A polar explorer nerd: Interview with Vera Illugadóttir

Photo: Mandana Emad

Translation: Þula Guðrún Árnadóttir

Most readers of the Student Paper should recognize Vera Illugadóttir, a program coordinator at RÚV and host of the shows Í ljósi sögunnar (e. In light of history) and Gáfnaljós (e. Brainiac). Í ljósi sögunnar quickly gained a place in the hearts of people and now thousands listen to each episode. Many recognize the shows as a podcast but they actually are a radio show on Rás 1. A journalist for the Student Paper met with Vera to ask her how this uniqueness influences the production of the show and its place within the local culture.

Written in the stars that she should work in radio 

But how did all this begin?

My career at RÚV started in journalism, but I have always had an emotional connection to Rás 1 because my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all worked there. Perhaps it was written in the stars that I should start working there as well. I started out as a journalist and then I was asked if I wanted to start hosting shows on Rás 1. There was a concept that the producer for Rás 1 had put together, to bring a historical background to current affairs, and that sounded good to me.

The show would change quite a bit before it went on air. Vera traced the development of the show from the producers’ first idea to the first episode that aired.

The first concept was that the show would be more like BBC’s History Hour, where there are many short items about historical subjects. I was given the chance to shape it to me as I was working on it alone, whereas if this had been for the BBC there would have been 20 people working on the show. Very early on, already during the first episode, I felt that what suited me best was to have one long story, rather than trying to get many things across in a short timespan.

Vera also mentions that early on she decided not to include interviews on the show as Iceland has very few experts on global politics and thus the interviews would quickly become homogeneous if she had to rely on the same political commentators in every episode. This led to her reading the script herself and getting others to read from the source material.

They are just my coworkers who I pick to read. When she was younger, my mother (the actress Guðrún S. Gísladóttir) got paid to come to the radio and read poems for radio shows. Now, the national radio has cut this budget, so we just ask our coworkers. Thankfully, my coworkers are wonderful and incredibly talented in this field.

Became extremely interested in polar explorers

The topic selection for each episode has most likely attracted the attention of perceptive viewers as many episodes cover topics about the Middle East and polar explorers. The reasons for choosing these topics are varied, but Vera states that she got a passion for the Middle East from her grandmother, Vera has a BA degree in Middle Eastern Studies and has developed a keen interest in stories of polar explorers whilst she worked on Í ljósi sögunnar.

I am afraid I have become quite a big nerd on these topics. I realized when I was making the episodes for the Antarctic Race that I had developed an obsessive interest in the material. I started to think about the love life of all of the men and it all just became too much. I now own three books written by a woman who was the lover of Fridtjof Nansen for a year. But at the same time, I don’t want to get stuck in this, only being in disaster stories. The story is so androcentric and I have a difficult time with that but I am drawn to them. I get mixed reactions from people but if I do an episode where everyone is super cold or some ship sinks (becomes wrecked) then everyone is super pleased. People are so happy with that so I try [to continue], but there are so many similar stories. They are almost endless.

When the stories are endless the untrained would perhaps think it is easy to find the next episode’s subject, but Vera says that that is far from the truth. She has a long list of possible topics, sometimes she chooses something fresh,sometimes she gets inspiration from previous seasons.

I’m interested in different things, but it is also good to have some ongoing series because sometimes I don’t get any awesome ideas and then I can just say: ‘Alright, I will just do an episode on the next hundred years in the history of the Ottoman Empire. There must be something to talk about there.’

Here Vera is referring to the longest series which covers the growth and the progression of the Ottoman Empire. Though it was revealed that audiences did not like the longer series and Vera has had to compromise.

There are some who like them and some who say it is the most boring thing they have ever heard in their life. One thing I have been trying to come to terms with myself, is that because I am doing this show while working, once a week is actually quite a bit. I am trying to accept that each and every episode does not need to be a masterpiece. They don’t all need to be perfect. There is always a new episode anyway.

And there is always a new one, every week.

Nervous about the language

Each episode takes about four days to produce. The production process usually begins on a Sunday evening and finishes when the episode is aired, at nine o’clock on a Friday morning. For each episode, Vera reads one to four books, a dozen articles and anything else that is needed. Vera estimates that this part is about two-thirds of the work.

I decide on a topic on a Sunday, start writing on Monday morning and am researching at the same time; write, write, write. The script is worked on simultaneously, as I always want to have some text in front of me so I feel like I have accomplished something. I try to have the script for the episode ready by nine o’clock on a Thursday morning. Sometimes it is ready at four on a Wednesday, then I just go to sleep or go partying, but sometimes I work very late on a Wednesday. At nine o’clock on Thursdays I send the script to a linguistic consultant at the national radio, because I am very worried about conjugating something the wrong way or making linguistic mistakes, they send back a proofread script. I always record the episode at eleven o’clock on Thursday mornings with a technician. Then the episode is ready at around three. After that I am free of everything for a few days.

Tries to keep everything real

That’s not the whole story, as listeners will know there are often sound effects during each episode where Vera has chosen to break up the reading. Each episode contains music that relates to the topic and Vera puts a lot of effort into keeping the sound effects as real as possible.

If I want a really short clip of war sounds in an episode on Bosnia, I want to have sounds from the Bosnian war and not something else.

It is the duty of the tech and sound engineers to edit the episode. To start with Vera did her own editing but now she has other people doing it.

I make an appointment with a technician and they finish it for me. The sound engineers at RÚV are really good. I trust them completely, so I just turn up with the sound clips that I have gathered together. I come to the studio,give them instructions on the script and what they should do and send them the music. They just get it done for me, it is really amazing how great the people working at RÚV are.

Vera says that it mainly gets in her way that she is confined to the 40 minute time frame but she has two ways of working with it: to fill the shorter episodes she has a longer outro song and for longer episodes, she breaks it up into two. Neither of which is a perfect solution. If she had her own way she would have a team of people to help with the production.

It would be amazing to have more staff. I have read about how they work in America and in the UK, where people have these researchers. I think it would be a really fun experience to have that. I would be really excited to have that and I think the show would be crazy good if I had a producer and a researcher and did not have to do everything myself.

In the meantime, listeners need to come to terms with the show being ‘just’ really good. Í ljósi sögunnar is on air at 9 o’clock on Friday mornings and can also be accessed on all major streaming services. The Student Paper encourages readers to listen to the show and have a look at Vera’s other shows, Leðurblaka and Gáfnaljós, which you can find on the same streaming services.