Playing the Second Half

Playing the Second Half is about lived stories, not recipes for how to live.Through personal reflections, conversations and films, I explore the many second halves we experience in life - the ones we choose and the ones life chooses for us.A place for curiosity, connection, time, change and people trying, in their own way, to live a good life.Viva a vida!Music licensed through Soundstripe.Endless MotionCode: XZJ69AQVUOZYBUR5 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playingthesecondhalf.substack.com

For ten years, the little forest behind our house was simply there.We threw garden waste over the hawthorn. An old and rather sinister bird trap stood hidden among the trees. Parts of it were overgrown and forgotten.We bought it after a long process.Then we started clearing it.What began as weeks of cleaning, cutting and carrying slowly became something completely different - a place I began to know, care for and spend time in.Along the way there were chainsaws, ravens, a little Nordic mythology, Rachmaninoff - and eventually three hammocks among the trees.This is a story about a small forest. But perhaps also about what happens when we begin to pay attention to something that has been beside us all along.Playing the Second Half.Viva a vida!Music licensed through Soundstripe.Beethoven’s 5th GradeCode: RA0HH0FJZUQXVS4A, Lucky DuckCode: CYIIJQVAHTVFEIWRSergei Rachmaninoff — Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18II. Adagio sostenutoRecording: MusopenSource: Wikimedia CommonsRecording released into the public domain by Musopen.#PlayingTheSecondHalf #TheForest #Nature #LifeAfter60 #SecondHalfOfLife #Sweden #VivaAVida This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playingthesecondhalf.substack.com

There are moments when you can see happiness in someone’s eyes. Moments when you can see sadness.And there are moments when you simply don’t know.This is a story about my daughter Maria, a memory from when she was little, and a day we recently spent together in Malmö.A train journey. A beautiful city. A restaurant she had long wanted to visit. An unexpected first job interview in her new career.And, at the end of the day, a photobooth.A small story about parenthood, what we sometimes fail to see in the people we love, and those wonderful moments when happiness becomes impossible to miss.Playing the Second Half.Viva a vida!PlaytimeMusic licensed through Soundstripe.Code: 4C8QJHXMITQ2HNI7Lucky DuckMusic licensed through SoundstripeCode: GKNSFUXZM6SFH7OMSunriseMusic Licensed through SoundstripeCode: CL2C3VG5DLFNV8HRRadiantMusic Licensed through SoundstripeCode: PXWTOBJWE6Z94K3G This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playingthesecondhalf.substack.com

Nine Saturdays. Nine stories. One unforgettable summer.I never imagined that Playing the Second Half - Summer 2026 would become something that, in many ways, changed me as a person.Nine very different lives.Stories of crisis, healing, reinvention, adventure, contentment, curiosity, community - and what it means to keep playing the many second halves of life.In this film, I look back at one moment from each conversation that meant something special to me.Some made me laugh. Some made me think. And some moved me deeply.I laughed a lot this summer. And yes, sometimes I cried after these conversations. But never out of sadness. Out of admiration.And perhaps one of the most beautiful things happened afterwards.Henning shared his conversation with his daughter, who was deeply moved by it. Marie-Louise shared hers with her mother, opening new conversations between them.That was when I began to understand that perhaps these conversations had become something more than I imagined when I started.Thank you, Pontus, Marie-Louise, Tina, Leonardo, Aminah, Steve, Henning, Ida and Andreas, for trusting me with your stories.Thank you for making this summer so special.And for changing my life.Viva a Vida! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playingthesecondhalf.substack.com

And here we are. Our Episode 9 with Andreas Granström and indeed a Grand Finale!Crisis. Healing. Leadership - was the theme chosen by Andreas.Crisis – Diagnosed with Bipolar Type I, Andreas had to fight through periods of depression and mania. It was so courageous and moving to hear him so openly describe his struggles.Healing – Father of four, a loving father and an impressing work life and career.What defines Andreas is not his diagnosis but the belief that we should never be prisoners of our existing thought behaviour. Learn more about that and his path to healing.And finally, Leadership. Honestly, having worked with Executive Development myself, I thought I had seen all different sorts of perspectives about leadership. But what Andreas means and believes leadership is all about is the most powerful perspective I have ever witnessed.Enjoy this conversation. Afterwards it took me a while, and I must admit I cried quite a bit of admiration.This is the end of the Summer series…well, no way. Hope you, like Churchill, also think that:“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”Viva a vida! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playingthesecondhalf.substack.com