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The Reykjavík Grapevine's Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin journalist Aðalsteinn Kjartansson, and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to roundup the stories making headlines in Iceland. In this episode we ponder the main stories of the year so far, answer reader's questions and explain some of the Yule Lads.

Top Stories Of 2025

We discuss 2025 top political scandal, top political event, top ecological and geological events, top cultural event, we nominate the "Mess of the Year", the bankruptcy of the year, the rise of right wing politics in Iceland and our favorite tourism related stories of the year. 

Audience Questions

We answer questions from our audience on subjects such as Christmas gifts, the Icelandic language, traditional Christmas dinners, hikes and forestry.

Yule Lads Explained

We try our best to explain how having 13 Yule lads works in practice, and how there are actually records of a total of 80 different yule lads and ladies from various parts of Iceland. Then we discuss our favorite Yule lad names.

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This is a Reykjavík Grapevine podcast.
The Reykjavík Grapevine is a free alternative magazine in English published 18 times per year, biweekly during the spring and summer, and monthly during the autumn and winter.

The magazine covers everything Iceland-related, with a special focus culture, music, food and travel. The Reykjavík Grapevine’s goal is to serve as a trustworthy and reliable source of information for those living in Iceland, visiting Iceland or interested in Iceland. Thanks to our dedicated readership and excellent distribution network, the Reykjavík Grapevine is Iceland’s most read English-language publication.

You may not agree with what we write or publish, but at least it’s not sponsored content.
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