Svarstad has lived for over 30 years in Berlin, and is now working as a freelance journalist there, mainly for the Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen.

[1] Currently, as of 2025, he is writing for the Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen, where he report about events in Germany and Europe, both historical and contemporary.

[1] Svarstad was the main moving force by establishing a memory in 2002 in Kleinmachnow outside Berlin, where a Avro Lancaster bomber from the Royal Australian Air Force were shot down, and the Norwegian poet Nordahl Grieg were among the crew.

[2] Together with the German social democratic politician Franz Thönnes he was awarded the Willy Brandt Prize in 2024.

The board of the foundation announced that the awards were given based on the work the two had done to promote connections between Germany and Norway, Svarstad as journalist and Thönnes as a politician.