Nordic Talks
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Forgotten voices in the green transition
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Already marginalized communities are often the ones who bear the brunt of today's climate crisis, but still their perspectives are frequently ignored ...
Youth and politics – is it a match?
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Are young people today interested in politics? Surveys show that the answer is yes. Eighty-five percent of Europeans under 30 say that they discuss po...
Decarbonizing our production
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do we manufacture our products? What energy sources do we use? How do we transport goods and how do we package them? All these questions need to b...
Democracy and dictatorship in a digital world
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Internet, smartphones, and now artificial intelligence - the digital revolution has made us more connected, given us better access to information and ...
COP28-special: Reimagining food systems
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The entrepreneur Ada Osakwe is the founder of the fastest-growing sustainable fast-food chain in Nigeria. She is also advising politicians and other d...
COP28-special: Achieving a gender just transition for all
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Founder and CEO of Springs of ASAL, Mana Omar, has first-hand experience with gender inequality in climate vulnerable communities. In a sit-down with ...
COP28-special: Climate justice for Rosa
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Van Bunderen Robberechts lost his friend Rosa in the floods in Belgium in 2021. After this tragedy, he founded the initiative "Climate J...
COP28-special: Tackling the triple planetary crisis
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a child, Rose Kobusinge from Uganda experienced how longer and longer periods of drought affected her local community and their livelihoods. But it...
COP28-special: Collaborating for climate justice
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year Agustín Ocaña from Ecuador quit his job to become a full-time advocator for the education of the world's youth as a way of fighting for th...
Building with nature's help
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Can lava from volcanoes be transformed into house walls? And can we use fungi to clean areas in our cities from toxic waste? The answer to both questi...
The menu of tomorrow
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A global shift to a more sustainable diet is needed to reduce the major impact that food production has on our planet. Right now the global food syste...
Earth-friendly fashion
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Clothing production has doubled worldwide over the last 15 years and has today a huge negative environmental and social footprint. The global fashion ...
Green gold rush on Indigenous land
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine a picture-perfect future where clean energy projects have replaced damaging non-renewable energy sources. With many of the new green projects ...
Striving for gender equality in the media
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Despite progress towards gender equality, women's voices remain underrepresented in the mainstream media, where male domination has been the norm for ...
2030: A deadline for sustainable change
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Do you sometimes wonder if the world is making progress on reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Are we succeeding in securing a bette...
Energy security in a new geopolitical reality
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The war in Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis shocked Europe into realizing the risks of relying on imported gas and oil. As a result, many count...
Civil defense and resilient societies
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when a country that has lived in peace for decades needs to defend itself? While governments may be able to obtain military hardware quic...
Finding common ground in diverse cities
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The different neighborhoods, and their unique atmosphere, is what makes cities across the world so interesting. However, there is a pitfall to this un...
Skills of tomorrow – what should children learn?
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Reading, writing, and arithmetic. These are the essential skills that children learn in schools around the globe. But the world is changing rapidly an...
Compensating for climate damage
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hurricanes, floods, and drought. These extreme weather events are hitting the world's poorer countries more and more often due to climate change - muc...
Ukraine-special: Voices of the future
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Has Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine destroyed any hope of dialogue between Russians and Ukrainians? Or is there still an oppor...
Ukraine-special: The difficult dialogue
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Has Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine destroyed any hope of dialogue between Russians and Ukrainians? Or is there still an oppor...
Ukraine-special: People to people – in the time of war
24 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Has Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine destroyed any hope of dialogue between Russians and Ukrainians? Or is there still an oppor...
All aboard the digital train
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Did anyone ever tell you that the future is digital? It's a phrase you've probably heard many times over. But what happens in reality when governments...
COP27-special: Now what?
14 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We came to COP27 with a sense of urgency, as we know from science that we are already running out of time. Technological fixes are certainly not enoug...
COP27-special: Paving the way for behavioral change
13 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is the fight against climate change now seen as so urgent, that it will move humanity towards a more sustainable and just world? Or will we continue t...
COP27-special: Arctic societies in transistion
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Arctic has warmed three times quicker than the planet as a whole, and up North the effects of the climate changes are visible already today. How c...
COP27-special: Clean cooking
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do we improve people's health by decreasing exposure to black carbon, reduce carbon emissions, prevent deforestation, and promote gender equality ...
COP27-special: Regenerative cities
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can we reimagine our cities for a regenerative transformation? To regenerate means not only to do less harm, but to become a positive force that r...
COP27-special: Purpose finance
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can we accelerate our fight for the climate through climate finance and market mechanisms? Can we succeed in changing the way we think, create, an...
Art, culture & sustainable minds
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It turns out that building social cohesion in your local community can in itself have a significant impact on levels of climate action. This is one of...
Happiness at work
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How can I be happy at work? It seems that more and more people worldwide are asking themselves precisely this question. The COVID-19 pandemic especial...
Sailing green from port to port
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know that over 80 percent of goods traded internationally are transported by sea? This makes the shipping sector a significant contributor to ...
Black rights on the global agenda
30 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Black Lives Matter movement was propelled into the global spotlight as protests spread following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis polic...
Can green be fair?
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The world urgently needs to move to green energy for the sake of the climate. But what if scrapping fossil fuels means that you lose your job or face ...
