COLUMN. After an eight-year hiatus, the Alltinget program is now back on the radio. The program came to an end when program director Lasse Swahn retired, but now he and the panel are back again every other week during the spring on Swedish Radio’s P4 channel in Gothenburg. In this column, panel member Henrik Sjövall gives us some behind-the-scenes insight from the new launch of the program.
You can hear the Swedish-language broadcast of Alltinget (2 hours and 47 minutes into the Förmiddag [“Morning”] program) on the P4 channel in Gothenburg:https://sverigesradio.se/sida/avsnitt/1459163?programid=2369
Took a seat on Bus 16 to the Swedish Radio building; it felt like forever since the last time. I was joining two other “old hands” from the program: Kerstin Norén and Kristina “Snuttan” Sundell. Even Lasse wasn’t sure how his return to the radio waves came about. Lasse is, of course, Lasse Swahn, the radio reporter from Styrsö, who hosted Ring så spelar vi for many years and then moved on to tirelessly and always just as enthusiastically hosting Alltinget. The program, a Gothenburg variation of Ask Lund, had half a million listeners at its peak, but was then discontinued based on a somewhat strange rationale that “the audience was mostly highly educated, upper-middle class.” We did not give up, however, and continued without radio, first at the Gothenburg City Library and then at the Museum of World Culture, always with a very good following. Now it was time again to return to the air.
The studio felt familiar, especially the plexiglass on-the-air sign that turns green when we are broadcasting.
This time Lasse took a seat at the round table, with Stefan Livh leading this time around. After a little introduction and small talk came the first question, which as might be expected concerned viruses. When the green sign lights up, something happens to me. I become a little lofty and tend to use metaphors. I compared the relationship between humans and microbes (bacteria, viruses, various other critters) with a stormy but stable marriage, which billows this way and that but still persists because we need each other. I drew parallels to the measles epidemic a few years ago, talked about “the little misery” (measles), “the big misery” (smallpox) and the “big pox” (an early variation of syphilis). Snuttan chimed in with examples of infections in horses familiar to all horse owners. We wrapped up that segment by wondering what we would call COVID-19 once it had run its course. It might seem this was somewhat flippant, but the fact is epidemics are nothing new in the long history of humanity.
The next question asked why you never see any pigeon nests, and Snuttan expounded on the various ways birds build nests and take care of their young. Then we fielded a semi-political question about the difference between integration and assimilation. Kerstin outlined the linguistic difference, and then Snuttan and I talked about how people and animals in herds best allocate responsibility, about the risks of all animals or people responding to external threats in exactly the same way. About the value of heterogeneous groups in dealing with unpredictable threats. About the danger of “cloned” groups, with a slight dig at Karolinska Institutet and the Macchiarini scandal.
Finally, we came to grips with a difficult issue: what love does to the brain and whether you can love a handball team. Kerstin recited definitions of love from the Swedish Academy Dictionary, and then I talked about neural networks in the brain, using champagne as a metaphor. Champagne consists of a blend of three grapes; love requires activation of three neural networks in the brain.
It takes three to tango!
We zeroed in on maternal love, memory functions in those systems and how they can be triggered by smells, for example. And as a final point: as far as I know, no experiment has been done to determine whether those neural networks can be triggered by love for a handball team (or for that matter the IFK football club).
More knowledge is always needed!
The on-the-air sign turned off, Stefan Livh thanked us for the show and continued with his morning program. Goodbye, green sign. We hope to see you again soon!
Henrik Sjövall
Footnote: The Alltinget information program was broadcast on Swedish Radio’s P4 channel from 1998 to 2012. The program was developed and directed by Lasse Swahn, who this spring returns as host for the program every other Wednesday as part of the Förmiddag (“Morning”) program and also at the Museum of World Culture beginning on March 19 at 14: 00-15: 00.
