the nordics

Listen to a discussion on how Nordic public and voluntary organisations - particularly in Denmark, Sweden and Finland - responded to the famine which ensued when Biafra attempted to secede from Nigeria in the 1960s.

In the fourteenth episode for the New Nordic Lexicon, students Gaëtan Gamba and Agata Pyka speak to three researchers about their research project on Nordic relief efforts during the Biafra Crisis: Norbert Götz and Carl Marklund from Södertörn University, and Susan Lindholm, from Stockholm University. 

Sound credits: Summer by tictac9 from freesound.org.

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Listen to an interview in Swedish and Norwegian on the gap between talk and action when it comes to climate change. 

In the eleventh podcast for the New Nordic Lexicon, students from Bergen and Lund speak to Maria Wolrath-Söderberg from Södertörn University. This podcast was made possible by funding from the A.P. Moller Foundation.

Sound credits: Summer by tictac9 from freesound.org.

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Listen to an interview in Swedish and Norwegian on how people’s use of language and their thoughts have a direct effect on their level of emissions. Research into how people reason and think about climate change is crucial to the debate on climate change.

In the tenth podcast for the New Nordic Lexicon, students from Bergen and Lund, speak to Maria Wolrath-Söderberg from Södertörn University. This podcast was made possible by funding from the A.P. Moller Foundation.

Sound credits: Summer by tictac9 from freesound.org.

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Listen to an interview in Danish on the changing cultural landscape within both politics and literature since the invasion of Ukraine, both in Russia, Europe and Norden, with two researchers from Aarhus University.

In the eigth podcast for the New Nordic Lexicon, students from Aarhus and Lund Universities, Daniela Lange Andersen and Mattias Carlberg, speak to Thorsten Borring Olesen and Birgitte Beck Pristed, both from Aarhus University, about international political culture, and literature and reading in Russia. They also discuss recommendations of books to read and music to listen to about what is going on in Ukraine and Russia. This podcast was made possible by funding from the A.P. Moller Foundation.

Sound credits: Summer by tictac9 from freesound.org.

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The Nordic Region is part of the Baltic Sea Region, connected in historical, cultural and economic ways. Listen to a podcast about what has changed in the Baltic Sea Region since the invasion of Ukraine, and about how regions are not static and change over time, much like our affiliation for them.

Students from Aarhus University, Chance Dorland and Sóley Eliasdottir, get answers to their questions from two scholars, Kazimierz Musiał from the University of Gdansk's Scandinavian and Finnish Studies department and Alexander Drost from the Interdiscipliary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research at Greifswald University.  This podcast was made possible by funding from the A.P. Moller Foundation.

Sound credits: Summer by tictac9 from freesound.org.

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Proficiency in English is widespread in the Nordic countries, but not everyone is good at English and the language's dominance is often questioned. Listen to this podcast to find out more about the English language in the Nordic region today.

The podcast is written by Eeva Sippola and Elizabeth Peterson, and read out and produced by Nicola Witcombe. You can also read this podcast as an article on nordics.info or listen to it in Danish.

Sounds from freesound.org including talking.wav by ondrosik and Piano Solo 01 by BergsteinProd (fading/volume changes/overlay to both tracks).

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Find out what a heritage language is, and what the state of heritage languages in the Nordic region is today in this podcast written by Eeva Sippola and Elizabeth Peterson from the University of Helsinki.

It is read out and produced by Nicola Witcombe. You can also read this podcast as an article on nordics.info or listen to it in Danish.

Sounds from freesound.org including talking.wav by ondrosik and Piano Solo 01 by BergsteinProd (fading/volume changes/overlay to both tracks).

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Listen to a dialogue between three environmental scientists about how nature-based solutions are used in the Nordics, their benefits and their downsides.  Editor of nordics.info, Nicola Witcombe, talks to Isabel Seifert-Dähnn, an environmental economist from the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Johanna Alkan-Olsson, a Social Environmental Scientist, and Helena Hanson, an Environmental Scientist, both from the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science at Lund University in Sweden. All three scholars are part of S-ITUATION: Nature-Based Solutions in the Nordics.

Find out more on nordics.info.

Sound credits include Heavy Rain by lebaston100 (some changes made e.g. cutting & changes to volume) on freesound.org.

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The Nordics are often seen as ethical countries because they have a reputation for being environmentally friendly and for giving a lot in development aid. Listen to a podcast on how Nordic cooperation works through politicians, civil servants and civil society, and how it is often more driven by self-interest than at first appears.

Editor of nordics.info Nicola Witcombe speaks to Sunniva Engh who has researched development aid in the Nordics and its interplay with other policy areas, and Melina Antonia Buns, an international environmental historian who researched environmental cooperation in the Nordics.

Sound credits from freesound.org including kalimba1.wav by reimsamba (CC BY 3.0) and traffic in town.WAV by inchadney (C BY-NC 3.0) (changes made to length and volume in both).

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Lyt til et historisk overblik over mennesker med handicap: aktivisme og politiske strømninger i Norden siden 1945. Artiklen er originalt skrevet på engelsk af Anna Derksen og oplæst af Kieu Anh Nguyen fra nordics.info.

Du kan lytte til podcasten på engelsk her, eller læs artiklen på engelsk her.

#nordicsinfo #ReNEWHub

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Listen to an historical overview of disability policies and movements in the Nordic countries since 1945. You can also listen to this podcast in Danish by clicking here.

