ISS-professor Hilhorst presents podcast with Dutch celebrities about conflicts

These days, every influencer has their own podcast, whereas professors have so far been few and far between in the genre. Professor of Humanitarian Aid and Reconstruction Thea Hilhorst now brings change to that. Together with Denker der Nederlanden David Van Reybrouck, she is presenting Café Conflict from Wednesday onwards, a podcast by Erasmus University and AD about major but above all small conflicts.

Anyone expecting these two thinkers to deliver an abstract, theoretical podcast is mistaken: in each episode the presenting duo welcome a well-known Dutch guest. In the first episode this is comedian Claudia de Breij. Also appearing are Rijdende Rechter (TV judge, ed.) John Reid, former hockey player Jacques Brinkman, presenter Olcay Gulsen, tech journalist Alexander Klöpping and comedian Tim Fransen.

Silent compartment

The common thread running through the podcast is everyday conflicts. With Tim Fransen, for example, the discussion is about simmering conflicts in the silent compartment, and with John Reid about neighbour disputes. How small conflicts arise and how they can escalate is not fundamentally different from international conflicts, Hilhorst explains. “In the episode about neighbour disputes, for example, we draw parallels with the truth commission in South Africa.” In a column in the newspaper, Hilhorst and Van Reybrouck then extend the line to the bigger issues.

“The idea is to appeal to a broader audience than I normally reach. People who do not naturally gravitate towards humanitarian themes. As a result, my subject now runs through the podcast rather than taking centre stage.”

‘Patatje oorlog’

Hilhorst approached AD herself, initially for a newspaper column about major conflicts in the world. “They then asked whether I wanted to add a podcast. I had already been carrying around the idea of making something broader than just humanitarian topics for a while. Back then with the working title ‘patatje oorlog’ (a Dutch fast food snack literally called ‘war chips’, ed.). I could no longer use it because of a documentary about Dutch chip shop owners in Ukraine, which was actually an even more fitting name for them.”

The cooperation with Van Reybrouck was suggested to her by AD, as it turned out that the writer had approached AD with a similar idea. She is very enthusiastic about the collaboration. “He can articulate things beautifully. He described a neighbour dispute as a ‘symmetrical escalation’. You understand the dynamic immediately.”

Creative force

On Wednesday, the first two episodes will appear on all major podcast platforms, followed by a new episode each time. “I found it very special that all those well-known Dutch people were keen to come to the podcast recordings”, Hilhorst says. She also learned a few things from the celebrities. “For example, how some use arguments as a creative force, as Claudia de Breij and Alexander Klöpping explained. That was not entirely new to me, but it did make me reflect on how I deal with disagreements myself.”