What I Found at the Edge of the World

An unexpected voice in the Arctic shows how we expand into what once felt foreign.

I’m walking through Ny-Ålesund when I hear a familiar sound.

An American southern accent.

It’s a little jarring. Ny-Ålesund is the northernmost functional civilian settlement in the world. Unincorporated in Svalbard, Norway, the town has a permanent population of 30 to 35 people and swells to 114 in the summertime. Polar bears outnumber humans, and every …