 new beds,
13:25
SPEAKER_01: which is just freaking crazy and totally pointless.
13:29
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you just, I don't know, what about the housing problem?
13:32
SPEAKER_01: Like, why doesn't anyone have like the big picture in view?
13:35
SPEAKER_00: I think those are two different things.
13:36
Actually,
13:37
this is kind of like a media story of like,
13:38
it sounds really good.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you doing?
13:40
SPEAKER_00: You're approving all these hotels.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: That's the job.
13:43
Somebody submits a construction application and you're at the
13:46
construction
13:46
SPEAKER_00: department and your job is to say,
13:48
SPEAKER_00: can we have a hotel in this location?
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes or no?
13:51
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Like zoning,
13:52
like that you're going to re rezone a commercial area into
13:56
residential is a whole
13:57
SPEAKER_00: different ball game.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Like, so there's 160 hotels to begin with.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: Nobody says they're all going to be built.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And then if,
14:03
SPEAKER_00: uh,
14:04
tourism is coming down and if we like Schadenfreude as much as
14:06
we apparently like
14:07
SPEAKER_00: Schadenfreude,
14:07
SPEAKER_00: then that means some of these hotels are going to fail.
14:09
So it's a nice story and it's nice thing to get outraged about,
14:12
but that's just what happens.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: It's just to build them.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: So, but the bigger problem is bad planning.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
14:19
SPEAKER_01: if you're a city planner or like the urban planning senator,
14:24
you should have like a big overview of what's going on in terms
14:30
of tourism,
14:31
SPEAKER_01: hotels,
14:32
SPEAKER_01: housing,
14:32
SPEAKER_01: industry,
14:34
SPEAKER_01: commercial space.
14:35
And it should be sort of like somehow meet the needs of the
14:38
market as it exists,
14:40
right?
14:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's capitalism's job.
14:43
But there's no free market in housing because it depends on
14:46
whether or not
14:47
SPEAKER_01: bureaucrats will provide you with permits.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: But this is the horrible,
14:50
SPEAKER_00: the horrible thing,
14:51
SPEAKER_00: and it drives me nuts,
14:52
SPEAKER_00: is that nobody is doing anything about the residential problem.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
14:55
And the hotel thing,
14:56
like,
14:56
that's their job,
14:56
is just to approve these things.
14:57
And whether these hotels open or not,
14:59
whether they're successful or not,
15:00
that doesn't matter.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: The problem is not the hotels.
15:02
The problem is none of the politicians have done anything about
15:05
the housing problem.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: The red,
15:06
SPEAKER_00: red,
15:06
SPEAKER_00: green,
15:07
SPEAKER_00: and this stupid Deutsche Wohnen and Agnen issue,
15:11
SPEAKER_00: which is,
15:11
SPEAKER_00: it will never happen.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: It's just a waste of time and energy.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And nobody is doing anything else about it.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: We tried the...
15:20
rent the meat price bremser we tried this like to fix rental
15:24
costs these things are
15:25
not going to work what you need to do is speed new
15:27
constructions but there need to
15:29
be more apartments you don't need to control the market you
15:31
need to flood the
15:32
market and the best thing about doing that would be that then
15:36
these uh residential
15:37
companies these landlords would go out of business because
15:40
rents would drop but
15:41
SPEAKER_00: nobody's doing that nobody is doing that we're not doing a thing about it
15:44
Well,
15:44
maybe if fewer tourists come here,
15:46
then fewer people will move here.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: That would be the hope.
15:50
Maybe Berlin will become passé,
15:52
and then...
15:53
People are having fewer babies.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: Already Kitas are like...
15:55
SPEAKER_01: Exactly, yeah.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: So, I also say build more high-rise, more skyscrapers...
16:02
SPEAKER_01: Like, definitely surround Tempelhoferfurt with skyscrapers.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: I totally disagree with that.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm kidding.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Not surround it, but at least it's a few.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: We just need more residential.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: And why, like, okay, now we supposedly have the...
16:17
turbo permit process like that you can get a permit quicker so
16:21
you can build more
16:22
quickly and they were heralding it last week because there's a
16:25
project here by me
16:26
on Geiswalder Straße that they're going to allow it to go
16:29
through the turbo
16:29
permitting process but they've been arguing with that guy for
16:32
15 years and he's
16:33
just wanted to build and they've been fighting with him and
16:35
arguing and discussing
16:37
and it's like oh but now you're going to permit it quickly
16:39
you've been nothing but
16:41
a stone in his path for 15 years and now you're like oh let's
16:44
do it quickly the
16:45
SPEAKER_01: authorities
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the politicians have just been in his way for 50 years.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: He could have built that thing.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: It could already be built.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: It could already be there.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: We could already have the 400 new apartments he's building.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: Oh, so it's a pretty large project.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and he agreed to build a school, a gymnasium with it.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: He agreed to have 30% social apartments, so cheap apartments.
17:01
SPEAKER_01: So what's the sticking...
17:04
It's just been a huge argument for all along about,
17:06
are you going to do this?
17:07
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to do that?
17:07
SPEAKER_00: No, you can't do it that way.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: You can't put...
17:11
SPEAKER_00: You can't put windmills on the roof to generate.
17:13
SPEAKER_01: You can't put windmills on the roof.
17:15
SPEAKER_01: That sounds like a good thing.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: No, they don't allow that.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: That might be my body or something.
17:19
It's just like everything had to be huge discussion and delay
17:21
the project.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: And there's six months.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: That's the problem.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Those are the things you need to get rid of.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: Like even just having like,
17:27
SPEAKER_01: now they're going to have digital applications for permits,
17:29
but that won't make a difference because it's still going to
17:31
take them forever to
17:32
SPEAKER_01: like go through those applications.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, they're going to print them out.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: That just means you get to email,
17:36
you get to have a submission form and then they print them out
17:38
and put them in a
17:39
SPEAKER_01: binder for years.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Like that's nobody's, and nobody's doing anything about that.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: And that drives me insane.
