LETTERS FROM AMERICA

Lena's young determination to see the world landed her a job at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and an assignment at the Swedish Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. From there, she saw the neighboring country Laos fall apart while going back and forth across the Mekong River before standing face to face with North Korean border guards, hiding from enemy fire, living undercover in Paris, and...

Rikard Steiber's footprint spans Google, Modern Times Group, HTC, GoodTrust, electric trucks, flying cars, and the two books "Digital Legacy" and "Supercharge Your Life with AI". He's the epitome of a tech guru, a global advisor moving effortlessly at the forefront of the AI landscape, and the complete opposite of me. - At least that's what I thought. Join us as we...

Sir Ross Fogelquist's grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Mora, Sweden, in 1891, and his family has lived in the Steiner log house on Oleson Road in Portland since 1952 - a house listed on the National Register of Historic Places and known as Fogelbo - a living museum of Swedish history, art, and artifacts. In 2014, Ross deeded this historic home, including two acres, to Nordic Northwest...

In 1971, the company "Hilleberg" was founded out of frustration with the market for reliable tents. Bo Hilleberg decided to design his own - a tent where the inner tent and flysheet were set up as one - and with his wife Renate's practical mind and sewing skills, they launched their first tent, the "Keb", in 1973. Today, their daughter Petra Hilleberg is CEO of Hilleberg Gr...

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? I met with Eric Nelson, former Executive Director of the National Nordi...

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", who donated the property that is now the American Swedish Institute. But also to confir...

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. But the ties to their homeland were never broken, leaving a trail of stories, letters, and tales that continued through the generations, and to unlock her...

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...

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. She gave him ten years in Sweden before vetoing their move back to the US. After a brief stay in Tulsa, Oklahoma, they ended up north of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they rooted...

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". Twenty years later, she moved back. With determination and a dream - to dedicate her life to art and music. I met Nikki when this road...

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 Ne...

Eric's enthusiasm is unmatched by anyone I have ever met. His love for the Swedish lawn game Kubb is both deep and contagious - and his mission to spread this peace-making "war game" across America has not only made a Swedish footprint in the city of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, but has also built a network of Kubb-playing devotees across the United States. What started with a gift set of...

- From Linköping, Sweden, to West Lafayette, Indiana. On the subject of Swedish footprints in the air, Saab is legendary in its work with airplanes and fighter jets. Founded in Sweden in 1937, with iconic names such as Tunnan, Draken, Viggen, and Gripen on its roster, the company is now an established partner to Boeing in developing an educational system around the T-7A Red Hawk, a jet trainer bui...

- "...and we are airborne!" On August 13th, 2026 - after seven years in the making - the first flight of the world's largest electric aircraft was completed by Heart Aerospace at their test base in Plattsburgh, NY. A couple of weeks before this aviation milestone, I had the great honor of sitting down with Anders Forslund, the company's Swedish co-founder and CEO, to talk about h...

Allow me to take you on another weekend throwback: When I passed through Colorado in May, earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit down with Swedish-born Tessa Manning, owner and founder of "Tessa Clogs" - a clog shoe factory in Minturn, two hours west of Denver. We talked about what brought her here to the middle of the Rocky Mountains, about creativity and the importance of keep...

Matthew Olson is all about Sweden; he's got a collection of Dala Horses, knows everything you need to know about a "Smörgåsbord", and he's visited more IKEA warehouses than anyone you can imagine. - But it all starts with his Swedish heritage. In 1889, David Olson, Matthew's great-great-grandparent, left Sandhem in southern Sweden for a life in Queens, NYC. Twenty years later...

The legendary Indianapolis 500 is held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana. With 350,000 to 400,000 people in the audience, it's the largest single-day sporting event in the world - turning the arena into the second-largest city in Indiana during the event. It's one day, 200 laps, 500 miles - and Felix Rosenqvist from Värnamo in Sweden is the reigning champion, winning t...

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. - They had two choices: work together or die alone. Step by step, land was cleared, houses built, farm life grew - and the family nam...

On 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. But through hardship and rugged spirit, they established "New Sweden", clearing the path for more Swedes to follow,...

The concept of Swedish candy is on its way to becoming as iconic as Swedish cars, music, and design. If you ask Swedish-born Maria Stolt, founder of "Nantasket Sweets by Swedes", it is already there. So, I steered this road trip podcast to her store at 165 Nantasket Avenue, South of Boston, to ask the inevitable question: - What is it about Swedish candy that makes it so special?

Steered the road trip to Brooklyn, New York, to talk to Swedish trumpet player Oskar Stenmark, about life as a Swedish musician in the world's biggest melting pot, and about finding your voice through your roots. Because Oskar comes from a family with generations of musicians behind him, some of whom already toured the United States during the middle of the last century - a discovery that has...

I met with Thomas McIntyre Schultz, Communications at Volvo Cars USA, at their headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey, to talk about Volvo's 70-year history in the United States, how it all started, and the footprints of the company's innovative spirit. But halfway into this journey, this was also a good opportunity to get to know Thomas as one of my key partners in this adventure. So we got t...

There's a building at 2900 K Street, Northwest, in Washington, DC, overlooking the Potomac River. It's designed by Swedish architects and built from materials reflecting Swedish roots and traditions, and in 2006, it was inaugurated by the King and Queen of Sweden as the home for the Embassy of Sweden - making it the official Swedish footprint in the United States. It is known as the "...

Telling these stories from a road trip wouldn't be possible without the complex infrastructure of a mobile network, so I met with Peter Borsos, Head of Communications at Ericsson, in Washington, D.C., to talk about the company's 150-year history - 120 of those making a Swedish footprint in the United States, surviving both financial crashes and international bribery scandals - and how leav...

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. With a calm voice and a yellow notepad, Scott takes...