“Opening Champagne with a sword is more fun. You can feel it in your stomach.”So says Marianne Sass Petersen — a bookkeeper from Amager whose life changed when she attended a Champagne sabering competition at Tivoli.Dedicating herself to the ar

This Amarkaner Life: Mad About Amager

Dec 20th, 2022 16m 54s

In episode five, we meet the chef trying to put Amager on the culinary map — quite literally.Yngve Fobian is the head chef at Øens Spisested — a "local" restaurant in more ways than one.For one thing, most of its ingredients are from Amager — a

This Amarkaner Life: The Cold Shock

Dec 16th, 2022 20m 45s

The Helgoland sea-bathing club, at the northern tip of Amager's beach, is home to one of the world's oldest winter-bathing associations, Det Kolde Gys ("The Cold Shock").In episode four of This Amarkaner Life, we brave the heat of the sauna and

This Amarkaner Life: Bee Curious

Nov 30th, 2022 19m 3s

There's already a bit of a buzz around this episode — if only because the Amarkaners in question are the island’s hard-working honeybees.In episode three, we visit Bybi — a bee-powered project based in Amager’s historic Sundholm district — to m

This Amarkaner Life: Plane Speaking

Oct 24th, 2022 19m 53s

Please return your seatbacks and tray tables to their fully upright position because we'll shortly be landing at one of Amager’s best-known restaurants — Flyvergrillen. You'll find it at Copenhagen airport, but don’t go looking for it before yo

This Amarkaner Life: Kurt's Ferrets

Oct 4th, 2022 14m 37s

"Amager is a great place. Amager is number one.”So says Kurt Helmann Jensen ("Kurt like Kurt Russell"). And he should know.For one thing, he's a self-proclaimed "Amarkaner" — a dyed-in-the-wool resident of Amager, the much-maligned, teardrop-sh

Trailer

Introducing... The Recipe

Oct 29th, 2021 2m 17s

Say hello to a brand-new food podcast.It’s called The Recipe — and it's all about the new generation of restaurants and the people behind them.If you heard the Mad World episode of Archipelago, in which we took a look at the Copenhagen restaura

Stories Behind Bars

Apr 16th, 2020 19m 42s

Danish "song kindergartens" hit the right notes, while a 19th-century prison provides an unsettling location for an overnight stay.In this episode, we visit Trekroner Børnehus, a kindergarten outside Roskilde, to hear about Sangglad — a scheme

Right-On Green

Mar 27th, 2020 22m 13s

Two Danish institutions have discovered eye-catching ways to go green.From Greta Thunberg’s school strike to the Fridays for the Future movement, there’s no shortage of children taking a stand against climate change.But while their activism tak

The Light Fantastic

Dec 20th, 2019 27m 26s

In the bleak midwinter, the sun scarcely seems to rise in Denmark at all.Is it any wonder, then, that the Danes are so obsessed with good lighting? That Denmark has produced many of the world’s most iconic lights? That Danes have the world’s hi

Blixen En Pointe

Nov 9th, 2019 23m 24s

“Those who wish to relive their lives, never lived them in the first place.”The words of Karen Blixen — the acclaimed Danish writer whose life story is the basis of a brand-new ballet created exclusively for the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhag

Memory Palace

Sep 22nd, 2019 25m 56s

Meik Wiking is one of the world’s leading happiness experts.The founder of the Happiness Research Institute, he’s also the author of two New York Times bestsellers — The Little Book of Hygge and The Little Book of Lykke — which have been transl

Pieces of Aidt

Aug 22nd, 2019 26m 21s

We kick off season two of Archipelago with a very special guest indeed.Naja Marie Aidt has been described as “one of the most intelligent writers of the contemporary literary world” and as “one of the compassionate voices in fiction”.Born in Gr

The Porn Supremacy

Jun 20th, 2019 44m 35s

We end season one with a bang — on the little known Danish island of Pornø. To mark half a century since Denmark became the first country to legalise visual pornography, we take a deep dive into arty porn and pornographic art.Up first, we meet

Mad World

Jun 5th, 2019 42m 44s

Once a foodie wasteland, Copenhagen is today a major gastronomic destination.It is, of course, the epicentre of New Nordic cuisine — the culinary movement that championed hyper-local, seasonal ingredients and elevated foraging and fermentation

Chair Necessities

May 22nd, 2019 40m 46s

We try to solve one of the greatest mysteries of all time.Why are the Danish so crazy about chairs? Why are there so many Danish chairs? And does the world really need any more of them?Ahead of 3 Days of Design — Denmark’s biggest annual design

Born To Be Wild

May 8th, 2019 34m 23s

CPH:DOX is one of the world’s largest documentary film festivals — and a highlight of Copenhagen’s cultural calendar.In this episode we talk to the directors of two films that were screened in competition at the 2019 festival. Two very similar

Booze and Bouquets

May 7th, 2019 35m 7s

Episode two is about two Danish companies that have developed creative ways to employ people who often struggle to pick up work.First we meet People Like Us — a brewing company run by people who have been diagnosed with autism and social anxiet

You Say Yes, I Say No

May 1st, 2019 40m 26s

Two very different takes on what our default response to life's opportunities ought to be. Based on a pair of words that we all use every day. A pair of words with the power to change your life, alter the course of history, or simply stop you l