17:45
So I think the hotel thing is funny and it's,
17:47
you're like,
17:47
oh,
17:47
what are you doing?
17:48
SPEAKER_00: But like, that's just a job.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: So make up prove these things.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: But okay.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: They are taking up valuable land hotels, right?
17:53
SPEAKER_01: If they're building new builds.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's commercial property.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: If you want to rezone it residential, that's a whole other problem.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
17:58
SPEAKER_01: we were talking about how you should,
18:00
SPEAKER_01: like,
18:00
some people are retrofitting empty office spaces and then
18:05
turning them into
18:05
SPEAKER_01: apartments.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: And you said that's really difficult from a technical point of view.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: It's still pretty cheaper than building new places.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand building.
18:14
I don't know how you calculate that thing,
18:15
but I think now you've got to drill through cement.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: They aren't all new builds.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I think that's also misleading in these things.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: They aren't all new builds.
18:23
Half of the new hotel beds in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg are for
18:27
a hostel where
18:27
SPEAKER_00: they're converting an office building into a hotel.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay, fair enough.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: That's why I think this whole permit thing,
18:33
SPEAKER_00: when I started to read it after you said it,
18:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm like,
18:34
SPEAKER_00: it's kind of misleading.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: You think they're going to build 150 new hotels,
18:38
SPEAKER_00: fresh ground,
18:38
SPEAKER_00: and that's not actually what's happening.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe tourism will go up eventually too.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: So maybe they're just.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything has a peak, right?
18:46
Like there's just a certain,
18:47
the only or certain number of tourists can come to Berlin.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Like it's not like it could keep growing forever.
18:54
I guess tourism,
18:56
I guess hotel prices will go down and there's more hotels.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm saying.
18:59
And so then some of them won't be built and some of them will
19:01
go bankrupt.
19:02
And then maybe you could make more of an argument for
19:04
converting a hotel to micro
19:06
SPEAKER_00: apartments than you can in office buildings.
19:08
They're trying to lure younger,
19:12
more socially conscious tourists here by copying Copenhagen.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: In Copenhagen, there's this scheme called cope and pay.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: Basically,
19:21
SPEAKER_01: if you do good things like pick up trash or help out,
19:25
SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
19:26
SPEAKER_01: help out at some kind of non-profit for a day.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: Feed a homeless man.
19:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you'll get like a free meal.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: And so they're going to launch a thing called Berlin Pay.
19:35
SPEAKER_01: Not really very imaginative the way they copied that,
19:38
SPEAKER_01: but they're going to launch that in the summer.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: Because apparently everything these days you're supposed to have,
19:45
SPEAKER_01: like everything you do is supposed to have an impact.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: You know,
19:47
SPEAKER_01: you're supposed to,
19:48
SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
19:48
like you can't just go and hang out and enjoy yourself and just
19:53
be wasted for like
19:53
SPEAKER_01: three.
19:54
You're the one who loves renting the kayak that you get for
19:56
free if you pick up
19:57
SPEAKER_00: trash while you do it.
19:58
Yeah,
19:58
that was going to be my bear's knees,
20:00
but I guess I can say it now.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: Save it for your bear's knees, it's fine.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: I have another one too.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, green kayak.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: Green kayak is a great thing.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: Also from Copenhagen.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: Basically, it's for free.
20:10
You get a kayak for free and you have to agree to pick up trash
20:14
in the water.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: You have like one container full of trash?
20:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I did it two times in Copenhagen.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: I've done it once in Berlin.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: We went stand-up paddling.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: What the hell were we doing?
20:23
I think we were trying stand-up paddling,
20:24
which I think is the most ridiculous sport.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: And the green kayaks were right next to it.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, here.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: I thought of you as we did this.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: It used to be in Schönevalde.
20:33
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, Schöneweide.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: And now it's moved somewhere in Friedrichshain.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere more realistic?
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because that was the thing.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: We were in Schöneweide.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: It was like way down there.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I think the bookings for green kayak begin in May 1st.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: So give it a try, guys.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: You heard it here.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Moving on.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: What's your next story, Andrew?
20:51
SPEAKER_00: Union Berlin appointed the first female trainer last week.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Marie-Louise Eta, she's the first head coach.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: They had their first game this weekend.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: They lost to Wolfsburg.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: In English, we call it a manager.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: And in German, they called it a trainer.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whatever.
21:06
It's also like one of these English words that we don't really
21:10
use in English.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: It's weird.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: She's the one who's running the team.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, coach.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say coach.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: It's a coach.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she's not doing the business of it.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: No.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: A manager in the US is the person doing the business.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she was deputy trainer.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so she just got promoted because they fired the other trainer.
21:23
They are,
21:24
they're not,
21:25
they always say like they're in danger of being relegated.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: They're like in the relegation, relegation spot.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Like they're not,
21:32
SPEAKER_00: they're not like they,
21:33
SPEAKER_00: if everything has to go really wrong for them to get relegated,
21:36
but nobody wants to be down there because the Bundesliga
21:38
doesn't matter anyway
21:38
SPEAKER_00: because Bayern Munich always wins it halfway through the season.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: What's her name?
21:42
SPEAKER_00: What's her name?
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Marie-Louise Etter.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Marie-Louise Etter.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
21:47
SPEAKER_01: apparently she got a bunch of sexist abuse online immediately after the
21:51
SPEAKER_01: announcement,
21:52
SPEAKER_01: which is pretty pathetic.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: But, you know, Union, how shall I put this?
