POLcast: Recent Episodes

Małgorzata P. Bonikowska and Tomek Kniat

POLcast is an English language podcast created for everybody interested in Poland. Each episode brings you interesting interviews, historical facts, trivia and more.

The Ornate and the Minimalist: Stories from Warsaw’s Cultural Core

Step into the very heart of Warsaw, where two strikingly different buildings—one steeped in ornate socialist grandeur, the other a beacon of minimalist modernity—stand side by side: the Palace of Culture and the Museum of Modern Art's new exhibit. Listen to an exclusive interview with curator Natalia Sielewicz, offering an insider’s perspective on the museum’s vision and collection.

Stay tuned until the end for a special surprise: a song about the Palace of Culture—written and performed especially for this episode. Think you can guess who the artist is? Contact me at mbonikowska@rogers.com.

Listen to some stories from my visit to Warsaw:
• 10th birthday of POLIN - an award winning museum in Warsaw which tells the story of the Jewish community in Poland.
• An artist's art in Yiddish.
• A Trinidadian in Poland.
• A multiethnic oasis in Warsaw.
• A Warsaw unique church.
• Enjoying live Chopin music in the iconic park in Warsaw - a 65-year-old tradition.

Today I will take you on a trip to two continents and to two places almost 10,000 km apart.

• The first one is in Poland. It’s the city of Sopot, on the Baltic Sea coast. You will meet Canadian Polish photographer and film personality Ela Kinowska

• My second POLcast guest is a black musician/composer whom I heard playing Chopin's music on his keyboard north of San Diego, California.

Also, you will learn about a Polish inventor Stefan Kudelski, whose work truly revolutionized Hollywood!

And finally, the linguist in me always loves to give you something about the Polish language.

Visit POLcast website - https://www.mypolcast.com.

What a long way it has been since the idea to create POLcast was born 9 years ago! It started in 2015 and Episode #1 was released on March 15, 2016.

This anniversary calls for memories and summaries.

In its 8 years POLcast has released 100 episodes. I have interviewed well over 200 hundred people and brought you stories from all the continents (well, except for Antarctica, but weather- or climate-wise we did reach far north - Alaska and the Canadian Yukon).

In this special episode I walk you through the idea and history of POLcast. Many people and stories are mentioned and acknowledged. My sincere thanks to all of them: POLcast collaborators, partners, interviewees, and - most of all - to YOU, our loyal POLcast listeners from over 100 countries all over the world and to our invaluable sponsors-donors.

Thank you for all the awards and distinctions granted to POLcast!

In this episode you will hear many voices - people from many countries talking about POLcast. Thank you for all these kind words.

Changes to POLcast are coming soon so stay tuned!

May 2024 - the very first Polish Heritage Month in Canada. I’m talking to Irek Kuśmierczyk, liberal MP of Polish descent, representing a dynamic city of Windsor since 2019. How did it happen?

Katy Carr’s song “Polonia” ends the episode.

In this episode you will meet two celebrities - one human and one animal: Tomek Borkowy, a renowned Polish actor, who has lived in Scotland since the early 1980s, and Wojtek the Bear, a four-legged WW2 hero, who had no idea he wasn’t human because he was adopted as a cub and raised by the Polish soldiers, himself acting as one. What a story! All that with love for Scotland.

Also, Poland has won the top prize in the 2024 European Tree of the Year.

A lot of information and links at www.mypolcast.com

This is a conversation I had during my visit to Kraków with Michael Rubenfeld, a Canadian Jewish theatre artist: writer, director, actor, and producer, who moved to Poland 8 years ago. There aren’t many Jewish Canadians who settle in Poland for good. Michael talks about how this happened and why, how life in Poland differs from Canada, what it’s like to do theatre in Poland. He also talks about his presence on social media, which has become a valuable source of knowledge about Poland for him.

This is the last episode before Christmas and in the year 2023.

Both stories in this episode come from Canada - from the city of Edmonton in Alberta:
• Albertans United for the Children of Gaza - conversation with Thomas Lukaszuk
• Music in Edmonton - conversation with Joanna Ciapka-Sangster.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

PEACE!

In this episode “Canada in Poland” you will hear three interviews:

• With Canada’s ambassador to Poland Catherine Godin,

• With the Head of the Canadian Studies programme at the University of Warsaw Dr. Ewa Luczak,

• With three students of the programme.

Music by Polky, a Canadian folk band.

In this episode, you will hear three stories:

Moses McCormick, a super polyglot who knew 50 languages and loved Polish;
Maple Corner about Canadian pop culture, a Polish language blog produced by Joanna Boguslawska in Poland.
A secret place in Poland which has just gone through the third major transformation since WWII.

Meet Marajke Slomka from Brussels, a polyglot born in Poland.
And a story of Gacek the cat, the tourist attraction in Szczecin.

In this Christmas episode, the last one in 2022, you will hear two interviews:

• UCL Leaders - a great annual conference initiated by Polish students

• A WWII puzzle solved - new thriller “Who Has Buried The Dead”

and

• Christmas music.

WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT!

