Live Podcast Recording: "Campaign Season on Both Sides of the Atlantic"

Nadine Lindner, an award-winning correspondent for Deutschlandradio known for her reporting on the rise of the Alternative for Germany and political developments in eastern Germany, will be joined by Liz Goodwin, a national political reporter at The Washington Post who covers the people and movements reshaping American politics. Moderated by Steve Sokol, American Council of Germany.

The year 2026 is shaping up to be an important electoral moment on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, voters will head to the polls for the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and shape the final years of the current administration in Washington, DC. In Germany, several key state elections will test the strength of the governing coalition and the continued rise of parties such as the Alternative for Germany, offering an early indication of the political dynamics that could influence the next federal contest. Together, these campaigns will provide a revealing snapshot of how domestic political pressures in both countries may shape the future of the transatlantic relationship.

Liz Goodwin is a national political reporter for The Washington Post, writing about the forces and people remaking American politics. She previously covered the Senate. Goodwin joined The Post from the Boston Globe, where she covered national politics since 2018, most recently serving as Washington bureau chief. Before joining the Globe in 2018, Ms. Goodwin wrote about national politics and national affairs for Yahoo News, covering Congress, the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns, immigration, and criminal justice, among other topics. Earlier in her career, she worked at the Daily Beast.

As a reporter, Ms. Goodwin is known for capturing the human side of politics — writing revealing profiles of candidates and examining the complex decision-making of voters in absorbing narratives. She has written from the U.S.-Mexico border about the Trump administration's family separation policy and from Britain on former president Donald Trump's influence on nationalists in that country and has reported from the campaign trail over three presidential elections.

Nadine Lindner has been a Correspondent in the Berlin studio of "Deutschlandradio" since early 2016. Among other things, she is responsible for the news coverage of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the German parliament. Ms. Lindner studied Political Science at Leipzig University in Saxony, and discovered her enthusiasm for radio at the training station "mephisto 97.6." After graduating from university, she worked as a freelance journalist for "MDR sputnik" and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as well as Deutschlandradio. She completed her journalistic training at Deutschlandradio in Berlin. In 2013, Ms. Lindner moved back to Saxony as a regional correspondent for Deutschlandradio, where she covered the early evolution of the AfD and the anti-asylum movement Pegida. In 2024, she received the prize from the Bundespressekonferenz, the association of capital studio journalists, for her reporting about the AfD and Eastern Germany.

“State(s) of Democracy: A German Journalist’s Journey to the U.S. in 2026”

Speaking Tour for Nadine Linder

April 18-26, 2026

The American Council on Germany and the Goethe-Institut USA are organizing a speaking tour for the award-winning German radio journalist Nadine Lindner. Through a range of events and discussion in five cities, she will have the opportunity to explore the “state(s) of democracy” in an election year.

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