21:59
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they are from Koepernick.
22:01
There's a certain contingent of Union fans,
22:03
which are a little bit like skinhead adjacent.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm surprised it's the first woman.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: I would have thought there would have already been one 10 years ago.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: There hasn't been.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: There hasn't been one,
22:11
SPEAKER_01: well,
22:12
SPEAKER_01: coaching of a men's team,
22:14
SPEAKER_01: but it's the first woman of a major team in all of Europe.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: I would not have thought that.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: If you had asked me, I would have said that.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: There's probably the third one.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: But how many women are coaching American football teams?
22:24
SPEAKER_00: I think we had one head coach of NFL team.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: I think there was one female NFL.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: That's a good point.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: Or NBA or whatever.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: But well, women's sports is kind of like up and coming now.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: And so you're going to get some crossover, I would think.
22:37
And then my other thing is people love all the people who move
22:40
to Berlin love to
22:41
SPEAKER_00: think that Union Berlin is the St.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: Pauli of Berlin.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: And it just isn't.
22:46
Like of the few Stasi people I know in this city,
22:49
they're all Union Berlin fans.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's Stasi money behind that club.
22:53
SPEAKER_01: You mean like our ex-boss?
22:55
SPEAKER_00: For example, our ex-boss.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: And like, and it, and racism is never very far in any union event.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to idealize them.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: Definitely not.
23:04
I feel like these British people moved here who grew up with
23:06
having footy and it
23:07
SPEAKER_00: was super important in their lives and they need to have a hometown team.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: And they were like, well, here it is boring.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to go with the union because it's kind of exciting.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: Jake Sweetman works for them.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: I know.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: Like their English press guy.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh, wait a minute.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Was he actually, anyway, I think I might've met him accidentally.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: Great guy.
23:21
but I think they're all lying to themselves they're like the
23:23
gentrification team
23:24
like they came up as Berlin came up Union Berlin came up and I
23:28
think partly because
23:29
of all these British people that moved here and were looking
23:31
for a side don't
23:33
British people say side that they could be behind and that team
23:36
is not it well it's
23:38
not Hertha either Hertha's just boring but they're at least
23:40
solide they're at least
23:41
solid I mean I think Union's doing better than Hertha yeah
23:44
they're Hertha's second
23:45
league yeah yeah and Hertha is pathetic to see Hertha play in
23:49
the Olympic stadium
23:50
SPEAKER_01: as well
23:50
It's also just crazy that the capital of the third or second
23:54
largest economy in the
23:55
SPEAKER_00: world has just not a good team.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Just garbage.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think it was the last few years, they did show some promise.
24:03
Their first season in the primary in the Bundesliga,
24:05
they did well after that.
24:07
SPEAKER_01: But neither you nor I were that into football, let's face it.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: I could, but if São Paulo was here, maybe I would be more into it.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: I,
24:14
SPEAKER_01: you know,
24:14
SPEAKER_01: I have been to one,
24:15
I've been to one Union match and it was when they were during
24:19
the renovation of the
24:19
SPEAKER_01: stadium.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: So they were doing the, they had a match in the Hallpark stadium.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: And what I found really great was at the very beginning of the song,
24:29
SPEAKER_01: they always play this Nina Hagen,
24:31
SPEAKER_01: sorry,
24:32
SPEAKER_01: at the beginning of the match,
24:33
SPEAKER_01: they play this Nina Hagen anthem.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh,
24:36
SPEAKER_01: and everyone's shouting like,
24:37
SPEAKER_01: it's kind of like,
24:39
SPEAKER_01: you know,
24:40
that kind of like that sort of euphoria that you get into when
24:43
everyone's shouting
24:44
SPEAKER_01: the same thing.
24:45
I think this goes back to that little,
24:46
uh,
24:47
registration paper you showed me in the beginning.
24:49
It's like a little Nazi,
24:50
like everybody's just standing in a,
24:51
in a stadium.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a human thing.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: I think,
24:55
SPEAKER_01: um,
24:56
SPEAKER_00: have you ever been to,
24:56
SPEAKER_00: you know,
24:57
it's also kind of creepy when you go to like a German hip hop
24:59
show and then the
25:01
SPEAKER_01: audience,
25:02
they start like chanting something and like raising one of
25:05
their hands in a weird
25:06
SPEAKER_01: way.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that far off.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: You're just talking about a group.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that just human nature?
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Humans like to chant things in groups.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: I guess so.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Probably.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: And Hitler knew how to weaponize that.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: I think it's relatively harmless in football.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: I mean, though it can go into the direction of racism.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, congratulations, Frau Eta.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, surprise.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: And actually,
25:34
SPEAKER_00: I listened to a report on the game,
25:36
SPEAKER_00: the Wolfsburg game,
25:37
SPEAKER_00: and they were calling her Frau Eta.
25:38
And I thought you would never call a male coach Herr Evo
25:41
Oswaldo or something.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: You know, you would never say.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: Wait, does she win her first game?
25:44
SPEAKER_00: No, they lost, which is not helping the situation.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: It's not just about the coach.
25:47
SPEAKER_01: It's also about the players.
25:49
Usually when you appoint a new trainer,
25:50
coach,
25:51
manager,
25:51
you win the first game.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: That's like a thing.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: Like you usually win the first game after, no, they lost.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Which then,
25:57
SPEAKER_00: because they're in this like near relegation area,
26:00
SPEAKER_00: if they had won,
26:01
SPEAKER_00: they would have been out of it.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: They would be staying in the league for next year.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: But now they're still in it because of the loss.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: She only has a contract for the rest of this season though.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll see how she...
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Does she better win this weekend?
26:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who they're playing.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: That is fascinating.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: Um, well, I guess at least Berlin can be proud that it has its first.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: I think that's good.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: And it,
26:20
SPEAKER_00: you know,
26:21
SPEAKER_00: it does,
26:21
SPEAKER_00: it does bolster their image as the San Paoli of Berlin,
26:23
SPEAKER_00: but they just are not that.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: And also actually I thought like.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: San Paoli is what?
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Can you explain the San Paoli?
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Super left wing club.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: Like their logo basically has a rainbow in it.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: In Hamburg.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: In this, then they're like the red light district area of Hamburg.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Their, their stadium is just right off the Reeperbahn.
26:41
uh it's a but they're super left wing they're super open
26:44
sometimes to a fault and
26:46
they're uh they're under 21 trainers gay i think they're
26:49
there's their symbol is
26:51
like a pirate's flag isn't it yeah it is the skull and
26:53
crossbones yeah uh yeah but
26:57
but then i was also thinking actually but that they're an east
26:59
german club and they
27:00
appointed a woman is not so far from the east german like east
27:03
german supposedly
27:05
SPEAKER_01: they didn't have sexism that's complete nonsense but
27:08
SPEAKER_00: But they,
27:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
27:09
SPEAKER_00: it was like a part of their culture,
27:10
SPEAKER_00: theoretically,
27:11
SPEAKER_00: probably because they just needed workers,
27:13
SPEAKER_00: anybody with two hands.
27:14
Though most of the leadership positions were filled by men in
27:17
East Germany.
27:18
But so I thought it's not that far off brand for an East German
27:21
club to appointing a woman.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: What else do you have for us?
27:25
SPEAKER_01: My second story is about these two referendums.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about them previously.
27:31
In Berlin,
27:34
you can launch a citizen's referendum if you get a certain
27:37
number of signatures.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: There's two phases and
27:40
SPEAKER_01: These two referendums are in their second phase.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: They both need to collect 174,000 signatures by the 8th of May.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: And so the first referendum is one called Berlin Autofrei.
27:55
So Berlin,
27:56
car-free Berlin,
27:58
which is in essence phasing out most car traffic out of the...
28:05
SPEAKER_01: Like in inner city.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Within the S-Bahn ring,
28:09
people who own cars would only be allowed to drive their cars
28:11
within the S-Bahn
28:12
SPEAKER_00: ring 12 times a year.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: I think the same applies for people who use car sharing.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Really?
28:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how you're going to monitor that.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: It seems like a bureaucratic nightmare.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: You have to chip people or get an app on your phone that tracks you.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: How's that going to work?
28:27
SPEAKER_01: Some kind of AI surveillance thing?
28:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: And anyway, so I'm kind of in favor of this, at least in theory.
28:34
Um,
28:35
but in a way,
28:37
instead of doing that,
28:38
just get rid of all the parking spaces.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: It's a, it's a ridiculous proposal.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: And I'm all for things that are like pointing in a direction.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Like we're going to set and make a sign.
28:45
We're going to show this,
28:46
but it's a ridiculous proposal,
28:47
which you're already talking about.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: And they even,
28:49
SPEAKER_00: the thing about both of these referendum,
28:51
SPEAKER_00: we can get the second one,
28:52
SPEAKER_00: this one,
28:52
SPEAKER_00: the first thing they said is we launched this referendum and
28:54
Now we're going to run a bus and drive around the city and try
28:57
to drum up support,
28:59
which,
28:59
okay.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: Like a stinky old diesel bus.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: Well,
29:01
SPEAKER_00: what you think like,
29:02
SPEAKER_00: okay,
29:02
SPEAKER_00: they're a boss,
29:02
SPEAKER_00: it's mass transit,
29:03
SPEAKER_00: but they're,
29:04
SPEAKER_00: they're only highlighting the importance of individual mobility.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: They need individual mobility to go support, get their
29:09
own support like they're renting basically a car to drive
29:12
around and get signatures
29:13
which shows how ridiculous the idea is i i'm a car owner i wish
29:17
cars have so much
29:19
advantage in berlin it makes me sick it drives me nuts i don't
29:21
know why there isn't
29:22
at least one street and every block that's like closed to car
29:25
traffic give it back
29:26
to the people other cities have shown the way like for example
29:30
london has a
29:33
SPEAKER_01: Congestion charge.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: Congestion charge.
29:35
SPEAKER_01: You pay like eight pounds if you want to come into the inner city.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: If you're already there, maybe you don't have to pay it.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: Or if you have an electric car, you don't have to pay it.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: Paris has just increased parking fees if you have an SUV.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: They've made more pedestrian streets.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: There are friendly ways of doing it.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: That's why this thing is just so out there.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: It's so ridiculous that no wonder it's not getting any support.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
29:58
SPEAKER_01: now the CDU for its next election campaign is already saying,
30:03
SPEAKER_01: like,
30:04
SPEAKER_01: one of their slogans is,
30:06
SPEAKER_01: Auto Frey Frey,
30:07
SPEAKER_01: or something.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Well,
30:08
SPEAKER_00: the other problem with this thing is...
30:09
SPEAKER_01: Like,
30:10
SPEAKER_01: get rid of...
30:10
SPEAKER_01: Like,
30:11
SPEAKER_01: yeah,
30:11
SPEAKER_01: just be free of that car-free...
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Theoretically,
30:14
SPEAKER_00: the CDU would not be allowed to have election posters right now,
30:18
SPEAKER_00: but because of this referendum,
30:19
SPEAKER_00: they can put posters up opposing it.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: So now the city is covered in CDU and AFD ads,
30:25
which otherwise would not be allowed right now because they're
30:28
just opposing this
30:29
SPEAKER_00: referendum.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: And they're, I mean, they're using it beautifully.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: They're exploiting a loophole, which Autofry gave them.
