The Debrief: Recent Episodes
The First News
TFN's The Debrief takes a weekly look behind the most interesting stories to come out of Poland. Join host John Beauchamp as he takes a closer look into what's making Poland tick, whether it’s business, social issues, history, or simply something weird and wonderful.
In this episode of The Debrief, John Beauchamp speaks to Dr Łukasz Bertram, a researcher who has just published a book on the history of Polish communists.
Bertram writes that before 1989, the study of the communist movement was an area reserved for historians closely associated with the Polish United Workers’ Party. Neither they nor their political overseers were interested in going too deep into that history for obvious reasons.
After 1989, there has also been a debate on how far to go when looking at the histories of prominent Polish communists. But no matter which way you look at it, there’s no escaping the fact that they existed and held sway over the country for decades.
More about Łukasz bertram may be found here.
Justyna Kisielewicz is a Polish artist who is taking the world by storm through her novel ways of social critique.
Justyna has been in the US for almost 10 years now, and was originally found by a gallery in California through her Instagram account – talk about luck!
So just how do you become an internationally acclaimed artist with just a pocket full of cash and a plane ticket? Well, being friends with a lawyer helps… sometimes!
Host John Beauchamp is in the studio with Justyna Kisielewicz.
In this episode of The Debrief, we get the inside details on the new Polish History Museum due to open in September 2023.
The Polish History Museum is to show the country’s over-1000 year history in an old Tsarist fortress, the Citadel in northern Warsaw. What was once a symbol of Russian domination – numerous Poles were executed here by the Tsarist authorities – is now set to house a museum of Poland’s statehood.
Host John Beauchamp is joined by Dr Michał Przeperski from the Polish History Museum.
Links
- Polish history portal run by the Polish History Museum
- Polish History Museum
- Warsaw Citadel
Coming up in this episode, we talk to Dr. Katarzyna Jagodzińska, an academic based in Kraków, about new ways of presenting museum collections as well as the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub.
The Kraków Heritage Hub is part of Europa Nostra, a pan-European organisation devoted to the protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
You can find out more about the Kraków Toy Museum here.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Dr. Katarzyna Jagodzińska from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
War-time trauma and direct realism are the keys to a new retrospective of Polish painter Andrzej Wróblewski on at the National Museum in Lublin.
Andrzej Wróblewski is regarded as one of the most outstanding 20th century Polish painters. He died at the age of 29 in 1957 in a mountaineering incident in the Tatras, but his legacy has prompted numerous artists to continue exploring Wróblewski’s themes.
The exhibition presents a cross-section of Wróblewski’s work: from early abstract paintings, through the “Chauffeurs” and “Executions” cycles, to his late works, often done on paper, which are “delicate studies of everyday life, inscribed in the settling and existential mood of the thaw period”.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to curator Marcin Lachowski from the National Museum in Lublin.
For this episode, it’s time to put our feet up for a moment. We’re continuing our trek through Olsztyn in north-eastern Poland, and I’m meeting a British expat who has been living in Poland for a fair few number of years.
Trevor Hill has a background in anthropology, and when you start mixing that with theatre, well you can imagine, things get interesting… Host John Beauchamp catches up with Trevor – and his ukulele – in downtown Olsztyn.
More on the Węgajty Theatre can be found here and here.
More on Gardzienica can be found here.
In this edition of the podcast, we are in Poland’s Mazury lake district to visit the Borussia Foundation – and we aren’t talking football…
While the region has been within Poland’s borders since 1945, much of the area constituted East Prussia before the war, including the city of Allenstein, or what is now Olsztyn, where we are for this episode.
So what does this chequered history mean for the region now? Host John Beauchamp visits the Borussia Foundation at the Mendelsohn House to talk about the region’s Prussian history and heritage with Ewa Romanowska and Alicja Kulik.
In this episode of The Debrief, we meet radio historian Dr Urszula Doliwa from the University of Warmia and Mazury.
The history of pirate radio in Poland is slightly different to the stories many know about the famous pirate stations of the 1960s and 70s such as Radio Caroline. Here, pirate radio was more a fight for free speech than looking for the latest music trends…
Host John Beauchamp is in Olsztyn at the radio studios of the Journalism Institute at the University of Warmia and Mazury, where he meets Dr Urszula Doliwa, the author of “Pirate Waves” to talk about the emergence – and disappearance – of pirate radio stations in Poland.
Wilno, Vilnius, Vilne 1918–1948. One city – many stories is the title of an ongoing exhibition throughout the summer of 2023 on the tempestuous time of the early 20th century in what is now Lithaunia’s capital.
The exhibition is on at the National Museum in Kraków until September, and is curated by the museum’s director Andrzej Szczerski along with Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, who joins host John Beauchamp for this episode on the line from Vilnius.
Anyone who’s been to Poland and to Warsaw in particular, has probably seen the massive palm tree that sits in the middle of Rondo de Gaulle’a in the capital’s downtown.
The artist behind the project, Joanna Rajkowska, is now back with another urban sculpture on the newly refurbished Five Corner Square in the heart of Warsaw.
The sound you can hear is that of a song thrush’s heartbeat inside its egg, a blue marvel of nature. The egg has a name: it is “Hatchling. Song Thrush”. It measures a staggering 3 metres long and is over 2 metres tall as it is wide.
John Beauchamp braves the summer heat and meets up with Joanna Rajkowska and architect Michał Kempiński by the sculpture in downtown Warsaw.
In this episode of The Debrief we take a look at an exhibition of Polish women’s design.
“Looking Through Objects. Women in Contemporary Polish Design” is on at the Nomus museum of contemporary art in Gdańsk.
The exhibition presents the profiles of 16 Polish female designers working at the intersection of product design, collector’s design, handicraft and art.
Debrief host John Beauchamp meets one of the curators in the studio, Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka.
This is Debrief Extra, your espresso shot of cultural news from Poland and beyond!
Debrief team member Jarosław Kociszewski speaks with Polish-Belarusian historian Ihar Melnikau about shared Polish-Belarusian history and a new book in the works on a sinister episode in Belarus’ past.
Hosted by John Beauchamp
More from John and the Debrief team coming soon to your podcast feed!
Meet Dorota Kozarzewska, a bush guide and expedition organiser who has been taking Polish and international tourists on safaris for over twenty years.
In 1996, she was the first Polish woman to graduate from a bush guiding school in South Africa. Runs Moremi Africa, taking guests on tailor-made safaris. Author of several photographic exhibitions, as well as the author of the book “Mama Busz” (Bush Mama) written about her work in Africa so far.
Dorota lived for nine years on the tropical island of Zanzibar. She divides her time between her beloved Warsaw, mountain trails and observing animal life across Africa. Dorota Kozarzewska meets host John Beauchamp in the studio in Warsaw.
More about the people mentioned during the podcast.
- Richard Leakey
- Dian Fossey
- Roots & Shoots
- Dorota’s TEDx talk on Elephant Matriarchs
A new book recently published in Poland explores the living memory of Polish CBOWs, or ‘Children Born of War’.
Debrief host John Beauchamp meets Dr Jakub Gałęziowski to talk about his book ‘Understated Biographies’ which was written thanks to research on the topic of Polish children who were born as a direct result of wartime activity: whether by rape or consensus.
With Polish lands sometimes exchanging hands multiple times between occupying forces during World War II, CBOW stories are often related to either German or Soviet soldiers. But there are some surprises too…
“This part of history is not very well known in World War II studies,” Dr Gałęziowski says, adding that it is time that Polish CBOW narratives – often misunderstood or simply unknown – complete European research undertaken in Northern and Western Europe.
What happens when you have a caring dad who works too much but who still wants to spend as much time with his kids as possible?
Well, apart from a lack of sleep and a little bit of stress, he can always turn his attention to storytelling…
We’ve all been there. The kids demand: “tell me a story!” and your mind goes blank. Not for our guest this week though. Budding kids’ author Wojciech Bablok is in the studio with John Beauchamp for this Children’s Day episode of The Debrief.
A lot of the old and grand buildings you can still see in Warsaw nowadays were built thanks to the ingenuity and skill of a certain Marconi…
While the surname may ring a bell, we’re not talking about telephones, but about Enrico Marconi, known in Poland as Henryk, who was a prolific architect and the mastermind behind dozens of buildings built in Congress Poland.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Jakub Frejtag from Warsaw University about the Marconi effect on Polish architecture and how it came to be that an Italian found himself in Poland back in the 19th century.
A lot of the old and grand buildings you can still see in Warsaw nowadays were built thanks to the ingenuity and skill of Henryk Marconi. He built hotels, train stations, hospitals, grand palaces for the rich and famous, numerous churches, and even a synagogue.
While a lot of the buildings Enrico Marconi constructed didn’t survive the war, some did, and can still be admired today – even if not in their original form.
The 3 May Constitution of 1791 is known as being Europe’s first modern constitution, following on from the United States two years before. At the time, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a multi-ethnic state, comprising Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, Jews, Germans, Armenians and other ethnicities.
The document was revolutionary in that it established a new voting system across the country, increased the rights of the peasantry, upkept religious tolerance and abolished the liberum veto, where one vote against could bring down any legislation being debated in the Sejm.
While the effects of the new system were only in effect for under two years until the Grodno Sejm in 1793 (and ahead of the Kościuszko Uprising and the Second Partition), it is seen as progressive, a reflection of the Enlightenment ideals of the time.
John Beauchamp is in Krasnogruda on the Polish-Lithuanian border where he meets Krzysztof Czyżewski from the Borderland Foundation to talk about the 3 May Constitution and how patriotism can be given new wind thanks to a look back to the ideals of the Commonwealth: hospitality and openness.
The name of the high-school student mentioned by Krzysztof in the interview is Patryk Jankowski, who comes from a mixed-heritage Polish-Lithuanian family and who recently won the seventh edition of the Jagiellonian University’s Polish Department annual essay competition for a paper on modern-day patriotism.
A little bit of a folk twist coming up in this episode of The Debrief as we’re at the Mazurkas of The World Festival in Warsaw.
The festival is a folk celebration which lasts for four days at the end of April, with concerts, dances, singing and instrument workshops, children’s activities, even an all-night folk dance party.
One of the highlights of the Mazurkas of The World Festival is the folk instrument fair.
In this episode, host John Beauchamp meets with two folk instrument makers – Jakub Podskarbi and Edward Reszke – and also with one of the festival’s organisers and folk musician Piotr Piszczatowski.
We also listen in on one of the groups taking part in the festival, the Wesołe Mazurki children’s folk group from Warsaw’s Praga district.
This week marked 80 years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising broke out. The fight, the largest act of armed resistance by Jews in World War II, started 19 April 1943 and lasted just under a month until 16 May.
Three heads of state: Polish president Andrzej Duda, Israeli president Isaac Herzog and German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier were in Warsaw for the occasion. Steinmeier is the first-ever German head of state to be present at the commemoration in Warsaw.
“I stand before you today and ask for your forgiveness for the crimes committed by Germans here,” Steinmeier said during his speech at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw’s Muranów district.
Here on The Debrief we have looked at some of the events taking place this year. On the line John Beauchamp speaks to curator from the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Zuzanna Schnepf-Kołacz, to discuss how different narratives make up the story of the Ghetto Uprising.
The Kraków district of Kazimierz is home to the city’s Jewish history and heritage. Before World War II, there were almost 60,000 Jews living in Kraków, around one quarter of the city’s total population.
