What we don't talk about

Student of education studies Emilie Duval Stolle is one of the podcasters mentioned in a big podcast guide on the Danish site Uniavisen here  just before Christmas.

Her podcast is a kind of agony aunt for students: A changing panel of students address the dilemmas of anonymous fellow students and honestly try to answer them.

The tone is relaxed and fun, but at the same time respectful and warm – even when taboos and tough dilemmas are unpacked and debated.

“The goal is to put words on the kind of the things that we usually do not talk about.”

One of the recent dilemmas that been on the show, for example, how to find a sugardaddy in your dorm.

Emilie runs the show as a moderator, but she also takes part in the debate if necessary. Most of the time, she asks follow-up questions to the others in the panel to set off new reflections. She then summarizes at the end.

Full anonymity

Even Emilie does not know who it is that is bringing up the dilemmas. And there is no way of tracking them down, because they just put a note in her physical mailbox.

It is very liberating not knowing who asked the question. You can say exactly what springs to mind.

Emilie Duval Stolle, the host of podkassen

“It is very liberating not knowing who asked the question. You can say exactly what springs to mind.”

Emilie says that she and the panel sometimes continue to talk about the dilemma after the recorder was off.

She laughs and says that it’s often when the microphone is turned off, that ‘all the good stuff’ suddenly appears.

“I have also found that people in the panel change their minds when they hear what the others have to say. I think that is very real. You know that from your own life – you get input, and you change your mind.”

Emilie wants to have all the little details. So it is important to her that nothing is cut out.

Used to talking about difficult things

Next to her programme in education studies, Emilie works in the youth section of the Red Cross, where she takes messages from young people who are having difficulties. So she is used to talking to young people about the things they cannot say to others who are closer to them.

She has also been on the other side and in need of good advice. In March 2017, she was included in the first programme of national Danish broadcaster DR programme ‘på tværs’ – a programme that takes up young people’s concerns in order to break taboos and fight loneliness.

Emilie is very interested in psychology. But it is also important to her that the podkassen is not just group therapy on behalf of others.

And how do you find a sugardaddy or sugarmama at a dorm? Someone who can buy you ice cream at the ice cream shop or help you with dinner at the end of the month when your SU study grant is running out?

The advice from the podkassen panel is clear: You look for people who come home late, because they are working a lot. Pay particular attention to those who are about to move out, because they are a bit closer to a full-time job with adult pay.

Emilie shakes her head smiling as she talks about the sugardating dilemma:

“That’s the good thing about it – it’s only advice. It’s not something you have to do. You don’t have to follow it, so there’s nothing to lose.”