Podcast 289: Christmas with Elinborg

This week, a special Christmas episode of the podcast. We talk to Elinborg about Christmas in the Faroe Islands and about her new Christmas single. Then we'll hear the song and we'll all get a bit misty.

You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Stitcher Smart Radio. You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 288: Faroese Bodybuilding

This week, we talk to Faroese bodybuilder Jórun Mørkøre. She is currently the only female bodybuilder in the Faroe Islands, but that hasn't kept her from taking top honors in Europe and even competing at the world championships in Boston.

We'll talk to Jorun just before she leaves to compete in the USA and talk about the rigorous and sometimes lonely process of training for an international competition.

After that we'll stand in Torshavn and reflect on the changes in the Faroese capitol over the last year.

As always, you can find us in the Google Play store, on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Smart Radio, or you can download the show directly here.

Podcast 287: Halloween Past and Present

While Halloween in the Faroe Islands isn't quite as big as it in in the USA, it's becoming more popular.

On this podcast, we revisit the most popular recording we've ever made: the sound from the haunted tunnels near Klaksvik in 2010. Do we hear ghosts on that recording? Well... listen to the show and make your own call.

Then we'll visit a Halloweeen party in 2017 and learn what is truly scary in our current age.

As always, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, on Stitcher Smart Radio, and on Google Play. You can also download the show directly here.

If you want to hear the unedited audio recorded in the tunnel, you can find it here. And if you're interested in hearing our original Halloween episode, you can listen to that here.



Boo.

Episode 286: Faroese Handball and Faroe Islands Translate

This week, we talk to Scott Harrington. He was the coach of the Faroe Islands Women's Handball team and will soon be an assistant coach for the Chinese women's team. We talk about his time in the Faroes and the future of handball in the Faroe Islands.

Then we play around with the awesome new Translate Faroe Islands site. The site allows you to enter a sentence in English, Spanish, or French, then, moments later, you get a video of a Faroese person saying that sentence in Faroese. Have we mentioned it's super cool? Well, it is and you should all spend the rest of the day playing around with it.

And, of course, we're still raising money to fund our next season of the podcast. If you are able, visit our fundraising page and toss us a few bucks. We are very close to reaching our goal.

As always, you can listen on iTunes, our media player, Stitcher Smart Radio, or the Google Play Store. You can also download the show directly here.

The Faroe Islands Podcast Telethon!

No, operators aren't standing by to take your call,and the podcast isn't going on for 36 hours straight until we either reach our goal or the host loses his mind. Instead, we're raising a few bucks to help us record the next season of podcasts.

We're traveling to the Faroes to record stories during the dark and soggy autumn months, and to cover the HOYMA festival in Gota. If you can spare a little something, please donate here to help us make more shows.

On our short podcast, we talk about the fundraising campaign and then walk around an industrial estate outside Torshavn. Will we bump into a friend while standing on the side of the road? Listen to find out. (Hint: yes)

As always, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, on our media player, on Stitcher Smart Radio, on Google Play, or you can download the show directly here.

Podcast 285: Mikael Blak Speaks! (Normally he's playing bass)

This week, we talk to Mikael Blak. Blak is perhaps the most sought-after bass player in the Faroe Islands and he plays with so many bands he has a hard time naming them all. We talk about the difference between playing jazz and punk, growing up in a musical family, and the absurdly large musical output from this tiny country.

Then we duck into a library to get dry.

As always, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, on Stitcher Smart Radio, Google Play, and anywhere quality podcasts are given away freely. You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 283: Olavsoka Special 2017, Part 2

This week, we hear more sounds of Olavsoka. On day two of the Faroese holiday, we hear some poetry, visit parties, get lost, sing, dance, and eat delicious Spanish ham.

You can listen on Apple Podcasts, on Stitcher Smart Radio, or on the media player at the top of the page. You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 282: Olavsoka Special 2017, Part 1

It's time for Olavsoka in the Faroe Islands, and this week we're listening to a show we recorded at Olavsoka a few years ago, but haven't released until now.

We'll listen to music, watch football,and avoid horse poop. We'll also talk about Faroese national costume.

As always, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, on our media player at the top of the page, and Stitcher Smart Radio. You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 281: Revisiting the Olsen Siblings

Five years ago, we met the Olsen siblings (pictured, above) who were celebrating their combined 1,000th birthday.

This week we learn about one man's successful campaign to get the Olsen siblings into the Guinness Book of World Records. We'll also listen to an interview we did with the youngest sibling and pay tribute to two of the siblings who recently died.

As always, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, on our media player at the top of the page, or on Stitcher Smart Radio. You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 280: Football and Marius

This week, our good friend Heri Simonsen talks to Maurice Ross. Ross is a Scottish football (soccer) manager who is coaching the united Suduroy team, which merges three clubs on the southern island. While the three teams individually haven't had much success in the upper division of Faroese football, the merged team currently sits at fourth place in the EFFO league.