After the Holocaust, the history of Kraków’s Jews all but comes to a standstill, although just before the fall of communism in 1989, a Jewish cultural festival starts to take place in Kazimierz.
Fast forward to 2008, and the UK’s Prince Charles – now King Charles III – arrives in Kraków to take part in the opening of the Jewish Community Centre. Now, the Jewish community in Kraków continues to grow, and a deeper understanding of Kraków’s Jewish heritage has also called for an updated history of the life and times of Kraków’s Jews.
Debrief host John Beauchamp sits down with Edyta Gawron and Michał Galas from the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University, the authors and editors of ‘Not only Kroke’, a chronicle of sorts which covers a millennium of Jewish history in Poland’s southern city, the former Royal Capital.
A new exhibition on Polish artistic photography which spans most of the 20th century is on in the southern Polish city of Kraków.
Host John Beauchamp goes to the Museum of Photography in Kraków, where he meets chief curator Dr. Dominik Kuryłek, to take a look at how Polish photography developed from being a documentary tool to having more artistic possibilities.
Photo: Student by Edward Hartwig, ca. 1955. Image courtesy of MuFo Kraków
In this episode, host John Beauchamp is joined in the studio by Tomasz Snażyk, CEO of the Startup Poland Foundation.
We hear the latest on Polish innovation and startups, on where the money is, and which direction Polish startups are currently taking…
The reports mentioned in the podcast can be found at the Startup Poland website here.
At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, one of the first cities the Russian army advanced on was Chernihiv, some 150km north of the country’s capital Kyiv.
The city was sieged for almost 40 days, eventually overcoming Russian forces, which had devastated the city with constant shelling.
Fast forward to over a year later, and John Beauchamp is in the studio with Chernihiv resident, Dr. Volodymyr Pylypenko, one of the curators of a photo exhibition in Warsaw which documents the Russian siege back in early 2022.
Figures show a comeback of amateur – or ham radio – especially during the Pandemic and now during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. So how can amateur radio be useful when we have everything we need to communicate in the palm of our hands?
An ambassador of sorts for Polish amateur radio in the Mazovian region and beyond, Maciek “Miles” Muszalski (SQ5EBM) joins John Beauchamp (HF5B) in the studio.
What can ham radio do which other modes of communication can’t? And what is EmCom? All is revealed in this episode.
Clubs and associations mentioned in the podcast:
- MASR
- SP5POT
- SP5KAB
- Polish Amateur Radio Union
The Museum of Warsaw is taking a look at the rebuilding of the Polish capital after World War II. After the city was decimated by the German occupiers, all that was left was rubble and a population of under 20,000, down from 1.3 million before the war.
It’s this rubble – over 20 million cubic metres of it – which takes on a new meaning when we think of Warsaw’s rise from the ashes… John Beauchamp is in the studio with architectural researcher Dr. Adam Przywara from the Museum of Warsaw.
More information about the exhibition can be found at the museum’s website here.
Below: Gruz nad Warszawą (Rubble over Warsaw), artist Tymon Borowski. Image courtesy of Museum of Warsaw.
Would you believe that Poland is one of the pioneering countries of electronic music?
Back in the 1950s, Polish Radio was one of the first broadcasters in the world to set up a dedicated experimental sound studio, which hosted some outstanding composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki.
It closed around 2004, but its legacy lives on. So much so, that the famous Black Room at the Experimental Studio is now to be recreated at the new Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw when it opens its new building in downtown Warsaw in 2024.
Join John Beauchamp and his guests Paweł Nowożycki and Jolanta Woch from MSN Warszawa
Interesting links:
- PRES Facebook Group
- Włodzimerz Kotoński
- Oskar Hansen
- Polish Radio Experimental Studio
- Polish Radio Experimental Studio – Podcast from Culture.pl
- Short newsreel (in Polish) on PRES when it first opened
How do we know what the past sounded like, even though there wasn’t any recording equipment or other such audio gadgetry back in the 19th century and beyond?
How can we be sure about our perception of past sounds? Well, there might not be a single answer to these questions, but one academic, Dr Marta Michalska, is looking at what historical Warsaw might have sounded like…
She joins host John Beauchamp in the studio for this episode.
Interesting links:
- Unseen Soundwalks
- Marta’s Instagram page where you can follow what she’s up to
- Centre of Community Archives
- National Digital Archives
When you think of the southern Polish city of Kraków you generally tend to envisage the grand market square and the renaissance architecture which surrounds it.
However, the city is not just all about 16th-century glam. For those more architecturally inclined, there’s a new guide to Kraków’s more recent developments with a book on the city’s modernist gems.
Host John Beauchamp is joined by Michał Wiśniewski from the Architecture Institute to explore the modernist traces in Kraków.
More on Kraków and its modernist (and post-modern!) architecture can be found here.
It’s been a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, driving millions from their homes and plunging the country into war.
The sacrifice Ukrainians have had to make is huge as brave country continues to resist. But it’s not all about fighting and warfare. The scale of human tragedy – yet also of hope – is hard to fathom.
Thankfully, we can catch a glimpse of what’s going on in Ukraine thanks to the work of many freelance journalists risking life and limb to bring us the latest news.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to journalist and documentary maker Paweł Kwiecień about his many trips to Ukraine in 2022, what he witnessed, and what he thinks the future holds…
A group of eleven young Ukrainian women have launched an art zine in Warsaw called ‘3ina’, which brings together works from across Ukraine and beyond in a magazine whose sales will support the Ukrainian cause.
For this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp speaks to Julia from Grupa Wolne, a Polish NGO which fights against social exclusion and which funded ‘3ina’. Also we have Polina in the studio, while Oksana joins us on the line from Kharkiv.
Is it possible to create art while your country is at war? How did the ‘3ina’ team come up with the idea, and how was it made possible? All that and more in this episode.
Wisława Szymborska, a Polish poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1996, would have been celebrating her 100th birthday in 2023.
The poet died in 2012, but her legacy continues thanks to the Szymborska Foundation. The organisation is run by the poet’s former secretary, Michał Rusinek, himself a writer.
In this episode of The Debrief, Michał Rusinek is in the studio with host John Beauchamp to go through what’s in store for the Szymborska Year – as it is officially known.
More on the Szymborska Foundation can be found here.
More on the Audionomia Foundation’s Szymborska Audio Competition can be found here. [PL]
Michał Rusinek (L) with host John Beauchamp at the studio in Warsaw
In this episode of The Debrief, we hear about plans to make a film based on the life of the Midwife of Auschwitz, Stanisława Leszczyńska.
Leszczyńska was a Polish midwife who delivered over 3,000 children while a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Now a feature film is to be made about the experience.
In the studio John Beauchamp hears from Dagmara Leszczkowicz, Editor-in-Chief of TFN and who is involved with the film.
We also hear about plans for the TFN this year: apart from the latest news from Poland, have you checked out our TikTok yet?
In this week’s episode we are going to be hearing from two guests from the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews about a number of events taking place throughout the year.
The phrase: “Don’t be indifferent” was said during a speech given by Holocaust survivor Marian Turski at the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp in 2020.
The phrase forms the inspiration for this year’s programme at the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is commemorating 80 years since the Ghetto Uprising of 1943.
This year’s events “will recall the life stories of those who, against despair, loneliness, starvation, thirst and fear fought for ‘every day, every hour, every minute’ of staying alive with their nearest and dearest,” underlines a statement from Polin. “[We] will also pose questions about our future.”
Host John Beauchamp is joined by Zuzanna Schnepf-Kołacz, curator of the “Around Us a Sea of Fire” exhibition and Polin spokeswoman Marta Dziewulska.
- “Thou Shalt Not Be Indifferent. 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising” programme [EN]
- A unique discovery – photographic film with images of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising [EN]
- Information on how to join the Daffodil campaign [PL]
It’s great to be back in the studio after some unexpected time off after I came down with Covid at the end of 2022. I’m now back on my feet and we are kicking off our fourth season here at The Debrief with a slight change of style, you might have noticed our funky new jingle!
Host John Beauchamp joins Sapir Librowski-Sher, a Hebrew teacher at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Originally from Tel Aviv, we hear of how she came to Poland and what it’s like for her to get in touch with her Polish-Jewish roots.
Jewish studies at the Jagiellonian University.
The book mentioned in the episode is Conversations with an Executioner by Kazimierz Moczarski.
One of the ways we can perceive and define a city is by the way it smells. New research spotlights historical smells and – more importantly – what was done about them, in the Polish city of Lublin.
Research from Dr Stephanie Weismann – originally from the University of Vienna, currently at the Institute of Polish Culture at Warsaw University – takes into account four case studies of Lublin’s smells over a number of decades in the 20th century.
At Warsaw University she’s going one step further with a study of smells in a project called “NoseWise. An Olfactory Approach Towards Polish Cultural History”.
So how does one go about recording smells? Join host John Beauchamp in this episode of The Debrief to find out.
A new online project brings the Drohobycz of Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz back to life through reimagined immersive soundscapes and narratives.
Bruno Schulz was born in Drohobych, in what is now Ukraine, in 1892. He is widely regarded as one of the great Polish-language writers of the 20th century, having received a number of awards in the 1930s.
His literary career was cut short by World War II. When Nazi troops moved into Drohobych, he was forced into the newly-created ghetto, and was shot dead by a Gestapo officer in 1942.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to artist Mika Johnson about the project, called The Republic of Dreams, which is available here.
With the war in Ukraine entering the winter months, hope still holds out for a decisive victory.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to journalist and war reporter Agnieszka Pospiszyl on her recent month-long tour of Ukraine, including the liberation of Kherson from the Russians.
“It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when,” Pospiszyl says of a Ukrainian success.
In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at a virtual exhibition at the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw which gives users the opportunity to dive into the world of Jewish cooking.
We take a look at the history of Jewish cuisine in Poland, from the kosher cookbooks of the 19th century right up until the present day and how vegan culture – which has taken hold in Warsaw – is inextricably linked to Jewish cuisine from Tel Aviv.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition at Polin, about the history of Jewish cuisine in Poland and beyond.
You can check out the virtual exhibition as well as pick some Jewish recipes here.
An exhibition which highlights the history of the Gdańsk shipyard from its early days in the 19th century is on at the European Solidarity Centre.
The famous Gdańsk shipyard is well known in Poland and abroad for being the birthplace of Solidarity, the trade union led by electrician Lech Wałęsa which ultimately took down the communist regime.
However, Gdańsk has been home to a shipyard for far longer, with the Prussians setting up a base in Danzig in 1844 and turning the site into a shipyard to provide corvettes and U-boats for the German navy, including the U-20, which sank the Lusitania in 1915…
Host John Beauchamp is taken on a whirlwind tour of the exhibitions with Magdalena Charkin-Jaszcza from the European Solidarity Centre.
You can find out more about the ECS here and the Shipyard exhibition here.
In this edition of The Debrief, we are up in the Biebrza National Park in northern Poland.
The wetlands-dominated area comprises Poland's largest national park, taking up some 600 square kilometres: that's around the size of Chicago, IL.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to one of the park's ornithologists and environmental scientists, Piotr Marczakiewicz about the effects of climate change on this sensitive ecosystem.
In this episode of The Debrief, we catch up with environmental scientist João Costa, a researcher at the Narew National Park in north-eastern Poland.
The Narew National Park is home to one of Europe’s few braided rivers, which provides a home to wetland flora and fauna, and – needless to say – is an area of extreme beauty.
