See any witches zipping around last night? If so, that’s because it was Maundy Thursday, and apparently Swedish Easter traditions bear more than a passing resemblance to American Halloween.

In the New Yorker, Rachel Aviv has written about “resignation syndrome,” an affliction specific to immigrant children in Sweden who essentially and physically lost the will to live upon being told they will be deported. It’s a profoundly heartbreaking story that illustrates the true human cost of denying asylum to…

Say what you will about Sweden (I mean, unless you run an entire country), but their elected officials do a bang up job of putting their civic and sexual energies to use in a relatively appropriate, productive manner.

Princesses—they’re just like us! Except for all the ways that they absolutely are not!

Over the weekend, reports of sexual assault and molestation at two music festivals in Sweden have now culminated in over 50 cases, including five reports of rape. Authorities told the Times they are investigating seven suspects at present, ranging in age from 18 to 35, and that most of those assaulted were under 18.

You might not know it, given Will & Kate & Co.’s primacy in English-language media, but there are European royal families besides the Windsors. For instance, the Swedish house of Bernadotte, which includes a princess who was once a reality TV star.

Etsy continues its support of women by introducing a six-month paid parental leave policy for employees who’ve given birth or welcomed a new child through surrogacy or adoption. Don’t you love the tech companies that are shaming the rest of America’s businesses with stellar leave options?

We Should All Be Feminists, the internationally acclaimed TED talk (later developed into a published essay) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, will be handed out to every 16-year-old in Sweden as a part of a giveaway by the Swedish Women’s Lobby and publisher Albert Bonniers. The lobby hopes the text will “work as a…

Princess Sofia of Sweden and her husband, Prince Carl Philip—whose names will promptly slip from your mind like the sands through the hourglass, as always, for some mysterious reason—are expecting a child. The couple married in June.

For most working women who want children, the ‘What’s the maternity leave like?’ conversation pops up often. Even with the Family and Maternity Leave Act in place, there’s still a short window for those without cushy jobs to bond with their babies after they’re a few weeks old. This. Is. Terrible.

“Take the holy water,” said our translator, “and pour it into the brass bowl. Repeat after me: Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa.”

In November 2014, the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) launched a competition to find a word to describe female masturbation. “Klittra,” a combination of the words clitoris and glitter, was the frontrunner and it has now been deemed as official. While “diddle the skittle” and “strumming my mandolin”…

On Saturday, June 13th, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden will marry Sofia Hellqvist in a lavish ceremony to be remembered for the ages (because if there’s one thing we know about Swedes, it’s that they like to party and also Ace of Base). What better way to celebrate than by looking at the beautiful dresses all of us…

Beginning in 2016, Sweden will give new fathers a third month of required paid parental leave. The country already has one of the most generous parental leave policies, it currently allows parents to take 16 months of government-paid time off to care for newborns that must be split between both parents. The law…

We snuck into an empty sleeper compartment after downing a few beers in the dining car of a night train. His name was Mike, or maybe it was Matt, and we met a couple of hours earlier on the platform of the Duisburg train station. He had dark brown hair and clear blue eyes, and smelled like sweat and weed — the…