Chapter 158: Podcasts from the Swedish Radio

Lori lets me borrow her computer. So, finally, I can download podcasts from the Swedish Radio and learn what’s happening in Sweden right now. That’s something I started doing last summer, downloading podcasts and listening to them while working in the archive. Listening to radio programs while weeding works just as well.

It feels so safe in a way, and homey, to listen to these familiar voices. Hanna, Kodjo and Martina from the morning show Morgonpasset, Emmy, Henrik, Valeria and Robin from the news guide P3 Nyhetsguiden, Emma, Nanna, Jonatan and Ola from the satire programme Tankesmedjan. The calm of the philosophy programme Filosofiska rummet, the interesting reports from different parts of the world in Konflikt and the inspiring essays of the culture programme Obs.

And I feel kind of connected with the world again. Working at the farms and being a tourists, I’ve barely had the time to answer my e-mails. I’ve had no idea what’s been happening outside the property gates of Time Out Farms and Whiskey Creek Farm. But now I do!

I know that the French have a new, leftist president. That gives me hope. I know that the Greek voted a neo-nazi party into their parliament. That makes me terrified. I know that president Obama supports gay marriage now, and that our own statsminister Reinfeldt made a blunder when he said that since the ‘ethnically Swedish in the middle of life’ have employment in a very high degree, we don’t have a mass unemployment in Sweden. What did he mean with ‘ethnically Swedish’? I know that the superhero movie The Avengers now has the record for making the most money on it’s opening weekend. And I know that the genious pop pianist Frida Hyvönen has released new music, but I’ve only heard the intro and the outro of the single, because the rest is cut out of all the podcasts.

Squatting there, in the middle of the garlic patch, digging up stone after stone, weed after weed after ever-returning weed, I manage to keep my mood up by having Annika Lantz and her humour programme Sist med det senaste to listen to.