In this episode you will hear about:

Poland’s and Canada’s November 11th
Canada Study Tour program for Polish hight school students and Alina Deja’s love for Canada
EKRAN Toronto Polish Film Festival #13
A stolen Stradivarius and other unknown stories from POLcast Facebook

“Fight With Art” is the largest online charity auction in the world to offer humanitarian aid for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People. POLcast is talking to Michael Rubenfeld, its organizer, a Canadian performance maker, cultural producer, playwright and actor, who now lives in Cracow, Poland.

“Fight With Art” is the largest online charity auction in the world to offer humanitarian aid for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People. POLcast is talking to Michael Rubenfeld, its organizer, a Canadian performance maker, cultural producer, playwright and actor, who now lives in Cracow, Poland.

From 1940 Kazachstan to 2022 Canada

Today I am speaking to two women whom I have interviewed before:

• ALICJA EDWARDS (born in 1924)

Alicja Edwards is a 98-year-old writer, painter, pianist and antique expert and dealer. She lives in Eureka, Montana. Her paintings showing the traumatic years in Kazachstan in the 1940’s are now telling this incredible story of survival as part of Alicja Edwards exhibit at the Muzeum Pamieci Sybiru (The Sybir Memorial Museum) in Bialystok, Poland.

• Louiza Szacon from KONEKT

A Polish Canadian professionals’ organization, whose launch we celebrated on POLcast in 2018 - Konekt has been growing and expanding. I’m talking to Louiza Szacon again to find out how Konekt has evolved and where it’s going now.

____________________________________

MUSIC

“Ukrainian Village” composed and played by Derek and Brandon Fiechter, identical twins from Indiana.

Mississauga Polish Day 2022. I will take you on a trip to Mississauga, a city neighbouring Toronto, to experience a colourful, joyful Mississauga Polish Day 2022 - celebration of Poland, polishness and Ontario’s Polish community. May 2022 was the first Polish Heritage Month in Ontario.

This is my second special POLcast Episode - a tribute to Ukraine, to our Ukrainian sisters and brothers who are fighting heroically to defend their country against Putin's army.

This episode is about Canadian-Polish help for Ukraine.

• Toronto artists for Ukraine This huge concert “With Ukraine” was organized in Toronto by local artists to show their solidarity and love for Ukraine and to raise money for Ukraine. The idea came from two Polish folk singers from the renowned group Polky.

• "United for Ukraine" - gigantic aid campaign in Edmonton "United for Ukraine" is the brainchild of of two former politicians from the Canadian province of Alberta. Nobody has ever done anything like this.

This is a special POLcast Episode - a tribute to Ukraine, to our Ukrainian sisters and brothers who are fighting heroically to defend their country against Putin's army. We stand with Ukraine and will do all we can to help and support you.

This episode shows many faces of this support - in Poland, Canada, and England.

In this episode: • Interview with Ewa Stachniak, a Polish Canadian writer * Christmas music by Joanna Ciapka-Sangster and Magda Papierz, Ola Turkiewcz and Vocal Ensemble of MAVO Academy of Arts and Music MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

In this episode I’d like you to meet my two guests: Anna Paluch from Ottawa, Canada, and Piotr Surmaczynski from London, UK. We talk about indigenous culture, art, and history, about identity, Polishness, emigration and more. Visit POLcast at www.mypolcast.com

An interview with Canadian historian, author and educator Zig Misiak about the history and aftermath of Canadian residential schools as well as his 50 years of work with and for Canada's First Nations.

In this episode you will hear my interview with Ilona Kowalik Urbaniak, a mathematician and musician, born in Poland, living in Canada and now working in Cracow, Poland.

An interview with Sabina Baral, who wrote an extremely successful book in Polish "Zapiski z wygnania" (Notes from Exile). The book talks about her family's experience of being made to leave Poland in March 1968, as a result of the ruling communist party's anti-Semitic purge. Those forced to leave were made stateless and were subjected to humiliating exit procedures.

Sabina left Poland with her parents, parting with her Polish boyfriend. This was the end of her life in the country where her family had lived for generations. And a new beginning.

In this episode you will hear three interviews with:

• Ewa Henry- Dawson, head of the Canada Team of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, about this year’s 29th annual campaign in Canada, pandemic-style.

• Irene Tomaszewski, a Canadian writer, editor and translator of Polish descent living in Ottawa, for many years the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Review, an online English-language magazine on Polish culture, established in 2008. We talk about Bogumił W.Andrzejewski, a Polish linguist and his connection to Somalia.

• Pola Janowska and Mery (Marysia) Grupinska, two Polish high school students, actively involved in Global Awareness Movement (GAM), an initiative created by young people from Poland, developed and managed entirely by its young inventors, with mentorship of Jola Kulik from Young Talent Management.

In this Episode, we present two interviews, with:

• Prof. Bart Bonikowski, American sociologist from NYU, teacher and advisor of Amanda Gorman at Harvard;

• Joanna Ciapka-Sangster, a Polish Canadian violinist from Edmonton, Canada.

