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What does the Hansa, a confederation of trade guilds in the Middle Ages, teach us about the modern middle class? How did the modern state evolve to take on so many roles in a country’s economy? Find out in this week’s episode of Baggage Allowance.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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In Rwanda, people have invented ways to order things online without revealing their addresses. Encryption was a household name in Germany long before it arrived on American shores. Shopping bags in Japan don’t have any logos or ads. Your salary is public information in Sweden. In Finland, people are allowed to camp on private land. And nudity isn’t very taboo in many places. All this and more is explored on this week’s topic: privacy.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Children in many countries learn how to use public transportation on their own from a very young age. Children in Sweden have many of their classes outside of school. Children in Japan clean their own schools. These are just some of the ways growing up can be a different experience depending on the country. This episode explores these differences.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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This episode is a little different from the others and touches on several design choices I observed while traveling. The first half of the episode describes the Oodi library in Finland, and the second half describes interior decor and space saving strategies in Japan and Swedish homes. I briefly discuss other designs along the way.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Culture is more than just food, clothing, or way of life. It is the collective equivalent of an ego, and as nations change, their cultural narrative changes with it. In this episode, I explore how technological changes in India and Japan affected their culture narrative, and how the shifting borders affected the culture narrative of Latvia and Germany.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Continuing from the previous episode, I go into more detail about the conversation I had with my Japanese host at Mt. Fuji about the Meiji restoration. This experience forced me to re-imagine not only Japanese history, but the history of Europe as well.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Continuing from the previous episode, I go into more detail about the conversation I had with the Catholic deacon in Switzerland. I also describe my encounters with religions in India and Japan, and I discuss how my views of religion evolved as I encountered these experiences.
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