Description

If you are the sort of person whose New Year’s resolutions read something like: “(1) Shoot for the moon, (2) Do what you love, (3) Change the world” – have we got a guest for you! We’re joined this week by former Icelandic prime minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, who resigned from office in 2024 in order to run for president and is now enjoying a second life as a successful crime novelist and climate activist. Be still, our hearts. We chatted with Katrín about the security threat that climate change and the current geopolitical instability pose to Iceland; her career in politics; and why she wanted to write fiction (“Doesn’t everybody?” she asked).

Also in this episode: The Mercosur primer of your dreams! And the disconcertingly relatable story of a ChatGPT-informed wedding gone awry. This week’s Inspiration Station recommendations are the 10th edition of the European Review of Books and the Deutsche Welle podcast Delayland. 

LISTENER SURVEY: Do you have a moment to help us out? We would be so grateful to hear your thoughts about what we’re doing well and where we can improve. Fill out our short, simple survey here.

Resources for this episode:

• “32.7% of EU people used generative AI tools in 2025” – Eurostat, 16 December 2025
• “Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory” – European Broadcasting Union, 22 October 2025
• “Thinker, Plaintiff, Merkel, Spy” (our interview with the creators of the European Review of Books) – The Europeans, 3 June 2021
• The Weapons to Ukraine fund, AKA Czech initiative A Gift for Putin (Dárek pro Putina)

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: Although this episode came out on a Friday, we are a *Thursday* podcast, because who wants to think about the imminent World War III on a Friday? That being said, if you would like to laugh through your tears on Friday, we recommend our newsletter, GOOD WEEK BAD WEEK. It will carry you through a full weekend of existential dread.

This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it’s contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible—we could not continue to make the show without you! If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (in many different currencies), or you can gift a donation to a superfan. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number.

Produced by Morgan Childs, Wojciech Oleksiak and Katz Laszlo
Mixing and mastering by Wojciech Oleksiak

Music by Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

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