Martin and Nadia, pictured, founded Lëtzcast to podcast about life in Luxembourg Lëtzcast

Martin and Nadia, pictured, founded Lëtzcast to podcast about life in Luxembourg Lëtzcast

Starting early October, Swedish national Martin Jonsson and Luxembourger Nadia Bemtgen will release their first podcasts about international people living in Luxembourg under the banner “Lëtzcast”.

“It’s a very broad theme…everyone thinks that Luxembourg is bankers and the EU. But there are a lot more stories about why people come here and what their life is like here,” Jonsson told Delano.

Originally from Karlskrona, Sweden, Jonsson caught the podcast bug around 2010. “It quickly became a little bit of an obsession,” he said, adding: “I started my own podcasts in 2015, in Swedish, about Sweden’s biggest online discussion board.”

Jonsson explained that he discovered fascinating stories via the forum, Flashback, Sweden’s answer to Reddit but with an edgier reputation. He would interview the quirky people who posted on the forum, turning their stories into lively and curious podcasts for his series Flashbang.

Having taught himself how to use audio recording and editing software, Jonsson said in the early days he recorded his interviews in a one by one metre squared storage cubby, to avoid getting the echo in the audio being recorded.

“I would bring my laptop and sit in that cubby hole for three hours, sometimes. It was extremely hot. I remember once I had to ask an interviewee for a break because I was about to faint,” he recalled.

The Swede explained the core interest for him, besides creating a captivating story, is authenticity: of the interviewee and interviewer. To distill that, he spends hours chatting to his interviewees putting them at ease during interviews. Add to that the many hours he spends editing each episode and it is a lot of work for a hobby. “I’ve always enjoyed it. I think I crave feedback. I don’t get that through the work of my job. I really enjoy the creative process, especially playing with the media,” he said.

The couple, who met during their studies in Edinburgh, moved to Luxembourg in 2016 for Nadia’s job. Since launching the Lëtzcast website and call for interviewees, they have been pleasantly surprised by the interest their project has received locally.

In the New Year, they plan to broadcast a second season of podcasts, focusing on small businesses in Luxembourg.

You can listen to Lëtzcast free of charge via most podcast platforms, including iTunes and Pocketcast. To find out more about being featured in a podcast, visit the website letzcast.com