Media life in LA according to a Swede

Reality Check Live Radio airing in Los Angeles and New York

Comparing media in Sweden, Nordic neighbor to Norway, to "fake" media in the US. I come from a country of ten million people, the same population as the LA. Different? Just a tad.

When I moved from tiny little Sweden to Los Angeles in September last year, I was more than a little confused about a lot of things.

If only Reality Check Live had been around six months ago. To teach me a thing or two. To explain the basics of how this city, this county, this state and this country work.

I know what you're thinking. What is Reality Check Live?

Question: What do you get if you combine intelligent guests, smart dialog, a glorious sense of humor and a big splash of sarcasm?

You get Reality Check Live.

And what is it? It is the radio program that will teach you what you need to know to make it in the jungle. And entertain you, so you don't die from boredom. It's a radio program that is more Scandinavian than American, meaning it brings up stuff that normally isn't discussed in the US. Things Trump and his friends rather sweep under the rug. Things that actually mean something to real people.

Reality Check Live, presented by Resist Radio Network, will start airing on KPFK 90.7 in April 2018.

So back to my Swedish confused self.

All these abbreviations that used to drive me crazy – BH, SM, OC and WeHo – what do they mean? (I now know that West Hollywood is where you go to party.)

Why does everybody carry their dogs, when they have four legs to walk with? Just how BIG is this city, really?

What is what, and why?

Why is the public transportation system completely useless? Where does all the people living in the streets come from? Is there no one to help them? Why all the commercial for medicine on TV? Are people very sick here? And why?

I worked at Volvo Cars back home, building cars. It's a blue-collar kind of job, and along with IKEA and ABBA, Volvo is our greatest invention. Nobody here is interested in building cars though. But everybody wants to know what kind of health insurance I got through my job at Volvo.

Health insurance? What?

"Ehh, in Sweden we pay taxes and if something happens we go to the doctor and get help. Was that what you were asking?"

Looking at life in the States through my Swedish eyes, it looks somewhat different than it does through American eyes. People tell me they've always wanted to go to Sweden, but almost no one knows the name of the capital. (It's Stockholm by the way.) Is geography not in the curriculum at schools here?

Enough faking – let's tell the truth

I could have used a survival guide – like Reality Check Live - to listen to during my first months here. I didn't realize just how badly the healthcare system works in this country. I didn't realize how complicated the political system is. It's actually so complicated, not even the president understands how it works.

Except, that it's really not. (Why the President don't get it, I'll leave unsaid.)

People are not stupid. People are not uninterested. And Reality Check Live know this. People are just sick of the lying, and the faking. So enough with that, let's tell the truth!

Preventing Truth Decay

The slogan - Preventing Truth Decay - is so spot on it hurts a little. And students all over the country are contributing to just that, preventing the truth decay, by sharing their stories and experiences.

So, let's get this show on the road. Behind the wheel we find Cary Harrison, the star of the radio world. Mr Harrison we know from CBS in Chicago, SiriusXM and Pacifica Radio.

We're taking over now. It's a coup. And the radio medium is alive and kicking, unlike it's cousin the newspaper. People listen, mostly in their cars, and we do have a lot of those in LA.

Everybody is invited

Reality Check Live with Harrison will be aired in Los Angeles and New York to begin with. The program invites everybody to the table, because everybody has a story, everybody has questions. All the gays and trannies, and blacks and immigrants, and all the women.

We can all sit down together and explain to Mr President how this country should be run. Because that is how a democracy works, the people have the power. And if you feel like the power slipped out of your hands, Reality Check Live will teach you how to reel it back in.

It will be fun, and you'll you learn things you didn't know, that you didn't know.

Check out the webpage!