ChatGPT is ruining weddings now

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.

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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.

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Music by Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

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