The Swede-ish Podcast

Andrea Pippins is an internationally renowned illustrator and author. Her work has featured in the New York Times and O, The Oprah Magazine. She currently resides in Stockholm with her family and is working on her next project, featuring her son.

Andrea Pippins is one of the most together and tranquil people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Her artwork and illustrations have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times and Essence. Andrea’s latest publication We Inspire Me is a collection of essays, interviews and advice about cultivating and empowering one’s community.

 

Andrea moved to Stockholm in 2015 with her husband and has lived here ever since. I met with her at her home in Stockholm to talk about our culture of ‘work’ as a freelancers, having a nomadic career and the differences between working in the US and working in Sweden.

The other books mentioned in the podcast include:

Step Into Your Power by Jamia Wilson (illustrated by Andrea Pippins) 

Young, Gifted and Black by Jamia Wilson (illustrated by Andrea Pippins)

I Love My Hair: A Coloring Book of Braids, Coils, and Doodle Dos by Andrea Pippins

Katherine J Plumb has been called 'Stockholm's coolest textile artist' by the Context magazine and her story of how she started out gives us all reason to be hopeful.

Katherine J Plumb has been called ‘Stockholm’s coolest textile artist’ by the Context magazine and her story of how she started out gives us all reason to be hopeful. Jill speaks to designer and owner of KJP Studios, Katherine Plumb, about starting out in Sweden and the struggles she’s faced finding her seat at the design community table in Stockholm.

 

You can find all of KJP Studios work and collaborations on Instagram @kjplumb or via her website studiokjp.com

Third culture kid and indie author, Jennifer Dahlberg is a long term expat living in Stockholm and originally from the United States. Her passion for the written word and do it yourself nature led to her successful indie publishing venture that has gone global.

Third culture kid turned indie author. Jill meets Jennifer Dahlberg, author and expat, now living in Stockholm. Her latest novel, Lagging Indicators, hit shelves in Jul 2018.

We discussed Jennifer’s upbringing as a third culture kid, her passion for writing, what led her to indie publishing and life as an expat American woman in Sweden.

 

You can purchase Jennifer’s book, Lagging Indicators, from Amazon

You can follow Jennifer on social media via Instagram on jennifer.anglade.dahlberg

 

It's me, Jill, I'm recording the podcast again. I thought what way to start back than just with me. Have you ever felt like everyone else has got their suit pants pressed and you're still figuring out the button up? Yup, me too. But, why? And, why do we put so much pressure on ourselves?

On a whim, I sat down with the mic and recorded a podcast. It made me realise how much I missed it. I’m going to commit to myself every week, one podcast. Whether it’s with a really exciting guest, myself or a cup of tea, I’m on it (I’m also pretty sure I’ve said that before and failed, too).

I’ve had a bubbling desire to talk about two things, guilt and failure. I’ve been feeling guilty for failing recently. Failing at work, life, being friends, being a partner. I’m struck by the number of people who feel the same. Although, why should it be surprising? It’s like we’ve all got our dirty little secret. This perpetual personification of being perfect is tiring and worrisome. People asking, ‘how do you do it all?’

You won’t get any tips or tricks from me tonight, just the white-hot truth that I stink at making it all work and doing it all. I fail, all the time.

So, let us continue as we mean to go on and normalise failure. Take the pressure off and figure out that we’re all evolving, changing and in order to do so, we must fail. You are under no obligation to get this right the first time around.

 

Tracey Reid, founder and CEO of Little Echoes, an organisation supporting and campaigning on behalf of families with special needs in Sweden. Shining a light on some of the darker corners of Swedish society.

Trigger Warning: In the episode we’ll be discussing topics which some listeners may find difficult; issues such as disability rights, abuse, discrimination, segregation in education, disabled women in #metoo movement, controversial interventions and therapies. We’ll be using person-centred and identity first language.

 

Tracey is a paediatric massage therapist for special health care needs, Global Ambassador for Liddle Kidz Foundation, founder of Girl Gone International Stockholm and Founder of not-for profit foundation Little Echoes, an organisation that supports and campaigns for families with special needs in Sweden.

 

Tracey’s tenacity and determination to carry out the mission of Little Echoes comes from a deeply personal place following the challenges she and her family have faced in Sweden.

Tracey’s experience of life in Sweden is very different from most. It hasn’t been a bed of roses and the egalitarian dream that some might expect. And, it shines a light on an issue that is little talked about and deeply unsettling.

 

If you would like to know more about some of the topics discussed in this podcast, head to:

“Little Echoes collaborates with Bland Draker and Drag Queens” https://www.littleechoes.org/2018/10/03/whats-new/

“Open for all does not mean equal access” – (see equanimity cartoon) http://interactioninstitute.org/illustrating-equality-vs-equity/ 

“Gender bias and autism” (see article) https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/14/thousands-of-autistic-girls-and-women-going-undiagnosed-due-to-gender-bias)

“Changing Places” campaigns https://www.littleechoes.org/changing-places-en/

 

You can follow Little Echoes on Facebook and Instagram.