Christmas Special: Lapland
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For the festive season, "80 Days: an exploration podcast" brings you a Christmas special on the most appropriate place we could think of, complete with reindeer and Santa Claus: Lapland, or - as the native Sami people prefer to call it - Sápmi. This is a large region of Fennoscandanavia, north of the Arctic Circle, with its territory spanning parts of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia. This episode will touch on all areas of Lapland, but will focus primarily on the Finnish and Norwegian sides. The area is named for the indigenous people, who have sparsely inhabited the region for several thousand years.

In Lapland, winter lasts from early October to early May, with temperatures well below freezing throughout the region and up to 60 cm or 23 inches of snow during midwinter. However, in summer the sun does not set on the region for several weeks at a time. Population has declined quite significantly since 1990, and the region is now home to approximately 180,000 people. Residents are spread across a total area of just over 100,000 square kilometers, or 38,000 square miles, and there are as many reindeer here as there are people. Your hosts are Luke Kelly @thelukejkelly, Mark Boyle @markboyle86 and Joe Byrne@anbeirneach, in Hong Kong, the UK and Switzerland, respectively. (Theme music by Thomas O’Boyle).

Find full show-notes (with links to related resources and articles) on www.80dayspodcast.com, or get in touch on Facebook or Twitter @80dayspodcast.