Written by Emma
02 Sep 2018
September is upon us! Which means: autumn is here, trees are yellowing and redding and browning, everyone is enjoying a lil pumpkin spiced latte (or in Sweden, cardamom-spiced? I don’t know) and committing to too many projects ambitiously at the beginning of the academic calendar!
I love the back to school feeling. I live for the back to school feeling. I love buying new gel pens and hanging up all of my clothes in my wardrobe and using a bookmark. Because we all know by three weeks in this is going to CHANGE along with the fierce Baltic winds coming on in and mixing it up. SO alongside this spirit of change/seasonal GROWTH, we’re changing up the format of our podcast!
The podcast was started by the fantastic Edīte (who has a new podcast beyond Study In Sweden, check it out!) in the format of Sweden And:. I’ve loved doing this format for the past year, however entering the second year of the project, I thought I’d leave my own mark on the podcast format a little more.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
The premise is: I will be a co-host/co-producer alongside my colleague who you all know and love: Sanjay from Malmö! I think you’ll agree that Sanjay has the perfect presenter voice and sunshine personality, so I’m so thrilled to have him alongside me in this new project. Every month, we will both find (1) Swede and (1) International person who has settled in Sweden to ask them to take us on a tour of their favourite neighbourhood. The important thing here is that it is a neighbourhood: not a whole town or city. We want to explore in this podcast the small, intimate places that you find home in. We will do a walking tour/interview with these people in their favourite neighbourhoods, asking them questions about what it is like to live there, live there as a young person, study and work opportunities, social life etc. As Sanjay lives in the south and I live in the middle/north, we hope that this means this will give us great scope for exploring lots of different neighbourhoods. For example, Sanjay can cover Malmö, Lund and Helsingborg with relative ease, and the small villages and towns surrounding there. I can cover Uppsala and Stockholm and the surrounding towns with relative ease, as I live in Uppsala and (now!) study in Stockholm.
Won’t you please, please help me (I don’t actually like the Beatles, I know I’m from England and I “should”, but I don’t care)
ONE: A name! We have some ideas: My Scandinavian Neighbourhood, Mitt Favoritområde, Fisherman and Friends (I don’t know, okay). But do you have any ideas? We want something catchy, warm and memorable, and specifically rooted to Sweden/Scandinavia and the idea of neighbourhoods and community.
TWO: Are there any places in Sweden you want us to go to? For the first few months we may be located around our respective cities, finding small neighbourhoods and enclaves there, but then we hope to be able to go a bit further afield!
And finally, THREE: Do you want to be interviewed about your favourite neighbourhood? Or do you know someone who would be good to talk to? You don’t necessarily have to be a student now, but if you can speak to the student experience of living in that neighbourhood in some way, that’s definitely a bonus! Is there a neighbourhood you simply can’t stop talking about, even if you don’t live there? Is there a neighbourhood you know inside out, or want to get to know inside out because you love it so much? We want to hear from you!
If you think you can contribute in any way, do let us know! The first podcast will either be about FLOGSTA, UPPSALA or any neighbourhoods on SÖDERMALM, STOCKHOLM. You decide! Where should we go? Leave us some comments to help us decide!
