A Road Trip Podcast
- an American Journey and Everything In Between
Eric Nelson - the Swedes of the Pacific Northwest
In the far northwestern corner of the Lower 48 states is Washington, with Seattle as its epicenter. A city (and state) notably shaped by Scandinavian immigrants and Swedish heritage.
How did they find their way all the way out here? And what about the area made people cross oceans, prairies, mountains, and deserts to get here?
Molly Steenson - the Swedish history of Minnesota and the concept of being Swedish
Is Minnesota as Swedish as it says it is? And what does it really mean to be a Swede?
I drove to Minneapolis to meet with Molly W. Steenson, President and CEO of the American Swedish Institute, and to learn about Swan Johan Turnblad, the Swedish newspaper publisher behind "Svenska Amerikanska Posten", (…)
Barb Hughes - learning Swedish to unlock your family's history
Barb Hughes' grandparents came to Minnesota by the beginning of the last century. They were Swedish woodworkers and cabinet makers, seeking a life in the growing city of Minneapolis, and soon became part of the city's Swedish community.
- This episode seeks to highlight the importance of a language and how it can be used to go back in time.
Kai S. Swanson - the Swedish footprint of Augustana College - and everything in between
Augustana College planted its Swedish roots in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1875, with an increasingly large Swedish American community supporting a new institution and aiming to foster a proud Swedishness in the United States. Early on, all students had to be born in Sweden, but today applications are open to all, and the college describes itself as "a leading liberal arts and sciences college in Illinois".
Sven Sjöstedt - from Örebro to Minnesota, walking in Wilhelm Moberg's footsteps
Sven Sjöstedt moved to the United States at his wife's request: a full-blooded American girl he met while he was stationed as a Senior Administrative Officer for the Swedish Railroad, and she was in Uppsala to study.
Nikki O’Neill - coming back to America as a full-grown Swede
Singer-songwriter Nikki O'Neill was seven when her family moved from Los Angeles, California, to Stockholm, Sweden. Growing up as a young American girl in that small country on the other side of the globe slowly turned her into a full-fledged "Swede".
Brent Erickson - when a search for your Swedish roots leads to the wrong tree
A Weekend Throwback: Earlier this summer, while in Washington, DC, for the Swedish National Day and Midsummer Celebrations, I met with Brent Erickson, a man who spent most of his life deeply involved in United States politics, now retired and a full-time artist and painter. And he told me he had a story to tell, about his Swedish great-grandmother, wagon trains across the prairie, Sand Hills of Nebraska, whiskey & turpentine - and the Swedish Royal Family.
John Hedman - it takes a village to build a life (from Jämtland, Sweden, to Jemtland, Maine)
John Hedman's great-grandfather Per arrived with his family in New Sweden in 1871. Met by an unkept promise of cleared land from the state of Maine, he and his fellow Swedes took matters into their own hands and built a life in the wild forests north of Caribou.
Lukas Lagassé | The dream of a new Sweden
July 23, 1870, a small group of Swedes found their way to the northern parts of Maine, carrying a dream of building a new life. Guided from their homeland by a promise from the state of cabins and cleared land, they were instead met by a rough wilderness and wild forest.
Scott Segerstrom | From famine to fortune, a Swedish immigrant story with a golden twist
As this road trip passed through Boone, North Carolina, I was fortunate enough to sit down with Scott Segerstrom, who shared his family's story, starting with his great-great-grandfather, Anders Frederick Andersson, and his thirteen determined daughters, who all left a life in a cave outside Tybble, Sweden, to seek fortune in Mead, Nebraska.