Top Stories Of 2025 + Audience Questions + Yule Lads Explained

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The Reykjavík Grapevine's Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin journalist Aðalsteinn Kjartansson, and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to roundup the stories making headlines in Iceland. In this episode we ponder the main stories of the year so far, answer reader's questions and explain some of the Yule Lads.
Top Stories Of 2025
We discuss 2025 top political scandal, top political event, top ecological and geological events, top cultural event, we nominate the "Mess of the Year", the bankruptcy of the year, the rise of right wing politics in Iceland and our favorite tourism related stories of the year. 
Audience Questions
We answer questions from our audience on subjects such as Christmas gifts, the Icelandic language, traditional Christmas dinners, hikes and forestry.
Yule Lads Explained
We try our best to explain how having 13 Yule lads works in practice, and how there are actually records of a total of 80 different yule lads and ladies from various parts of Iceland. Then we discuss our favorite Yule lad names.
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WHO ARE WE?
The Reykjavík Grapevine is an alternative monthly magazine published in Iceland since 2003. We bringing you the news and views on Icelandic culture and society, sprinkled with music coverage, travel content, restaurant reviews and more. More on https://www.grapevine.is
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