Vanilla scones

While perhaps not Polaris at SFO, the Swedish Railways still made my requalification effort to the top tier of their Prio programme worthwhile this morning by serving some excellent vanilla scones in the lounge as I waited for my train to Halmstad. Once there, it turned into an incredibly busy day with a rapidly approaching research grant application deadline and my long-awaited talk at the theatre in Halmstad.

Talking for twenty minutes about the role of productive disagreement in climate politics, I have to say that it went much better than what I had initially feared. I also had the privilege of listening to my former head of department Helen giving her talk about surrealist art in Halmstad and what happens when the pieces do not fit the established narrative. The idea of having this kind of relaxed science outreach event over a “smørrebrød” with two researchers talking about different topics is such a nice initiative and something that makes Halmstad University visible in the local community. By the time the evening got started, the theatre was filled with people, including my new head of department, which naturally made me slightly nervous but, in the end, everyone seemed happy about the conversation.