"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.

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.

The roots of fashion designer Andreas Kronthaler, husband of Vivienne Westwood, are in the Tyrolean Zillertal valley. We could have asked him what it was like to have tea with Prince Charles. But we didn’t. Instead, we had a chat about his grandmother’s blueberry patties and the fur coats of his old aunt in Graz. This interview was written in the summer of 2022; Vivienne Westwood has since passed away. We have not changed it and have left it as it was held. We send our heartfelt condolences to the Westwood and Kronthaler family. 

The tiny village of Thal near Graz, population not quite 2,400, is where, in 1947, a mighty Styrian oak tree first saw the light of day. Even after its transatlantic transplantation, its roots remain firmly planted in Thal. You can feel the presence of the icon Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

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.  

The Swiss Roman Signer (*1938) is one of the most enigmatic European artists of the present day. His works are processual sculptures with a bizarre aesthetic, full of poetry and humor, the result of meticulous planning and unpredictable coincidence. Signer and his wife Aleksandra welcomed us in their studio in St. Gallen. We spoke about childhood, the joy of explosives, about shame and happiness.

As one of the world’s most well-known astronauts, who could be better qualified to talk to us about beauty than Chris Austin Hadfield? The 59-year-old Canadian became famous for his tweets from space—yes, they have Twitter there. When he’s not chatting with the Queen or covering David Bowie’s Space Oddity in zero-g, he shares what it’s like to live and work in space via YouTube and social media. He calls us via Facetime. While we don’t get see his friendly Schnauzer face, his voice is warm and affectionate. Three missions into space, two spacewalks, a spaceship under his command, and exactly thirty minutes to talk about beauty, time, and fear in space. 

Some collect stamps, the Austrian trauma surgeon Peter Valentin collects turtles: He keeps over 600 of them in his garden in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. The species outlived the dinosaurs, the Neanderthals, and Jesus Christ. Their superpower is their inconspicuousness. The only thing left that could be the demise of the 220-million-year-old reptiles is humans. A conversation about a GREAT PASSION and a CRAZY HOBBY.