Northern Lights

Jenny Pugh moved back to Sweden because she wanted her kids to grow up in a place where kids are allowed to be kids. But schools weren't quite what she'd expected them to be and a year later they moved back to the US. Petra Socolovsky is a Swedish radio producer based in Washington DC.

Petra Socolovsky is a Swedish radio producer, who worked as foreign correspondent in Europe, before moving to Washington DC with her family and becoming a naturalized US citizen. In Northern Lights, she tells stories of Americans (and Swedes), who are trying to figure out life and parenting. And she asks if the obstacles they are facing really are necessary. Are other countries doing it better? (Sometimes yes, sometimes no.) In the first episode of Northern Lights we meet Gina, who tried to work the system and got a job she could combine with being a parent. But the system beat her anyway. Clue: The US is the only country in the OECD without paid parental leave.