About

Common Ground Berlin is a podcast operated by the Verein Common Ground Berlin e.V.. We feature inspiring discussions and stories to strengthen public debate and transatlantic dialogue and to find “common ground” in times of growing divisions.

Common Ground Berlin is your English-language destination for open exchanges and vital conversations, addressing diverse and often controversial issues of our time affecting both sides of the Atlantic. We welcome your feedback!

Led by Peabody-winner and former NPR (National Public Radio) correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Common Ground tackles vital and unique issues in Berlin and beyond and strives to enlighten and inform listeners.

Common Ground Berlin e.V. is a non-profit organization under German law led by board co-chairs Dr. Anna Kuchenbecker and Melissa DeRoquebrune together with board members  Deborah Cole, Martin Klingst, My-Linh Kunst, David Quinn, and Travis Todd.

Our work is funded solely by grants and donations, including our benefactors the European Recovery

Fund administered by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Karen Roth as well as by listener donations.

The history of American public radio in Berlin goes back to the English-language, American Armed Forces Network Berlin of August 4, 1945 and the beginning of the broadcast of German-language programs by RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) in 1946. Featuring American pop, rock and classical music, AFN was for many years the most popular radio station in Berlin. RIAS was an important voice for freedom for West Berlin and East Berlin and large parts of the GDR during the Cold War. Both stations ceased their work after the reunification of Berlin in 1990. In 2006 NPR in Washington DC resumed the German capital’s English-language radio tradition and continued it for 11 years. However, under increasing financial pressure, NPR decided to discontinue the Berlin-based broadcast. Key members of “Friends of NPR Berlin” successfully competed for the former NPR Berlin frequency 104.1 FM, and in October 2017, KCRW Berlin was co-founded by Karen M. Roth, John Kornblum and Marie Warburg, building on the special status of the formerly divided city, which still resonates in the Berlin radio landscape to this day. The station stopped airing its programming on Dec. 13, 2020.