#225 Does Austria shrink u from being who u really are?

from The Wurst Guide to Living in Austria · host Vienna Würstelstand

Big thanks to Ottakringer, Vienna’s independent beer brand, for sponsoring this episode and supporting our independent podcast. Cheers! 🍻Jake is flying solo this episode because Gabriel is off on holidays. So this one gets a little more personal: a diary-entry-meets-cultural-rant about whether Vienna shrinks you, or just quietly asks you to turn the volume down. Jake talks about the strange feeling some internationals get here — that comfort, cynicism, bureaucracy, and Viennese subtlety can make you smaller if you’re not careful. But he also asks whether we give the city too much power, and whether the trick is to stop waiting for Vienna’s permission to be fully yourself. In this episode, Jake talks about: Why Austrians knock on tables instead of clapping, and why this may be the most emotionally constipated form of praise ever invented The feeling that Vienna can “shrink” people who are creative, ambitious, foreign, loud, chaotic, or simply too alive before 10am Whether Vienna feels small because of its size, or because its social circles, institutions, and approval systems can feel tight The clichés around Vienna being “a village,” “comfortable,” negative, jealous, and resistant to change Why Viennese cynicism can be funny, useful, and also a wet blanket for people trying to build something new The Berlin comparison: Berlin gives permission, Vienna makes you earn legitimacy The danger of living too long in “guest mode” as someone not born here Why being foreign can be a creative advantage, not a weakness with extra paperwork Vienna’s history of loud, radical, world-changing people — from Freud, Klimt, Schiele and Loos to Red Vienna and the Vienna Circle The idea that maybe Vienna doesn’t shrink you — maybe it compresses you Why the most Viennese thing you can do might be to stop preserving the past and start pissing off the present How to keep going anyway, like a stubborn donkey with one direction and just enough German to know when someone is underestimating you 💛 UNTERSTÜTZE UNS Ihr könnt uns jetzt finanziell unterstützen! Juhu! 🎉 Der Podcast bleibt natürlich gratis — aber wenn ihr ein paar Münzen übrig habt, könnt ihr uns hier supporten: 👉 https://steadyhq.com/en/the-wurst-guide-to-living-in-austria/about 🎤 Live Shows Es gibt wieder Live-Podcast-Shows! Vienna September 24: Level 4, 8020, Graz October 22: Superbude, 1020, Vienna Tickets: 👉 https://www.eventbrite.com/o/111846959311?_gl=1*rmn209*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTAxNTgyNDUyNy4xNzcyNzM0MTQ4*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*czE3NzI3MzQxNDckbzEkZzAkdDE3NzI3MzQxNDckajYwJGwwJGgw 🏢 Über den Podcast The Wurst Guide to Living in Austria ist eine Produktion der Werbeagentur The Wurst Agency und wird gesponsert vom Online-Magazin Vienna Würstelstand — dein Magazin rund um Wien. Kontakt: 📩 [email protected] 📩 [email protected] Feedback, Kooperationen oder Werbepartner-Anfragen welcome.

What this episode covers

Jake is flying solo this episode because Gabriel is off on holidays. So this one gets a little more personal: a diary-entry-meets-cultural-rant about whether Vienna shrinks you, or just quietly asks you to turn the volume down. Jake talks about the strange feeling some internationals get here — that comfort, cynicism, bureaucracy, and Viennese subtlety can make you smaller if you’re not careful. But he also asks whether we give the city too much power, and whether the trick is to stop waiting for Vienna’s permission to be fully yourself.