How did this 40-something Portuguese academic get involved with the local fauna? John Beauchamp went up to the park’s headquarters up in Kurowo to find out.
In this episode of The Debrief, we catch up with environmental scientist João Costa, a researcher at the Narew National Park in north-eastern Poland.
The Narew National Park is home to one of Europe’s few braided rivers, which provides a home to wetland flora and fauna, and – needless to say – is an area of extreme beauty.
How did this 40-something Portuguese academic get involved with the local fauna? John Beauchamp went up to the park’s headquarters up in Kurowo to find out.
In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at urban and rural spaces in Poland, and how a foundation is aiming to change the way we think about architecture.
Host John Beauchamp talks to Agnieszka Rasmus-Zgorzelska from the Centrum Architektury foundation about how they are raising awareness of public spaces and their annual book fair, Bazarch which takes place in Warsaw on 22-23.10.2022 at the Mazovian Cultural Institute in Warsaw.
Also in the show, we talk about the foundation's podcast, Radio Architektura, and how buildings often have their own sounds...
In this episode of The Debrief, we are at home with Krzysztof Czyżewski, Polish poet, director and founder of the Borderland Foundation in Sejny, northeastern Poland.
At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, many were shocked at the brutality of the massacre left behind by Russian forces in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv. As the world saw the shocked and disheartened face of Ukraine’s President Zelensky, Czyżewski put pen to paper…
He has since been helping to house Ukrainian writers and artists in Sejny, with some also resident at the Miłosz family manor house in Krasnogruda, which lies on the border with Lithuania.
After a recent study trip to Georgia, now the Borderland Foundation has published “Facing the War”, a poetry series of ten books written by Ukrainian authors in translation by Polish poets, with proceeds going to the writers.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Krzysztof Czyżewski at his home in Krasnogruda near Sejny.
Now in its 12th edition, the Warsaw Gallery Weekend opens the autumn season with one of the largest contemporary art events in Central and Eastern Europe.
The Warsaw Gallery Weekend programme includes 33 galleries and 38 exhibitions, as well as gallery tours, meetings with artists, as well as other special events.
Jacek Sosnowski from Propaganda Gallery, who helps organise the event, is in the studio with host John Beauchamp.
In this edition of The Debrief, we’re in the central city of Bydgoszcz for the annual vintage photo festival.
Despite digital photography being available at the fingertips of everyone, everywhere, festival director Katarzyna Gębarowska underlines that analogue photography is still very much a ‘go-to’ medium for many contemporary artists.
Host John Beauchamp also hears about photographs from the lost archive of Himalayan climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, as well as an award for Polish photographer legend Tadeusz Rolke.
More information on the festival can be found here.
In this edition of The Debrief, we’re in the central city of Bydgoszcz for the annual vintage photo festival.
Despite digital photography being available at the fingertips of everyone, everywhere, festival director Katarzyna Gębarowska underlines that analogue photography is still very much a ‘go-to’ medium for many contemporary artists.
Host John Beauchamp also hears about photographs from the lost archive of Himalayan climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, as well as an award for Polish photographer legend Tadeusz Rolke.
More information on the festival can be found here.
For many parents across Poland, the first few weeks of September always pose a challenge.
Kids going back to school, the first seasonal bugs, and a turn in the weather all put their strain on families, who try and find their groove as the school year gets under way.
In this episode of The Debrief, a slightly snotty John Beauchamp is joined by Maria Meissner in this meditation session right from the heart of the Mazury lake district.
Already tired after the holidays and worried about the winter ahead? Tune in to tune out! More on Maria Meissner can be found at her website here.
For many parents across Poland, the first few weeks of September always pose a challenge.
Kids going back to school, the first seasonal bugs, and a turn in the weather all put their strain on families, who try and find their groove as the school year gets under way.
In this episode of The Debrief, a slightly snotty John Beauchamp is joined by Maria Meissner in this meditation session right from the heart of the Mazury lake district.
Already tired after the holidays and worried about the winter ahead? Tune in to tune out! More on Maria Meissner can be found at her website here.
In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp talks to Nadiia Moroz-Olshanska, who helps run the Nić Ukrainian bookstore and café on Kraków’s Sławkowska Street in the heart of the Old Town.
The café originally opened in the midst of lockdown in October 2020, providing a safe haven for Ukrainians in Kraków. As Moroz-Olshanska says, Ukranians make up 10% of income tax revenue for the city of Kraków, with Nić catering for the cultural needs of the Ukranian expat population.
Since February this year, Nić is also engaged in supportive activities of the Ukrainian war effort. “By the time we got to March, we knew that we were in for a marathon, and a very long one [at that],” Moroz-Olshanska says.
More information on Nić can be found here.
In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp talks to Nadiia Moroz-Olshanska, who helps run the Nić Ukrainian bookstore and café on Kraków’s Sławkowska Street in the heart of the Old Town.
The café originally opened in the midst of lockdown in October 2020, providing a safe haven for Ukrainians in Kraków. As Moroz-Olshanska says, Ukranians make up 10% of income tax revenue for the city of Kraków, with Nić catering for the cultural needs of the Ukranian expat population.
Since February this year, Nić is also engaged in supportive activities of the Ukrainian war effort. “By the time we got to March, we knew that we were in for a marathon, and a very long one [at that],” Moroz-Olshanska says.
More information on Nić can be found here.
In this episode of The Debrief, we speak to Marek Cecuła, a veteran ceramic artist who also the leads the design office at Ćmielów porcelain factory, about a new exhibition commemorating the Jewish people of Kielce in southern Poland.
The installation was created by Cecuła and put on display at the Museum of the History of Kielce as part of an exhibition commemorating the history of the city’s Jews, whose population was all but wiped out by Nazi atrocities in World War II, as well as the Kielce Pogrom in 1946.
“It is about people living at home and life, so I though that a porcelain plate would be good material [to work with], it’s such a domestic product,” Marek Cecuła tells host John Beauchamp.
More about Marek Cecuła’s work can be found here.
In this episode of The Debrief, we speak to Marek Cecuła, a veteran ceramic artist who also the leads the design office at Ćmielów porcelain factory, about a new exhibition commemorating the Jewish people of Kielce in southern Poland.
The installation was created by Cecuła and put on display at the Museum of the History of Kielce as part of an exhibition commemorating the history of the city’s Jews, whose population was all but wiped out by Nazi atrocities in World War II, as well as the Kielce Pogrom in 1946.
“It is about people living at home and life, so I though that a porcelain plate would be good material [to work with], it’s such a domestic product,” Marek Cecuła tells host John Beauchamp.
More about Marek Cecuła’s work can be found here.
With climate change meaning hotter summers and low levels of water in one of Poland's biggest rivers, experts say that it was only a matter of time before something happened.
Images of tonnes of dead fish have flooded the Polish news for weeks, but still relatively little is known about what actually caused this disaster.
In the studio host John Beauchamp speaks to environmental geographer Michał Brennek.
In this mid-August round-up from The Debrief, host John Beauchamp speaks to TFN's social media editor Monica Zielinski about the top stories making the rounds this week.
- Gdynia up on the Baltic coast is the happiest place to live, according to a new poll
- Techies in Warsaw have printed out a 3D skull for a baby with a serious condition down in Silesia...
More news of course - including the latest on the Odra river - at thefirstnews.com! Get in touch with us by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com.
A new exhibition on Witkacy at the National Museum in Warsaw provides a new perspective on the artist and his work.
This exhibition embeds [his work] in 20th century and contemporary theoretical contexts, the museum writes.
In the studio for this episode, John Beauchamp speaks to Paweł Polit, the co-curator of the exhibition – Witkacy. Seismograph of the Acceleration Age.
‘He advocated the notion of art which would stimulate receivers to enter more sophisticated spiritual domains,’ says Polit, adding that ‘the reception of art is an experience unto itself.’
More on the exhibition can be found here.
The Carnaval aims to get a party going on the streets of Lublin, which becomes a hub for performers, buskers and so-called ‘ludic artists’ of all kinds…
Iwona Kornet, current producer of the Carnaval festival, and Rafał Sadownik, the event’s founder and former director talk to John Beauchamp on the evolution of what we call the ‘circus’ and how urban space create provides an ideal dimension for various trypes of performance (including super-long slack lines).
More on the festival here.
In this episode of The Debrief we explore the powerful figure of Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland back in the 16th century, and whether she really was key in bringing certain vegetables to Poland all those centuries ago…
John Beauchamp is joined by possibly the world’s greatest Bona Sforza expert, Dr. Darius Güttner from the University of Melbourne, to find out more about the progressive wife of Zygmunt Stary, one of the last Jagiellonian kings.
In this episode of The Debrief, all you’ve ever wanted to know about ancient Egyptian mummies, as John Beauchamp is joined in the studio with Dr. Wojciech Ejsmond, one of the lead researchers at the Warsaw Mummy Project.
Just a warning in advance, that this episode has as many mummyfyingly bad gags as you can shake a stick at...
The Wola branch of the Museum of Warsaw has put on a show which highlights the life and times of one of the capital’s most well-known – yet most-forgotten – writers and artists, Miron Białoszewski.
Host John Beauchamp visits the exhibition and speaks with curators Agnieszka Karpowicz and Magdalena Staroszczyk.
More information on the exhibition can be found here.
In this episode of The Debrief, we're down in Kraków to check out the latest exhibition at the Museum of Photography.
Curator Dominik Kuryłek takes John Beauchamp around the exhibition at the MuFo gallery on Rakowicka Street in Kraków.
The exhibition takes in the years 1963-2020 and shows how British society has developed during that time - from the roaring 60s through to the Thatcher years and - most recently - the UK in time of lockdown.
The Faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of Technology in Kraków is now offering studies in Ukrainian for engineers.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Andrzej Szarata, about the course and what the thinking is behind opening such a programme.
More information on civil engineering studies in Ukrainian can be found here.
With thousands of Ukrainians in Poland’s capital Warsaw, new ways are being found to help them.
One such organisation providing support is HumanDoc, which has just opened a new legal and professional centre in the heart of downtown Warsaw for Ukrainians planning to stay longer in Poland.
The HumanDoc Foundation now provides a legal service at a newly opened office in the Plac Unii shopping centre, a stone’s throw from the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw.
Host John Beauchamp gets all the details from HumanDoc’s Małgorzata Piłacińska.
In this episode of The Debrief, the university library up in the Baltic city of Gdańsk is hosting an exhibition which tells of the city’s links with English playwright William Shakespeare.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Justyna Limon, wife of the late Professor and Shakespeare scholar Jerzy Limon, whose items are among those on display.
More information on the Shakespeare Theatre in Gdańsk may be found here.
On a busy road leading out of Warsaw lies the Murowanka school building, built in 1903 by the residents of Wawer, a suburb of Warsaw.
The building is the home of the Big Histories Foundation, which engages local communities in educational activities while also promoting Polish culture through larger scale projects.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Ewa Pietraszek from the foundation about how Wawer has developed over the years and explore some local ‘Świdermeyer’ heritage.
Links:
- ToTuBy app
- Wielkie Historie Foundation
- More info on the Murowanka building (in Polish)
In Poland we’re all used to NGOs and civic society organisations providing the bulk of help for Ukrainians fleeing war, but what happens when you add the United Nations to the mix?
