What The Denmark | Danish Culture for Expats, Internationals and Danes

Jan 16 2024 29 ep. 35 mins 342
What The Denmark | Danish Culture for Expats, Internationals and Danes Podcast artwork

Danish culture can be pretty confusing, especially if you are not from Denmark.

This podcast is on a mission to resolve cultural confusion in the country, and help anyone understand how people in this unique country think and behave.

Co-hosts Sam Floy (British podcaster, "The Outsider") and Josefine Volqvartz (Danish TV journalist, "The Insider") speak to experts and members of the public to understand and explain why something so normal in Danish culture is confusing to outsiders.

Rather than simply point fun, or say something like "Danes have an ironic sense of humour" we go deep, by speaking to experts to explain why.

Importantly, this show is as much for Danes as it is non-Danes.

What The Denmark is an educational, entertaining and inclusive show where we take a curious look at things that seem normal in Denmark, and get to the bottom of why.

The show is aimed at everyone with a connection to Denmark, and people around the world looking to learn more about the happiest country in the world.

If you've ever felt that you want to understand more about Denmark and Danish culture, then this is the podcast for you!

Learn more at https://www.whatthedenmark.com/

  Society & Culture  Science  Education  History
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Danish Weddings: what to expect when tying the knot (or not) in Denmark

Jan 16 2024 49 mins  
If you’ve listened to our episode on Dating Danes and have been really applying yourself, you might be starting to think about Danish weddings… Both Sam and Josefine have (separately!) had Danish weddings that are a little bit different to how other countries do it. But what are some of the things to expect when going to a Danish wedding? In this bonus episode of What the De

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Feb 21 2023 49 mins  
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Dating Danes: learning the (missing?) language of love in Denmark

Jan 17 2023 49 mins  
For a culture that is normally so practical and matter-of-fact (see Separate Duvets), Danes seem to find it surprisingly difficult to talk about relationships. Compared with other cultures, it’s rare in Denmark to ask someone out on a date in person (unless drunk) and there’s often missing vocabulary around defining what relationships are (there’s no direct translation for �

Green Transition: how Denmark became a low-carbon, sustainable society

Dec 15 2022 35 mins  
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Little land: how Denmark's history defines the nation today

Nov 29 2022 36 mins  
It seems that one of the defining characteristics of being Danish is to feel you are a member of a small nation. During the Viking and Middle Age periods, Denmark was a relative superpower, with territory spanning modern day Norway, south Sweden and northern Germany. A series of failed military campaigns during the 1800s however meant that much of this land was lost, and my the 1

Forest kindergartens: why Danish parents send their children to learn in nature

Nov 08 2022 37 mins  
In the 1950s, a Danish woman, Ella Flatau, began taking her kids on walks in the forest to teach them about the world. Soon, other parents asked if their kids could join, and before long, they formalised the arrangement, creating the first "forest kindergarten" in the country, and possibly the world. Fast forward to today, and most of us have a sense that it's good for young chil

"Denmark is such a 'low anxiety' place to live"

Nov 02 2022 25 mins  
In this episode Sam is speaking to Anne Jamison and John Bennett, a couple from the USA who moved to Denmark from Dubai last year. Anne and John share their thoughts on: Work/life balance in Denmark and how this differs from US cultureDenmark being a “low anxiety” place to workThe tribulations in getting things delivered to Denmark over the summer And many more fun, interest

Affordable housing: Denmark's cooperative (andelsboliger) approach

Oct 24 2022 35 mins  
Around the world house prices are rising far higher than incomes meaning "ordinary people" are unable to afford to own a place to live. In Denmark, andelsboliger ("co-operative housing") offers a solution. With roots in the 1800s, it is an approach whereby people come together to collectively own a common asset (in this case a property, such as an apartment block) and then collec

Social conformity: why Janteloven is essential for understanding Danish society, with Michael Booth

Oct 17 2022 38 mins  
We're back with Season 3! In this episode we tackle Janteloven or "The Law of Jante". In 1933, a Danish-Norwegian author called Axel Sandemose wrote a book describing a fictional town in rural Denmark. The people of the town were very set in their ways, and didn't like it when individuals tried to break from the norms, or think that they were in any way special. This fictional

Winter bathing: is cold water the secret to Danish happiness?

Dec 09 2021 31 mins  
When temperatures drop, the last thing on most people's minds is to go outside, strip off and take a plunge into near freezing water. That is, however, what a large percentage of the Danish population do each winter. Why on earth would someone choose to do this? Well, it turns out that the benefits to doing so are pretty convincing, and not just for the physical aspects of helpi