I hope that while listening to this POLcast episode you will forget about the pandemic and this weird Christmas 2020. This episode #78 celebrates the beauty of Christmas through music. You will learn a lot about Polish carols and other Christmas traditions. In this special Christmas episode I interview Joanna Ciapka-Sangster, a Polish Canadian violinist from Edmonton, Alberta.

Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

POLcast Episode 77 features two experts talking about Poland, its current situation, its geopolitical position, the present, the past, and the future

In Episode 76 we are talking about antisemitism in two Polish language newspapers published in Canada. You will hear three interviews with:

• Michael Mostyn, the Chief Executive Officer of B'nai Brith Canada,

• Matthew Samulewski, an activist in the Polish Canadian community, mostly its younger generation,

• Thomas Lukaszuk, a Polish-born Canadian politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, who served in the provincial cabinet and was the Deputy Premier of Alberta.

See: Legality, morality, and freedom(s) – antisemitism in Polish language newspapers

In Episode 75 you will hear: Interviews: • Students connect in a coast-to-coast event Quo Vadis Conferences Canada and the Polish Students’ Association (PSA) at the University of Toronto have teamed up to co-host an online conference just for students!

POLcast is happy to be the event’s media patron.

• Grammy Award nominee’s passion for jazz In February I conducted this carefree – pre-COVID-19 – interview with Kinga Heming, an amazing Polish Canadian jazz singer, who was born in Poland, moved to Ottawa when she was five and now resides in the small town of Kelowna in the Canadian province of British Columbia. I had just seen (and loved) her performance at the Kabaret pod Banką’s annual Kabareton (Cabaret Night) but most of all – she had been nominated for coveted Grammy Award.

The pandemic...

Every day brings us new numbers - every single one of them represents someone whose life has been affected by this horrifying pandemic that has changed our world in ways we could not have imagined or predicted. Someone infected or deceased. Those numbers keep growing every day and we all pray or wish for the day when we hear that they have begun to drop.

Today we will talk about mental health, a very important face of the COVID-19 crisis.

• Kids and the pandemic I talk to Dr. Ewa Antczak, a child psychologist, who deals with the emotional/psychological impact of the pandemic on kids.

• Poland and its first three days of May On May 1 2004, Poland joined the European Union (EU), fulfilling its great dream to rejoin the great European family and community, from which it was isolated by the communist regime and system.

May 2 is Polish Flag Day which has been celebrated since 2004. May 2nd is also celebrated as a day of Polish diaspora or Poles abroad, so called POLONIA DAY. There are roughly 20 mln people of Polish ancestry living outside Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the largest in the world and one of the most widely dispersed.

May 3 is Poland’s national holiday: Polish Constitution Day. Poles are celebrating the declaration of the constitution in 1791, the second (after the American Constitution) democraitic, progressive constitution in the world.

In Episode 73 - you will hear:

Interviews:

• The risk is obvious, but it doesn’t matter

The pandemic as experienced by someone who risks her life every day, a front line worker.

• Polish Easter

At the beginning of March, long before we realized the full scope of what was going on around us, I recorded a conversation with Maria Różanska of Just Be Cooking about Polish Easter traditions.

Our world has changed completely. POLcast has now been transformed to COVID-19 themed podcast and will be released more frequently that once a month - every two (or three) weeks, depending on how much strength I will have to produce it.

In Episode 72 you will hear one interview only:

Facts and myths about COVID-19 and how we can all beat it This is a conversation with Dr. Rafal Kustra, Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

In Episode 71 you will hear: Interviews: • “Memory is Our Homeland” – a tribute to those whose story was never told

• Canada’s dark past resonates with Poles in Poland

• Pączki –Just Be Cooking Maria Rozynska is talking about the International Pączki Day and the magic od pączki making. To attend the Just Be Cooking Pączki event and other evets, see HERE

In Episode 70 you will hear: Interviews: • A no-barrier approach to Polishness

It’s fantastic that children of emigrants, Poles who settled in other countries such as Canada, even though they were often born and educated here, are interetsed in their roots, cultural heritage and want to incorporate their Polishness into their identity. There are a few Polish Canadian youth organizations, including the one and only Quo Vadis movement, which we have featured on POLcast. A Polish Canadian young professionals’ organization, whose launch we celebrated on POLcast last year - Konekt is a bit different from other such groups. It’s been growing and expanding.

• Cooking, teaching and singing - all in one

I am introducing to you our new POLcast collaborator - Maria Rozynska and her Just Be Cooking. Maria will be collaborating with POLcast and will have her own segment in each episode.

Maria Rozynska created an innovative project in Toronto called Just Be Cooking - where people make food (not only Polish) under expert supervision, hear about its history and cultural signficance, listen to live music, and eat the food that they cooked in a communal meal.

• How can languages save your life?

How can knowing multiple lanuages help you stay alive? A Polish American academic Tadeusz “Tad” Haska survived WWII and the stalinist repressions thanks to his unusual linguistics talent. This incredible story was lovingly described by his granddaughter Stefanie Naumann in her book How Languages Saved Me: A Polish Story of Survival, released in September 2019 with Koehler Books.

