Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2020

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

Jens Stoltenberg is the Secretary General of NATO and a former Prime Minister of Norway. Although he was born into a political family in Norway, he grew up thinking he would become a statistician, before turning to a career in politics. He served as the Prime Minister of Norway twice. During his second term, Norway experienced one of the darkest days in its recent history, when 77 people were murdered in a bomb attack in Oslo and a mass shooting on a nearby island. Before becoming the Secretary General of NATO, a post he has held since 2014, he spent time as a UN Special Envoy on climate change. His term in office as Secretary-General has been extended until September 2022. DISC ONE: Lift Me by Madrugada and Ane Brun DISC TWO: No Harm by Smerz DISC THREE: So Long, Marianne by Leonard Cohen DISC FOUR: Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen DISC FIVE: Make You Feel My Love by Ane Brun DISC SIX: Til Ungdommen by Ingebjørg Bratland DISC SEVEN: Free Nelson Mandela by The Special A.K.A. DISC EIGHT: From Up Here by Ingrid Olava BOOK CHOICE: A statistics textbook LUXURY ITEM: A pair of skis CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Til Ungdommen by Ingebjørg Bratland Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor Photo credit: NATO

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.7	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks podcast.
0:08.4	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take
0:13.1	with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.4	For right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:20.6	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.0	Music Radio Music
0:42.2	My cast away this week is the Secretary General of NATO, Yen Stoltenberg.
0:47.0	His commitment to and skill at diplomacy has defined his public life.
0:51.4	In an age of fee-briled politics and politicians, he's known for his cool head.
0:56.7	His first Norwegian to become Secretary General are all he's held since 2014.
1:01.6	Before that, he was the Prime Minister of Norway, twice.
1:04.8	His second term in office included what he calls the darkest day of his life, when 77 people
1:10.8	were murdered in a bomb attack in Oslo and a mass shooting on a nearby island.
1:15.5	His response was to call for more openness and more democracy, but not naivety.
1:21.8	Despite being born into a political family, he says it's unlikely that his schoolmates
1:26.4	would have earmarked him as world leader material.
1:28.9	He didn't learn to read until he was ten.
1:31.1	He soon caught up though, the first book he went for was a 900-page count of the siege
1:35.3	of Leningrad.
1:36.9	He's also a former anti-war activist who once opposed his own country's membership
1:41.2	of NATO.
	...

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