Romania, Poland, Portugal... and of course, most importantly of all (?), Eurovision. It's been a huge week of voting across Europe! This week we're mostly diving into Romania's election drama with Codruţa Simina, a journalist with an extremely helpful specialism in online misinformation and disinformation. We're also tackling the controversy over Israel's continued participation in Eurovision, as well as the Pfizergate scandal: will we ever get to read the text messages Ursula von der Leyen sent to one of the world's most powerful pharmaceutical bosses?
Codruţa's excellent newsletter, Misreport, can be found
here.
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This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: The EU's
personal carbon footprint calculator and 'Apeirogon' by Column McCann. You can find McCann's conversation with Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, recorded in November 2023,
here.
Other resources for this episode:
'Politics by WhatsApp? Even "Pfizergate" won’t end that' -
Politico Europe, May 14, 2025
'The maths behind the public votes at Eurovision 2025' -
RTE, May 18, 2025
'Wasted love?: broadcasting and fandom at a crossroads after Eurovision 2025' -
Catherine Baker, May 18, 2025
'Why doesn't the EBU kick Israel out of Eurovision?' -
Overthinking It, May 8, 2025
'Coal produces less than half of Poland’s power for first time' -
Notes from Poland, May 13, 2025
00:00:46 An election bonanza hangover
00:06:58 Bad Week: Pfizergate
00:21:50 Good Week (?): Austrian Eurovision winner JJ
00:45:12 Interview: Codruţa Simina on Romania's election drama
01:02:51 The Inspiration Station: The EU's personal carbon footprint calculator, and 'Apeirogon' by Colum McCann
01:07:00 Happy Ending: Is Poland finally kicking its coal habit?
Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak
Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
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