• Goodbye to Laura and Peter Żerański - please but their great heritage cookbooks (you can learn about them here)

• Music - POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode.

This is POLcast Christmas Episode. WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT i WSPANIAŁEGO NOWEGO ROKU! In Episode 69 you will hear: Interviews: • "Music has been my lifeline": when cancer hits Arthur Lewinowicz, a 27-year-old violin and viola player, composer and teacher, whose life mission is to help kids with various disabilities and special needs learn to play the violin and enjoy music, has been fighting cancer since August.

• Living like any other person who can see Marta Hanyżkiewicz, born in Poland, is a student of business and psychology at New York University and Baruch College in New York City. She is blind but has decided to live her life like any other person her age who can see.

• 50th segment of Smacznego! Eating Polish

• Polish carols and Christmas songs by Magda Papierz and Ola Turkiewicz, from their 2015 album "Święta kolędą przyprószone".

In Episode 68 you will hear: Interviews: • How young Polish Canadians stirred up Polish youth around the world - 10 years of Quo Vadis On September 20-22, 2019 delegates from all over the world came to Toronto to celebrate 10 years of Quo Vadis, a unique youth movement, one and only in the world. POLcast talks to Ania Barycka, the conference spiritus movens, organizer and veteran.

• An Australian Quo Vadis organizer's experience with polishness While at the 10th QV conference in Toronto, I met a really enthusiastic young Pole Szymon Motylek, who now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. His life is quite a story...

• A Hongkonger with a Polish heart I met Ericsson Singh at Quo Vadis. Born in Hong Kong, he loves Poland, speaks the language and is very active in the Polish Club at the University of Toronto. He sees his future in Poland with his Polish fiancee Kinga. What a story!

and

• Smacznego! Eating Polish - Polish goulash (gulasz)

• Music - POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode (a Polish Canadian nominated for a Grammy 2020).

In Episode 67 you will hear: Interviews: • Was it worth it? A story of an immigrant's journey

Liliana Arkuszewski lives in Ottawa. Her book about her immigration journey written in Polish has now been translated to English and recently published.

• A true hero who risked his life to save others

Mr. Franciszek Paslawski, who just passed away in September 2019, was the last Righteous Among Nations still living in Canada. This is his story and the story of those who owe him their lives.

• In love with Dawson City, Yukon

Matylda Lis, a vivacious young Polish Canadian woman who travels all over the world, has fallen in love with Dawson City, Yukon, famous for the Klondike gold rush. Matylda spends all her summers there and has become a part of its community.

and

• Smacznego! Eating Polish - plum crumble

• Music - POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode.

In Episode 65 you will hear: Interviews: • Murder, cover up and forced silence - the war was not over for Poles Wanda Kościa talks to Piotr Szkopiak, British writer/director and his most recent film “The Last Witness”, a thriller which talks about the Katyn 1940 monumental masacre, in itself a tragedy, but also about another tragic aspect of it - the coverup by the Allies, who didn’t want to reveal the Soviet guilt, ascribing it to the Germans. The film also shows the fate of Polish refugees after WWII who lived for years in displaced persons’ camps in Britain, unable to return to their motherland controlled by the communist Soviet Union after the war, and unable to openly talk about why they had to stay in Britain and what had happened.

• The future of money and information Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology - everybody talks about these hot terms but not everyone understands what they are all about. It's all explained by Thomas Jankowski, the Chief Digital & Growth Officer at Coinsquare, Canada’s leading exchange for trading Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies.

and

• Smacznego! Eating Polish - super apple recipes

• Music- POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode.

In Episode 64 you will hear: Interviews: • Polish language, literature and culture lovers at a North American university Why is it that not only people with Polish roots but also people who have no Polish blood in them study Polish literature, culture and language in countries outside Poland such as Canada?

• The land of mosquitos and Poles in Ontario (Part 2) Kaszuby, an area in northern Ontario, about 200 kilometres west of Ottawa, named after the part of northern Poland from which the first settlers came, is the site of the first Polish settlement in Canada. The Kashubian language and childhood memories...

• A translator's gift to English language readers Bill Johnston, a professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University and an award winning prolific translator of Polish literature of all genres and epochs, did the unthinkable - translated the legendary Polish national epic "Pan Tadeusz" by Adam Mickiewicz (1834), in verse. “Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania” was published by Achipelago Books in 2018. How did he do that?

and

• Smacznego! Eating Polish - super beet recipes

• UPDATES - what's new in the POLcast family? Recent achievements of POLcast interviewees.

• Music- POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode.

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • From building capitalism in Poland to writing books and helping others Agnieszka Dydycz tells her story of the very beginning of capitalism in Poland and her role in creating capital markets at the national level, her interactions with the biggest institutional global investors, and then... her life as a writer and her charity work.

• Polished ice - curling in Poland Adela Walczak lives in Poland, a country without any curling traditions and without any curling facilities. Until now, because Adela decided to build a world class curling club in her home town Łódź, in the centre of Poland. And she did!

