Baby, Don't give up

Crises, polycrises and wars: this is what the world seems to consist of. It takes strong nerves to read the news these days — or at least a good vagus nerve routine or a soothing hobby to calm you down again. For everyone else who is still unwilling to hide their heads in the sand and wants to help shape the future now, we are launching a second series of the talk show BABY, DON’T GIVE UP. Host Traudl Bünger invites people in to talk who have lost neither hope nor dedication. Because there are stories out there that can give us courage, that can inspire us and offer guidance on how to think and act.

#8: with Verena Lueken

The older a woman gets, the more completely she vanishes from the public eye. Verena Lueken — a long-time, influential figure in the arts section of the FAZ —brings them back into the spotlight. In conversation with Traudl Bünger, she speaks of discreet feminists, combative intellectuals, lovers, and non-conformists — and of the societal resource that older women represent. The first BABY, DON’T GIVE UP at Offenbachplatz: a great party where we meet new, cool women.

#9: with Monchi

Monchi is back in Jarmen—the small town in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania where he grew up and which he loves like no other, yet where the AfD garnered 54% of the vote in the last federal election. In his book *Jenseits der Brandmauer* (Beyond the Firebreak), the frontman of the band Feine Sahne Fischfilet describes a place where there is no escaping one another. He writes about the people who hoist a black-white-red flag on the lot next to his rehearsal space, yet also pitch in when a skatepark needs to be built. It is a powerful plea against black-and-white thinking and for an attempt at coexistence—even, or perhaps especially, when differences seem insurmountable. At the "Baby, don’t give up!" event, he will read from his book and discuss the people there, as well as the hope he refuses to lose, with Traudl Bünger.

Your songs of hope: Subscribe to the BABY, DON’T GIVE UP playlist from Schauspiel Köln on Spotify now!