In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp speaks to Manuel Brakaj, who is in charge of talent acquisition at the UN Volunteer programme, which is currently actively recruiting in Poland due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Brakaj believes that civic engagement and volunteerism are key drivers for advancing the peace and development agenda, and actively encourages listeners to consider volunteering for the UN.
To check current opportunities in Poland and beyond you can check this link and follow UN Voluteers on LinkedIn.
In this episode of The Debrief, we we take a look at language apprehension in older students.
Host John Beauchamp is joined by Karolina Czopek from Warsaw University to discuss whether it’s a good idea to learn Polish (or any other language!) as an older learner.
In this episode, a tale of how back in the 1960s an intrepid team of Polish architects helped rebuild Skopje – the capital of what is now Northern Macedonia – after a devastating earthquake.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Kinga Nettmann-Multanowska, who has just written a new book which highlights the Poles’ assistance six decades ago.
More information about the rebuilding of Skopje can also be found on TFN here.
In this episode of The Debrief, John Beauchamp speaks to Iryna Oleksiuk from the Ukrainian House / Our Choice Foundation on the help offered to Ukrainians by Poles.
After two months of war, what lies ahead for the millions of refugees currently in Poland?
You can also find more information on the war in Ukraine from TFN here.
This week’s Debrief comes to you from the darkest recesses of the Bieszczady Mountains in south-east Poland. Like millions of Poles up and down the country, host John Beauchamp is going to take advantage of his God-given right to barbecue this weekend. There’s a reason why this podcast is a little late this week: I’ve just finished a month-long production of a series called The Bear Next Door on BBC Radio 4. Over five episodes, cultural and political heavyweights from the Baltic States, Finland and Moldova talk of their sense of identity in the face of Russia’s agression on Ukraine. This sense of identity feeds directly into this week’s topic on The Debrief, as I meet Rafał Rogulski and Anna Wachowiak from the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity to talk about how a nation’s memory plays into a sense of identity.
Audio updated 05.05.2022
In this episode of The Debrief, John Beauchamp speaks to Krzysztof Czyżewski from the Borderland Foundation based in Sejny, north-eastern Poland, about a poem which is making the rounds online - a lament on the conflict in Ukraine...
In this edition of The Debrief, John Beauchamp speaks to new(ish!) recruit Monica Zielinski about how she’s shaking up TFN’s social platforms! Remember to check out and follow TFN wherever you get your social fix:
- TikTok
And of course, we chat about growing up as a Polish-American in Connecticut as well as what’s in store for Easter this year.
Wesołych Świąt!
Cover Photo: Easter table at the Olsztynek ethnographic museum. PAP/Tomasz Waszczuk
In this episode, John Beauchamp speaks to Dr Łukasz Krzywka, a veteran of forty years at Wrocław University’s Institute of Art History, on the restoration of the Aula Leopoldyńska, known as the Leopoldina, a pearl of 18th century baroque art and architecture.
The space was named in honour of the university’s founder, Emperor Leopold I, and principally designed by the Austrian architect and painter Christophorus Tausch, while a number of artists from across the lands came to make the hall mostly what it is today. Why mostly? This is a renovation of a renovation, and details have been lost over the centuries, says Dr Krzywka.
Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczyński
What is the remit of Poland’s National Cultural Heritage Institute at home and how can it help save Ukranian cultural heritage from Russian missiles? Debrief host John Beauchamp meets the institute’s director Dr Katarzyna Zalasińska talks protection of cultural heritage at home and how it is supporting Ukrainian partners during the ongoing conflict. We also hear how UNESCO has so far been powerless to stop its annual World Heritage meeting from going ahead in the Russian city of Kazan, despite protests.
Please remember to subscribe to The Debrief wherever you get your podcasts!
Get in touch with us by writing to podcasts@firstnews.com
This week, we’re in Warsaw and John Beauchamp has a chat with architect Michał Kempiński about the redesign of Five Corner Square, which is also going to have a sculptural surprise from the same artist who crafted the Warsaw Palm, Joanna Rajkowska.
This podcast goes out exactly one month since Russia started its war with Ukraine. On Friday 24 March, President Biden was in Warsaw for talks and to show solidarity with Ukraine, a day after attending a NATO summit in Brussels.
Meanwhile, the number of people running from the conflict is still increasing. In a month since the conflict started, million Ukrainians have entered Poland. Some have travelled on, some have stayed.
Catch up on the latest with our podcasts on the Ukraine war:
- How Poland is handling the humitarian crisis
- Poles opens their homes to Ukrainians, but for how long?
On the the next episode of the Debrief (2 April), we’ll be looking at how specialists from the Polish National Heritage Institute are helping Ukrainians save their cultural heritage against potential Russian destruction.
In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at Poland’s gargantuan humanitarian efforts as more than 2 million Ukrainians take refuge in the country.
Coming up in the show, John Beauchamp talks to Dr Dorota Heidrich, a specialist on forced migration and refugees at Warsaw University, about how Poland has coped with such a wave of migration since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.
We also look at the continuing border crisis with Belarus and Poland’s need to come up with a coherent migration policy.
While war in Ukraine continues to wreak destruction, we take a look at Poland’s incredible response to the huge influx of refugees from its eastern neighbour.
With the war in Ukraine reaching its third week, over 1.2 million people have so far crossed the border into Poland. Some will remain in Poland for now, or move further towards other countries further west in Europe.
Meanwhile, Polish society has mobilised itself to the fullest, providing transport, food and essential items, as well as temporary housing and offers of work as well as all kinds of further support.
Civic society groups and NGOs are essentially managing a humanitarian crisis, with the number of arrivals increasing on a daily basis.
In this week’s episode, we get valuable insight from Dr Olena Babakova, an independent Ukrainian analyst and commentator who has lived in Poland for almost 20 years. We spend a few words on the war, what this means for Ukraine and the region, and how Poland has reacted to the wave of refugees.
We also hear from Marzenna Reyher, who manages a family-run bed and breakfast near Lelów some 50 km east of Częstochowa. Like thousands of Poles nationwide, she’s opened up her accommodation to those fleeing conflict.
There’s only one thing which is going through anyone’s mind at the moment and that is of course the terrible attack on Ukraine by Russia.
We’ll be getting into the nitty gritty of what has been going on in Ukraine and what Poland’s response has been like in a special edition of The Debrief next week with a number of different voices and stories coming out of this war.
For this episode, however, I wanted to concentrate on the urban fabric of Ukraine’s cities and to celebrate how far Ukrainian culture has come over the past decade.
John Beauchamp is in the studio with architect and curator Kacper Kępiński from the National Architectural Institute – which is offering to help architects and designers affected by the war in Ukraine look for employment in Poland – as well as architect and researcher Kuba Snopek, who was a programme director at the Kharkhiv School of Architecture and continues to have close ties to Ukraine.
As Poland recovers from Storm Eunice, are such winds going to become the new normal as a result of climate change?
We have recently had some severe weather in Poland and right across Europe with Storm Eunice. Over a million people were left without power across the country while heavy winds topping 120 km/h even caused a number of fatalities.
Is this weather becoming the new normal and what can we do to prepare ourselves better for such extreme conditions? In the studio host John Beauchamp speaks to geographer and marine meteorologist Michał Brennek.
You can find out more about what Michał does here, and for the Polish speakers among you, be sure to also check out the Nauka o Klimacie website.
This week, as we approach the Christian period of Lent and mark the end of carnival, Poles up and down the country will be feasting on Fat Thursday, or ‘Tłusty Czwartek’, which is the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday.
In this episode, John Beauchamp speaks to Pastry Master Wojtek Starowicz from the renowned Starowicz Cukiernia sweet shop in Kraków about the Polish traditional sweets eaten at the end of carnival – pączki and faworki…
In a burst of festive cheer we take a look at some sweet treats in the form of rose-filled pączki – doughnuts – and the ever-so-light faworki, thin strips of deep fried pastry. Is your mouth watering yet?
In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at the work of Bogdan Dziworski, a Polish photographer and cinematographer who has just turned 80.
Bogdan Dziworski was – and still is – a prolific street photographer. Often dubbed Poland’s answer to Vivian Maier, he has worked for a number of decades at home and abroad.
Starting out in post-war Poland, he went on to rub shoulders with personalities such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who offered the Polish photographer a chance to join the world-renowned Magnum Agency. However, Dziworski turned down the offer, instead deciding to concentrate on his film work.
The Leica Gallery in Warsaw is now celebrating Dziworski’s 80th birthday with a display of the photographer’s work with a number of exhibitions both in Poland and beyond.
Host John Beauchamp is joined by curator Rafał Łochowski from the Warsaw Leica Gallery.
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
A Polish NGO is training a new generation of teachers to boost the Polish public education system, with an aim to reboot the school system nationwide.
John Beauchamp takes a look at how NGO Teach for Poland wants to raise the level of education in the country by training a new generation of educators in an interview with Katarzyna Nabrdalik, co-founder and CEO of Teach for Poland, part of the Teach for All network.
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode, John Beauchamp speaks to Konrad Schiller from the Warsaw Museum about a new exhibition which highlights Warsaw’s hidden waterways.
Apparently there’s more to the city than just the Vistula! Who knew? You can find out more by checking out the museum’s website here.
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at Ondinata, a new musical release which aims to raise awareness of CHS and help a family in need.
A very rare disease commonly known as Ondine’s curse, central hypoventilation syndrome, or CHS, affects just a couple of thousand people globally. Very simply put it is a respiratory disease where people forget to breath. Which is OK during the day when you’re up and about, but what about when you go to sleep? This is what affects Leo, a kid from Warsaw who has to be hooked up to medical equipment so that he can breathe at night.
While there is no cure for now, Leo’s parents, Magda Hueckel and Tomasz Śliwiński, have decided to take matters into their own hands and have released a CD full of specially written tracks by top names from Poland and abroad, hoping to raise money, awareness of CHS and the possibility to break Ondine’s curse.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Magda Hueckel about her journey with CHS and Ondinata.
You can find more information about the CD here and the Polish CCHS Foundation here.
In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at ‘Przekroje’, a new permanent exhibition in Kraków on the history of Polish architecture.
The most important exhibits of Polish designers and architects from across the country have gone on display in two galleries at the Szołayski House, part of the National Museum in Kraków.
The exhibitions are called ‘Przedmioty’ (Objects) for the design exhibition and ‘Przekroje’ (Blueprints) for the architecture display, with both encompassing the Polish history of design and architecture from the 20th and 21st centuries.
It is hoped that the permanent exhibitions will eventually be housed in the Cracovia hotel, located opposite the National Museum and itself a monumental piece of Polish modernist architecture.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to curators Małgorzata Jędrzejczyk, Kacper Kępiński and Weronika Grzesiak about the creation of a new exhibition on the history of Polish architecture.
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of The Debrief, we’re joined by Maria Meissner who tells us about Zen Coaching and leads us through a simple meditation to kickstart 2022 on a good note.
Based on the island of Sobieszewo, which is a part of the Baltic City of Gdańsk, Maria Meissner works in the Zen Coaching approach. Host John Beauchamp gets comfy and takes a deep breath for this inaugural episode of 2022.
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this special end-of-year edition of The Debrief, John Beauchamp is joined by Jarosław Juszkiewicz, a broadcaster, YouTuber, astronomer, and perhaps best known for being the Polish voice of Google Maps.
After three decades of manning the microphone at Polish Radio Katowice, Juszkewicz has now branched out into developing his own shows as well as working with the Silesian Planetarium in Chorzów.
