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🌃 A powerful solar storm caused unusually vivid auroras to be visible across southern Sweden, with sightings reported in regions such as Halland, Blekinge, and Skåne. According to experts, the clear weather in southern Sweden made the phenomenon especially striking, while the storm is believed to be the strongest in around 20 years. The solar storm may also disrupt GPS signals and satellite communications, and observers are advised to seek dark areas away from city lights to improve their chances of seeing the aurora. You can see one of the images of this week’s auroras above.

🥤 Sweden’s National Food Agency recommends that children under 16 should limit their caffeine intake to no more than 70 milligrams per day, which is roughly equivalent to less than half a standard energy drink. The guidance comes amid concerns that young people are especially sensitive to caffeine and that energy drink consumption — often containing about 180–200 mg per can — has doubled among youth in recent years. Experts warn that excessive caffeine can disrupt sleep and cause symptoms such as heart palpitations, dizziness, and concentration problems.

⛷️ Swedish cross-country skier Jonna Sundling won the Jerring Prize by a large margin, receiving nearly twice as many votes as football club Mjällby AIF. Commentators noted that Sundling’s dominance reflects Sweden’s strong affection for cross-country skiing, while several high-profile athletes split votes and failed to reach the top five. Despite Mjällby’s widely admired season and broad support across football fans, Sundling secured a decisive victory in the public vote.

How did it feel to arrive in a new country in the late 19th century – confused, hopeful, exhausted, afraid? The answer might not only be found in novels or old letters, but in an unexpected place.

We tend to rank storytelling. Movies are respectable. Television dramas even more so. Books, of course, sit comfortably at the top. In Sweden, we have a word for this hierarchy: finkultur. Fine culture. Traditionally reserved for literature, classical music, or the Bob Dylan–adjacent. At the very bottom of that cultural ladder, many would place video games.

To some – often those a decade or two older than me – video games remain synonymous with pixelated plumbers, Minecraft blocks, or teenagers shouting into headsets while playing the same online match over and over again. A pastime, not a medium.

But I grew up during the shift. From Pac-Man to photo-realism. From high scores to deeply narrative, story-driven games. And that change matters.

Imagine a film that lasts 40 or 50 hours. One where you don’t just watch the protagonist’s choices. You make them. Where the emotional exhaustion you feel after a great movie is multiplied twentyfold because you lived the story, rather than merely observed it.

One of the most powerful examples is Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2, set in the United States in 1899. It follows a group of outlaws being slowly crushed by a modernizing world and the long arm of the law. The destination is fixed, but the journey – and how it feels – is yours.

Playing it gave me a surprisingly intimate sense of what life might have been like for immigrants at the turn of the century, perhaps even for those who left cold and damp Scandinavian shores behind. Not since Vilhelm Moberg’s book series The Emigrants have I felt so immersed in the harsh beauty and moral ambiguity of early America.

Video games can absolutely waste time. But like books, at their best they offer stories that stay with you. And if that isn’t finkultur, I’m not sure what is.

Do you have a story from the past that could be worth sharing? I bet you do! Or would you like to see something else in the newsletter and have suggestions for topics? If so, please reach out!