Who is LARS EIDINGER? Probably the most popular villain of German television, actor, photographer, DJ - together the omnipresent devotion. We talk about bats, evil, SELF-DESTRUCTION and about Eidinger.

"When I was a child, I toyed with dirt. I killed the slugs, I bored with a bough in their spiracle.” For almost 15 years, the exceptional Austrian artist SOAP&SKIN has been singing about death and pain, about nature and healing. Her voice pierces into us and cuts off our air, only to let us breathe better afterwards. The lyrics to Spiracle read differently when you know that 30-year-old Anja Plaschg grew up on a pig-fattening farm in a Styrian village with 200 inhabitants. A conversation about sugar-cube witches, talking trees, and how impressive and depressing rural life can be.

According to a medieval legend, a unicorn will only reveal itself to a virgin. The maiden, as the story has it, must sit alone in a forest clearing until the magical creature jumps into her unsullied lap. We spoke to German language and literature expert Julia Weitbrecht about an animal that many people are not sure really exists.  

Glaciers are not only tremendously beautiful, but also tremendously alive. They melt, cause sea levels to rise and trigger natural disasters, and yet they are a crucial source of fresh water we hope to preserve. At the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg, the Italian-Swiss researcher and glaciologist Francesca Pellicciotti studies glaciers that – in contrast to global trends and a warming climate – appear to be stable or growing. A conversation about humility and the third pole.

Jérémie Palacci is a physicist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. His specialty? Soft matter – everything that is squishy – like Jell-O or shampoos. Palacci's research group, with the onomatopoeic name Materiali Molli Lab, does even more: It makes small Lego machines from building blocks that are a hundred times smaller than a hair. Sounds crazy – and it is! The artworks included in this interview were created by Dutch artist and photographer Viviane Sassen.

Stefanie Reinsperger is one of the most popular actresses in the German-speaking world, thanks in no small part to her role as Inspector Rosa Herzog in the Dortmund episodes of German cult police procedural Tatort. She is proud of her tiny hometown near Vienna, a village with just under 3,000 inhabitants. She is funny, with a self-deprecating sense of humor and plenty of energy. Yet because she doesn't conform to the cliché image of a female star, she has repeatedly come under attack. That makes her pretty furious ("Ganz schön wütend"), the title of her recently published book. 

Erich Traxler works at the Funeral Museum of Vienna’s famous Central Cemetery. Before he was a coffin bearer and later an arranger at the funeral parlor. Even though his métier is death, he has remained a person with a sense of humor. A conversation about selfie coffins, decomposition, and the question of who we are when we are dead. 

We humans are nothing but stardust and, like the Earth, we like to spin in circles. What does a roundabout have in common with the universe and why is the Milky Way provincial? We spoke with the German astrophysicist, FAZ editor, and philosopher Sibylle Anderl.