In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kajander Melish reflects on the surprisingly low level of fear that characterises Danish society and explores the few areas where anxiety does surface. He opens with a vivid anecdote of preschool children gathered around a large open bonfire (a "bål") without any fence, illustrating how Danish children are taught not to fear fire—a cultural habit possibly rooted in the country’s cold climate and historic reliance on fire for survival. He then expands the discussion to the broader social safety net: universal, tax‑funded healthcare, education and unemployment benefits that reduce everyday worries about hunger, homelessness or job loss, and argues that this security contributes to Denmark’s low religiosity and low‑stress, consensus‑oriented culture. The episode notes that Danish schools delay formal grading until the teens and discourage non‑sport competition, further limiting the fear of academic failure. Melish acknowledges that Denmark is not immune to global threats, citing the recent Copenhagen terrorist bombings and the ever‑present risk of attacks in the dark, crowded Nørreport Station, where police visibility is high. He describes the country’s crime landscape: pickpocketing is largely carried out by foreign criminals, while domestic organized crime groups—known as "rockers" and linked to motorcycle clubs like the Hells Angels and Bandidos—focus on narcotics, extortion and debt collection. Notably, about half of these rockers receive welfare benefits, creating a paradox where welfare recipients may also be involved in violent crime, raising safety concerns for caseworkers. Finally, Melish identifies the dominant contemporary Danish fear: the potential erosion of the welfare state due to immigration. He suggests that anxiety about maintaining the generous social system underlies much of the public discourse on immigrants. The episode concludes with promotional information for the How to Live in Denmark book and ways to follow the podcast.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kajander Melish. I was walking towards my home in Copenhagen the other day when. I walked past a kindergarten. It had a big open playground with lots of things for the kids to climb on, but nobody was climbing. The kids were all gathered around a giant open bonfire. Now, these kids were 3 to 5 years old, and the flames of the bonfire were probably twice as tall as they were, but there was no restraining fence or barrier to keep them away from it. Just a couple of adults and some pails of water. Big open fires, which are called a bål, are pretty common in Denmark, even around children. Sometimes the kids even roast little pieces of bread over the fire, or rather roast a long piece of dough curled around a stick. Snøbrød, it's called. Kids grow up learning not to be afraid of fire. Maybe that's a legacy of Denmark being such a cold country. Fires were once very important to staying alive. Even at Tivoli in the winter, you'll see open containers of flaming hot coals. You know, the sort of things you usually see in depictions of hell in Dante's Inferno. But at Tivoli, Danish parents are carefully showing their children how to warm their little fingers over the hot coals. No fear. In general, Denmark is not a fearful country. You could argue, what is there to be afraid of in Denmark? It seems like a safe little corner of the world. Tax-funded social programs make it unlikely you'll go hungry or homeless, as long as you have that little yellow social service card that shows you're here legally. Your medical care and education is paid for by taxes— yours or somebody else's. Even if you lose your job— and it's very easy in Denmark for companies to get rid of workers they don't want— There's a social safety net to catch you. I've often thought that the social safety net is one of the reasons Denmark has so little interest in religion. When there's so little to worry about, there's not much to pray for. Denmark also has little of the open competition that can make life so stressful in competitive nations like China or India or the U.S. Danish culture prizes consensus, not competition. And Danish children don't get any formal grades in school until they're in their teens. Any type of non-sports competition is discouraged. My 10-year-old daughter's teacher caught the kids comparing their marks on a spelling test, and she told us parents about it very disapprovingly. They shouldn't have been comparing themselves to each other, she said. They all have different abilities. So the fear that kids live with in many parts of the world of not being the best in class, of not being able to get into a good secondary school or college, of, of being crossed off the list at a very young age, is largely absent in Denmark. Of course, Denmark is not immune from the world's bigger fears: war, climate change, terrorism. There was a terrorist attack a few months ago in Copenhagen. The first big one since the mid-1980s. That time, 2 large bombs went off downtown. Now, in that 1980s attack, there were actually supposed to be 3 bombs. But as the 3rd perpetrator tried to place his bomb on Westerbrogel and walk away, an elderly lady stopped him and said, Excuse me, young man, you forgot your suitcase. He panicked and he took his bomb and ran away. But terrorism is still a real threat in Denmark, as it is all over the world. Probably the only time I'm afraid in Copenhagen is in Nørreport Station, a horrible dark little underground shoebox that's the central point for all the trains in town. It is a prime target for any kind of nutcase, and the Danish police seem to know that. Whenever things are tense in the world, Denmark's usually invisible police force is highly visible at Nørreport. Nørreport is also a center for pickpocketing, which Denmark has mostly outsourced to foreign criminals. Denmark's own criminal gangs don't do pickpocketing. They specialize in narcotics, extortion, and strong-arm debt collection. Danish criminal gangs are known as rockers, and they belong to motorcycle clubs like the Hells Angels or the Bandidos. Now, modern rockers don't look like those chic 1950s Marlon Brando types in black leather. They tend to be large, hairy guys in hoodie jackets and colorful vests. The truth is, a lot of these tough guys also get Danish welfare payments— about half, according to the Danish Tax Service. They either claim disability or say they're simply unable to find a job. Of course, they're supposed to go to job centers for retraining in order to get their benefits, but they never do. And if the caseworker tries to cut off those benefits, Things can get ugly for that caseworker pretty fast. It's ironic in a place where the social welfare system makes so many people feel secure that social welfare workers would have to worry about their safety. You know, in fact, if Danes have a real fear, it's that something will happen to their safety net. And you can see that beneath what is often expressed as a fear of immigration, of, of immigrants, of the outside world. If all these people come here from other places, can we still keep our welfare system? That's a Danish fear. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. You can get the How to Live in Denmark book at so many places now. You can get it at Denmark's National Museum in the gift shop. You can get it at Politikens Boghandel on Rådhuspladsen. You can get it at Made in Denmark on Broleggegade 6. And actually, you can get it in any big Danish bookstore. All you have to do is special order it. It might take a week or two. You can also get it online at howtoliveindenmark.com or the e-version at amazon.com or saxo.com or on Apple's iBooks. We get around. Even Google Play. We're even on Google Play. On Google Play you can get both the Chinese and the English version. Come leave a comment on howtoliveindenmark.com. Follow us on Twitter @howtoliveindk. The 2 is a number. Or come chat with us on Facebook at How to Live in Denmark. See you next time.
