The Renew Europe Group at the European Committee of Regions’ podcast Letter from Brussels begins its second year with episode 7, The Rocket and the Rock , bringing listeners stories about the EU’s capital city and about the leaders who are building the European Union from the ground up.

This 15-minute episode, narrated by Sean O’Curneen, Secretary General of Renew Europe CoR , includes the following stories: the extraordinary precision of Europe’s spaceport launching the James Webb telescope; the Royal Belgian Observatory’s connection with Webb and with a mission in 2022 to crash into an asteroid; the urban-rural divide’s challenge to democracy; what cities can do to help prevent a crash in the number of pollinators; the latest on the Conference on the Future of Europe; and the inspiring and courageous Mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker, who has won the first Pawel Adamowicz Award.

This new episode can be listened to here: Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube and Spreaker.