30:35
That said,
30:36
I think if we had intelligent politicians,
30:39
we could do more to reduce traffic.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: We 100% should.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: Don't even get me started on the far side of bike streets.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: I mean, every city in Europe is doing a lot to reduce traffic.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: And here it's like some kind of like ideological fight.
30:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:55
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
30:55
Like this whole thing about pedestrianizing Friedrichstrasse
30:58
that we had a few years ago.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: It's insane.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Like it's a central shopping street.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: Just block cars.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: Don't put temporary furniture.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: Just do it.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: Pave it over.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: Like put some, I don't know, there's some
31:09
SPEAKER_00: It's not a central shopping street.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: That mall there is gone.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: They were purely doing it, trying to make it a central shopping street.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: It was the wrong place.
31:17
They should have done it on the other side by the
31:19
Friedrichstrasse train station.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: There would have been so much activity.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: The whole inner city, you could just block traffic.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I agree with you.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: Have you been to Paris?
31:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
31:27
SPEAKER_01: There's like vast areas where there are no cars.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: That's what we need to do here.
31:30
You have delivery trucks that are allowed to go until 10 a.m.
31:32
or something,
31:33
and then that's it.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: A hundred percent.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: You know, whatever.
31:36
SPEAKER_01: If you're,
31:37
SPEAKER_01: if you're a wheelchair driver and you need to get to your place,
31:39
SPEAKER_01: you know,
31:39
SPEAKER_00: your car can go through.
31:41
SPEAKER_00: That's about it.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: One hundred percent.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: But this out of fry thing is not it.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: In a way, it's too radical.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: It's too pie in the sky.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: It's just too weak.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: It's like.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: It's unenforceable.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: Also that.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Every, I mean, everything is already unenforceable.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I signed it anyway.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: I never even saw them.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: I signed it.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: The second one.
31:58
I,
31:58
you know,
31:58
the,
31:58
you know,
31:59
the reason I signed it just to,
32:00
just to annoy the CDU.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm all for a symbol.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm all for symbolism, but you've got to go the right way.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: That's the thing.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: In Berlin and Germany,
32:06
SPEAKER_01: everything is just like symbolpolitik,
32:09
SPEAKER_01: which is just like an ideological schoolyard.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: The second one, the Werbefrei Berlin.
32:17
Yeah,
32:17
advertising-free Berlin,
32:18
which is an attempt to get rid of outdoor advertising.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: No, a digital.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: This is the problem also.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to explain.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: They want to get rid of digital.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: They don't want those digital screens, the monitors.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: They want to get rid of those.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: That's what they want to get rid of.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: Also, the really big ones covering up buildings.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think those are stupid too.
32:36
And they also want to have a quota for something like a third
32:40
of posters would have
32:41
SPEAKER_01: to be advertising cultural events or social projects.
32:45
You've always got to put one thing in there that just kiboshes
32:48
your entire...
32:49
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think it's ridiculous, too.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't mind those monitors.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: Like, they distract you.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: To me, it just seems like these are people afraid of change.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: We just want to outlaw change.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: I think Berlin has bigger problems.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: And the most ridiculous thing are the posters for their campaign.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: It says, basically, outlaw advertisements.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: Right.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: And here I am advertising it.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:08
And because they're not explaining what you're talking about,
33:10
it just looks ridiculous.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: It just makes them look like idiots.
33:14
SPEAKER_01: I know, as if outdoor advertising is the biggest problem the city has.
33:18
SPEAKER_01: What about...
33:19
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather be like ban Instagram or something.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: I'd be way more into that.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: I'd like Instagram.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay, sorry.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Ban cars.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: Let's get a real auto fry.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's get a decent referendum about cars.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: What would you ban if you had a choice?
33:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would ban.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: I would come up with a ratio of how many streets need to be closed,
33:39
SPEAKER_00: get rid of a bunch of parking spots,
33:40
SPEAKER_00: charge a lot more for parking.
33:42
Part of the reason I have the car that I don't need is because
33:44
it costs me nothing.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: I just leave it on the street for 12 euros a year.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: 12 euros a year.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculously nothing like a parking permit.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: I think it's 12 euros a year.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: It costs nothing.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: It should be at least 100.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: You could even make an argument for like 50 a month.
33:59
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Berlin just has these ridiculous little spats about stuff.
34:03
SPEAKER_01: Remember a few years ago,
34:05
there was a whole debate about whether we should allow
34:09
so-called Heizpizza.
34:11
These are like gas heaters that you would have like outside of
34:15
restaurants during the winter.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: They're, I mean, they pollute a lot, but.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know, but in the big, it's like very minor.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: And people are like, yeah, they're contributing to climate change.
34:24
SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: It's like, there's probably like a few hundred of them in Berlin.
34:27
SPEAKER_01: That is not going to have any impact on climate change.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: As opposed to actual cars that millions of people are driving.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:35
I think that's,
34:35
I would come up with something of saying like,
34:37
let's reduce traffic Paris style.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: I just did the ad thing.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: It just sounds like people are afraid of change.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: The big banners on buildings, this has got to go.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: The thing is, none of this is happening.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: So like, is there any point in talking?
34:51
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
34:51
SPEAKER_01: they need 174,000 signatures and they have Berlin car free has 46,000 and
34:59
SPEAKER_01: advertising free Berlin has 14,000.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: They're like, it's like, what, two weeks to go, three weeks.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not going to happen.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: Forget about it.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: So this brings us to our favorite segment.
35:08
After we've been complaining for 37 minutes about Berlin,
35:11
two things we like about Berlin.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: Yours is not green kayaks.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: Bears knees.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, it's called Bears.
35:17
SPEAKER_01: Bears knees, yeah.
35:17
My Bears knees is somewhere that I'm going to tonight,
35:21
and I haven't been there in a long time.