• The land of mosquitos and Poles in Ontario Kaszuby, an area in northern Ontario, about 200 kilometres west of Ottawa, named after the part of northern Poland from which the first settlers came, is the site of the first Polish settlement in Canada.

and

• Great Poles - Marian Smoluchowski

• Smacznego! Eating Polish - sorrel soup

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • Polish art in Indian palaces Poland’s connections with many geographically distant countries are a fascinating topic. This story of a famous pre-war Polish painter whose art decorates many palaces in India is told by a Canadian POLcast listener born in India. He had just come back to Canada after visiting his home country and was fascinated with artist Stefan Norblin’s contribution to India’s culture.

• Basia’s love line Basia lives in a small town in Ontario. On a line between two trees in front of her house she hangs donated winter clothes as well as hats and scarves she and her daughter make. They are free for anyone who needs them.

and

• The minorities of Poland – Lemkos. • Smacznego! Eating Polish – pork roast

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • If you cannot buy it – make it yourself: a story of Kannuk vodka Imagine that you go to a store and want to buy something special as a gift – well, you cannot because it’s simply not available. 99.9 per cent of people would simply leave saying: “too bad. I wish they produced it” and go buy something else. But not Adam Szymkow…

• The world’s largest orchestra “plays” for sick kids This year for the 27th time, Poland’s largest fundraising campaign – the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, which collects money for medical equipment for Polish paediatric hospitals – has “played” in Poland and dozens of countries, including Canada. Every year the fundraising drive ends in a grand finale concert – ours was held at the Fregata Restaurant in Mississauga.

• Great Poles – Zbigniew Religa, a legendary cardiologist

• Smacznego! Eating Polish – bigos

This is our special Christmas Episode so we would like to wish you

WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT i SZCZĘŚLIWEGO NOWEGO ROKU!

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • Art helps people in a remote African village For six years Ted Dawson has travelled every fall to rural Tanzania, an area next door to Kilimanjaro, to help local people build and modernize infrastructure. In November, for the first time, he took with him Ewa Henry, a Polish Canadian artist, who opened an art program there, empowering local youth and help them get some income.

• A Polish pre-war story getting yet another life in California What I really love is when fascinating stories grow by getting extensions and often new lives. Here is one such story. Ana Bayat, a multilingual actress from San Francisco, met and heard the music and the story of Canadian jazz musician Ron Davis at the Edinburgh's Fringe Festival. It's the story of how Ron, a child of Holocaust survivors, discovered that his mother Alicja was right about his grandfather's pre-war past in Warsaw immortalized in a famous song "Bal na Gnojnej" a.k.a. "Bal u Grubego Jośka". Now Ana is writing a play about Ron's mother Alicja.

• Money must not prevent anyone from experiencing the shows

Arthur Wachnik, actor, musician, singer, is the artistic director of an over 3000-seat venue - Christian Performing Arts Centre in Toronto. We talk about this great centre, its mission and its recent brand new show The Nativity Musical.

• Great Poles - Janusz Korczak

• Smacznego! Eating Polish - yummy Christmas traditions

We are releasing this episode on a very special day - today, on 11 November 2018, Poland and Poles around the world are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence.

After 123 years of partitions, on 11 November 1918, the dream of generations of Poles came true: the Polish state was reborn and Poland reappeared on the maps of Europe.

In this episode you will hear: The story of 100 years of Poland's independence

Special gift to Poland on its 100th anniversary of independence Interviews: • Each child deserves to learn music Arthur Lewinowicz, a violin and viola player, composer and teacher, has made it his life mission to help kids with various disabilities and special needs learn to play the violin and enjoy music. His school Singing Strings in Toronto offers unconventional music education to everybody, including kids from low income families.

• Celebrating Poland - top young Polish writers in Toronto “Celebrating Poland” at the 39th Toronto International Festival of Authors featured a panel discussion and a Q&A with three top young Polish authors chaired by our own Canadian best selling author Eva Stachniak and hosted by prof. Tamara Trojanowska, Director for the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the UofT, former director of the Polish Language and Literature Program.

• Love for Polish cuisine - comfort food with multiple personalities Every episode of POLcast brings you a taste of Polish cuisine - those yummy recipes come from Laura and Peter Zeranski, authors of two cook books sold around the world and a hugely popular blog.

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • A ticking piece of Poland with a charity twist Robin Devine makes beautiful watches which she donates as gifts to hundreds of veterans, at the same time providing significant support for many charities (over 22 years around half a million dollars have been donated to numerous charitable causes). Now on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland's independence, she created an exquisite Polish Eagle Watch to celebrate this special occasion.

• It starts with a bang - Scotland and Poland Wanda Koscia talks to Neal Ascherson, a renowned Scottish author and journalist, with books and articles on a wide range of topics: including the Congo, the Spanish Civil War, archaeology, Scotland and more, an expert on Poland, who recently published his first novel “The Death of the Fronsac”.

• EKRAN - 10 years of Polish film in Toronto The 10th EKRAN Toronto Polish Festival is starting very soon, on November 5. Nine years is a long time - lots of films, guests, screenings, events. It's a perfect moment to look back.

