The Finnish Baby Box
99% Invisible

The Finnish Baby Box

B1IntermediateJuly 28, 202633 min

A simple cardboard box helped transform Finland into one of the best places in the world to raise a child. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Back in May 2018, reporter Olivia Humphreys had her first baby.

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  • 91% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 163 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 140 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars. Back in May 2018, reporter Olivia Humphreys had her first baby. She remembers being in London in a loud, chaotic, postnatal ward, waiting to go home. And it was during this time that she was handed a small drawstring bag.

0:22

Inside it, there was a little towel with a brand logo on it, a few tiny samples of baby shampoo and nappy cream, and a ton of coupons for lots of products I'd never heard of, but apparently desperately needed now that I had a new baby.

0:36

It's always nice to get free stuff, but the bag didn't make me feel better. It just added to the sense that I was woefully underprepared. It was in those first sleepless nights after she returned home with her son that Olivia started to really consider her bag of coupons.

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