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 225 Episodes.
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Episode 33: Welcome to 2019
January 9th, 2019 | Season 2 | 34 mins 40 secs
albania, cyprus, czech republic, france, georgia, israel, lithuania, malta, san marino, spain, sweden, united kingdom
Happy new year! Now that we can begin 2019 in earnest, we have our first Eurovision entry up for discussion.
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Episode 32: Spotify Wrapping Up 2018
December 19th, 2018 | Season 2 | 22 mins 21 secs
albania, belarus, belgium, cyprus, estonia, france, hungary, latvia, norway, spain, sweden
As we wrap up 2018, we get ready for Albania's Eurovision selection process, check in with Spain, and see how Spotify puts us on blast.
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Episode 31: Eurovision Gifts for 2018
December 5th, 2018 | Season 2 | 36 mins 51 secs
armenia, estonia, latvia, sweden
Are you looking for Eurovision gifts for friends or loved ones? We have suggestions.
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Episode 30: Dustin the Turkey Day
November 21st, 2018 | Season 2 | 31 mins 43 secs
belarus, greece, ireland, israel, united kingdom
Happy Thanksgiving! We're talking turkey this week and that means either the country or Ireland's Dustin the Turkey. Guess what we chose.
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Episode 29: Start Voting Now
November 7th, 2018 | Season 2 | 36 mins 24 secs
bulgaria, france, ireland, israel, netherlands, norway, spain, sweden, switzerland
How does the voting process work at Eurovision? If you think it's confusing now, the history of voting at the Contest has many surprises.
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Episode 28: The Aftermarket
October 24th, 2018 | Season 2 | 33 mins 2 secs
australia, bulgaria, malta, ukraine
Eurovision provides an aftermarket for winners of singing competitions. Why don't we have that in America? Andy Dehnart from Reality Blurred joins us to discuss.
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Episode 27: Orchestras, Synthesizers, and Lulu
October 10th, 2018 | Season 2 | 32 mins 59 secs
ireland, israel, italy, netherlands, norway, spain, ukraine, united kingdom
Orchestras used to be a requirement at Eurovision. In this episode, we take a look at the evolution of live music at the competition.
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Episode 26: Tel Aviv and Other Headlines
September 26th, 2018 | Season 2 | 36 mins 41 secs
bulgaria, finland, germany, iceland, israel, netherlands, san marino, sweden
Tel Aviv will be hosting Eurovision in 2019! I mean, we pretty much knew that, but now it's official!
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Episode 25: Planning Your Eurovision Vacation
September 12th, 2018 | Season 2 | 36 mins 27 secs
denmark, estonia, france, israel, spain, sweden
We know the Eurovision Song Contest will be in Israel in May 2019, so now is the perfect time to start planning your vacation!
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Episode 24: Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest
August 29th, 2018 | Season 2 | 51 mins 30 secs
israel
Israel has had a fascinating history at Eurovision. We've invited Noam Roth from EuroFreak to talk about his country's participation.
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Episode 23: That’s How You AI a Song
August 15th, 2018 | Season 1 | 36 mins 6 secs
ireland, israel, netherlands, norway
We gave a computer more than 300 Eurovision Song Contest entries from the last decade and this is what it gave us.
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Episode 22: World Cup Song Contest
July 18th, 2018 | Season 1 | 26 mins 5 secs
azerbaijan, germany, iceland, malta, russia
Is there anything more EuroWhat? than the World Cup? How about World Cup songs performed by Eurovision Song Contest alumni? Yeah, that oughta do it...