During this special edition of the show, we talk turkey about the shift from radio to online and digital, as well as look forward to the exciting developments at the planetarium, the largest in Poland. All that, and a lot of festive talk in between.
Wesołych Świąt! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays! ⛄🎄
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Cover image in public domain from Polona.pl**
Dinosaur specialists are hailing the find at the most spectacular dinosaur discovery ever in Poland, the biggest of its type in Europe and possibly the world.
The discovery of hundreds of Jurassic period dinosaur fossils was made near the village of Borkowice in central-east Poland by Prof. Grzegorz Pieńkowski from the National Geological Institute in Warsaw and geologist and paleontologist Dr. Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki from Uppsala University.
John Beauchamp speaks to Prof. Pieńkowski about the find.
In this week’s review:
- 2022 budget approved by lower house of Polish parliament
- Polish HICP inflation up by 7.4 pct y/y in November – Eurostat
And this week saw the 40th anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Poland, when the communists cracked down on the leaders of the Solidarity trade union as well as putting Poland on lockdown until July 1983. Head on over to the TFN website for an interview with photographer Chris Niedenthal, who captured iconic images showing the reality of that time in Poland.
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In the show this week host John Beauchamp speak to Dr Agnieszka Olszewska from the Museum of Photography in Kraków.
Its long-standing headquarters, which is situated just outside the Old Town around the corner from indie cinema Kino Mikro and the Park Krakowski, has just been given a makeover, right on time for its 35th birthday.
In this week’s news:
- Young children get green light for Covid jabs
- Poland's exports to Germany on the rise - German stats office
- Abakanowicz installation smashes art auction record after going for eye-watering PLN 13.6 million
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this week’s show host John Beauchamp speaks to Justyna Dominiak, a passionate educator who has just made a prize-winning boardgame to get kids interested in cultural heritage.
The game – called Invest in Cultural Heritage – won the top prize in a competition run by the Polish National Heritage Institute, and plans are in place to release the game to the general public in 2022.
In this week’s review:
- Complaints filed by Poland and Hungary should be dismissed – EU official
- US ambassador nominee pledges to foster rule of law in Poland
- Poland's unemployment rate flat at 3.4 pct in October - Eurostat
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this week’s show, host John Beauchamp speaks to multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Karolina Cicha.
Cicha is no stranger to ethnic folk music, having released albums in a number of languages found in her native Podlasie region in north-eastern Poland, including those of well-grounded minorities such Russian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian, but also in Yiddish, Roma, and Tatar.
She’s now released a musical map of Poland’s Karaim community, the country’s smallest at around 300 people, and originally hailing from the Crimea.
In this week’s review:
- Poland to start vaccinating children between five and 11 in December
- Poland grants humanitarian visas to 40 Belarusians
- President asks Nato to boost readiness of its forces at eastern border
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Scientists are looking to compile an international archive of how historical objects smell.
In what has been described as a ‘breakthrough project’ the joint Polish-Slovenian initiative will analyse the odours and their historical significance in an attempt to develop a new interpretation and a new narrative to describe the artefacts.
Coming up in the show, host John Beauchamp talks to Professor Tomasz Sawoszczuk from the Krakow University of Economics about the so-called Odotheka.
Coming up in this week’s review:
- Poland expects up to 40,000 Covid cases in worst scenario – minister
- Closure of Poland's ski slopes unlikely this winter
- Poland completes Baltic section of new gas pipeline
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
What better way to celebrate the anniversary of Polish independence than by talking to four top-flight scientists, who under the leadership of Professor Marek Lewandowski from the Institute of Geophysics at the Polish Academy of Sciences, left this past week on a five month mission to explore and reopen the Dobrowolski research station, which hasn’t been used since 1979.
On Wednesday 10 November the research team set sail on a Russian research vessel and icebreaker, the Akademik Fedorov, from the German port of Bremerhaven, where I managed to catch them in their cabin just a few hours before their departure to talk about what lies ahead for the mission.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to geologist and isotope geochemist Prof. Monika Kusiak, geophysicist and paleomagnetician Prof. Marek Lewandowski, ionosphere physicist Prof. Wojciech Miloch as well as geographer and geomorphologist Dr Adam Nawrot.
In this week’s review:
- Poland marks Independence Day
- Belarus president threatens to cut gas supplies over EU sanctions
- Poland’s GDP rises 5.1 pct y/y in Q3 - stats office
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this week’s show, host John Beauchamp speaking to a genetics professor from Poznań, Professor Michał Witt, who states that genetic tests could help fully undertstand how the Polish nation’s most famous composer Chopin died.
It is common knowledge that Chopin was a sickly man throughout his life, but what got him in the end?
In this week’s review:
- Over 4,300 illegal immigrants detained in Poland over 3 months
- Nato calls on Belarus to observe international law
- Poland’s central bank raises reference interest rate by 75 bps
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of The Debrief, we are in the newly opened Sybir Memorial Museum in the city of Białystok, which aims to highlight centuries of Russian and Soviet deportations to Siberia.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to the Sybir Museum’s head of education, Dr Piotr Popławski.
The Sybir Memorial Museum in Białystok, which opened on the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939, is the largest and most important institution dealing with deportations to Russia and later the Soviet Union.
At its centre are not the political forces that led to the deportations but rather the experiences of its victims.
In this week’s review:
- Poland will consider French investment in nuclear plant - official
- September unemployment falls to 5.6 percent - stats office
- Researchers to create ‘library of historic smells’
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this week’s episode host John Beauchamp talks to Dr Corinne Fournier-Kiss from the University of Bern in Switzerland, who is an expert on George Sand, the long-time lover of Frederic Chopin and herself an acclaimed novelist and social revolutionary of her time.
But what was Sand’s relationship with Chopin really like and how is she perceived in Poland and back in her native France? Dr Fournier has recently had her monograph on Germaine de Staël and George Sand translated and published in Poland, and we managed to catch up with her in her busy schedule while she was recently in Warsaw.
In this week’s review:
- Third Covid-19 jab to be available in coming weeks, PM announces
- Canadian Bruce Liu wins Chopin competition
- Warsaw restaurant breaks world record for tallest ever pancake tower
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Host John Beauchamp goes 100% geek this week and talks about quantum computing with scientist and investor Dominik Andrzejczuk, who wants to transform Poland into a ‘Quantum Valley’.
In this week’s review:
- PM to speak at EP debate on Polish constitutional ruling
- French power group wants to build nuclear reactors in Poland
- Three Polish MedTech start-ups chosen for Google’s 2021 European Accelerator programme
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at the issue of Polish folk art from an anthropological point of view.
Host John Beauchamp talks to renowned ethnographer and anthropologist Dr Ewa Klekot about a new book she’s written about the issues of Polish folk art and how all is not what it seems once you scratch under the surface.
In this week’s review:
- Poland ready to increase number of Covid-19 hospital beds
- Poland’s Monetary Council unexpectedly raises interest rates
- Zakopane alpinist becomes first woman in the world to scale Nepal’s ‘killer mountain’
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
A Polish avant-garde film dating from before World War II has been found in the German federal archives. The movie, called ‘Europa’, was made by surrealists Stefan and Franciszka Themerson and is a critique of the rise of Nazism in germany at the beginning of the 1930s.
During the war the film was thought to have been destroyed, but one copy has been unearthed in Berlin and is to get its world premier at the London Film Festival later this month.
Host John Beauchamp talks to Wojciech Kozłowski, Director of the Pilecki Institute, which was instrumental behind the film’s unearthing.
In this week’s review:
- Poland sends Egypt over 100,000 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine
- Majority of Poles want shopping Sundays back – poll
- New centre dedicated to Polish Enigma codebreakers opens in Poznań
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Host John Beauchamp talks to Jessica Bruder on her award-winning book Nomadland, which has also been turned into a ground-breaking new film starring Frances McDormand showing the trials and tribulations of life on the road and so-called vandwelling following the financial crisis over a decade ago.
In this week’s review:
- Polish president accuses Belarus of hybrid attack
- PKN Orlen plans to buy Poland's first hydrogen-powered train
- New Centre of Polish Folklore showcases country’s rich and wonderful dance traditions
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Stefan Tompson in the studio for a chat on his latest work, how conservative aesthetics has a chance to make a comeback in cultural marketing and the issue of how content often overpowers form in film-making.
For those listeners who haven’t come across Stefan’s work, he is known for his educational videos which highlight Polish history, some of which have taken YouTube by storm, and he is a PR adviser and strategist for organisations linked to the current government as well private enterprises.
Apart from that, he is seen as a Wunderkind among conservative circles in Poland. However, that doesn’t stop Stefan from a fair amount of critique of how conservative circles approach the so-called culture industry.
In this week’s review:
- Poland donates Covid vaccines to Uzbekistan, thanks for evacuation help
- Ruling party leader says Poland's future is in EU, no ‘Polexit’
- August inflation rises to 5.5 pct y/y - stats office
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this week’s programme, John Beauchamp takes a look at an educational project which brings together students from across Europe to meet in the continent’s borderlands. We hear from Beata Tomczyk and Jarosław Kociszewski.
The women from the Ruty Uwite group sing in Lemko, a dialect of Rusyn, about life, love, the seasons, and of course the lush nature which makes up the entire Beskid mountain range.
Straddling the Slovak border, the Beskid Niski in particular is of outstanding beauty and is the home to some of Poland’s Lemkos, an ethnic group which stretches across the Beskid mountains and foothills in Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Lemkos, and Rusyns in general, are just one ethnic group which cross borders in this part of Europe, and are just one of many groups which students had the chance to find out about in a project run by European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, a multinational organisation set up by a number of European culture ministers in 2005.
In this week’s review:
- Polish, Ukrainian PMs discuss sovereignty, stability, security
- Poland’s Monetary Council leaves all interest rates unchanged
- Poland’s largest collection of comics goes on show as first step towards creating country’s first Comic Museum
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Full disclosure: I had a chance to participate in the project, where I helped the participating students with audio production in the region, while my colleagues were in Ivano-Frankivisk in Ukraine and Usedom in Germany, just a stone’s throw from the Polish port city of Świnoujście.
We talk to two prominent journalists in Poland, Arleta Bojke from Poland’s public broadcaster TVP, as well as Michał Potocki from the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, about a book which they’ve just published which contains harrowing tales of what is happening to independent journalists on the other side of the border in Belarus.
It’s no secret that Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenka has cracked down on all opposition forces since the rigged election in the summer of 2020. We get the inside story on their latest book, ‘Partyzanci’, or ‘Partisans’.
In this week’s review:
- Poland agrees to take in 500 Afghan refugees
- Health min warns daily Covid infections may hit 5,000
- Most Poles want to work remotely or in hybrid mode after pandemic
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
A sneak preview of a new audio play by journalists and lovers of oral history Barbara Caillot and Aleksandra Karkowska, a spin-off of their earlier book ‘Na Giewont Się Patrzy’ which looks at the local lore of the Tatra Mountains, complete with authentic górale highlanders and music from the Trebunia-Tutka family.
There is no news this episode – our weekly reviews resume in September!
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Audio clip used with permission from the authors.
In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at a new exhibition which shows the history of instant photos in Poland – ‘Archives in a Flash’ at the National Museum in Gdańsk.
Host John Beauchamp talks to curator Witold Kanicki about how Polaroids and Instax photography were slowly introduced to Poland in the 1970s, how their use has developed over time and how they have been left out of the main narrative on Polish photography.
There is no news this episode – our weekly reviews resume in September!
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of The Debrief, we speak to Dr. Kamil Adamczyk, who recently came back from an emergency medical mission in Uganda to help the fight against COVID-19.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Dr. Kamil Adamczyk
Dr. Adamczyk not only was a doctor treating patients for COVID at Warsaw’s National Stadium, but shortly afterwards joined the PCPM Polish Center for International Aid to help Uganda in fighting COVID by setting up an emergency ward at the hospital in Entebbe.
There is no news this episode – our weekly reviews resume in September!
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In the show, host John Beauchamp speaks to journalist Andrzej Krajewski about a new book he’s written about his family which took him through boxes in the attic and from archive to archive in order to put the pieces of his family history together.
A number of these memories concern the Warsaw Uprising, which of course started on 1 August 1944 and lasted for 63 days as a last ditch attempt to fight for Poland’s freedom.
In this week’s review:
- Belarusian sprinter Tsimanouskaya arrives in Warsaw
- Poland mulls restrictions for regions with poor vaccination rates
- Ukrainian employees sought-after in Poland
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
The grand Krzysztofory Palace has reopened to the public, while the final touches are still being placed on its permanent exhibition. A number of temporary exhibitions have also been planned, as curator Kamil Stasiak tells Debrief host John Beauchamp.
In this week’s review:
- PM again appeals to Poles to get vaccinated
- Warsaw Uprising commemorations held in Polish capital
- Health care spending to be increased to 7% of GDP, says PM
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
A new exhibition at the Muzeum Sztuki gallery in Łódź by contemporary artist Agnieszka Kurant focuses on the “simultaneously creative and destructive role of error in the face of modern automation and algorithmisation”.
John Beauchamp speaks to curator Jakub Gawkowski about this avant-garde critique of neo-liberalism and the seemingly indivisible lines of natural/artificial as well as pitching the individual against the collective.
In this week’s review:
- Petition to oust education minister gets 100,000 signatures
- Delta variant requires higher herd immunity – Dep Health Minister
- Retail sales up in June – stats office
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Basking in the summer heat, the rooftops housing the Old Town of Toruń shine an envious eye on the glass-fronted entrance to the cool confines of the CSW Centre for Contemporary Art.
Inside, a look back at one of Poland’s most commercially successful and prolific artists Edward Dwurnik, with an exhibition tallying more than 450 his works produced over his lifetime.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Paulina Kuhn from the Toruń Centre of Contemporary Art.
This monumental show is the first of its kind since Edward Dwurnik died in 2018 following a career spanning half a century. Born in 1943, the talented artist produced a massive collection numbering over 20,000 works, ranging from urban murals and sweeping canvases to scale drawings and print graphics.
The exhibition marks an important chapter in the CSW’s still young history, as Dwurnik’s striking blue and black portrait of a punked-up Copernicus was the first work of art donated to the new gallery’s collection when it was founded fifteen years ago in 2006.
In this week’s review:
- Zygmunt bell celebrates 500th birthday
- Polish flag carrier suffers huge loss in 2020 pandemic year
- Flag-bearers of Poland team at Tokyo Olympics opening announced
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
What is the Polish style? Perhaps there is more than one? A new exhibition at the National Museum in Kraków aims to answer these questions, opening a series of exhibitions entitled ‘4x Modernity’ which look at Polish art, design and architecture from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Professor Andrzej Szczerski, director of the National Museum in Kraków, about the exhibition.
In this week’s review:
- President hands over draft act on reconstruction of the Saski Palace
- Biotech firms get boost from pandemic on Warsaw Stock Exchange
- Polish director receives Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
We get the inside info behind commemorating one of Poland’s most renowned generals in the UK after several decades since the end of World War II.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to George Byczyński, a British Pole who was instrumental in the fundraising campaign of a new bust of World War II hero General Władysław Anders, which has just gone on permanent display at London’s National Army Museum.
In this week’s review:
- Bust of WWII hero General Anders unveiled in historic ceremony at London’s National Army Museum
- Poland one of world’s largest exporters of ice cream
- Polish satellites go into orbit
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Five Johannes Hevelius works, including Selenographia and Machina coelestis, have been included on the National List of the UNESCO ‘Memory of the World’ Programme.
Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687), born in Gdańsk, was a town councillor, a well-educated lawyer and an astronomer.
Host John Beauchamp talks to Maria Michalska from the Polish Academy of Sciences Library in Gdańsk about the works of Johannes Hevelius (Jan Heweliusz) and their entry onto the UNESCO heritage list.
You can find out more about the library’s collection and see Hevelius’ works here.
In this week’s review:
- Poland imposes 10-day quarantine for travellers from outside Schengen Area
- Most Poles plan vacation at home
- Poland knocked out of Euro 2020
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Titled ‘Such A Landscape’, the exhibition theme goes beyond spotlighting Polish-Jewish relations to explore feelings of hatred, animosity and ‘otherness’ set against the larger picture of the Polish landscape.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to the head of the POLIN Exhibition Department Joanna Fikus about the new show.
In this week’s review:
- Pfizer to end extra vaccine supplies to Poland
- Health ministry braces itself for next Covid wave
- More support for nuclear power – survey
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Readers of The First News might have seen a recent article on the revival of this Silesian city in the south of Poland.
But while this gem of a city has undergone a groundbreakingly modern revitalisation, is the city also going through an identity crisis?
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Dr Irma Kozina, an urban activist as well as art and architecture historian now at Katowice’s Academy of Fine Art.
In this week’s review:
- Masks should still be worn indoors - Health minister
- Polish man held on charges of espionage for Russia
- EC calls on Poland to correct air pollution laws
- Poland's Monetary Policy Council leaves all interest rates unchanged
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp speaks to National Gallery curator Christopher Riopelle on the long-awaited exhibition of Matejko’s Copernicus in London.
Initially planned for last year but postponed because of the pandemic, the exhibition is the National Gallery’s first presentation of a painting by a Polish artist, so you can imagine it’s a big deal.
In this week’s review:
- Over 7 million Poles fully vaccinated
- Poland starts issuing Covid certificates
- LOT plane held at St Petersburg airport for arrest of Russian dissident
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Michał Rusinek, whose day job is teaching rhetoric at the Jagiellonian University but who is also an active writer and translator, and who is perhaps best known in Poland for being the secretary of Nobel prize laureate Wisława Szymborska.
And while we could get all serious and ask Dr Rusinek all sorts of things on weighty subjects, we’ll be talking about the wonderful world of children’s books.
In this week’s review:
- Poland bans Belarusian planes from its airspace
- MoD says Turkish drones will help ensure Poland’s security
- Inflation expectation management crucial after pandemic - monetary council
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of the programme John Beauchamp speaks to Roman Pawłowski, theatre critic and programme director of the acclaimed TR Warszawa theatre about its new production of a Russian classic, Chekhov’s Three Sisters (stylised as 3STRS), and how the play reflects the isolation we feel in times of lockdown.
In this week’s review:
- Poland to have Covid green certificates by June 25 – dep health minister
- Sale of Fairtrade products in Poland sets record
- Matejko becomes first ever Polish artist exhibited at London’s National Gallery
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Art galleries and museums have now reopened to the public in line with Covid lockdown easing, but the pandemic may have permanently changed the way we engage with art.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Natalia Sielewicz, a curator at the MSN, Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art, about the way museums and galleries have had to find new ways of presenting arts and culture.
Are we set to start interacting with cultural instutions in a new way now that the pandemic has introduced new ways of engagement?
In this week’s review:
- European Commission raises Poland’s 2021 GDP growth forecast to 4%
- Negotiations start to buy Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s French retreat
- Warsaw to run shelter for LGBT+ people
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
May 5 marked the 200th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death.
Following the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, Poles saw Napoleon as a possible saviour of the Polish nation. In 1807 Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw, a client state of France, and gave it a modern constitution, while a year later the Napoleonic Code also was instated.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Marta Tomczak, PhD candidate from Warsaw University, about Napoleon’s lasting legacy in Poland.
In this week’s review:
- Polish president declares support for Ukraine’s EU ambitions
- Poland sees first Brazilian Covid-19 mutations
- Facemasks outdoors no longer required from May 15
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Poland, according to official figures, is made up of around 95% ethnic Poles. Yet the country wasn’t always just Polish – it was also Jewish, Tatar, German, Armenian, Ukrainian… and the list goes on.
Host John Beauchamp talks to Michał Laszczkowski from the Cultural Heritage Foundation about its activities across Poland and beyond.
In this week’s review:
- Lockdown restrictions to be eased throughout May (more info below)
- New apartment sales up by 40% q/q in Poland – report
- Szczecin scientist creates ice cream that delays ageing process
COVID LOCKDOWN EASING DATES IN POLAND
1 MAY – Outdoor and indoor sport activities allowed (with certain limitations)
4 MAY – Shopping malls, art galleries, museums, construction and furniture stores reopen
4 MAY – Grades 1-3 return to school, with hybrid tuition for remaining grades
8 MAY – Hotels reopen (50% capacity only)
15 MAY – Facemasks no longer need ot be worn in public
15 MAY – Restuarants and cafés reopen with outside seating only, while weddings may have 25 guests
29 MAY – All grades go back to school
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
A while back earlier in 2021 there was a story on TFN which reported that the southern Polish city of Kraków was the fifth greenest city in a global ranking on urban space. And if you check your show notes you’ll see a link to the story.
In this first of a series of interviews on the changing face of Polish cities, we how do cities become green and what can be done to make them more open to nature.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Dorota Leśniak-Rychlak, architecture critic and Editor-in-Chief of the Autoportet Quarterly on urban space, as well as Dr Kasper Jakubowski, an expert on the urban jungle and initiator of Dzieci w Naturę, or the ‘Kids Go Nature’ Foundation.
In this week’s review:
- Situation of Poles in Belarus extremely difficult - ambassador
- Stats office reaffirms Poland’s 2020 GDP decline at 2.7%
- Poland footballing legend named UEFA deputy head
Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Astronomers have created the most detailed map of the universe providing important new insights into stars, galaxies and black holes through the use of low radio frequencies.
In this episode, host John Beauchamp stargazes with Dr Katarzyna Małek and Dr William Pearson from the National Centre for Nuclear Research.
In this week’s review:
- Poland and NATO discuss withdrawal from Afghanistan
- Global payments possible thanks to a revolutionary Polish hand implant
- Magical ‘now and then’ photos of Warsaw reveal beauty of a city that once was
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
A geological landscape park, with rock formations dating back 400 million years, has been awarded a UNESCO Geopark Label following a four year campaign to have its status recognised.
The Holy Cross Mountains Geopark is the second Geopark in Poland to receive the UNESCO label, the first being Muskau Bend Landscape Park in Western Poland, which received the distinction in 2011.
Host John Beauchamp talks to Michał Poros and Witold Wesołowski from the Holy Cross Geopark.
In this week’s review:
- PM to press EU for more vaccines
- Poland among China’s main EU investment sites
- Polish tennis player claims Masters 1000 title in Miami
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of The Debrief, we speak to one of Poland’s top ornithologists about eggs and their symbolism in this time of Easter.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to Professor Piotr Tryjanowski from the Poznań University of Life Sciences about Easter eggs... and more!
