Living in Switzerland

Hi everyone, It's Daniel here from Rigby. I hope you're all doing well and enjoying the summer so far, and I'd like to take a moment to thank you for joining us and following the podcast until now. We recently crossed the two-year milestone since we started, and during that time we've looked into quite a few different topics and spoken with lots of interesting people about life in Switzerland. We...

In this episode we welcome back Margaret Oertig, to continue the conversation about schools in Switzerland.   In our first call together we covered what's different about the Swiss school system, what is taught at Kindergarten, getting ready for secondary school, common issues that incomers sometimes find challenging, the different paths available in the Swiss school system, the apprenticeship sys...

Today we'd like introduce you to another member of our team, who will be joining us on the podcast, Kathrin Spinnler! Kathrin is Swiss, from Bern originally, currently living and working in the UK.  Kathrin has a background in the Swiss education system and is part of our content team here at Rigby. In this episode, we'll be talking about the Swiss School System, together with Margaret Oertig. If...

In this episode we'll be speaking once again with Anita Lehmann who joined us for episode 19.   Anita is a multi-award winning author of 9 books for children and adults, with her picture book 'Slobber, Slobber, Kiss, Kiss' shortlisted for the German Children's Literature Prize in 2020.   Born and raised in Bern, Anita moved to Geneva as a student, for the first of two stays there. She gained an MA...

Please join us for another talk about life in Switzerland 🇨🇭   Today we are joined by Katrin Gygax.   Katrin and her family emigrated from Switzerland to Canada when she was four years old. Now based back in Zurich as a travel writer, essayist and translator, she is the author of the cycling guide 'Flat Switzerland', and 'Today's Office Looks Like This - 60 unconventional workspaces in Switzerland...

To celebrate International Women's Day, in this episode we welcome the authors of the book 50 Amazing Swiss Women; Laurie Theurer, Katie Hayoz, Anita Lehmann, Alnaaze Nathoo and Barbara Nigg.

In this episode, we welcome authors Melinda and Robert Schoutens of Freshairkids.com. Originally from the US but now living in Switzerland since 2007, the Schoutens are the authors of three family-friendly, useful guides about hiking and fun outdoor activities to do in Switzerland. If you are interested in getting outdoors and taking advantage of all the beautiful scenery, then these guys will hav...

In this episode, we welcome author and publisher Richard Harvell. Richard was born in New Hampshire in the US and now lives in Basel here in Switzerland, where he is Head of USA Publishing at Helvetiq, and Publisher at Bergli Books. In addition to being a publisher, Richard is a best-selling author in his own right, with work translated into 15+ languages.

In this episode, we welcome Veronica DeVore. Veronica is a Swiss-American dual national, living in Bern and working as Head of Audience at SWI swissinfo.ch. We speak with Veronica about her background, her experience of living here in Switzerland having grown up in the US, about the Swiss media landscape and about how certain stories in the news here may resonate with a global audience.

In this episode, we welcome back Clare O'Dea, who spoke with us once before about Swiss neutrality. Clare is an Irish author and journalist living in Fribourg, here in Switzerland. She worked for the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation for 10 years, and she's written three books, 'The Naked Swiss: The Nation Behind 10 Myths', which examines the main stereotypes about the Sw...

In this episode, we speak about foreigners in Switzerland. We look at who they are, where they live, voting rights and more.

We have something a little bit different again for you this time, which is another conversation with Beth Zurbuchen.   Beth is the President of the Swiss Centre of North America, and Diccon met with her in New Glarus as part of his recent tour of the US. In this conversation, Beth tells us a little bit about her experience of travelling in Switzerland as a Swiss citizen, but one who didn't grow up...

In this episode, we speak about a few things to do during the summer in Switzerland.

We have something a bit different for you this time, which is a conversation between Diccon and Beth Zurbuchen. Beth is the President of the Swiss Center of North America, and Diccon met with her in New Glarus, as part of his recent tour of the US. In this conversation, Beth tells us a bit about her experience of holding onto her Swiss heritage while living abroad.   If you like this podcast, plea...

In this episode, we'll be talking about the Swiss abroad, or die fünfte Schweiz. We'll look at where some of the Swiss who moved abroad went and why.

In this episode, we'll be talking about Swiss neutrality, in light of Switzerland's recent decision to join the international community in imposing sanctions on Russia. Switzerland has not officially taken part in conflict since 1815 and Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. This neutrality is a key principle of Swiss foreign policy, and has allowed its diplomats room to manoeuvre to pursue various objec...

In this episode, we look at putting your foot in it and getting things wrong.

In this episode we have something a little different for you, which is a talk with the author Andie Pilot. Andie is a trained pastry chef, with a Swiss mother, who grew up in Canada and moved to Switzerland in 2010. She started a blog about Swiss food, Helvetic Kitchen, in 2015 and from there has published three books: Helvetic Kitchen, Drink like the Swiss and Swiss Cookies. Today she lives in th...

In this episode, we speak about some of the traditions of winter here in Switzerland.

Money in Switzerland

In this episode we take a brief run through Swiss history.

In this episode we speak about various aspects of travel in Switzerland.

In this episode we take a closer look at the Swiss political system of direct democracy.

In this episode we tackle seven things you always wanted to know about life in Switzerland, but were maybe too afraid or too embarrassed to ask!