In this episode, we meet the women who helped build a new country through physical labor, endurance, and warmth. Through powerful stories and letters from Lina Svåi, Gjertrud Rumohr Haug, Anna Slinde, Margretha Nesheim, and Rakel Tonette Rannestad, we hear how these women carried the weight of daily life in their hands: cooking, cleaning, caring for children, and tending to livestock. They were also midwives, caregivers, and cultural bearers. In the absence of doctors, it was the neighbor woman who came when a child was about to be born. And when death knocked, it was those same hands that were there for the final farewell.

The fellowship of women became a lifeline. They shared labor and responsibility, supported each other through childbirth and grief, sang hymns, and told stories that strengthened their shared identity. They builtcommunities based not on material wealth, but rich in trust and compassion.

This is a story about work and solidarity. About women who held homes, farms, and communities together with strong hands and clear minds.

Script: Inger-Kristine Riber and Reidun Horvei

Co-editor: Katherine Jane Hanson

Narrators: Reidun Horvei and Ragnhild Gudbrandsen

Sound design: Inger-Kristine Riber

Supported by: Fritt Ord

Sources here

After crossing the ocean, the true encounter with the new country awaited—a meeting that, for many, was brutal, lonely, and full of trials. In this episode, we follow women who arrived in the United States with hope and dreams, only to be met with coldness, cholera, unpaid labor, and a language they didn’t understand.

Through powerful stories from Gjertrud Rumohr Haug, Lina Svåi, Anna Slinde, Guri Rosseland, and Margretha Nesheim, we learn what it was like to be new in a foreign society. They struggle through illness, rejection, the Civil War, and brutal Indigenous uprisings—yet also find warmth, community, and a new voice in American life.

Script: Inger-Kristine Riber and Reidun Horvei

Co-editor: Katherine Jane Hanson

Narrators: Reidun Horvei and Ragnhild Gudbrandsen

Sound Design: Inger-Kristine Riber

Supported by: Fritt Ord

In Episode 4, The Journey Westward Continues. After arriving in New York, a new and demanding journey unfolds—this time inland. It’s no longer about ships and coastlines, but trains, canals, and the endless prairies. We follow newly arrived women as they try to find their footing in a foreign land—navigating language barriers, deception, illness, and the harsh forces of nature.

Through powerful stories and letters, we are brought close to Gudrun Fagerlie, Linka Preus, Marta Larsen, Magreta Nesheim, and Rakel Tonette Atlaksdatter. They show us what it was like being a woman on a journey into the unknown—with hope, anxiety, and loneliness packed in their suitcases.

From overcrowded train cars and beds that crawling with life, to lightning strikes in the fields and injustice in everyday life—this episode portrays the struggle to start over without any guarantees. Amidst the cold and betrayal, resilience, courage, and solidarity take root in these women.

Written by: Inger-Kristine Riber and Reidun Horvei

Co-editor: Katherine Jane Hanson

Narrated by: Reidun Horvei and Ragnhild Gudbrandsen

Sound design: Inger-Kristine Riber

Supported by: Fritt Ord

Sources here