Most European clocks are out of tune with natural time since the Second World War, when countries like Spain chose Central European Time (CET) to align with their ally, Nazi Germany. It makes little sense for the West fo the Mediterranean to adopt a time that is better suited to Poland. Many advocate splitting Europe into four time zones based on natural time; ensuring the sun is at its highest at noon, but the status quo seems very hard to move.

Another great point of contention are Daylight Saving policies. They were first introduced to save on coal during WWI, but don't serve the intended purpose anymore. Today, they are very unpopular: in a 2018 survey, 84% of participants wanted to abolish the switch between DST and Standard Time. But most of us are still stuck with it, as the EU has left it up to individual countries to decide whether to stick with winter time or summer time.

Guests Prof. Dietrich Henckel is a board member of the German Society for Time Policy (DGfZP), and specialises in urban and regional economics. His research covers urban time structures, time policies and the impact of light pollution on cities. Prof. Henckel is recognized for his contributions to understanding how time and temporal dynamics affect urban environments and policy-making Dr. Imre Márton Reményi is a Budapest-born and Vienna-raised expert, with a diverse background ranging from mechanical engineering to opera singing. He currently works as a coach, psychotherapist, and organisational consultant, and is the president of the Austrian Burn-Out Society. He is also the CEO of Systemisches Institut Wien. James Irons is a UK and Vienna-based comedian and professional actor who has played and appeared in multiple roles, including at the Open House Theatre in Vienna. He began his career with the podcast theatre group in the United Kingdom, and moved to Austria two years later. He was an assistant director for the play “The Invisible Hand” of the Vienna Theatre Project.

We meet with them at the Alte Schmiede Kunstverein, Vienna

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Creative team Réka Kinga Papp, editor-in-chief Merve Akyel, art director Szilvia Pintér, producer Zsófia Gabriella Papp, production associate Margarita Lechner, writer-editor Salma Shaka, writer-editor Priyanka Hutschenreiter, project assistant

Management Hermann Riessner managing director Judit Csikós project manager Csilla Nagyné Kardos, office administration

OKTO Crew Senad Hergić producer Leah Hochedlinger video recording Marlena Stolze video recording Clemens Schmiedbauer video recording Richard Brusek sound recording

Postproduction Nóra Ruszkai, lead video editor Réka Kinga Papp, conversation editor

Art Victor Maria Lima, animation Cornelia Frischauf, theme music

Captions and subtitles Julia Sobota Daniela Univazo Mars Zaslavsky Marta Ferdebar
Olena Yermakova Farah Ayyash

Disclosure This talk show is a Display Europe production: a ground-breaking media platform anchored in public values. This programme is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the European Cultural Foundation. Importantly, the views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and speakers only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.