Two Danish voices in Australia open a new conversation about curiosity, connection and what helps life flourish.
Service to Life may be a new podcast, but the conversation behind it began several years ago. For three years, we – Christian Nicolajsen and Mik Aidt – have been producing a Danish-language podcast called Grib Dagen. The name means Seize the Day, and across 17 episodes, the podcast became a place where we could speak openly about the subjects that interested, surprised, troubled or inspired us.
We talked about nature, science, relationships, creativity, music, artificial intelligence, the human body, men and women, happiness and the strange business of being alive.
Sometimes the conversations were serious. Sometimes they became personal. Quite often they wandered into places neither of us had expected. That was part of the point.
Christian has a saying that has followed us throughout the journey:
There is always an experience hidden in the unexpected.
Over time, Grib Dagen became something like an audio diary. Each episode captured some of the questions, concerns, discoveries and moments of joy that were present in our lives at that particular time. It gave us a space to be honest – including about subjects people do not always discuss openly elsewhere.
Now that conversation is continuing in English.
Why change the language?
We are both Danish, but we live in Australia.
For years, we would tell English-speaking friends that we had made another podcast episode, only to add: “Unfortunately, you won’t understand it because it is in Danish.”
It began to feel like an unnecessary barrier.
Danish is spoken by around six million people. English opens the conversation to friends, neighbours and listeners across Australia and around the world. The change of language allows more people to join us while the spirit of the original podcast remains intact.
We are still the same two people. We still bring our Danish background, humour and cultural perspective into the conversation. We also speak as immigrants who have made Australia our home – people who sometimes see Australian life from a slightly different angle.
That outsider-insider perspective will be part of the podcast. We want to explore the country we live in with honesty and affection – noticing its strengths, its contradictions and the many cultures and stories that shape it.
What does “service to life” mean?
The title grew from a simple idea: that a meaningful life may begin when we see ourselves as part of something larger than ourselves.
To be in service to life is to ask:
What helps life flourish?
What strengthens our relationships?
What makes our communities healthier?
What brings us closer to nature?
What allows us to become more curious, responsible, generous and fully alive?
Service can sound like sacrifice or duty. We see it differently. There is joy in being useful. There is meaning in caring for another person, an animal, a neighbourhood or a living landscape. There is a sense of belonging that emerges when we stop treating ourselves as isolated individuals and begin to recognise the countless relationships that sustain us.
This could be the connection between a person and a dog. It could be the bond between friends. It could be the experience of hearing birdsong, noticing light through a leaf or discovering a drop of deep red kino on the trunk of a eucalyptus tree.
Life becomes richer when we learn to notice more of it. That principle sits at the heart of the podcast.
Curiosity without a narrow agenda
Service to Life will move across many subjects. One episode may explore nature, wonder or the intelligence of the human body. Another may examine relationships, masculinity, technology, artificial intelligence, creativity or the future of work.
We will talk about happiness, ageing, money, community and meaning. We will explore how social values may change if artificial intelligence and automation begin replacing large numbers of jobs.
For generations, many people – especially men – have been taught to measure their worth through employment, income, status and achievement.
What happens when those measures begin to lose their power? Where will people find identity, dignity and purpose?
Perhaps relationships, creativity, service and community will become more important. Perhaps activities that currently receive little financial recognition will become central to how we understand a successful human life.
These are enormous questions, and we do not claim to have final answers.
The podcast is a place where we can explore them honestly.
A place for serious subjects – and laughter
When we began Grib Dagen, we created a simple three-part manifesto:
Be yourself.
Be humble.
Use humour.
That manifesto continues with Service to Life.
Being yourself means speaking truthfully rather than performing a polished version of who you think you are expected to be.
Being humble means remaining willing to learn, change your mind and admit what you do not know.
Using humour helps us approach difficult, awkward and sometimes intimate subjects without becoming weighed down by them.
One recurring feature will be The Cigar Parlour – an imaginary gentlemen’s club where we step through the door, leave the noise of the outside world behind and speak privately, man to man.
The setting may resemble a traditional club filled with mahogany, whisky and old-fashioned formality, but the conversations will examine what it means to be a man in the present century.
Some subjects may be serious. Others may be embarrassingly private, or unexpectedly revealing.
We are not too worried – because, as they say, what is said between these walls stays behind these walls. In the first episode, for example, the conversation moves from walking in nature and the science of awe to morning erections, oxytocin, financial uncertainty, universal basic income and the future of human purpose.
That range is a fair indication of what lies ahead.
Learning to see the world differently
One of the central stories in our first episode concerns an “awe walk” in the Brisbane Ranges near Geelong.
Researchers asked a group of older adults to take weekly walks. Some were simply told to walk. Others were asked to look for things that filled them with wonder – to see the world with fresh, childlike eyes.
Over time, the people searching for awe began taking photographs that contained more landscape and less of themselves. Their smiles also became more genuine.
The researchers described this as the “small self” – the experience of feeling less like the centre of everything and more like a participant in a much larger world.
That idea captures much of what Service to Life is about. We do not necessarily need to travel to distant places or achieve extraordinary things to experience a bigger life. Sometimes we need to pay closer attention to the life already around us.
An open-ended journey
We do not know exactly where Service to Life will take us. That uncertainty is part of its appeal.
The podcast will follow conversations, encounters, questions and discoveries as they arise. It will grow from our experiences in Australia, our Danish heritage, our friendship and our shared curiosity about the world.
Some episodes may offer knowledge. Some may offer practical ideas. Some may simply provide companionship and remind listeners that other people are asking similar questions.
Through it all, we will return to one underlying principle:
A good life is built through connection – with ourselves, with one another and with the living world around us.
Service to Life begins here.
Two voices asking honest questions. No fixed destination.
Plenty of experiences hidden in the unexpected.
► Listen to the first episode of Service to Life podcast