• Great Poles - Henryk Sienkiewicz

• Smacznego! Eating Polish - halusky

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • Poles and Jews meet through their common music

Olga Avigail Mieleszczuk, born in Poland, is a singer, accordion player and researcher of Eastern European musical folklore. Since the very beginning of her creative work, she has been focusing on Jewish music of Ashkenazi roots. She converted into Judaism and now lives and works in Jerusalem. She performed at Toronto’s Lula Lounge at the 2018 Ashkenaz Festival with her three Polish musicians.

• The Things of Warsaw

When I was in Poland in June, I attended the official opening of the Museum of Warsaw, also referred to as the Museum of Things, located in a number of historic buildings in the Old Town Market Square.

From law and math to the cutting-edge computing technology

Bohr Technology Inc., based in Warsaw, works on creative ideas behind the new revolutionary quantum computers, which in the next 5 years will probably start replacing classic computers for the purpose of solving optimisation problems. Witold Kowalczyk and Przemyslaw Chojecki are the founders and the brains behind this innovative startup company.

• The statue of Fahrenheit in Gdansk

• Smacznego! Eating Polish – peach turnovers

• We leave you with “Rebecca” sung by Olga Mieleszczuk

In this episode you will hear: * A childhood dream that came true

Maple syrup, Leonard Cohen, hockey – these are Canadian icons. There is one more, very special – Anne of Green Gables, the red-haired orphan whose life in Avonlea in Prince Edward Island was described by author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Bernadeta Milewski is a Pole living in the US, whose life has been influenced by Anne of Green Gables in many ways.

The money is on the road – a study of immorality

After the successul premiere of hs feature debut “22 Chaser”, we talk to Polish Canadian filmmaker – Rafal Sokolowski, an award-winning film and theatre director whose short films have been shown worldwide.

White and red hearts from Chicago

The Jeopardy-style 2nd annual contest tests elementary and high school students of Polish language schools in Canada and the US on their knowledge about Poland – its history, geography, culture, traditions (and this year also sports) – all in Polish.

Great Poles – about themselves and their recent accoplishments and projects

• Smacznego! Eating Polish – Polish sauces

This is a special episode of POLcast, recorded during my visit to Poland in June, where Margaret received the prestigious journalistic Maciej Plazynski Award for her work on POLcast.

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • And the M. Plazynski award for POLcast was granted by…. Jarosław Włodarczyk is the president of the Press Club Polska. This organization is the founder of the annual Maciej Płażyński award together with Jakub Plazynski, a son of the late Maciej Plazynski. This year’s award in the category of “Journalist of a Polish diaspora medium” was granted to Margaret P. Bonikowska for her work on POLcast.

• The inspiring time at the steering wheel Jeremy Wallace is the charge d’affaires at the Canadian Embassy in Warsaw, now the acting chief diplomat there until the arrival of the new Canadian ambassador.

• Helping the talented Polish teenagers study abroad Marzena Reich helps to place Polish teenagers in prestigious British boarding schools.

• The freedom that comes at a price Two Muslim students from Turkey talked about their experience of Poland.

• “The best Canadian thriller of 2018”? Rafal Sokolowski talks about his feature directorial debut “22 Chaser” which opened on Friday June 6, at the Carlton Cinemas in Toronto.

Also in this episode:

Some sounds of Warsaw:
Great Poles – the team of POLcast’s collaborators talk about themselves
The song at the end of Epsode 55 was recorded at the Music Theatre in Gdynia during the show “Poczekalnia” after the award gala

In this episode: • The eye - where the microscope and the paintbrush meet

Eva Henry (Toronto) is an artist and Dorota Skowrońska Krawczyk(California) is a scientist who work together to create VISIONS. • Looking for love stories across Canada

Monika Grzelak, a photographer from Toronto, drove across Canada to find and photograph couples in love. • The teacher taking his students far away from the classroom

There are special teachers - Marcin Zarod is one of them.

Also in this episode:

Coś z Polski
Great Poles - Kazimierz Nowak
Smacznego - Fruit tarts

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • MozART Group - string virtuosos with appetite for fun There are four of them, most accomplished virtuoso string players (two violins, a viola and a cello), graduates of prestigious music Academies in Warsaw and Łódź. They have been playing together since 1995, when they began to create their own style - classical music with humour - their own unique musical cabaret. Now the award winning MozART Group is admired all over the world, their DVDs fly off the shelves (and the internet) and each of their YouTube videos is watched by hundreds of thousands and often over a million viewers all around the world. Each year they visit over 20 countries on all the continents.

• Konekt - a new brand of Polishness In Episode 48 we talked about a movement of young dynamic Polish Canadian professionals who have organized 12 annual youth conferences called "Quo Vadis?", which means "Where are you going?”, the last of which was held last fall in Burlington. They had been meeting and talking about the future of Canada’s Polish community until they came up with Konekt, a new young Polish Canadian professionals’ own organization.

Also in this episode: • Greatpoles.pl on Andrzej Panufnik.

