The Arctic Conversation Podcast: Recent Episodes
Barents Press Sweden
The Arctic Conversation Podcast is a conversation between journalists in the Arctic Region on ongoing topics in the Arctic. The tourism boom, the changing earth and it's consequences, the opening of the North-east Passage, the militarization of the region and many more interesting topics is brought to you from journalists who work in the Arctic Region. The Arctic Conversation Podcast is produced by Barents Press Sweden which consists of journalists for journalists who believe it is important to have cross-border contacts with fellow journalists.
For three seasons The Arctic Conversation has conversed about topics such as Climate change in the Arctic, Green economy, the situation for indigenous people, rearmament and many other Arctic topics.
This episode looks back with guest Tim Andersson Rask, Barents Press Sweden on past themes and the organisation behind the podcast, Barents Press. This episode is the last, at least for a while of the Arctic Conversation.
Thank you for listening during these three season From all of us at The Arctic Conversation.
COP-26 is taking place in Glascow, and the world is directed to the Carbon Neutral Economy. Even Russian Economy will be carbon neutral by 2060. Huge investments is at the same time being invested in the production of the worlds first green steel, made without coal.
Hosts Thomas Nielsen, Kirkenes and Anna Kireeva, Murmansk discuss the huge investments in the Green economy taking place in Norrbotten and Västerbotten with journalist and author Arne Müller. What is happening in Northern Sweden, will the electricity production be enough and how will this affect the world?
Hosts Anna Kireeva, Russia and Thomas Nielsen, Norway invite Pavel Andreev from the Media organisation 7x7 Horizontal Russia to discuss how the Arctic regions voted, how media covered the election, what happened to Navalnys “smart voting” and how in some regions the election can be marked as fair, such as Pavel Andreevs own Komi region.
But is it sustainable? How does the tourism companies in the North manage questions regarding sustainability and the more recent Covid-19 pandemic?
Listen to a interesting Arctic Conversation with hosts Anna Kireeva and Thomas Nielsen with guests, Sanna Tarssanen from House of Lapland and Julia Kuzminykh, tourism entreprenour.
Listen and join our arctic conversation with #ArcticConversation!
Topics touched upon in this episode:
What will be Russia's main priorities?
How does Russia plan to develop its Arctic territories?
Russia says that they want to increase their production of oil, gas and fossil fuels. How will this affect the global trade?
Join hosts Anna Kireeva and Thomas Nielsen for an interesting conversation with Norwegian journalist Atle Staalesen about the upcoming Russian chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
Listen and join our arctic conversation with #ArcticConversation!
Join hosts Anna Kireeva and Thomas Nielsen for an interesting conversation with Canadian journalist Gloria Dickie about Corona and journalism in the Arctic.
The third season of the Arctic Conversation Podcast will feature two old/new hosts:Thomas Nielsen from the Barents Observer andAnna Kiereva from Murmansk, RussiaThe third season of the Arctic Conversation will feature an even deeper dive in the current news and stories from the Arctic, the Arctic Council, Climate change and of course the geopolitical issues of today.
Stay tuned for the third season!
While melting sea ice and thawing permafrost in the Arctic are getting increasing attention around the world, climate change is definitely not the only important story in the Arctic. This episode will focus on the harsh reality of the Rearmament of the Arctic region.Listen and join our arctic conversation with
ArcticConversation!
This is the final episode of the second season of The Arctic Conversation. Stay tuned for season three, thanks for listening!
Pat Kane from Canada and Katarina Hällgren from Sweden who both identify as indigenous people discuss the various misrepresentations from an Canadian and Swedish perspective. What pictures about the indigenous are portrayed to the general audience?Listen and join our arctic conversation with #ArcticConversation! Host: Pat Kane Katarina Hällgren
The cross border trade has since the early 1990’s been a source of pride for the Barents Cooperation, linking the Nordic countries to Russia and vice versa.
How has the cross border trade affected the population living in the border areas and beyond? And how has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the situation? Russian journalist Anna Kireeva and Finnish journalist Mari Molkoeslkä discusses cross border trade in this episode of the The Arctic Conversation Podcast.
Harder ice crusts make it harder for reindeer to find food, the sea ice used for indigenous people to go hunting is not as thick as it used to be. The ongoing climate change is having a impact on indigenous ways of food production.
Photojournalist Pat Kane from Canada and Thomas Nielsen from Norway discuss how climate change is changing indigenous food production in Canada and the European part of the Arctic. What happens when massive wildfires block a big part of a land used by indigenous, or when reindeers are unable to graze?Listen and join our arctic conversation with #ArcticConversation!
