Recorded two days after Hungary's election, April 14th, 2026.

Viktor Orbán is gone. Sixteen years of Fidesz rule ended Sunday night with a landslide that nobody quite believed was coming, even as it was happening. I woke up Tuesday morning, phone lit up with messages from people back home, and did the only thing that felt right — hit record.

This isn't a political analysis. I'll leave that to people who are better at it. This is just what it feels like to be standing in Budapest on a day like this, in a city you moved back to two and a half years ago, when the Orbán cloud was still very much hanging over everything.

It's also the launch of this publication — which I'd planned for later in the month. But the timing made the decision for me.

What you'll find here: one audio entry a week, with a transcript alongside it. Expat stories, honest reflections, and dispatches from a writer finishing a novel about this city. The proper introduction comes in the next episode. This one just needed to exist today.

Budapest Unscripted is free. The next entry is the introduction.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit budapestunscripted.substack.com