• Updates - Marek Probosz: Auschwitz No. 423

• Smacznego! Eating Polish: chicken in lemon sauce

• The Holy Mountain of Grabarka:

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In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • A mission to give voices to those who are not heard Art gives a voice, empowers, returns dignity and changes lives. This is what Anna Rak and the acting school she graduated from in New York believe in. Anna is a Polish actress there who works with inmates - her work has also changed her life. She also aims to give a voice to art communities in New York who have so much to offer and are not heard enough.

• A Polish-Canadian athlete wins gold for Canada in Pyeongchang Alex Kopacz was born in a Polish Canadian family in London, Ontario. At 6 foot 5 (195 cm) you would imagine him in basketball, but Alex is the reigning Olympic co-champion in the two-man bobsleigh event. Together with his pilot they won gold for Canada at this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

• People of African descent in Poland We have heard on POLcast about the experience of people from other countries and ethnicities living in Poland. One person who has actually done solid research in this field is Sarah Grunberg, a sociologist and professor at Ithaca College, New York, who wrote a PhD thesis at the Graduate School for Social Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the University of Warsaw on Race and Identity in the Polish-African Communities of Poland.

Also in this episode: • Greatpoles.pl on Ernest Malinowski.

• Smacznego! Eating Polish: wild mushroom soup

In this episode you will hear: Interviews:

• Polish folk music - the multicultural way Polky Village Band was created by ethnomusiologist, musician and singer from Poland Ewelina Ferenc and consists of Canadian musicians of various ethnic backgrounds. They charm Canadian audiences with Polish fold music and dances.

• Polish-Canadian-Japanese artist's help for Laos, India, and Uganda Sylvia Beauchain lives in Japan, with which she feels very close spiritual connection, and has devoted her life to her two great passions – art and helping those in need, which she has successfully connected to change other people’s lives.

Also in this episode: • The Crooked House in Sopot

• The story of Chopin's heart

• Smacznego! Eating Polish: white fish in horseradish sauce

• The "polska" dance

In this episode you will hear: Interviews:

• An orchestra which saves lives

Since 1993 the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, a non-governmental charity in Poland, has been working tirelessly with one goal in mind "Health Protection and Saving Children's Lives through Providing Medical Equipment to Public Hospitals". It was created by Jurek Owsiak and had millions of followers all over the world. It has recently played in Canada.

• North America's only mayor with Polish roots

Bonnie (Bozena) Crombie, former member of federal parliament and Mississauga councillor, became mayor of Mississauga in 2014 after her predecessor 93-year-old Hazel McCallion stepped down after 36 years in office.

• Success inspired by the 1930s cartoons

Tina Nawrocki is a Canadian illustrator and 2D animator, a lead animator for the highly successful video game Cuphead inspired by cartoons of the 1930s.

Also in this episode: • Episode 1 of "Great Poles" - the first interview produced by our young partners in Poland who produce an English language website greatpoles.pl

• Smacznego! Eating Polish: savoy cabbage

In this episode you will hear: Our POLcast's third award - granted to us by CEMA (Canadian Ethnic Media Association).

Interviews:

• Great Poles - a project by young history buffs A group of ambitious high school students from Poland (and not only) worked for months to create a website called greatpoles.pl which has just been launched. It’s a beautifully prepared English language website featuring great Poles from the past and those who make Poland known around the world today. Stanislaw Borawski, a history buff, is one of the key people behind the Great Poles project.

• How I reconnected with my Polishness Quo Vadis in Latin means “where are you going?”. It is the title of an 1896 iconic historical novel by one of the most famous Polish writers Henryk Sienkiewicz, which contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1905. Young Polish Canadians have adopted this phrase as the title of their conferences. There have been already 12 Quo Vadis conferences, the latest one in Burlington outside Toronto on October 13 and 14, 2017.

We present a continuation of a story we featured in our last Episode 48, when we shared with you the ideas and goals of the young Polonia - Canadians of Polish descent, young professionals, who have created and are continuing a movement called Quo Vadis? POLcast talks to another young Polish Canadian involved in the movement and in organizing those conferences - Louiza Szacon to hear her take on “Polishness”.

• Beyond bravery - the Auschwitz volunteer Marek Probosz is one of the few Poles who made it in Hollywood - actor, director, screenplay writer, university lecturer, who is passionate about history. Among dozens of roles he played, there was one that was very special because this character was a truly extraordinary and heroic human being - captain Witold Pilecki.

Also in this episode: • Wawel Treasures' trip from Poland to Canada and back

• Smacznego! Eating Polish: apple kompot

• Christmas traditions - unconventionally

MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR! WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT i SZCZĘŚLIWEGO NOWEGO ROKU!

In this episode you will hear: Interviews:

• A legend that needed to exist Dariusz Rosiak, a renowned Polish press and radio journalist and author, has just published his 6th book “Biało-czerwony. Tajemnica Sat Okha” (White and red. The secret of Sat Okh).