Shipping, mineral resources and Arctic tourism is currently the focal point for Asian interest in the Arctic, especially in Russia, but it is also moving west towards Greenland. Chinese investments is in many places happily welcomed by municipalities, regions and countries, still there is hesitation among many regarding Chinas true motives. Canadian journalist Gloria Dickie who monitors the development of Asian interest in the Arctic discuss the motives, challenges and possibilities of Asian interest with Russian environmental journalist, Anna Kireeva.
Listen and join our arctic conversation with #ArcticConversation!
Katarina Hällgren, a Sami journalist working in Sweden and Mari Molkoselkä, fresh off journalism school in Finland discuss racism and discrimination experienced by indigenous people in the Arctic Region. During the past few years hatred and racist acts against the Sami population has received media attention in Sweden after the large scale case of Girjas, where a Sami village received the rights to control hunting in their region. After that a number of racist attacks on social media and towards reindeers were noted.
In this episode Gloria Dickie, Canada talks to Amy Martin about the Greenland Ice sheet that is slowly melting. The Greenland Ice sheet has had a big impact on Amy who have had the rare opportunity to visit the ice sheet some years ago, and the Greenland Ice sheet will have an even bigger impact to people around the world if it continues to melt. Listen and join our arctic conversation with #ArcticConversation!
Our journalists from across the Arctic regions reports about closed borders, restrictions on mass gatherings and how the health care system copes with the pandemic in their respective countries.
The second season of the Arctic Conversation will launch in June 2020, don't miss out! Subscribe now!
Season 2 of the Arctic Conversation Podcast will be available this spring, featuring more journalists, more topics and of course more Arctic Conversation!
In many ways the Arctic has been a region of international cooperation, especially in the sciences. Could the far north (or a portion of it) follow a path like Antarctica, and become a zone in which countries agree that scientific collaboration is the top priority? Or are we doomed to a future of territorial competition as the sea ice melts? This gets into the possibility of military conflict but doesn’t put it quite so much in the center of the conversation.
We also talk about development versus conservation: The Arctic is home to some amazing wildlife and as-yet undamaged ecosystems. But as people in Montana sometimes say, “you can’t eat the view.” Meaning, preservation of wildlife and wild places can in some cases make it hard for local people to earn a living. As industries move north the tension between economic development and conservation of land, water, air and creatures is increasing.
In this final episode for the first season we talk about future Arctic Dreams - and Nightmares.
For this episode, we’re going to focus on indigenous perspectives in the Arctic. Even though we often think of the Arctic as an inhospitable place, humans have actually lived in this region for a very long time. Recent archaeological findings show that human beings inhabited the Arctic as far back as 40,000 years ago, maybe longer. Today, there are dozens of indigenous groups in the circumpolar north -- the Inuit, the Sámi, the Nenets and many more -- and in the last several centuries, almost all of those indigenous groups have been impacted by colonization. As just one example of that: although the Arctic is currently divided into eight countries, there are different indigenous nations with long histories in all of these areas that pre-date our current national boundaries. In other words, if we drew the map of the Arctic from the perspectives of the various indigenous groups, our whole definition of what this region is would be very different.
The climate change is real, let’s all agree on that. In this episode we discuss what impact this has on the people living in the arctic. How does it affect the everyday life? What happens to the indigenous people and their traditions? Talking about the not so obvious things will give you a brand new perspective of the climate change. What differences do we see and hear through the arctic region? What issues do we avoid to talk about? What do we need to do to make a change?
How does the next generation of Northerners feel about climate change? How does it feel to think about future winters with less or no snow?
The Polar Ice is melting, the permafrost of Siberia is thawing and every summer the Arctic is engulfed in large forest fires. The Arctic region is undergoing terrestrial changes. At the same time the Arctic region is dependent on heavy industries, such as oil, gas, iron ore, nickel and heavy plants. These sites often damage the local environment, in a region which already is heavily affected. A region that also attracts more and more tourist from all over the world that wants to explore the exotic arctic nature and lifestyle.
The paradox of having industries that destroy your neighbourhood is very interesting and in this episode this is our main focus.
There’s a lot going on in the Arctic region! The unique climate attracts companies from all over the world. Facebook’s datacenter in Luleå is just one example. What happens to the traditional oil and gas industry? How do they handle the future challenges such as the climate change? What new and creative businesses and Start Ups are growing in the Arctic?
We also talk about the buzz with the electric car industry and the fact that China is more and more interested in the arctic region. The melting of polar ice is creating the Northeast Passage, but is it viable? How much control does Russia want?
