Swedish Wanderlust

I moved to Sweden about a year ago, and almost immediately, I ran into a problem I didn’t expect.

I wanted to understand this place. Not just the Sweden of today… the fika, the archipelago, the social policies I’d read about from afar. I wanted the deeper story. The one that explains how a country becomes what it is. The one that lives in the soil, the archives, the family names, the decisions made centuries ago that still shape life here now.

I’ve always been that way. My deep loves have always been archaeology, genealogy, history, the slow work of unearthing what came before and tracing it forward. It’s why I ended up with a master’s degree in public administration and public policy. I like understanding how things are built. How policies, people, and place layer on top of each other over time.

So before I moved here, I started looking for Swedish history that I could really sink into. And I found wonderful things, but I also found that my options were limited by where I was in my language journey.

I’m still learning Swedish. I’m getting there, slowly, with Google Translate as a loyal companion. But I’m not yet at the point where I can read dense historical texts or follow a deep-dive podcast entirely in Swedish. The resources I could fully understand were often short, a three-minute YouTube summary, a quick overview, something designed for a tourist rather than someone trying to truly learn.

And I kept thinking: I want to go deeper than this. I want to understand the way I know how to understand; through research, through digging, through sitting with complexity until it becomes clear.

So I did what I know how to do. I started digging.

The Digging

With a background in research, I’m no stranger to archives, to cross-referencing sources, to sitting with complexity until it becomes clear. I know how to follow a thread.

And with a love for archaeology and genealogy, I know that history isn’t just dates and names. It’s in the artifacts. It’s in the DNA. It’s in the old farmsteads and the parish records and the stories that don’t make it into textbooks.

I started digging into Swedish history the way I would any research project. I read what I could in English. I used Google Translate to help me with sources I couldn’t fully read yet. I went down rabbit holes and found ways back out. I pulled on threads that started centuries ago and watched how they wove their way into the present.

And the more I found, the more I wanted to share it.

Not because I think I’m an expert. I’m not. I’m an immigrant who’s been here a year, still learning the language, still figuring out where I fit. But I know how to research. I know how to take complex information and make it understandable. And I know that I wasn’t the only one wishing for something like this; a thoughtful, well-researched exploration of Swedish history in English, made for someone who wants depth but isn’t yet fluent.

So I decided to make it.

So I Started A Podcast

It’s called Beyond the Swedish Postcard , and it’s the thing I wished existed when I first moved here.

Each episode, I pick a thread from Swedish history and follow it. Sometimes it’s a person. Sometimes it’s a place. Sometimes it’s a policy or a turning point that changed everything. I pull on it, and I see where it leads; through the archaeology, through the genealogy, through the documents and the decisions that shaped what Sweden is today.

I bring it forward, too. Because history doesn’t stay in the past. It lives in the landscape. It lives in the way people think about themselves and their country. It lives in the policies I studied in graduate school, which suddenly feel a lot less abstract when you’re living under them.

It’s just me. No co-hosts. No guests talking over each other. No three-minute summary. Just one person with a research background, a deep love for unearthing stories, and a genuine desire to understand the country I now call home.

Who This Is For

If you’re Swedish, maybe you’ll hear your own history in a new way. Maybe you’ll learn something about your own country that you never learned in school.

If you’re an immigrant like me; maybe also still learning the language, maybe also wanting to go deeper than what’s available in short-form content…then I hope this gives you something you’ve been looking for.

If you love archaeology, genealogy, or history the way I do; the slow work of tracing connections across time, then I think you’ll find something here too.

And if you’re just curious about how countries become what they are, how the past keeps showing up in the present, how policies and people and place all layer together over centuries…then this is for you.

This podcast is my attempt to learn out loud. To share what I’m finding as I find it. To do the digging I was going to do anyway, and bring you along with me.

Come Listen With Me

Currently, You can find Beyond the Swedish Postcard on Spotify. I know, not ideal…but it was free to start versus other platforms☹ Search for it, or click here. I recommend listening to this episode first: Intro Episode

New episodes come out almost every Sunday. It’s just me, the research, and the stories I wish I’d had when I first moved here.

And I’ll Be Writing Companions Here, Too

One thing I’ve learned from my background in research and public policy is that sometimes you need to see what you’re learning about. Maps. Documents. Photographs. Family trees. The artifacts that bring a story to life.

So alongside each episode, I’ll be posting companion pieces here on Swedish Wanderlust. Think of them as the visual layer to the audio. A way to see the places, the people, A way to see the places, the people, the timelines… whatever helps make the history feel real and tangible.

If you listen and find yourself wanting to visualize what I’m talking about, you’ll find it here.

So subscribe to the podcast and stick around the blog. The two go hand in hand.

the timelines… whatever helps make the history feel real and tangible.

If you listen and find yourself wanting to visualize what I’m talking about, you’ll find it here.

So subscribe to the podcast and stick around the blog. The two go hand in hand.