35:22
SPEAKER_01: Berlin's very first proper karaoke bar model.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: Monster Ronsons.
35:27
They actually wrote us,
35:28
they wanted us to publish one of their events in the
35:31
newsletter.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Really?
35:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
35:32
SPEAKER_00: and I kind of like,
35:33
SPEAKER_00: I saw it and I'm like,
35:34
SPEAKER_00: I got to remember to put this in there and I just forgot about it.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: Every time I walk by there, I feel bad.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm going there tonight.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: We're plugging them right now.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: We're going to put them on our janky bear's knees Google map.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a really delightful karaoke club.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of grimy, to be honest.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: It's full of graffiti, stickers, grime.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: So it's like a Berlin bathroom.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's great, but it is great.
36:00
SPEAKER_01: And it's better if you're not sober when you're there.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: I've had good times there.
36:03
I like the fact that there's like the rooms where you can sing
36:05
privately or you can
36:06
SPEAKER_00: go be on the stage and be a,
36:08
SPEAKER_00: be a star.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: All kinds of things happen in those rooms.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: Not to me.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: Just according to the word on the street has it.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: I see.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: You know,
36:17
SPEAKER_01: it's also a fun fact is that Ron,
36:19
SPEAKER_01: the American owner of Monster Answers,
36:22
SPEAKER_01: doesn't live in Berlin.
36:23
SPEAKER_01: He lives on a farm in Brandenburg.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Wait, this isn't, is it your buddy?
36:27
SPEAKER_00: Not my buddy, you know.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: But you go to his raves once a year?
36:30
SPEAKER_01: No, that's somebody else.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have more than one buddy.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: He's not my buddy.
36:33
SPEAKER_01: I'm just checking.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: No, ex-Belinda, we profiled him.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: He has a farm out in Brandenburg.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't,
36:39
SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
36:39
he just comes in like once a week to see how his business is
36:41
doing and the rest of
36:42
SPEAKER_01: the time he's growing carrots.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's like the guy who owns Sage Club or KitKat.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: Right.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: He grows hemp out in Brandenburg.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: Or he used to, I don't know.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: Like professionally?
36:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: Like medical?
36:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: No, it wasn't, it was hemp, like without THC, like hemp.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh, okay.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Who are you going with?
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Just going for the heck of it?
37:02
SPEAKER_01: No, it's a friend of mine's, uh, 40th birthday.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, some young people.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: Young people.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: Part of the old ex Berliner group.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to name names.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh,
37:13
SPEAKER_00: I was going to do,
37:14
SPEAKER_00: you know,
37:14
SPEAKER_00: I did an article about,
37:15
SPEAKER_00: uh,
37:15
SPEAKER_00: them robbing the Garten der Welt last week,
37:18
SPEAKER_00: the gardens of the world out in Marzahn.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: And I realized I haven't been there in a year or two,
37:21
SPEAKER_00: but every time I've gone,
37:22
SPEAKER_00: I've been like,
37:23
SPEAKER_00: this is actually kind of nice.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: It's just like a really nice park.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: And you have to pay to get in so it filters out certain elements.
37:32
SPEAKER_01: So like lager louts from Liverpool?
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Just everybody you don't want in your park.
37:37
People with grilling ridiculous sizes of meat and covering you
37:41
in their smoke.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then the lager louts, then just dudes with dogs on bikes.
37:47
yeah like that's not there and it's just well taken care of and
37:50
then you're like oh
37:51
I'm in a Chinese garden it always feels slightly racist to me I
37:54
don't know it's
37:54
like this is what a garden's like in China isn't it the whole
37:57
world not just China
37:58
SPEAKER_00: yeah yeah but it always feels weird to me I don't know why like you're
38:00
compartmentalizing I don't know cultures I mean can you be
38:04
racist about flowers no
38:05
I know it's my own thing I just it's like I get it weird
38:07
because there's pagodas
38:08
and stuff yeah yeah yeah you feel like what do you you're a
38:11
German what do you know
38:12
SPEAKER_01: about a pagoda but wasn't was it built during the East German times
38:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: I think it was afterward.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Although now that you say it, I don't know.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about the history.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: That's a good point.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: Isn't there a ski lift out here?
38:21
SPEAKER_00: They have a,
38:21
SPEAKER_00: they have a little gondola and then they have,
38:23
SPEAKER_00: they actually have a,
38:25
SPEAKER_00: what are they called?
38:25
SPEAKER_00: A Rotelbon, a, what did we say?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Alpine slide, we called them in America.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: Like, were there things with the wheels on them?
38:32
SPEAKER_01: How high can it be?
38:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how long?
38:33
SPEAKER_00: And it's, it's like on a roller coaster track kind of situation.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: And then you just cruise down.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Why not?
38:40
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a, you know, it's a, it's a day out for the elderly.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm not elderly, but sometimes I do enjoy my retirement.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm far from, not far from retirement.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I feel like paying money to go walk around some flowers.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: You're paying money to get rid of the detritus,
38:55
SPEAKER_00: man,
38:55
SPEAKER_00: to get rid of the,
38:56
SPEAKER_00: you know what I'm saying?
38:57
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're not going to step in.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of elitist.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: Of course it is, of course it is.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: But you're going to Mount San, which is itself not.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's like it's a giving and taking, you know?
39:07
SPEAKER_00: You're going out to.
39:07
SPEAKER_01: What are the highlights there?
39:08
SPEAKER_01: Like, what do you get?
39:09
SPEAKER_01: Like, some flowers.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: You just look at some flowers.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: You walk around.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Do you think like, oh, it's fresh air, fresh air.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's just, it's a big park.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: And every time I go, I'm like, wow, I'm glad I can.
