diff --git a/app/helpers/events_helper.rb b/app/helpers/events_helper.rb
index 037c5d2e..74c47868 100644
--- a/app/helpers/events_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/events_helper.rb
@@ -63,10 +63,18 @@ module EventsHelper
                     tags: %w[p br h1 h2 h3 h4 table tr th td ul ol li a strong
                              b em i sub sup],
                     attributes: %w[href]
-    Kramdown::Document.new(desc, input: :html, line_width: line_width)
+    Kramdown::Document.new(spaces(desc), input: :html, line_width: line_width)
                       .to_kramdown
-                      .remove(/ +$/) # Remove extraneous line feeds
                       .gsub(/\\([\"'])/, '\1') # Remove slash before quotes
-                      .gsub(/(\n\n)\n+/, '\1') # Fewer line feeds
+                      .remove(/{::}/) # Markdown artefact
+  end
+
+  private
+
+  # Cleaner html elements, to correct things like <em> test</em>
+  def spaces(desc)
+    desc.gsub(/<(strong|em)> /, ' <\1>')
+        .gsub(%r{ </(strong|em)>}, '</\1> ')
+        .gsub(/ ([,.])/, '\1')
   end
 end
diff --git a/app/models/event.rb b/app/models/event.rb
index 0dc5d3ca..644e0d17 100644
--- a/app/models/event.rb
+++ b/app/models/event.rb
@@ -95,6 +95,11 @@ class Event < ApplicationRecord
     tag_list.map { |tag| "##{tag.tr('-', '_').camelize :lower}" }
   end
 
+  def description
+    # Remove empty paragraphs, which are added by tinymce
+    self[:description]&.remove '<p> </p>'
+  end
+
   def to_s
     "#{start_time.to_date} #{city}: #{title} #{hashtags.join(' ')}"
   end
diff --git a/test/helpers/events_helper_test.rb b/test/helpers/events_helper_test.rb
index 8f2ff7f0..53b0c4f3 100644
--- a/test/helpers/events_helper_test.rb
+++ b/test/helpers/events_helper_test.rb
@@ -9,4 +9,12 @@ class EventsHelperTest < ActionView::TestCase
     assert_equal '', to_markdown('
 ')
   end
+
+  test 'HTML elements with a space inside' do
+    assert_equal '**hello world**', to_markdown('<strong>hello world </strong>')
+    assert_equal '**h**,', to_markdown('<strong> h</strong>,')
+    assert_equal '**h**,', to_markdown('<strong>h </strong>,')
+    assert_equal '*ho***h**,', to_markdown('<em>ho</em><strong>h </strong>,')
+    assert_equal '*ho* **h**,', to_markdown('<em>ho</em><strong> h</strong>,')
+  end
 end