Undoing digital abuse of women
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Women are increasingly bearing the brunt of digital abuse. The rise of social media platforms has created greater opportunities for hate against women...
Library evolution
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do you think of when you hear the word library? Maybe you think of a building full of books - a place to explore other worlds and perspectives. B...
Saving the Arctic
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The ice is melting, the flora and fauna are changing, and people's ways of life are at risk. In the Arctic's, inhabitants have first-hand experience o...
The rural way
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When COVID-19 hit with its lockdowns and foreign travel restrictions, did you suddenly feel drawn to life somewhere more remote? If so, you weren't al...
Reinventing trust
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The world is suffering from a second worrying pandemic – not COVID-19, but a major outbreak of distrust: Accusations of fake news and lies, general ...
Growing liveable cities in Africa
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Africa's total population is expected to almost double to nearly 2.5 billion by 2050, where roughly half will be living in urban areas. Urbanization i...
The green pension pot
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know that your pension can be a powerful weapon in the fight against climate change? However small your pension pot, when pooled together with...
Let’s talk about sex
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A woman’s right to decide over her own body is a cornerstone of gender equality and sustainable development but remains a battlefield across the glo...
Branding the middle of nowhere
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Darkness, lousy weather, and a sleepover in the middle of nowhere. Sound fun? Apparently yes! The Nordic countries have successfully branded their rem...
Is there a Plan Bee?
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bees are dying out and that’s a big problem for us human beings. If bees and other pollinators disappeared altogether, we would lose a third of our ...
Ringing the bell for free education
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Education is a fundamental human right, yet only 70 percent of children worldwide are in school. How can we bridge this gap to reach the goal of free ...
Women, equality and economic power
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Achieving gender equality in all aspects of society isn't just ethically right, it's also economically smart. Numerous studies show that increasing ge...
The future of work
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
More short-term or freelance work. Less steady employment with fixed pay. The labor market is undergoing massive changes, creating uncertainty for mil...
Better air in the city
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You can't see it, but you still breathe it in: Air pollution is an invisible threat to millions of people living in urban areas, and many lives are lo...
Can 5G enable social change?
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The rollout of 5G, the superfast fifth generation mobile internet network, is underway. But will it mean more than just better networks and faster dow...
Return to wood
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Should more houses be built from wood? Yes, say some urban planners and architects. They believe the construction industry could drastically reduce it...
Consuming in a circle
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can we change our economic behavior? With the planet's resources being increasingly overstretched, the warnings are coming loud and clear that the old...
Mining for the future
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here's the paradox: To shift away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources, we need more raw materials for things like solar panels, wind...
Drenched in tech
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
COVID-19 forced us to move our entire lives online almost overnight. Around the world it changed how students are educated, how we work and how we soc...
Lessons from Generation G
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
They may be too young to vote – but can the up-and-coming generation of climate activists, embodied by Sweden's Greta Thunberg, push governments to ...
Beauty industry makeover
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Let’s face it – there’s an ugly side to the rapidly growing beauty industry. Take the excessive packaging of personal care products: 140 billion...
Big Tech's threat to democracy
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do tech giants like Google, Apple or Facebook have too much power? They gather enormous amounts of information about us, which is often sold and distr...
Can art stop climate change?
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What role can culture play in countering climate change? A growing number of artists are using their work to tackle this issue, challenging concert, t...
Profit with a purpose
05 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can the UN Sustainable Development Goals drive businesses to help the planet? The key role companies can play in making the world a better place was h...
Food choices for change
22 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How can we fix the food industry and get more sustainable food products into our shopping carts? Food production accounts for over a quarter of global...
Slowing down fashion
08 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Will it soon be cooler to rent, swap or buy secondhand clothes than to fanatically follow ever-changing fast fashion trends? More and more consumers a...
Duty to inspire
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Do countries that have a positive global impact have a special responsibility to share ideas and act as role models? The Nordic nations regularly top ...
The Nordic way to peace
03 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Does a tiny cluster of islands on the border between Sweden and Finland hold the key to conflict resolution? For years people have been flocking to th...
The future of aviation
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is there a greener way to fly? We know that air travel is bad for the planet, with emissions from the aviation industry contributing substantially to ...
Play for a green world?
06 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Can we game our way to a sustainable future? There are now more than 2.6 billion active users of video games around the world, meaning the gaming indu...
A green forest of selfies?
22 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Can we store data in plants? Sending an email, streaming a video, uploading photos to the cloud, or simply just listening to this podcast. All these a...
Exercise your democratic muscle
09 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Governments around the world are exploring ways of getting citizens more involved in making complex policy decisions. Can this trend toward "deliberat...
Game-changing protein
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What do you throw on the grill when you are having friends over for a barbeque but still want to stay sustainable? How about a seaweed sausage or a bu...
Is doing good good business?
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is saving the planet good for business? Consumers are increasingly demanding that companies do more to tackle to world’s most critical challenges, f...
Will corona make us greener?
26 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Will the corona crisis lead to a more sustainable life – even after travel bans are lifted and social distancing is just a distant memory? Or will ...
Ugly vegetables need love too
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Food waste is a major environmental challenge. If food waste were a country, it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the worl...
Kids and careers – let’s make it easier
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Can the US draw inspiration from the Nordic model of paid parental leave for all? We explore the differences between the Nordic and US systems and ask...