It’s all heatwave and no political crisis so far this August, which gives us a chance step back and look at Europe’s history in this week’s podcast episode.

The House of European History in Brussels is an initiative of the European Parliament, and one of the few elegant EU institutional buildings. This week’s interview is with Constanze Itzel, the museum’s director.

Listen to hear her views on fake memory, conscious distortion of history, and her battle with people who think the museum is too critical of the EU.

Starting in 2007, it took a decade to get the building ready, and more than six years to assemble the team from across Europe. Exhibits let visitors see, touch and even smell history. The museum, which has free entry, is “about what Europeans share and what divides them,” says Itzel.

She says that finding items about European history is not easy because most museums “collect from a national perspective,” and that it’s a “nightmare” presenting a museum in more than 20 languages.

On the podcast panel with Lina Aburous and Alva Finn, we discuss everything from EU satellites and their role in monitoring forest fires through to Swedish police shooting dead an intellectually disabled man who was carrying a toy gun.