In this week’s review:
- Poland to pump EUR 6.5 bln into Covid-stricken sectors
- Number of farms in Poland drops by 13 pct over decade
- Poland loses 2-1 to England at Wembley in World Cup qualifier
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Acclaimed Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature and a whole string of other accolades, is to have her latest book released in English towards the end of 2021.
The Books of Jacob is one of the author’s most celebrated works, yet took years to translate in English and, more importantly, get published.
Jennifer Croft, one of Olga Tokarczuk’s translators who undertook the mammoth task of translating the Books of Jacob, joins host John Beauchamp for a chat from her home in Los Angeles.
In this week’s review:
- Poland imposes tougher pandemic measures
- Poles’ savings enough to finance Poland’s budget for two years
- Renowned Polish poet Adam Zagajewski dies at 75
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Pssst! If you want to find out more about Jennifer’s new book click here!
A new book has been published by Central European University Press which is a personal take on how reporting on Poland by (chiefly) the British press has a lot to be desired.
Journalist and author Jo Harper speaks to host John Beauchamp about the other side of Polish politics which is so under-represented in the English-language press.
In this week’s review:
- Polish reporter ‘beaten and severely injured’ by security forces in Myanmar
- Kasprowy Wierch, one of Europe’s oldest cable cars, turns 85
- February’s core inflation rate at 3.7 pct - central bank
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
The ‘Senster’, one of the world’s first robotic sculptures to be controlled by a digital computer, has gone on display at Warsaw’s Zachęta art gallery.
A portmanteau of ‘sensual’ and ‘monster’, the robot was created in the late 1960s by the cybernetic art sculptor Edward Ihnatowicz. It was lost and then rediscovered and lovingly restored at Kraków’s AGH University of Science and Technology.
In the show, host John Beauchamp talks to research fellow at AGH Dr Anna Olszewska about the Senster. Also check out our bonus episode in your feed for an uncut conversation with the inventor’s son Richard Ihnatowicz.
In this week’s review:
- British mutation accounts for 30 percent of Poland’s Covid infections
- More than 250,000 Ukrainians in Poland hold residency permits
- Poland’s energy transition to cost EUR 355 billion by 2040
- Hammer-throwing champ joins list of ‘inspirational women’ after being turned into Shero Barbie doll
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
The world’s first robotic sculpture to be controlled by a digital computer has gone on display at Warsaw’s Zachęta art gallery. The ‘Senster’, a portmanteau of ‘sensual’ and ‘monster’, was created in the late 1960s by the cybernetic art sculptor Edward Ihnatowicz.
In this bonus uncut interview, Edward’s son Richard Ihnatowicz talks to host John Beauchamp about his father’s work surrounding the making of the Senster.
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this episode of The Debrief, we get the inside info from Mabion, a Polish biotech firm which has teamed up with Novavax in the US to produce Covid vaccines.
Production of such a vaccine could be a real boon for the Polish biotech sector, host John Beauchamp hears from Mabion SA board member Adam Pietruszkiewicz in this week’s interview.
In this week’s review:
- Polish MFA monitoring case of Pole doing 14 years in Russian labour camp
- Over 70% of Polish are women financially independent
- Mystery 200-year-old crypt found by builders
- Matejko to be first-ever Polish artist exhibited at London’s National Gallery
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
This week saw Poland’s Depression Awareness day, with social media buzzing with people’s stories about how they live with depression or how they managed to overcome their problems.
Luckily spring is now fast biting at the heels of winter, and host John Beauchamp speaks to Poland’s top stork expert Professor Piotr Tryjanowski from the Poznań University of Life Sciences about white storks, one of Poland’s most popular birds, and also how bird therapy can get you through those winter blues.
In this week’s review:
- Births hit record low during pandemic
- Kraków ranked fifth greenest city in the world
- Polish firms eager to invest in environmental projects
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
The move to cement the polonaise in world culture is the branchild of Romana Agnel, the artistic director of the Cracovia Danza court ballet company.
In the show, host John Beauchamp catches up with Romana while in the studio we have Aleksander Laskowski from the Chopin Institute.
In this week’s review:
- Kraków start-up teams up with US nuclear firm to fly to the moon and extract rare energy isotope
- English Heritage issues plea for memories of elite Polish unit that trained at UK stately home during WWII
- Poland’s first ever Banksy exhibition opens in Warsaw
- Sugar tax hits soft drink sales
Many thanks to NIFC / The Chopin Institute for allowing us to use a number of recordings from their YouTube channel. You can find the channel here.
As Poland weathers its first proper winter in years with the mercury dropping to over -20 degrees Celsius and snowfall covering much of the country, we turn our attention towards the climate in general.
Host John Beauchamp talks to Greenpeace Poland’s Joanna Flisowska about Poland’s energy mix and whether renewable energy is really worth it economically.
In the review this week:
- Poland warns of ‘appropriate steps’ after Russia expels diplomat for supporting ‘illegal protests’ over jailing of Alexei Navalny
- Poland has second biggest decline in smokers in EU
- Largest Gothic altar in the world finally revealed after five years painstaking renovation
- Poland among EU leaders in cumulative economic growth in past two years
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
Museums and galleries are now open again across the country, including the reopening of the Gallery of Ancient Art at the National Museum in Warsaw
With that in mind, host John Beauchamp speaks to Chief Curator at Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art, Sebastian Cichocki, about how the gallery fared during lockdown and what its plans are now that is open to the public as of Friday February 5.
In this week’s review:
- After a decade, leading collection on ancient world reopens to the public
- Vet builds village for rescued dogs
- Local fury as officials plan to build housing estate on site of former POW camp
- Situation of micro- and small businesses worsens in 2020
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
It’s been a week marked by International Holocaust Remembrance day and the Polish government’s announcement that it has placed an order for 87 million Covid-19 vaccines from as many as five different companies.
And while we’re on the subject of the ongoing pandemic, in this week’s interview, host John Beauchamp is joined by Dr Maria Reimann from the Interdisciplinary Team on Childhood Research at Warsaw University about how the pandemic has affected kids in Poland and across the world.
You can check out a whole range of information and resources on the pandemic and how it has affected youth by going here.
In this week’s review:
- Polish man in ‘vegetative’ state dies in Plymouth hospital
- WWII artefacts found in hidden bunker at Warsaw Ghetto building site secretly ‘smuggled’ out of Poland
- Restaurants may reopen in May - Polish Development Fund
- IMF maintains Poland’s 2021 GDP growth forecast at 2.7 pct
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!
In this week’s show, host John Beauchamp is joined in the studio by Dr Stefan Czarniecki, a medical professional working in Warsaw to talk about how Poland’s mass vaccination drive is going and how it compares to what’s going on globally.
In this week’s review:
- Poland to consider legal steps against Pfizer if vaccines not delivered
- Polish clinic offers to take Pole ‘in a coma’ after UK court rules he should be left to die
- Trade to reopen from February 1, too early for reopening of other sectors
- Red hot chilli farmers: Lublin couple at forefront of Poland’s spicy food revolution
Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to podcasts@thefirstnews.com, and please remember to share, like and subscribe!
From unemployment and real estate prices to inflation and GDP, we've got you covered.
Join host John Beauchamp and TFN Editor-in-Chief Dagmara Leszkowicz for this year's look at the Polish economy.
What a year it's been. Host John Beauchamp is joined by Paddy Ney to talk 2020, while catching some of our favourite stories on TFN, including unwitting mushroom-picking bounty hunters, and my personal favourite episode of The Debrief this year, the time capsule found in a church spire.
Thanks to all of you out there who are listening regularly to the podcast, and stay tuned for a brand-new Debrief from 2021!
It’s that time of year again for The Debrief Christmas Special! Hosted by John Beauchamp with guest Ed Wight, Managing Editor of The First News.
Ed chooses his three top stories for 2020: a serenading opera singer who cheers up a Warsaw hospital in times of lockdown; how Polish scientists are making extraordinary discoveries in these adverse times, and; how a 100-hundred-year-old bridge got saved from being blown to smithereens in the latest planned Mission Impossible movie.
Also in the show: can you identify the sounds from around Poland which you can hear throughout the show? Let me know by getting in touch at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you get all three you win a surprise!
All the very best for this Christmas and festive season 🥳
Hosted by John Beauchamp
I hope you didn’t have anything planned for the New Year, as the government announced this week a whole slew of restrictions which are to come in force over the Christmas period.
What is being called a ‘national quarantine’ will be enforced from December 28th, 2020 until January 17, 2021, with an outright ban on movement between 1900 CET on New Year’s Eve and 0600 CET on New Year’s Day.
With a vaccine coming soon, though, what next for the COVID crisis? I spoke to Dr Krzysztof Ostaszewski, who told me what’s in store for the country over the next weeks and months…
While I wouldn’t say that the pandemic is like solitary confinement, the fact that people are staying in close-knit groups and keeping a ‘safe’ distance has also led to a loosening of social ties, problems in the workplace and a greater risk of anxiety.
So it might not come as a surprise, then, that there’s a piece written on The First News at the end of November which reports that the sale of antidepressants in Poland is on the up.
Life in lockdown still has its ups and downs: one day you feel great, the next day you’re climbing up the walls. How are you coping? It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together!
If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Hosted by John Beauchamp.
We’re working on a format change for The Debrief. Not that the old format didn’t work, but it’s been taken over more or less by What’s Up Poland, a weekly live video I’m now doing for TFN with Paddy Ney and our Ed-in-Chief Dagmara Leszkowicz. Give it a try!
There’ll be more updates before the year is up as The Debrief will be coming out twice a week to wrap up 2020 with a bang. Is there anything you would like to hear on The Debrief? Are there any pressing issues you want to be addressed? Do let me know – the email address is podcasts@thefirstnews.com
In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp speaks to TFN Managing Editor Ed Wight about a British spy who was briefly stationed in Warsaw during the 1960s...
Just what was he doing in Poland at the height of the Cold War? You can read all about him here, and we follow up the story with more information that has come to light since the story's publication.
Host John Beauchamp talks to TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska about an article she wrote recently about the ins and outs of the Atlantic cinema, which opened its doors to great aplomb in the 1930s and has since pretty remained open, even during World War II and the years of communist rule in the country...
However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of internet streaming services have put a question mark over the cinema's fate.
You can read the original article here.
In the show, host John Beauchamp talks to TFN history expert Stuart Dowell on an article he wrote about the Freedom and Independence movement formed of ex-Home Army members to help fight against Soviet control of Poland after World War 2.
You can find the original article here.
In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp manages to squeeze a few minutes out of video maker Paddy Ney's busy schedule to talk about his show Heart of Poland.
We also get to hear a little about Paddy's history and love of Poland, and how the country has evolved since he first moved here in 2010.
One firm hopes to revive the Polish automotive industry with electric vehicles based on a 50s classic.
Host John Beauchamp speaks to TFN Staff Writer Joanna Jasińska who covered the story of the brand-new electric car based on the timeless Polish Syrena design.
Read the full story here.
A 17th century church in the heart of Poland’s capital Warsaw has just had a very expensive make-over.
Host John Beauchamp talks to TFN Staff Writer Joanna Jasińska about the bling-tastic makeover.
You can find out more about the story here.
The find is the biggest discovery of ‘matzevot’ in Poland in recent years.
As TFN history guru Stuart Dowell tells John Beauchamp, the discovery is all the more valuable because some of them have retained their original colours and painted lettering, which surviving headstones in the local Jewish cemetery have lost over the years.
Read the original article here.