You can also read the podcast as an article, which is by Anna Derksen, here.

#nordicsinfo #ReNEWHub

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Hot topics in current academic research on the Nordic region today include welfare, colonialism and heterogeneity. These – as well as a host of other issues - form the content of this podcast, the last in the series ‘The Nordics Uncovered: Critical Voices from the Region’. 

Editor of nordics.info, Nicola Witcombe, is joined by Mary Hilson Professor of History at Aarhus University in Denmark and  Peter Stadius Research Director at the Centre for Nordic Studies at Helsinki University. Their conversation also takes in: 

• Traditional histories versus new perspectives.
• A Europe of Regions e.g. the Oresund.
• The rise of nationalism.
• Finnish colonialism.

Find out more on nordics.info.

Sound credits from freesound.org including "Noir" Reel by Hainbach by makenoisemusic, loneliness by rashta and The Plan - Upbeat Loop by ispeakwaves.

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Listen to this podcast if you are interested in: 

• Women’s role in business from around 1900 to today.
• The Norwegian gender quota system on business boards.
• Why we should question our love of ‘quick fix’ global indexes which often place the Nordics at the top. 
• The fact that there is usually a host of other political reasons for gender-positive action that have nothing to do with equality.

Eirinn Larsen, Professor in History at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo, and editor of Gender Equality and Nation Branding in the Nordic Region , helps editor of nordics.info Nicola Witcombe understand why and how gender is used as a tool for branding the Nordics.

This is the ninth virtual visit around the Nordic countries in the podcast series ’The Nordics Uncovered: Critical Voices from the Region’ and was recorded in May 2021.

Find out more on nordics.info.

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This nordics.info podcast will be about the practicalities of history-making and how commercial and non-commercial organisations use history to sell tickets or a particular version of the past.

Listen to this podcast if you want to hear more about:

• What role do museums play?
• The specific heritage portrayed by country houses in and outside the Nordics.
• What we forget is just as important as what we remember: mobilising the past for the future.
• The tradition for folk and open air museums in the Nordics.
• How can negative histories be useful?
• Tourism and national heritage: The Little Mermaid.
• What are the responsibilities of commercial and non-commercial history-makers?

The editor of nordics.info and Danish history student Vibeke Sandager Rønnedal interview two historians from Aarhus University and the Danish Centre for Urban History.

Find out more on nordics.info.

Sounds from freesound.org including All I Did Was Wait For You by kjartan_abel and Scene Change Music by dominictreis.

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Listen to this podcast if you are interested in finding out more about:

• Minorities in Finland;
• Myths  of homogeneity in the Nordics;
• The politicising and categorising of minorities and migrants;
•  History-writing.

Miika Tervonen, Senior Research Fellow at the Migration Institute of Finland and Docent at the Centre for Nordic Studies at the University of Helsinki, helps editor of nordics.info Nicola Witcombe examine these issues, challenging commonly held assumptions about state, homogeneity and migration.

Learn more about the peoples, historians and other things mentioned this podcast by going to nordics.info.

This is the eighth virtual visit around the Nordic countries in the podcast series ’The Nordics Uncovered: Critical Voices from the Region’.

Sounds from freesound.org including big_lorry_engine.aif by jacobsteel.

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Listen to this podcast if you want to hear more about:

• Memory studies.
• Why is our relationship with the past so important for society?
• How do we deal with different versions of the past?
• Scandinavian memory culture: the dangers of complacency.

The editor of nordics.info and Danish history student Vibeke Sandager Rønnedal interview two historians from Aarhus University and the Danish Centre for Urban History.

Read more about the podcast and what is mentioned in it by going to nordics.info.

Sounds from freesound.org including All I Did Was Wait For You by kjartan_abel and Scene Change Music by dominictreis.

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Listen to this nordics.info podcast if you are interested in finding out more about:

• The traits of the Nordic Model;
• Examples of policy successes and policy challenges in the Nordics;
• The relationship between the Nordics and the EU;
• The provision of universal services, like early years childcare in Denmark and Sweden.

Editor of nordics.info Nicola Witcombe interviews Caroline de la Porte, a European political economist and Professor at the Department of International Economics, Government and Business at Copenhagen Business School. This is the seventh virtual visit around the Nordic countries in the podcast series ’The Nordics Uncovered: Critical Voices from the Region’ and was recorded in April 2021.

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Listen to this podcast if you are interested in :

• How a collective mindset has been discernable in Denmark and the Nordic countries at points in history – and whether this still applies today;
• Mass education in the nineteenth century in Denmark and greater emphasis on vocational training;
• Labour market relations;
• Neoliberalism and threats to collectivism.

Join the editor of nordics.info, Nicola Witcombe, on her sixth virtual visit around the Nordic countries in the podcast series ’The Nordics Uncovered: Critical Voices from the Region’. Cathie and Nicola spoke over Zoom in March 2021.

Sound credits : freesound.org, including Lapping Waves.wav by Benboncan, and Short dance by szegvari.

Visit nordics.info for more information on this podcast.

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This is extra material on the The Nordics and Small State Theory  from the nordics.info podcast with Janne Holmén, 'Sweden: Uncovering Nordic Education and Society with Janne Holmén' from February 2021.  

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This is extra material on the Icelandic pensions system and means-testing  from the nordics.info podcast with Stefán Ólafsson, 'Iceland: Uncovering the Nordic Welfare State with Stefán Ólafsson' from January 2021. 

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