Dear readers of BTSB, I'm incredibly proud to bring you the very first episode of my own podcast, The Intercultural Happy Hour with Jesper and Friends. This podcast will delve into ideas about culture, interculturality, and identity, and it comes from a very personal place for me. As of late, I've become more aware of certain issues with how we view culture and identity, especially in terms of how they are often seen as solid constructs. As this world becomes an increasingly global place, we are becoming more connected with each other and this means that issues of how to address culture and identity are becoming more relevant. There is no simple answer to how to deal with these ideas but this podcast aims to explore them as much as possible. Each episode, I'll have a new guest on the show to explore these issues through their own personal experiences. For this first episode, I have my very good friend and fellow BTSB editor Ari Mäntykivi joining me.

As I said, this is the first episode of my first podcast. It's a podcast whose own identity is still not locked in place so there may be a rough spot or two but I hope you will find something to latch on. I truly believe that there is great potential with this podcast and I warmly thank Ari for helping me start this journey.

This podcast is an experiment in dealing with certain frustrations while finding humor in other situations. Most of all, this podcast is about trying to understand our own identities better or, at the very least, it's about coming to terms with how impossible that can be.

Without further ado, here's the first podcast.

Thanks for listening,

Jesper Simola

Song credits:

Secret Chiefs 3 - The 3

Django Django - Waveforms

Michael Jackson - Black or White