Playing the Second Half

I retired in 2023. I’m now 64, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so productive, learned so much, or enjoyed creating as much as I do today! One of the reasons? Artificial Intelligence. In this very personal reflection, I share how AI has helped me learn new skills, solve problems, and achieve things I never imagined possible. But also my concerns, dilemmas, and some non-negotiables. Can AI help us...

A travel diary my mother wrote in 1989 changed the way I remember one of the biggest journeys of our lives - and, many years later, changed the way I saw my parents. It starts with something else: small regrets. Those seemingly insignificant moments that somehow stay with us for decades. When I was 27, my parents came from Brazil to visit Annika and me in Sweden. What began as a visit became a jou...

What if the child you once were never really disappeared? Erik Granström has spent much of his life creating worlds - as a writer, game designer and storyteller. But his own life has also taken some remarkable and unexpected turns. In this conversation, we explore the theme: All is All - Connections, Coincidences and the Patterns of a Life. We talk about Erik's childhood imagination and the little...

In Brazil we have a saying: Recordar é viver - to remember is to live. For years, one scene repeated itself in our family: waiting for the taxi that would take my son John David to school. There were routines, music, patience, wonderful drivers, stress, laughter, difficult mornings, small victories - and always the clock. At the time, I often saw those mornings as something I had to get through be...

Nine conversations. One summer. And then we met. Over the summer, I had nine conversations with nine very different people. At the end of it, we came together to reflect on what had happened - and on what we had heard in each other’s stories. We talked about loneliness, connection and community. Recovery and healing. What we choose to share — and what we keep private. Authenticity in an age of AI....

Playing the Second Half is about lived stories, not recipes for how to live. Through personal reflections, conversations and films, I explore the many second halves we experience in life - the ones we choose and the ones life chooses for us. A place for curiosity, connection, time, change and people trying, in their own way, to live a good life. Viva a vida! Music licensed through Soundstripe. End...

For ten years, the little forest behind our house was simply there. We threw garden waste over the hawthorn. An old and rather sinister bird trap stood hidden among the trees. Parts of it were overgrown and forgotten. We bought it after a long process. Then we started clearing it. What began as weeks of cleaning, cutting and carrying slowly became something completely different - a place I began t...

There are moments when you can see happiness in someone’s eyes. Moments when you can see sadness. And there are moments when you simply don’t know. This is a story about my daughter Maria, a memory from when she was little, and a day we recently spent together in Malmö. A train journey. A beautiful city. A restaurant she had long wanted to visit. An unexpected first job interview in her new career...

Nine Saturdays. Nine stories. One unforgettable summer. I never imagined that Playing the Second Half - Summer 2026 would become something that, in many ways, changed me as a person. Nine very different lives. Stories of crisis, healing, reinvention, adventure, contentment, curiosity, community - and what it means to keep playing the many second halves of life. In this film, I look back at one mom...

And here we are. Our Episode 9 with Andreas Granström and indeed a Grand Finale! Crisis. Healing. Leadership - was the theme chosen by Andreas. Crisis – Diagnosed with Bipolar Type I, Andreas had to fight through periods of depression and mania. It was so courageous and moving to hear him so openly describe his struggles. Healing – Father of four, a loving father and an impressing work life and ca...

Wow! Our Episode 8 takes us to the Azores for a fascinating conversation with Ida and The Adventure of the Spirit. A conversation about what it means to keep becoming. So many second halves in one remarkable life. Dutch team chess champion at the age of 12. Theatre, photography and filmmaking. Philosophy and high-tech. A break in Mongolia to ride horses across the open steppe. And eventually, the...

I met Henning only once, face to face. He arrived at my summer house in his beautiful Aston Martin, together with Sana, a friend of my wife Annika. We had dinner, they stayed overnight, and during that short time, I simply felt that I wanted Henning to be part of the Summer Series. And I was so right to trust that instinct. What does it mean to keep learning throughout an entire life? Henning chos...

I first met Steve Newman in New York when I was taking over his role at Ericsson. We spent a year working closely together, and I learned an enormous amount from him - not only about leadership, but about life. Steve has lived on several continents, hitchhiked across America, served in the Peace Corps in Uganda, taught, travelled, and collected extraordinary stories. But after reading his beautifu...

We often say about a great book, “I started reading it and simply couldn’t put it down.” With Aminah’s book, Flickan som blev kvar – Att finna lugn och lycka efter trauma - or, translated into English, The Girl Left Behind – Finding Peace and Joy After Trauma - I had almost the opposite experience. I had to stop reading several times. Not because I wanted to stop reading. Quite the opposite. It is...

A well-known neuroscientist from Karolinska in Stockholm - one of the world’s leading medical institutions - and a fun fact it is also home to the commitee that selects the Nobel Prize in Medicine - well this neurocientist said it was impossible to both play musical instruments and ride a bicycle at the same time and at different rhythms. He presumed that the pedaling cadence might be coupled to t...

I was a little nervous before this conversation with Tina. We had never met before. I didn’t need to be. From the very first minutes, it felt like we had known each other for a long time. We had so much fun. Tina Tornell’s big life transition did not come after a dramatic event, but through the slow realization that, after twenty years in banking, she wanted something more meaningful. She left it...

To start with: what a generous person. In the very first days of her vacation in Spain, Marie-Louise found time for this conversation. As you will learn during our conversation, no child should have to go through what Marie-Louise experienced. Her willingness to share her story is therefore a profound act of generosity and service to others who may have lived through similar experiences. Later in...

Pontus has lived many lives. From a near-death experience as a young man to working as a fisherman in the Faroe Islands, his journey has been full of transitions, discoveries and new beginnings. If there is one theme that captures Pontus’ life, it is this: What lives between us. It is a theme that has shaped much of Pontus’ life and work, and his lifelong quest for the magic and wisdom that lives...

I mainly knew Jonas Selen from work. Like many others, I experienced him as someone with great presence, calmness, and self-confidence - a person people naturally listen to when he speaks. Once, many years ago, he described me as a bit “ängslig” as a person. In English, maybe something close to anxious or worried. And perhaps he was right. That is one reason why I was so curious about this convers...

Mia has a very special place in my heart. She is one of the most generous people I have ever met. I often think back to my first years in Sweden. I had just arrived, deeply in love, and at the same time struggling to find a job and make ends meet. My wife Annika was working with Mia, helping to build a series of furniture stores across the country. I would follow along whenever I could, travelling...

We start this podcast series with an amazing guest - Henrik Pålsson. It was from Henrik that I first heard the expression “Young at Heart.” Something he captures so well in the way he lives. But if being “Young at Heart” were not enough, Henrik inspires us with something even deeper. Let me explain. In The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham - one of my favorite novels, inspired by the life of t...