In our first Radio Free Finland under the new format, I met with Igor Polyakov of the Nordic Design Blog to discuss Nordic Design, in particular design in Finland like architecture, industrial design, interior design, clothing, glassware etc.. Enjoy!!

Download the show in high quality MP3 format at 64kbps (18.4MB - 39:24)

Igor currently owns a design studio named Hot Snow, working on various print and interface projects for leading Finnish companies. Previous positions include Art Direct at Interactive Partners Oy, UI Designer at JSOP Interactive, Art Director at ETC-WEB in France, and extensive work with Russian television stations.

Tonight at 21.00 (GMT +2) I’ll be joined by David Cord, Managing Director of the Investment Services division of Fundior AB, and author of the blog, ScandinavianFinance.com. He’ll be on to discuss Scandinavian finance, the Finnish economy, and a whole lot more. Be sure to tune-in tonight for the live interview!

David J. Cord worked for over eight years as a financial advisor in one of the largest asset managers in America. In America his clientele consisted of high net worth and mass affluent individuals and families. In 2005 he married a Finn and moved to Helsinki, Finland. He is now the Managing Director of the Investment Services division of Fundior AB (publ). Fundior is a financial and insurance services group based in Sweden with a presence throughout the European Economic Area. In his spare time David enjoys being with his wife Niina and dog Orion. He is a huge history buff and has long studied various aspects of the Roman Empire and ancient Scandinavia.

UPDATE: Fantastic show! We discussed the Finnish economy, taxation, retirement, saving strategies, housing costs, U.S. economic trends, and much more. Here’s the podcast…

Download the show in MP3 format at 64kbps (20.5 MB - 43:05)

Radio Free Finland is back from Christmas break and I’ve lined up a bunch of great guests for the next five weeks - by that time Finnish election fever should be in full swing and I hope to get representatives from various political parties to come on the show. It should be an exciting first half of 2007 on Radio Free Finland!

And to kick-off the new year we’ll be joined by Paul O’Mahony is editor of the Swedish online newspaper “The Local“, and he’ll be on to discuss Swedish politics, news, and a whole lot more…

The Local was founded two and a half years ago by Paul Rapacioli. With his background in a British recruitment agency Paul had a keen eye for a gap in the market. Seeing that there was nobody providing Sweden’s news in English on a daily basis he quickly started a newsletter that grew into what is now The Local.

Paul was soon joined by James Savage, a journalist from England who had worked for the BBC before arriving in Sweden. James edits The Local and has been around since the very early days.

Paul O’Mahony joined the newspaper in September after replying to an ad The Local had put out looking for a new journalist. His job is to update the site with whatever is making the news in Sweden on a particular day. He works with the editor to pick the stories that are most likely to resonate with the newspaper’s readers.

UPDATE: Big thanks to Paul for a fun interview! We discussed The Local, the recent Swedish elections, upcoming Swedish SDP elections, immigration, unemployment, The Pirate Bay, Big Brother, what Swedes think of Finns, what Finns think of Swedes, Finnish women vs. Swedish women…I’m glad we ended it when we did cause it could have got messy.

But speaking of messy - I had some real technical difficulties this evening. First off, the Skypecast service was down, so no one could participate live. Second, the first ten minutes of the interview got cut off, so we missed where he talks about The Local which is a real shame but I’m gonna try and re-record it with Paul and splice it and pretend like it never happened. So my apologies to Paul and everyone else for that. And finally, I said “2006″ not “2007″. It was a rough night. And here’s the podcast..

Download the show in MP3 format at 64kbps (11.7 MB - 25:06)
Download the show in AAC+ format at 24kbps (4.4 MB - 25:06)

Great show, big thanks to Justin for spending his Sunday afternoon with us, and thanks to everyone who listened to the live show, there were a lot of you! We discussed Estonia’s progress since the fall of the Soviet Union, Bush’s recent visit to Estonia, Estonia & NATO, Estonia & EU, liberal taxation policies, immigration in Estonia, Estonians feelings towards Finns, Finns feelings towards Estonians, and a whole lot more. Here’s the podcast…

Download the show in MP3 format at 64kbps (29.1 MB - 62:25)
Download the show in AAC+ format at 24kbps (10.9 MB - 62:25)

I’m planning on recording an impromptu interview with Swedish journalist Henrik Arnstad this afternoon, please please please send me any questions you may have for him and I’ll be sure ask them during the show.

Because I’m putting this interview together so quickly, I probably won’t be able to make this a live interview. And because his wife may go into labor at any second, there’s a chance it may not happen.

The interview is to be at 17.00 today and if all goes well, it’ll be online shortly thereafter.

UPDATE: Many thanks to Henrik for spending with some time with us this afternoon. And mega kudos to everyone who sent in questions, it was an enormous help! And here’s the podcast…

Download the show in MP3 format at 64kbps (15.7 MB - 33:37)
Download the show in AAC+ format at 24kbps (5.9 MB - 33:37)

Taking a break this week from Radio Free Finland. Be sure to visit the show archives and check out the first five episodes from season two. We’ll be back with new live shows in a couple weeks!

Fantastic show! Steven really opened up and tells us all about his mission in Finland, going door-to-door spreading his faith, and a whole lot more. Great show, check it out…

Download the show in MP3 format at 64kbps (28 MB - 61:35)
Download the show in AAC+ format at 24kbps (10 MB - 61:35)

…and be sure to watch YLE FST at 20.20 on November 26th when I’ll be a guest on the show “Neon” to discuss Finland for Thought, Radio Free Finland, and citizen journalism.

Everything you wanted to know about Finland, and more!! What to do, where to go, what to see, how to make love like a Finnish man - it’s all here.

Big thanks to Markku for spending some time with us! And special thanks to everyone who listened and participated in the live show. Big apologies though to caller Paul, for some reason my recording software to pick up his audio (two weeks ago it cut off prematurely, last week we had audio quality issues, and now this..).

For your listenening pleasure…

Download the show in MP3 format at 64kbps (14.8 MB - 31:37)
Download the show in AAC+ format at 24kbps (5.5 MB - 31:37)

Many thanks to Martin-Éric Racine for spending some time with us on Radio Free Finland and thanks to everyone who tuned in to the live show. Topics for the evening included immigration policy, fertility treatment for singles and lesbian couples, Martti Ahtisaari and the Nobel Peace Prize, YLE’s possible legal actions to YouTUBE, learning the Finnish language, and Linutop.

And here’s the podcast…

Download the show in MP3 format at 64kbps (37 MB - 80:09)
Download the show in AAC+ format at 24kbps (16 MB - 80:09)

Big big thanks to Kenneth Sikorski for spending some time with us this evening. We had a nice open discussiong about Islamist extremism in Scandinavia. The Skypecast went better than expected, we had some great questions and comments from listeners.

Everything went better than expected until the very end when I noticed that Pamela (a Skype add-on) had only recorded 29 minutes of our hour long conversation. Someone has screwed with my computer and I’ve narrowed it down to either Islamic extremists, SUPO, Tarja Halonen, or Billy Graham. Actually I discovered that I was using a BETA version of the software and other people have reported this problem on their forums (GRR!!!)

So my sincere apologies for only providing half a podcast. But big thanks to Kenneth and to all who participating in being the guinea pigs for this new technology. I promise I’ll have all the kinks worked out for next week’s show.

Here’s the [half] podcast…

Download the show in MP3 format at 64kbps (13 MB - 29:48)
Download the show in AAC+ format at 24kbps (5 MB - 29:48)