Eps 31. I think one of the best things about Australia is the food. My guest Kati Turkia agrees with me on this. Kati is a young, super talented chef based in Sydney. Her love for food started while learning to cook with the seasonal ingredients from her Grandmother’s garden in Finland.  In spite of her young age, Kati has gained great experience in working with multicultural cuisines in Finland, Spain and, over the past 9 years, in various restaurants in Sydney. We discuss her journey from Finnish kitchens to Australia and her experiences working in demanding restaurant kitchens of sever ..read more

Eps 30 I was delighted to learn that there is a Nordic Policy Centre in Australia. (How did I miss this?) It is a think tank formed by the Canberra-based Australia Institute. It investigates the effective, progressive social and economic policies of the Nordic countries and how they might work in Australia.  My guest is the Inaugural Convenor of the Nordic Policy Centre, Professor Andrew Scott, who has been investigating Nordic policies (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) for over 10 years. We discuss the aims of the Centre and his new book, The Nordic Edge, which he has co-aut ..read more

EPS 29 My guest is multi-talented Satu Vänskä, a fellow Finn, and the Principal Violin of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Her destiny was decided when she started playing the violin at the age of 3 while living in Japan. Her talent was recognised early on while she was studying violin in Finland and Germany. She was named ‘Young Soloist of the Year’ by Sinfonia Lahti in Finland in 1998 and a few years later she was a prize winner of the ‘Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben’ in Germany. She studied and worked in Europe with world-leading classical music orchestras and musicians before moving to Aust ..read more

Eps 27 Sydneysiders, check out our sponsor VENLA Resell+Relove, a second-hand fashion store with a NORDIC twist, located in Mosman and Bondi Junction (opening July). VENLA rent-a-rack store is a place where you can give a new life to your quality fashion clothes and accessories and find new loves. Join the VENLA community to help reduce fashion waste. Your wallet and the Earth will thank you. Check out venla.com.au for more details.  My guest is my friend, fellow Finn and business partner of 4 years, Minna Monaghan. We discuss how COVID made us pivot from our travel aviation consultancy b ..read more

Sydneysiders, check out our Sponsor VENLA Resell + Relove, a second hand fashion store with a NORDIC twist, located in Mosman (Sydney). VENLA rent-a-rack store is a place where you can give a new life to your quality fashion clothes and accessories and find new loves. Join the VENLA team to help reduce fashion waste. Your wallet and the Earth will thank you. Check out for venla.com.au more details.  My guest Karin Adcock trained as a school teacher in Denmark. However, life took her in a very different direction. She ended up in Australia and has become a very successful award winning bus ..read more

Eps 26 Diabetes has a long history in my family. It has made me curious to learn more about it and to research recent encouraging developments. I came across Dr Miina Ohman, a Singapore based Finn who has a strong desire to prevent and/or cure chronic diseases, including diabetes.  We discuss her successful career in clinical healthcare and her strong track record in academic research working environments in Europe, North America and Asia. Miina also talks about how you develop prediabetes and diabetes,  including what happens in our bodies when we become insulin resistant. She also ..read more

Eps 25 Singapore based Finn Sami Jääskeläinen runs Nordic Innovation House, a community platform for accelerating Nordic start-ups in the Singapore and South-East Asia region.  Sami’s colourful career included being a professional chef in Helsinki and later moving into advertising as a team lead for iconic global brands such as Nokia and Finlandia Vodka. Sami now has a successful career as a Nordic start-up Community Director in Singapore. This has included running  partnerships for Slush, the super successful start-up event based in Finland. We discuss Sami’s experience of cultural ..read more

Episode 24 It is surprising to hear that there are over 600 Danish brands in Australia. How has little Denmark, with 5.5 M people, achieved this success? There is a very special relationship between these two countries, thanks to Jorn Utzon's design of the Sydney Opera House and Tasmanian born HRH Crown Princess Mary. However, it doesn't explain why Australians have embraced Danish products so wholeheartedly. My guest, Michael T Hansen, the former Trade Commissioner of Denmark, talks about how the 2008/9 global financial crisis offered an opportunity for Danish companies in Australia when the ..read more

Eps 23 Silicon Valley based entrepreneur  Ari Tulla made a big jump from Finnish Nokia and the gaming industry to the healthcare industry in the USA. In 2011 he co-founded BetterDoctor,  a comprehensive doctor data engine that powers the healthcare market to help people to navigate the complicated US healthcare system. He also had personal reasons as he wanted to find better healthcare for his own family. Ari ran BetterDoctor for over 10 years, after which time it was very successfully acquired by Quest Analytics and Ari became CEO in 2018. We discuss Ari’s journey from a teen tech g ..read more

Eps 22 Nordics are well known to be some of the happiest peoples in the world. What do they do to make themselves happy? Kajsa Humphreys is a Sydney based Swedish Health and Fitness coach and a mum of 2 children. Her business, The Swedish Solution, helps women implement simple step by step lifestyle changes to increase their feeling of health and well-being - and of course happiness. Her business was born after she was feeling unhealthy and unhappy about her own life. She made some dramatic changes and decided to quit her successful corporate job and leave her marriage - at the same time. Kajs ..read more