Fintech Leader Promotes Green Investing For Self-Reliance
TALLINN, Estonia – When Triin Hertmann tells me straight away at our first meeting she doesn’t have her “A” game because she only had three hours sleep, I’m thinking: “This is going to be interesting.” We were sitting in the conference room of the company she co-founded, Grünfin, which helps corporate employees build retirement income […]
Home Away from Home No Problem for American Guitar Restoration Maestro
HELSINKI, Finland – If Scott Morgan’s life were a sheet of music, his personal geography would run up and down the scales. I was tracking the American I’d heard about early in my visit to Finland’s capital city: A musician from New Orleans who had settled here. When I checked out Scott, it was clear […]
The Ultimate Fan – and Family Man
EUGENE, Oregon — It’s late in a day like few he’s experienced in his 80 years. While visiting with a group of family and friends, a battered Mike Schwartz continued his celebration of the epic 32-31 victory by his beloved Oregon Ducks over Ohio State on a beautiful fall evening in Eugene. Early in the […]
Reindeer-Herding Family Combines Old SchoolWays with Innovative Entrepreneurship
INARI, Lapland – When I first arranged with Raisa Kitti to meet at her Lapland home, 165 miles north of the Arctic Circle, she told me straight away I may be disappointed. “Why is that?” I asked during a phone conversation. “Because you won’t see any reindeer at our farm,” she said. “They’re grazing in […]
Finns Near Shuttered RussianBorder Face Uncertain Future
IMATRA, Finland – Miia Torikka had just received a dispiriting phone call when I dropped in on her at the business that she’s been running for three years: The local newspaper broke the story she’d soon be closing. Amazingly, she handled the news with incredible calm. “I’ll try and find something else,” she said with […]
American Reporter Seeks Unhappy Finns
HELSINKI, Finland – I arrived in this under-the-radar Scandinavian country sandwiched between Sweden and Russia on an unusual mission: Looking for miserable people. There’s a perfectly sound reason for this odd quest. For seven years running, Finland has been voted the happiest country in the world. Article after article have boasted the fact. Personally, I’m […]
The Nine Lives of Barra Grande
Editor’s note: Last in a series from a reporting trip to Brazil Oct. 21-27, 2023 BARRA GRANDE, Brazil – I’m sitting at a beachfront café table overlooking the Atlantic in Barra Grande, the village, talking with Barra Grande, the man. Having just met him, I’m confused how one can be named after the other. Barra […]
Parnaiba River Delta Journey: Natural Diversity Beyond Compare
PORTO DOS TATUS, Brazil – On a warm spring morning we motored up the Rio dos Morros, working our way through a maze of tributaries on route to the Atlantic. The Morros is a narrow, brownish stream in northeastern Brazil with thick mangrove forests lining each bank. Eventually, we would cruise into the adjoining Parnaiba […]
At 92, Soccer’s Legendary ‘ThinMan of Steel’ Lives on
Editor’s note: First in a series from a reporting trip to Brazil Oct. 21-27, 2023 TERESINA, Brazil – When you meet Carlos Said for the first time you are struck by his voice – or lack of it. More than seven decades behind the microphone at thousands of soccer games has damaged his vocal cords. […]