The Arctic is experiencing the greatest boom of Mass Tourism ever. Every winter flights from countries like Japan, China and the UK land in quaint sites like Rovaniemi, Levi, Tromsö, Pajala or Kiruna. New hotels are being built, to meet and greet Santa Claus is one of the kids favourites, and of course the magic northern light is a huge attraction.
At the same time the Micro Tourism, sites with small number of guests in remote areas, is growing in the Arctic. Sites like Treehotel in the north of Sweden attracts both celebrities and “regular” people from all over the world looking for something special.
Is this development sustainable for the environment, the local community and the future?
We are the journalists from around the Arctic Region making The Arctic Conversation.
Amy Martin
USA
Amy Martin is the founder and executive producer of Threshold, a podcast and public radio program. Each season, Threshold takes a deep dive into one story of pivotal change in the natural world. The first season of Threshold told the story of the American bison. Season two takes listeners to all eight countries of the Arctic to learn about climate change through the eyes of people who live in the polar north.
Amy’s stories have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered, PRI’s The World, Reveal, Here and Now, and other national outlets. She’s been invited to present her work at the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, Norway, the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital, TEDx at the University of Montana, and at a variety of universities around the country. In 2016, she was selected for the Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Amy was raised on an Iowa farm and has lived in Missoula, Montana since 1999.
Gloria Dickie
Canada
Gloria Dickie is a freelance journalist based in Canada who reports on Arctic issues at home and abroad. She has reported on muskox farming in Alaska, the Arctic Railroad project in Norway, glacier monitors in Iceland, and polar bears in Manitoba. She has a penchant for tracking sea ice loss and works as a correspondent on the subject for Mongabay. Her written work appears in The Guardian, Canadian Geographic, National Geographic, Arctic Today, Arctic Deeply, Science News, and Huffington Post, among others.
Anna Kireeva
Russia
Anna Kireeva, Russian Arctic environmental journalist. Since 2002 till 2019 had been with Bellona environmental NGO in Murmansk. and headed Bellona's information services in Murmansk, writing news reports about environmental issues in the Arctic. As a journalist, has visited many Arctic spots in Russia and abroad. An author of at least 500articles about various Arctic issues, both local and global. Co-author and co-editor of numerous Bellona’s reports and brochures, devoted to various environmental problems of the Arctic. Since 2015 is a chairperson of Barents Press Russia.
Mari Molkoselkä
Finland
Mari Molkoselkä, I’m a Finnish journalist from Kittilä, a small town in the North of Finland. I’m taking my first steps as a journalist. I’m still a student but I have been working in the regional newspaper of Finnish Lapland, called Lapin Kansa. My main interest is in the youth and in their future. What kind of place Arctic will be when they are grownups?
Thomas Nilsen
Norway
Thomas Nilsen is editor of the Barents Observer based in Kirkenes, northern Norway. He reports on cross-border issues in the Barents Region, Russia and the Arctic. He has a long experience in media cooperation across the borders in the high north of Europe, both as radio- and newspaper reporter all the way back to the days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Additional to the Barents Observer, his reporting appears in the Moscow Times, Arctic Today and Eye on the Arctic / Radio Canada. He has a penchant for writing about environment and security issues.
Pat Kane
Canada/indigenous/settler
Pat is a photographer in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He covers people, life and environment in Canada's Far North.
Pat takes a documentary approach to the stories impacting Northerners, with a special focus on indigenous issues and empowerment. He’s the co-founder and president of the Far North Photo Festival — a platform to help elevate the work of photographers in underrepresented parts of Northern Canada. He’s also part of the photo collectives Natives Photograph and Boreal Collective.
Pat identifies as mixed indigenous/settler and is a proud Algonquin Anishinaabe member of the Timiskaming First Nation (Quebec).
Malin Winberg
Sweden
Malin Winberg is the producer and editor for the Arctic Conversation Podcast. She is a radio journalist living i a town called Luleå in the north of Sweden. Malin has worked with both local and national productions such as news, documentaries, live shows for youth public radio and anchor for the local public radio in Norrbotten. She is currently running her own company working as a freelance.
Katarina Hällgren
Sweden/sami
Katarina Hällgren has been working as a journalist for about 25 years. First att a swedish newspaper for about five years, at the Saami magazine Samefolket and then as a planning editor at Sameradion & SVT Sápmi. Now she´s freelancer and she´s producing the Saami youth magazine Nuorat, among some other things. Katarina lives in Arvidsjaur in the northern of Sweden. Her focus as a journalist is mainly on Saami issues.