39:20
SPEAKER_01: What do you pay to get in?
39:21
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I should have looked this up.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: 12 bucks?
39:23
SPEAKER_01: 12 bucks to walk around in a park with some flowers?
39:26
SPEAKER_00: I would think.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: I had looked it up before.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't know.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: What do you think it costs?
39:30
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: I can look it up right here.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: Eight euros.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: What would you be willing to pay?
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Not much.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: You're just not into the outdoors.
39:36
SPEAKER_01: I want to see some animals at least.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: Ticket shop.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: Ticket shop.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: One word.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my God.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm so sick of cookies.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: I really don't.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: All of the gardens are here.
39:45
SPEAKER_01: The gardens of the world.
39:47
SPEAKER_01: Which parts of the world do they have apart from China?
39:51
SPEAKER_01: I've been there, too.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: I've been there.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: Never been to that one.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
39:56
I went there with my son's school and there's like a mini train
40:01
that you can take
40:02
SPEAKER_01: and some flowers and there's no homeless people.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: There's no people.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: You see what I'm saying?
40:07
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what I'm saying?
40:07
SPEAKER_01: There's no people coming down from their back hind...
40:10
SPEAKER_00: There's nobody thing.
40:12
There probably are people with a needle in their arm because
40:14
look,
40:14
anyway,
40:14
it costs nine euros.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: It's nine euros.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: If you want to take the gondola,
40:17
SPEAKER_00: you want to take a little trip above everybody,
40:19
SPEAKER_00: it's going to cost you 1290 total.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: So it's nine euros or with a Xylebon with a ride on the gondola, 1290.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: I think that's fair.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: You know, prices are not what they used to be.
40:29
SPEAKER_01: You know, yesterday I went to the bird.
40:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: That epic burger.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: And they were actually always expensive anyway.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: It's like 15 bucks for a burger now.
40:37
that's what every time when we go out to eat now it's always
40:40
going to be in the
40:40
teens if not the 20s it's nuts like and like i said i don't
40:43
really pay attention to
40:44
prices like how the gas thing or like you know when they ask
40:47
politicians how much
40:47
does a liter of milk cost i always think i don't know either
40:51
because i have to buy
40:51
it it's not like i need to know what it costs you don't have to
40:53
buy milk like
40:55
they're saying to buy a staple you have to buy a staple so what
40:58
difference does it
40:58
make if you know what it costs because you're gonna have to buy
41:00
it anyway oat milk
41:01
SPEAKER_01: has been 95 cents at dm for 10 years
41:04
SPEAKER_00: I know what it costs about, yeah.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: If I'm paying more than a euro for oat milk, I'm paying too much.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:09
SPEAKER_01: But this goes back to the tourism thing.
41:11
SPEAKER_01: Pretty much Berlin is not really cheaper than Paris.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: In Paris, you can't actually have good food.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: But we knew that was going to happen.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: We knew we just had too much of a good thing for a while.
41:21
But here you have to sit somewhere and then see like a homeless
41:24
person and a bunch
41:25
SPEAKER_01: of dog crap and some beggars.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: I know we disagree on this.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: And have some mediocre food.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: The dog shit thing has gotten way better.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: In my neighborhood, at least.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
41:35
Except that I was going to fight with a coped-up American who
41:37
wouldn't clean up his
41:38
SPEAKER_00: dog shit one night.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my neighborhood is full of sort of printed-out anti-dog shit memes.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: I stuck to the lampposts in English and German.
41:49
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty funny.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
41:50
you could just take a lawn chair and a six-pack of Stenborg and
41:53
sit out there and
41:54
SPEAKER_00: catch the guy.
41:54
SPEAKER_01: Something that's also driving me crazy is,
41:56
SPEAKER_01: I know,
41:57
SPEAKER_01: this is kind of like an,
41:58
SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
41:59
SPEAKER_01: is this old guy?
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Here we go, rant.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: So basically, people smoking at stations, you know?
42:05
SPEAKER_01: Like,
42:06
SPEAKER_01: there's like a non-smoking sign,
42:08
SPEAKER_01: but then right under the non-smoking sign,
42:10
SPEAKER_01: there's still an ashtray and an old sign that says,
42:13
SPEAKER_01: this is the smoking area.
42:15
SPEAKER_01: And then there'll be a sign that says, this is a non-smoking station.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: But then people are just smoking there.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's no enforcement, probably.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: You don't,
42:22
SPEAKER_00: like,
42:22
SPEAKER_00: nobody's going to...
42:23
SPEAKER_01: No,
42:23
SPEAKER_01: but there's no clarity about,
42:24
SPEAKER_01: is it a smoking station or isn't it?
42:26
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I see.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: Like, this is at Gesundbahn.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: This is at, like, every S-bahn station.
42:31
SPEAKER_01: There's a little tiny sign when you go in,
42:34
SPEAKER_01: non-smoking station,
42:35
SPEAKER_01: and then there's a smoker's area in the station.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: I see what you're saying.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's true.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: That is actually true.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: I always think of it as like,
42:42
SPEAKER_00: because I take Deutsche Bahn,
42:44
SPEAKER_00: that's where the stations are non-smoking.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: I always think that the idea is a train stops,
42:47
SPEAKER_00: somebody gets out for a little bit,
42:48
SPEAKER_00: he can smoke there.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: He's not actually in the station, he's in transit.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: He's on the Bahnsteig, he's on the platform.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: No,
42:56
SPEAKER_01: but on an S-Span station where there's a lot of people,
42:58
SPEAKER_01: a lot of kids,
42:59
SPEAKER_01: and they're just throwing,
43:00
SPEAKER_01: and they just throw cigarette butts everywhere.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: As smokers do.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: And that is supposed to, you're supposed to be fined 250 euros now.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: There's no enforcement.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: Do you think anyone's been fined 250 euros for this?
