# Europe's anti-Elon

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102/europe-s-anti-elon
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102/europe-s-anti-elon.md
Podcast: [The Europeans | European news, politics and culture](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102)
Published: 2026-03-12T04:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://europeanspodcast.com
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/a465ca65-54d1-4050-9001-beadf2bed622.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-europeans-european-news-politics-and-culture-1128102/episodes/europe-s-anti-elon
Duration seconds: 3994

## Resource

Back when Elon Musk was challenging Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight, Eugen Rochko was building an open-source, non-problematic Twitter alternative, completely without fanfare. Last year, the Mastodon founder announced his departure from the head of the social media platform in a candid blog post , citing a growing discomfort with the role and an interest in preserving the site’s decentralised values. But Mastodon lives on, and – full disclosure – we’re all for it. This week, we spoke to Eugen about his dreams for the “fediverse” and about whether his vision for ethical, supervillain-free online communities has a promising future. In fact, we enjoyed the conversation so much that we’re releasing a longer version for supporters of the podcast . Also in this episode: a compromise in Europe’s War on Veggie Burgers and the end of the decade-long Iceland-the-country-versus-Iceland-the-grocery-store dispute. Resources for this episode: “‘Veggie burgers’ are here to stay. Lab-grown ‘steaks’ never will be.” – Politico, 5 March 2026 “European consumer insights on the alternative protein sector” – The Good Food Institute Europe, 25 November 2025 Eugen on Mastodon “My next chapter with Mastodon” – Mastodon blog, 18 November 2025 “The Statues Were Mostly Men or Nude Women. So These Knitters Got to Work.” – The New York Times, 5 March 2026 This week’s Inspiration Station recommendations are the Apple TV show Drops of God and the Swiss Android app Nearby Glasses . You’ve probably heard by now that we have a newsletter. And you’ve probably already subscribed. Why wouldn’t you have? You’re smart, you’re cool, you’re with the programme; you love us, you want more of us. So leaving this link here for you to sign up is purely a formality. This podcast was brought to you in cooperation wit…

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## Transcript

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