Popular Lucia songs, and why does northern Sweden face so much prejudice?

In this week's episode we talk about why northern Sweden doesn’t get the recognition it deserves from southerners, and we prepare for the annual Lucia festivities by getting to know some of the most common songs that are sung to mark the day.

For membership+ subscribers we find out why Swedish publishers have reported Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to the police.

Finally we examine how new Swedish migration rules could affect foreign residents in 2026.

Host Paul O'Mahony is joined this week by regular panelists Becky Waterton and James Savage.

Here are links to some of the topics discussed in the episode:

Northern Sweden

• Why northern Swedes feel ignored and underappreciated

Lucia

• Things you should NEVER say to a Swede on Lucia day
• The historical dark side of Sweden's Lucia tradition

Crime

• Swedish media body reports Mark Zuckerberg to police over scam ads

The link we mention for reporting scam ads isn't live yet. We'll add it here once it's up.

Immigration

• How new Swedish migration rules could affect foreign residents in 2026

Politics in Sweden

• Why does the Swedish right love to bash SVT?

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