Then we'll hear some music from one of our favorite artists: Marius. He'll play "Shades", then we'll listen for a curious applause pattern common in the Faroe Islands.

As always, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, on the media player on our page, on on Stitcher Smart Radio. You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 279: Maggie's on Nolsoy

This week, we travel back to Nolsoy to visit a cafe that has turned the small island of Nolsoy into a music destination.

Maggie's is actually located in the basement of a house on the island, and would seem like an unlikely place for a music venue. But, like so many other things on the Faroe Islands, it works brilliantly anyway.

We'll talk to the bar's owner and listen to some music and basically have a lot of fun.

As always, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, on Stitcher Smart Radio, on the media player at the top of the page, or you can download the show directly here.

If you're interested in seeing the top-notch music lineup for this summer, you can see it here.

Podcast 278: The Gay Whale Podcast

We've been doing this show for more than 8 years, and one thing we've learned is that the most popular podcasts are either about whales or gay rights. (Polish authors falsely claiming to be Faroese also do well, but that's another story.) So for years, the goal has been to do a podcast about gay whales because it would, we assume, produce amazing download numbers. This week, we find out if that's true.

On this episode, we talk to Eiler Fagraklett, the head of LGBT Foroyar about a children's book that features a whale that is... well... probably gay. We can't say for sure but, you know, probably. We'll read from the book and then talk briefly bout the state of LGBT rights in the Faroe Islands.

After that, we'll visit the newest tunnel in the Faroe Islands and see if its haunted. (Hint: it's not)

As always you can listen on our media player, on Apple Podcasts, and on Stitcher Smart Radio. Or you can download the show directly here.

Podcast 277: Road to the World Cup (Sort Of)

On this week's show, we attend a World Cup soccer (or football, if you're not American) match in Torshavn, The Faroe Islands took on Hungary in a surprisingly competitive match. We meet up with Skansin, the supporter's group for the national team, and march to the stadium before watching the match on a windy September evening.

As always, you can listen on iTunes, on the media player at the top of the page, or on Stitcher Smart Radio, You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 276: Hitching to the Match

On this week's podcast, we thumb a ride to a World Cup qualifying football (soccer) match in Torshavn after unsuccessfully trying to take the bus to the stadium. The whole thing ends up with two grown men eating ice cream in the rain.

We also talk a bit about the recent international success various Faroese national teams have been having in recent months, including a stunning victory by the U17 football team (see video above).

As always, you can listen on our media player, on iTunes, or on Sticher Smart Radio. You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 274: Ove Logmansbo, Revealed!

Heri Simonsen (left) interviews "Ove Logmansbo"

Last November, we discussed the curious case of Ove Logmansbo. He claimed to be a half-Polish, half-Faroese author who set a trio of crime novels in his "native" Faroe Islands. The books, written in Polish, contained some serious factual errors that suggested Ove wasn't who he said he was and that he may not have ever been to the Faroes.

This week, it was revealed that Ove Logmansbo is actually Remigiusz Mroz, a famous Polish author who has written 30 books. And yes, he had never been to the Faroes before writing his three Ove Logmansbo books. But he made his first trip to the Faroe Islands this week, and it did not go as planned.

On our show, Heri Simonsen confronts Remi (in a polite Faroese way) about the inaccuracies in his books and the errors in how he portrayed the Faroe Islands and Faroese people. Then Heri and Matthew Workman talk about Remi's answers and the limits of fiction set in a real place.

We end with original music from Bryn Lidel. He's a musician from Portland, Oregon who wrote a song inspired by the Faroes.

As always, you can listen on iTunes, on our media player or on Stitcher Smart Radio. You can also download the show directly here.

Podcast 272: The State of Tourism 2016-2017

Visit Faroe Islands winter film from Visit Faroe Islands on Vimeo.

From the very start, we've been interested in tourism in the Faroe Islands. In fact one of our first guests on the show was the head of the organization now known as Visit Faroe Islands. And every couple of years, we like to check in with the head of VFI to see how things are going. Unlike in previous years, tourism officials aren't thinking as much about how to bring lots of people to the Faroes so much as how to accommodate the ones that are coming in record numbers. And some are even asking a question that would have seemed unthinkable when this show started eight years ago: how much tourism is too much?

We'll discuss those questions with Guðrið Højgaard, the head of Visit Faroe Islands about the increased tourism volume, and the Sheep View campaign that made headlines around the world.

We'll also talk about the Faroe Islands U21 Handball Team's qualifying for the world championships this summer. If you want to see the winning, match, it's here.

As always, you can listen on iTunes, on Stitcher Smart Radio, or on our media player at the top of the page, Or you can download the show directly here.