After a while of staying silent on COVID-19, Debrief host John Beauchamp thought it would be a good time to take stock of where we’re at, and how the pandemic is actually a great time to change the way we do things. And he doesn’t seem to be alone in this.
On the line for this episode we speak to Dr Stefan Czarniecki who gives a clinical look at how we’re adapting to COVID-19 as a society, how the pandemic has changed the way he sees his patients and how it has given rise to a new start-up idea.
Dr Czarniecki also suggests a points-based scheme on how to lead our lives – the greater the risk to catch COVID-19, the more points you get, and once you hit the limit, it’s back to self-isolation for the rest of the month!
Now, we all know the story of Wojtek the Bear, who fought alongside Polish soldiers at Monte Cassino, but now it seems that he’s going to be joined by another fighting bear…
Host John Beauchamp gets the full story from TFN contributing editor Alex Webber, who wrote all about Baśka here.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put real pressure on how we live our lives. Fortunately, for the most vulnerable, there are people willing to lend a hand.
With host John Beauchamp is TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who recently wrote a story about how a Polish foundation is helping Poles in Ukraine with their basic needs.
You can read the full story here.
A new book in English has just come out about Princess Daisy von Pless, the so-called “Silesian Princess Diana”.
TFN contributing editor Alex Webber recently wrote about the book, but here at the Debrief I went one step further and managed to speak to the author, Barbara Borkowy.
Beekeeper Tomasz Petryka had the vast majority of his hives vandalised earlier in 2020, but he’s come back from nothing to so much more.
TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska has the original story in this week's episode with John Beauchamp.
You can find the original article here.
In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp talks to TFN history buff Stuart Dowell about a mysterious diary written by a Waffen SS officer which reveals the whereabouts of tonnes of treasure.
You can read the full story here.
With summer upon us, we all need time to rest and recuperate, but what about finding new ways of keeping fit and looking good?
This week, a new look at an old way to work out, and on the line we have TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska who’s been looking into this story.
You can read more about Slavic Gymnastics here.
Hope all you listeners are doing well! I’ve got TFN writer Stuart Dowell on the line this week, and he’s been reporting on a time capsule which has been found in a rather odd place in a church in rural Poland.
You can read all about it here.
In this week’s Debrief – with pubs and restuarants reopened this week as part of the government’s plan to get the economy moving again, Polish craft beer producers have found themselves in a bit of a problem…
On the line with host John Beauchamp is TFN contributing editor Alex Webber, whose article on craft beer woes can be found here.
With over 16,000 cases of COVID-19 and around 800 fatalities from the virus as of the morning of 11 May, what is being done behind the scenes to try and keep that number from rising?
In this episode of The Debrief on the line with me is TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who has a few stories up her sleeve.
A new "heat-gate" designed by the University of Silesia tracks people's thermal images when entering buildings, and also a certain Professor Drąg from Wrocław University has made incredible headway after discovering similarities between the COVID-19 killer virus and the 2002-2004 SARS epidemic.
In this week's episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp speaks to TFN writer Matt Day about how countries in Central and Eastern Europe have managed to curtail the coronavirus pandemic despite all the odds.
Poland, along with other Central European countries, appears to have done a better job at containing the virus than their affluent Western neighbours.
You can read the full story here, and you can also check out the story Matt mentions in the show about the lockdown in Wrocław during the 1960s smallpox outbreak by clicking here.
Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki opened Vienna’s first coffee shop in 1683, thus kickstarting the world famous Viennese café culture.
In fact, Kulczycki’s fame in Vienna has even eclipsed that of Jan III Sobieski. When the Polish king led the charge against Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha’s camp from Kahlenberg Hill and saved the city, it was not Sobieski who the Viennese crowds feted, but Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki.
Read the full story here.
Hi there, it's John at The Debrief HQ. In this episode of the Coronavirus Diary I'm in the garden, where you'll hear children, footsteps, dogs, and other urban noises to at least give you an air of being outside!
The latest stats as of Friday 24 April are 10759 cases of Covid-19 and 463 fatalities. I look at these figures every time I record one of these episodes and I’m really beginning to wonder whether these numbers are really accurate...
Life in lockdown still has its ups and downs: one day you feel great, the next day you’re climbing up the walls. How are you coping? It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together!
If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Stay safe!
In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp talks to TFN writer Alex Webber (a first!) about chef and restaurateur Damian Wawrzyniak, who has saved his business - and the livelihood of his staff - by adapting to the pandemic lockdown in the UK.
Read the full story here.
Hi, it's your host John Beauchamp here in Warsaw. How are you dealing with the corona? I'm just dying to get outside, and spending my free time cruising through mountain gear and camping websites to get my ultimate kit together for when the coronavirus pandemic pipes down and we can all get back to what we were doing before. If that ever happens, that is...
Life in lockdown still has its ups and downs: one day you feel great, the next day you’re climbing up the walls. How are you coping? It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together!
If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Stay safe!
In this episode of The Debrief we talk to TFN writer Stuart Dowell, who explains how one of Poland's top orders is now set to be used once more after years in being locked up in Warsaw's Royal Castle.
Read the full story here.
In this week’s edition of The Debrief, John Beauchamp talks to staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who recently travelled to Wrocław to discover how a revolutionary therapy could be the answer to ever-mutating threats to our health.
With both bacteria becoming harder to kill and pharmaceutical companies finding providing newer and newer drugs unprofitable, a change in approach will be necessary: will so-called phage therapy provide the answer?
Read the full story here.
Hi there, it’s John Beauchamp here with the latest Coronavirus Diary from TFN’s The Debrief. I hope you’re all OK as we settle in to a third week of isolation, quarantine, locked up at home, whatever you want to call it…
Despite the fact that we’re all confined to our homes, we have managed to keep in touch with our neighbours, and have set up a Whatsapp group to keep ourselves entertained and also to help out. We hear from Agnieszka, Ola and Ricardo, who are all my darling neighbours and who sent an audio message for this episode of The Debrief.
It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together! If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Stay safe!
One of the largest ever hauls of treasure from the Roman period to be found in Poland and the largest ever in the Lublin region has been uncovered in Hrubieszów near Lublin.
In this edition of The Debrief, thanks to the magic of the internet we are on the line with TFN history buff Stuart Dowell, who gives us the background story.
Read the full story here.
Hi there, I’m John Beauchamp with The Debrief. First of all, an apology that the pod’s coming out today and not last Friday as promised – as these times in lockdown are unknown to all of us, so too am I working on trying to recalibrate life: the art of juggling work with domestic obligations, time for stepping back and relaxing, you know, everything we usually do, but within the confines of four walls.
If you’re into podcasts and found sound, why not also tune in to the Field Recordings podcast, which has a growing number of awesome recordings made by wide range of audio producers world-wide. It’s great and really soothing for the soul, especially with the current situation. And on that note, I’ll leave you with a binarual recording I made of a highland stream in the mountain town of Zakopane around this time in 2019.
It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together! If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Stay safe!
Hi, it’s John Beauchamp here with day four of The Debrief coronavirus diary, and today has been a little slow. On purpose, that is.
Just a short message today about how we should give ourselves a little time to think and just... be. Plus, a few minutes of Baltic waves I recorded to calm everyone down a bit.
It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together! If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Stay safe!
Hi there, it’s John Beauchamp here and this is the Debrief from TFN. It’s Wednesday 25 March and the latest on Covid-19 in Poland: 1051 confirmed cases and 14 deaths.
On today’s show I thought it would be a good idea to talk to a doctor about the Covid-19 pandemic. I caught up over Skype with Dr Krzysztof Ostaszewski, a medical professional, about what this all means and what measures we can do at home to help ourselves through these times.
It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together! If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Stay safe!
Hi there, I’m your host John Beauchamp and I’m on lockdown. Today is my Debrief Coronavirus Diary day 2. As of Tuesday evening we are up to 901 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths have been reported. The government has also announced a set of strict measures which restricts movement and essentially is geared at keeing everyone at home.
Apart from that today was business as usual. I suppose one of the major factors of being couped up at home is to try and keep yourself occupied. Speaking about keeping yourself busy, I wanted to give a big thanks to Michał and Victoria for sending me some voice memos today. You can listen to what they have to say in today’s episode.
It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together! If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Stay safe!
Hi there, it’s your host John Beauchamp. I’m currently on lockdown, along with many of my colleagues at TFN, and so I’ve decided to keep a little coronavirus diary here on The Debrief and try and get you all to join in as well. I’ll be posting daily audio diary posts throughout this week and let’s see if we can get something going.
In today’s episode, a little look behind the scenes on what’s really happening at The Debrief studio (aka my flat). Officially it’s called ‘working from home’ but most of the time it’s anything but…
It’s a hard time for all of us to get through, but let’s get through it together! If you want to get in touch please write to me at podcasts@thefirstnews.com and if you have Whatsapp, why not leave me a voice message (which you agree to being used on air, of course!) at +48 504 202 352.
Stay updated by checking out the Coronavirus updates on TFN, and there’s also a lot happening on Facebook. It’s doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom.
Stay safe!
The extraordinary find, which was hidden near the renowned Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, indicates an untouched royal tomb could be nearby.
Prof. Niwiński, who is leading the excavation team, said: “The royal deposit proves the fact that either a temple was established in the king’s name or the king’s tomb.
In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who gives us the background story.
Read the full story here.
On 21 September 1941, a group of 400 women from Lublin and Warsaw was taken to Ravensbrück, the notorious concentration camp for women near Berlin.
As TFN’s history notable Stuart Dowell tells this week’s The Debrief, the group included four Girl Guides who had been arrested for involvement with the Polish Underground. They would go on to create the secret letter writing group.
Read the full story here.
We’ve all thrown away something by accident. But this time, a huge number of documents which once belonged to Warsaw Uprising veteran Eugeniusz Tyrajski have been rescued found from a skip.
In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN history buff Stuart Dowell, who gives us the background .
Read the full story here.
When Chopin died in France at the early age of 39 his famous deathbed wish was that his heart should be cut out from his body and sent to Poland.
In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN history expert Stuart Dowell, who recently took a look at Chopin’s heart, its history and its current whereabouts.
Read the full story here.
In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who recounts the story of Valerjan Romanovski who has pushed the limits of human endurance by riding his bike through one of the most unwelcoming places on Earth.
To get ready for the endeavour, Romanovski and his colleague Piotr Marczewski took a plunge into water despite it being -50°C. Given his slower pace, the first to depart was Marczewski who was pulling a sledge containing all his equipment.
Read the full story here.
In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN writer Stuart Dowell, who says that it is known that heavy fighting took place between the Home Army and the Germans in August and September 1944 in the buildings where the stains have been found.
Many of the bodies of Polish soldiers who died in battle were left to lie in the spot where they fell, sometimes for up to several months.
Read the full story here.
In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who explains the ins and outs of reconstructive surgery and how a Polish doctor was awarded a fellowship from the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM).
The professor from the Oncology Centre in Gliwice was recognised as the first Pole in history for completely rebuilding the internal organs of a six-year-old boy’s neck by transplanting a new larynx, trachea and throat, as well as bone marrow.
Read the full story here.
In this episode of The Debrief we speak to TFN staff writer Joanna Jasińska, who recently interviewed Slovak film-maker Matej Bobrik about his latest documentary feature ‘Our Little Poland’.
The film shows how every year, over a dozen young Japanese students begin courses in Polish studies at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Read the full story here.
You can also find out more about the legend of Pan Twardowski here.