43:11
SPEAKER_00: This is also why I stopped using the Waystep is because Burger King,
43:14
SPEAKER_00: they had one of those little electric delivery cars,
43:16
SPEAKER_00: and it had an accident,
43:17
and the skeleton of the delivery car just stood on a corner by
43:20
me for two months.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: The skeleton.
43:23
Well,
43:23
because it started,
43:23
it was the whole car except for the broken wheel.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: Burger King.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:27
SPEAKER_01: You ordered Burger King?
43:28
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: This car,
43:29
like the Burger King up at Schoenhaus Alley used to do delivery
43:31
in a little
43:32
SPEAKER_00: electric car.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: Those little Amazon car thingies.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
43:35
SPEAKER_01: Burger King has its own electric car.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: They did.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: It got in an accident near me.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: And the dude just abandoned it.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: Just left the car there.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: So for a week, it looked nice.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: It was the Burger King thing with a broken wheel.
43:44
But then,
43:44
of course,
43:44
in Berlin,
43:45
every night something gets stolen off of it.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: The next night something gets broken on it.
43:49
So I like had this constant back and forth with the Ordinal
43:51
example of like,
43:52
SPEAKER_00: hey,
43:53
SPEAKER_00: not only is it here,
43:53
SPEAKER_00: you could go find Burger King for abandoning it.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: And they were like, we're not going to do that.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: We told Berliner Stadtreinigung to come pick it up.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: They'll get to it.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, why don't you go find Burger King?
44:02
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, we're not sure who it belongs to.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have time.
44:04
SPEAKER_01: It says Burger King on there.
44:05
SPEAKER_01: Right.
44:06
SPEAKER_01: It said right on it.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: But the ordering staff was like, we're not going to deal with it.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: It's just trash.
44:10
SPEAKER_01: Is everyone just lazy here?
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: I think there is actually.
44:13
I 100% believe there's a culture of laziness in the bureaucrats
44:17
in Berlin.
44:18
SPEAKER_01: Like, also, like, I don't know.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: Also,
44:21
SPEAKER_01: like,
44:21
SPEAKER_01: security guards at stations and stuff,
44:24
SPEAKER_01: they're literally just standing around smoking.
44:27
SPEAKER_01: They're not making the place secure.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Well,
44:29
SPEAKER_00: they're just trying to,
44:29
SPEAKER_00: like,
44:30
SPEAKER_00: as long as nobody's getting knifed,
44:31
SPEAKER_00: as long as nobody's getting,
44:32
SPEAKER_00: all they're going to do is call the cops anyway.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's end this on a pause.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: Do you have anything good to say?
44:38
SPEAKER_00: It's almost warm.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: It's almost summer.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: It's almost warm.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm always glad to be back in Berlin,
44:42
SPEAKER_00: although I think it's filthy,
44:43
SPEAKER_00: but I'm always glad to be here.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
44:45
SPEAKER_01: you know,
44:46
like March and April is just a terrible time of year and it
44:49
just is a total downer.
44:50
But then when the leaves are out and the sun is shining and you
44:53
have these wide
44:55
SPEAKER_01: sidewalks and there are people everywhere and not everyone's grumpy,
45:00
SPEAKER_01: it is kind of a beautiful place.
45:02
SPEAKER_00: Ice cream is still kind of cheap.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: I do have one thing
45:19
SPEAKER_00: You're walking into India or you're walking to Vietnam,
45:21
but you're actually in that person's world because everything
45:23
in New York is small
45:24
SPEAKER_00: because real estate's expensive.
45:25
SPEAKER_00: So you walk in there and you're just like,
45:26
SPEAKER_00: wow,
45:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm in this person's realm now,
45:28
SPEAKER_00: their language,
45:29
SPEAKER_00: their smells.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: And I loved it.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was great.
45:31
Even when I would go into the Doc Martin store,
45:33
it felt like I was in Camden market.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: You know, I love this going.
45:36
So anyway,
45:37
and now I'm realizing like Berlin is getting more and more like
45:40
that.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: Like we were having ramen the other night.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: It was only Japanese people.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: And you're like,
45:43
SPEAKER_00: this is like,
45:44
and then we had a discussion with the guy that owns a place
45:46
about Japanese mashed
45:47
SPEAKER_00: potatoes.
45:48
The other day I went into six elephants or five rhinoceroses or
45:51
whatever the hell
45:51
SPEAKER_00: that cafe is called.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: People there were just speaking Japanese.
45:54
SPEAKER_00: The two baristas were speaking Japanese with each other.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: And it's getting more and more like New York and more international.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: I think Berlin was stuck in sort of its German-ness,
46:02
SPEAKER_00: and it felt weird,
46:03
SPEAKER_00: and it felt like,
46:03
SPEAKER_00: well,
46:03
SPEAKER_00: maybe we should keep it that way.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: And now it's like, no, it's not even close to that anymore.
46:07
SPEAKER_01: I am totally on board with that.
46:11
SPEAKER_01: This is called 20% Berlin Beretsch.
46:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 25% now.
46:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
46:15
uh keep on keep on moving here non-german people yeah and i
46:18
think it's great and i
46:19
like i was kind of against like there's all these indian places
46:21
up now because
46:22
there's all this huge influx of indian people and this one
46:25
spätkauf is now an
46:26
indian place i'm like oh i like my spätkauf before and now it's
46:28
this indian thing
46:28
and then i'm like no it's great it's just like new york now man
46:30
like i could walk
46:31
in there and i'm in this dude's neighborhood in india and i i
46:34
it took me a while to
46:35
realize that and i think let's get more international i love it
46:39
preach brother yeah
46:40
SPEAKER_00: have a good week maurice you too