About Spørretimen
The people, the jobs and the stories you want to understand better
A podcast for anyone curious about how things actually work.
Spørretimen started from a simple idea: a lot of people carry stories, experience and knowledge that more of us ought to hear.
Through personal conversations Jan Sindre meets people from different jobs, communities and backgrounds. Some episodes are about careers and working life. Others are about expeditions, health, money, music, technology or the experiences that shaped a guest.
Alongside the interviews, Spørretimen makes explainers and short primers that render complicated subjects easier to grasp.
One question keeps coming back
One question runs through many of the interviews: what is it actually like to do this for a living? Through the guests’ stories the podcast also works as a kind of careers podcast, giving you a view into different professions, educational choices, working days, difficulties, opportunities and routes into an industry.
The podcast is recorded in Norwegian. These English pages summarise each episode so you can find and follow the material.
Two podcasts – one universe
Why we combine conversations and explainers
Spørretimen is the conversations – long conversations with people who carry interesting experience, stories, professions and knowledge. recorded in norwegian. Spørretimen Explained is the ideas – economics, technology, psychology, books and other subjects explained so they make sense. published in norwegian and english. The two are one universe, with four formats.
Conversation
Longer, personal conversations about a guest’s background, education, working day, turning points and advice. It should feel like a real conversation – not a stiff job interview.
Learn something new
Longer explainer episodes where Jan Sindre goes deep on a single subject. Informative, practical and sourced – explained so any listener can follow.
Briefly explained
Short episodes that sum up one concrete subject simply and clearly. Easy to find and easy to listen to when time is short.
Books explained
Episodes that take on the ideas in a book – what it actually argues, what is worth carrying away, and what is disputed. Not a chapter-by-chapter summary.
Host
Jan Sindre Heltne
Jan Sindre is a siviløkonom (the Norwegian MSc in Business) with a master’s in logistics, and has a background in ERP. He is curious, people-oriented, and enjoys meeting people whose experience and field differ from his own.
His day job is in business analytics. Spørretimen is the hobby: something he makes in his spare time because he enjoys digging into things and talking to people who know something. Should an episode ever have a work connection, it will be clearly marked and explained in the episode itself. For the most part this is simply a personal hobby project.
How we work
Principles that matter
- The podcast should be curious, not lecturing.
- The guests’ stories come first.
- Subject matter should be explained so it can be followed.
- Health information and sensitive stories are handled responsibly.
- Identifiable patient stories are not published.
- We follow Norwegian press ethics and the Code of Ethics of the Norwegian Press where relevant.
- The host is not presented as an expert on every subject.
- Personal experience, professional explanation and documented fact are kept clearly apart.
Where it comes from
Rooted in Sunnmøre – happy to travel
Spørretimen has natural ties to Sunnmøre, on the west coast of Norway. But the podcast is not limited geographically: if there is someone interesting to talk to, we are happy to travel to them. The aim is guests from all of Norway, and in time international guests as well.