Sweden in Transition

Lindsay has been working for MSF for almost 20 years in various roles and locations mainly in Africa (Ethopia, Haïti, Congo…) and is now based in Stockholm.

MSF. Médecins Sans Frontières is known internationally as Doctors without Borders. Founded 50 years ago in France by a group of journalists and doctors, this NGO is now a worldwide movement of nearly 65,000 people. It provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare.

We recorded this episode just before the war started in Ukraine.

Since the fighting broke out, MSF's teams have been working around the clock to meet urgent needs. Getting the right supply at the right place, preparing staff for large influxe of injured people, but also looking at the needs of the thousands people who have fled the fighting, starting mobile clinics to provide medical care.

I leave you with the initial episode where we speak more broadly about how an NGO like MSF works and especially how they maintain their independence, the humanitarian crisis around the globe and their colonial and post colonial origins but also how they are impacted by climate change.

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Henrik BLIND is group leader for the Green Party in Jokkmokk.

Henrik is also Sami and together we will speak about the Sami people, their history and culture as well as their rights and fights.

TheSami are Europes’s only indigenous people whose land called Sápmi encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. An intact territory

made of mountains, wild rivers, pristine lakes and streams, tundra and forests,

where the Sami have lived since time immemorial. Their best-known means of

livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding, even though nowadays only 10% of

the Sámi are connected to reindeer herding,

This conversation will touch on the history of Swedish colonization and how it affects society today, the question of land and disputes with the forestry and mining industries, the impact of climate change

on reindeer herding but also explore the indigenous spirituality and how it

could inspire us today.

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Today it is a new format: I will leave the floor to three dads so they can share their own experience on paternity leave. Emotion guaranteed!   

Parental leave is 480 days in Sweden, which are more and more shared equally between both parents. It is well paid and during this first year there is no real childcare. On the opposite, afterwards the costs of pre-school is very limited. Also, the tax system in Sweden is individual (not based on the household revenue) encouraging the parent with low income to remain active. All those measures are good incentives for both mums & dads to take the parental leave but  to go back to work afterwards as well.  You will also learn that there are domestic classes in high school, where all boys and girls learn how to cook, bake, clean, iron, sewe and make errands.    

Most of you, listening mums & dads probably did not get the chance of having such a long and equally shared leave. My husband & I certainly did not, but we still feel we fully enjoyed our babies and still spend a lot of quality time with them.

However, the parental leave set up in Sweden feels right, much more natural, fair for both parents and more profitable for kids and society as a whole.   

Please, share your thoughts and comments, I am so interested to hear what you think!  

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I have been willing to make an episode on paternity leave for a longtime, looking around for the right person to meet! That was until I discovered Johan’sexhibit called Swedish Dads. Johan Bävman is a photographer and has won several awards, including the World Press Photo, Sony Award, UNICEF PhotoAward. His series Swedish Dads had a tremendous impact and has been published/shared widely all over the world.

Together we will speak about paternity leave. A topic that is a lot less anecdotal than one might think at first sight. It is even a critical step to gender equality, but beyond that, it is a major milestone to a cultural mindshit that is key to rethink masculinity and reinvent a system around a wider set of values, changing from our current patriarchal software to a more modern and caring culture.

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Very happy to welcome Sanna Ghotbi to talk about Participatory Democracy !

After working in politics for four years, Sanna is now working with municipalities and public institutions to design participatory democracy processes. 

Together we discussed the need to reinvent democracy. We reviewed inspiring examples in various countries: in Spain following 15-M movement in 2011 (Indignados), in France with the tops & flops of the Citizen Convention for Climate, in Ireland on very controversial topics and even in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan). 

 We then made a focus on Sweden, known as a Democracy landmark. Partly a myth according to Sanna, who hightlighted opportunities, challenges and specific initiatives going on at the moment.  

At the end of the interview, Sanna shared her dream for Participatory Democracy in the future. She would want it to be built on 3 pillars: 1/ Better Representation: Allowing more people from different backgrounds to enter into politics, inspired by the movement "Brand New Congress" in the US, led by AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), 2/ Better everyday participation: thanks to permanent structures, such as for example rotational Citizen Assemblies,  3/ Better Organising on a grassroots level: through Community Organising  within Civil Society,  "and for that for people in Sweden to wake up ! We are not in this perfect equal country, we need to get organised ! to demand things, to cross pollinate between different movements (equal health care, less discrimination on the job market, better pensions, less segregation and dismanteled public services in disadvantaged areas)".

Hope you you will like this conversation as much as I did !

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Extinction Rebellion (also known as XR) was born in 2018 in the UK and today claims 100,000 members across 60 countries. This collective defends a radical change in our environmental policies and advocates civil disobedience & non-violence. Occupations of places, blockades with human chains, art performances, and no resistance in case of arrest.  

Elvin is 21 years old and tells how he became an activist, his vision for the future and how XR is building on historic legacies (Civil Rights Movement, Gandhi, the Suffragettes) as well as social science. He also explains the logic of civil disobedience, and how disruption is forcing friction and debate in society. 

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Sepehr Mousavi is the Co-Founder of SweGreen, where he is in charge of Sustainability, Innovation and R&D. He is also a Futurist and Green Tech advocate, TedX speaker and keynote for many otherconferences.

SweGreen is an Agtech and Vertical Farming innovation company based in Stockholm. How do we address population growth and urbanization? Can we promote biodiversity and reduce risks related to climate change? Can tech be used for good? Could food grown in a controlled environment be more tasty, richer in nutrient and truly sustainable? We discussed all that and went through the incredible synergies that the pilot farm here in central Stockholm has managed to leverage to be fully circular.

Actually, this discussion took us much further than that: from the reinvention of our food system to the necessary mindshift that we as Human need to go through collectively, moving away from this win-lose logic that leads to inequalities and environmental disaster.

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Helene Ählberg is a Purpose guide, she helps develop progressive organizations with a purpose-driven culture where employees contribute and grow. She is also the founder of Teal for Teal Sweden. A network to spread ideas and models for new ways of working in our rapidly changing world.

During this conversation, we learn more about what a Teal Organization is, referring to the famous book of Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organizations.

To introduce the subject, we go through the challenges organisations need to address today: lack of agility, need for more rapid innovation but also employees disengagement & "brown-out", as well as the higher expectations from the younger generation around meaning and autonomy.

Helene explains the different stages: Red, Amber, Orange, Green and Teal, and then goes through the 3 fondamental principles of Teal organizations: Self leadership, Wholeness & Purpose.

We then discuss the benefits of such transformation in a country like Sweden, known for its consensus and work-life balance culture. Finally, Helene observes that the context of the pandemic is accelerating this paradign shift, but stresses that things need to change even quicker if organisations are to stand up and address the urgent Climate change challenge we are facing now.

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Joakim is the CEO of Nudie Jeans, a denim brand that has won many awards in the field of sustainability since it was created in 2001 by Maria Erixon.

The fashion industry accounts for about 10% of global carbon emissions, and nearly 20% of wastewater. Production has doubled over the past 15-20 years, due to constant change of collections and cheap prices. As a result, 40% of our wardrobe is rarely or never worn.

But in this conversation, we will see that it is possible to challenge this “fast fashion” model

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Linnéa Engström worked as a green member of the EU parliament for 5 years. She has written a book on climate justice and feminism. She was elected First Vice-Chair of the Committee on Fisheries and is currently working as program director at the Marine Stewardship Council.

During this conversation, we discussed climate, feminism and Ocean’s governance for sustainability but also learnt about Linnéa's engagement in politics and in civil society.

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