Ben Smith has been watching the Eurovision Song Contest since 2008, blogging/podcasting about it since 2011, and a part of its digital press center since 2021. He has deep thoughts about the ways improvements in streaming media in the last decade have made the contest more of a truly global event, and can also do a tight five on Norway’s selection process. He lives in Somerville, MA and can be found more generally at goodatinter.net.
Ben Smith has hosted 263 Episodes.
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Episode 92: Americandom is Naujo!
August 18th, 2020 | Season 3 | 40 mins 28 secs
germany, iceland, lithuania, moldova, sweden, united states
We welcome Helen Groothuis back to the show to workshop how on earth the American Song Contest is supposed to work?
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Episode 91: A Brief History of the EBU
August 4th, 2020 | Season 3 | 49 mins 38 secs
belarus, belgium, france, germany, romania, russia, switzerland, ukraine, united kingdom
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) turns 70 this year! How did the EBU come into being? We dive into telecommunications history and evolution to find out.
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Episode 90: Wine Aunt Energy
July 21st, 2020 | Season 3 | 51 mins 31 secs
albania, bulgaria, croatia, denmark, finland, france, germany, greece, iceland, ireland, israel, italy, moldova, san marino, slovenia, united kingdom
We open up our mailbag and a chilled bottle of pinot grigio as we get caught up on Eurovision news from the last month or so.
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Episode 89: 12 Points to Fire Saga?
July 3rd, 2020 | Season 3 | 47 mins 8 secs
belarus, bulgaria, finland, iceland, russia, spain, special guest, sweden, switzerland
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga arrived on Netflix last week and 12 Points from America joins us to discuss the music in Will Ferrell's new comedy.
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I Am Confusion (Part 2)
June 23rd, 2020 | Season 3 | 36 mins 4 secs
finland, serbia, ukraine, united kingdom
We try our 12 Minutes from 2007 on a complete newbie to Eurovision. What does our guest Justin Ladia think of the festivities from Finland?
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Episode 88: 12 Minutes in 2007 (Part 1)
June 16th, 2020 | Season 3 | 54 mins 37 secs
finland, poland, serbia, ukraine, united kingdom
Chris King joins us to chat about UK quiz and panel shows—including Pointless Eurovision—and the rock block of Serbia, Ukraine, and the UK from Eurovision 2007.
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Episode 87: AfriMusic, AI, and the Free European Song Contests
June 3rd, 2020 | Season 3 | 47 mins 32 secs
australia, cyprus, germany, italy, latvia, netherlands, sweden, turkey
The 2020 Eurovision Song Contest did not happen. We discuss three Eurovision-adjacent song contests that did happen in the first half of 2020.
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Episode 86: Shine a Light
May 19th, 2020 | Season 3 | 1 hr 1 min
belarus, belgium, france, georgia, ireland, latvia, sweden, ukraine
The 2020 Eurovision Season comes to an end with Europe: Shine a Light. @dudepoints joins us to reminisce and set the record straight on the Riga Beaver.
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Episode 85: Eurovision Again
May 5th, 2020 | Season 3 | 52 mins 58 secs
australia, bulgaria, finland, germany, iceland, malta, russia, sweden, united kingdom
Eurovision Again impresario Rob Holley speaks with us about the Eurovision Twitter time machine extravaganza.
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Episode 84: What is Poptimism?
April 21st, 2020 | Season 3 | 58 mins 58 secs
finland, ireland, netherlands, norway, spain, sweden, united kingdom
Music critic Ned Raggett joins us to discuss rockism, poptimism, and why Eurovision songs are worthy of critique.
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Episode 83: Fanopticon
April 7th, 2020 | Season 3 | 45 mins 35 secs
australia, bulgaria, france, iceland, lithuania, norway, san marino, spain, united kingdom
Despite Eurovision's cancellation this year, the fandom is still fully engaged in the Contest. Eurovision Obsession's André Durham joins us to chat about how we're coping.
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Episode 82: The (Other) Ones That Got Away 2020 Edition
March 24th, 2020 | Season 3 | 38 mins 24 secs
albania, finland, latvia, lithuania, sweden, ukraine
We look back at the songs that missed out on being in the weird limbo space created after the cancellation of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest.