Besides being the editor of SvD Perfect Guide and one of Sweden’s most entertaining columnists, Hugo is also the host of our beloved Schibsted Talks podcast. With a curious mind, he always makes sure to get the answers we are all looking for.
Hugo – you have been the host and doing the interviews in Schibsted Talks from the start – in January 2020. How did it all start?
– I hosted one of Svenska Dagbladet’s earlier podcasts, Min helg-podden, which had laid back, personal interviews with celebrities. Employer Branding reached out to me to discuss if we could transform the live event Schibsted talks into a podcast. The content would be more serious and important but have a similar listener-friendly and informal manner.
How would you describe these two years and the development of the podcast?
– Lustful. To me, learning new stuff is one of the great joys in life. And interviewing all these smart individuals from a broad range of Schibsted companies has taught me a lot. Needless to say, the pandemic made it harder to conduct the interviews, but I think we managed alright. And the last couple of months, we upped the number of interviews per episode, narrowed the angles and speeded up the tempo. I believe that improved the podcast a lot.
Can you describe how the process behind an episode works?
-I meet the Employer Branding team on a-regular-basis to discuss potential topics and guests. Then, I try to come up with angles that could be interesting for the listeners.
For someone who hasn’t listened to Schibsted Talks – how would you describe?
– 15 minutes of easy listening that hopefully give you some new learnings and insights – about Schibsted and the world as a whole.
If you have to pick three favourite episodes – which ones would that be and why?
– I found the latest episode about the metaverse really interesting. Anders Grimstad does a great job explaining what the future might look like. Episode 43, where engineering manager Ioana Havsfrid talks about artificial stupidity, was fascinating. And episode 76, where Dan Ouchterony describes the deeper purpose of Schibsted’s investment, is great if you want to understand the soul of Schibsted.
