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Just go to therestispolities.com. That's therestispolics.com.

Listen, it's great to have you here. Thank you so much for giving it to your time.

Let's just start with your childhood. Growing up in Finland, what your parents did, what your life was like, and whether you ever imagined that you'd have the life that you've had.

The short answer is no, but life was good when I was young.

So I grew up very much in a bilingual family.

So I spoke Finnish with my mother and Swedish with my dad and Finnish for my younger brother.

The two languages have nothing in common.

I started in a Finnish school and switched over in fourth grade to Swedish school

because my left wing in my

ice hockey team was in the Swedish speaking school. So of course I had to make the academic

decision. I wasn't an academic kid. I dreamt about becoming a professional ice hockey player

and later on a professional goal. And your dad was big in ice hockey. Yeah, he basically managed a team

and he was the head of the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation. And then in 1983, he became the head of the National Hockey League Central Scouting in Europe.

So all the European players that play in the NHL in the US and in Canada kind of go through him.

So we were very much a sports family, if you will.

And I didn't get my academic awakening until I started studying

in the US. And I did my military service like all Finnish men at the time. But, you know,

very much a regular Finnish type of background when I was a kid, quite international still.

And your first visit to America then was when you were in your early teens

yeah I was actually 13 our ice hockey team sold matchboxes from door to door to you know

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