Sat Okh, Long Feather (c. 1920 – July 3, 2003), was supposedly born to a Polish woman and a native Canadian Shawnee chief, then returned to Poland, where he fought in WW2, worked in the navy and then started his career of informing Poles and other Europeans about the culture and tradition of native Canadians.

• Time for the young Poles in Canada Quo Vadis in Latin means “where are you going?”. It is the title of an 1896 iconic historical novel by one of the most famous Polish writers Henryk Sienkiewicz, which contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1905.

Young Polish Canadians have adopted this phrase as the title of their conferences. There have been already 12 Quo Vadis conferences, the latest one in Burlington outside Toronto on October 13 and 14, 2017.

• Suitcases that change people’s lives Not Just Tourists was founded with the purpose of getting medical supplies to those who can’t afford them in third world countries. Tourists can change the lives of the inhabitants of the countries they visit. POLcast talks to a Polish Canadian whose life has also changed as a result of being involved in this amazing organization.

Also in this episode: * The Bones of the Wawel Dragon * Why a Pole’s politeness can be lost in translation * Smacznego: gluten free pierogi

In this episode you will hear: Interviews:

• Poppies on Canadian graves in Poland Nancy Campbell - a Canadian teacher (an great fan of Poland) who initiated an international collaboration between an elementary school in Poland and an organization out of Edmonton called No Stone Left Alone. She recently visited Krakow to attend an event - the result of this unique partnership between Poland and Canada

• A child's journey from the Arctic to the Equator - Part 2 Irene Tomaszewski - an Ottawa-based writer and editor, talks about the unbelievable story of thousands of Polish children (herself included) traveling from Siberia via Iran and India to Africa during WWII. Part 2 focuses on the African chapter.

• The man who saved our planet Slawomir Grunberg - an Emmy-winning director, documentary producer and superb cinematographer, educated in Poland at the renowned Lodz Polish Film School, working in the US since 1981, author of dozens of award-winning films, talks about the film he made about the late Stanislaw Pietrov, who saved the world in 1983.

Also in this episode: • Being Black In Poland

• Polish Roma (Cyganie)

• "Smacznego! Eating Polish" - salmon salad

• Updates: Andrzej Rozbicki's Polish-Canadian-Cuban story and Filip Terlecki

• Our music for you - the best of Polish Roma music.

In this episode you will hear: Interviews:

• An eye-opening experience of the world of the blind Monika Dybiel - a blind guide from Warsaw's "Invisible Exhibition" talks about this special place and the lives of people who are blind and visually impaired

• "Creative" is the word Filip Terlecki - a Toronto-based filmmaker - director and screenplay writer, founder of a multi-platform production company, talks about his most recent film and working in advertising.

Also in this episode: • How to piss off a Pole

• "Smacznego! Eating Polish" - yummy summer salads

• Updates: Tomasz Kozłowski, Ola Turkiewicz and Marek Probosz

• An interesting Polish music connection - a prewar hit.

In this episode you will hear: Interviews:

• A hero from zero (part 2) Marek Probosz - a Polish success story in Hollywood, where he came for a short visit in 1987 as a big Easter European star - film, television and stage actor in his native Poland with more than 50 starring roles and numerous awards, known across Eastern Europe as the “De Niro of Poland”(part 2 of the interview),

• Polish-Jewish roots turned life mission Peter Jassem - the head of the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation, a dynamic organization in Toronto. An accomplished architect in his day job, he has devoted over a decade of his life to this labour of love.

• Kraków through the young lens Philip Zave - a Toronto artist shares his impressions from Kraków and Auschwitz.

• What shocks foreigners when they visit Poland Wolters World - Mark Wolters travels the world and shares his observations on his YouTube channel. This one is on Poland.

Also in this episode: • Niceties vs. directness in the English and Polish languages

• "Smacznego! Eating Polish" - the amazing summer soup "chłodnik"

• Updates: Tomasz Kozłowski and Andrzej Rozbicki and his "Music and History" program

• An interesting Polish music connection.

In this episode you will hear: Interviews:

• Marek Probosz - a Polish success story in Hollywood, where he came for a short visit in 1987 as a big Easter European star - film, television and stage actor in his native Poland with more than 50 starring roles and numerous awards, known across Eastern Europe as the “De Niro of Poland”(part 1 of the interview),

• John Godson - the first black man in Polish Parliament. He moved from Nigeria to Poland in 1993 and in 2001 received Polish citizenship. A minister, missionary, academic, politician, actor, teacher, businessman, he was first a city councillor in Lodz and then became a member of Parliament.

• A bicultural Polish-Indian family living in Canada.

and

• A brief (and brilliant) history of Poland by Dr. Walter Perchal, York University, Toronto.

Also in this episode: • Differences between a normal friend and a Polish friend

• "Smacznego! Eating Polish" - Polish hamburgers "kotlety siekane"

• Updates: Bart Soroczyński, Ola Turkiewicz and Ron Davis

• An interesting Polish music connection.

In this episode you will hear: * How a young German sees the complicated relationship between Germany and Poland – the past and the present (part 2). * What Canada’s Ambassador to Poland sees as his role in Poland and how he promotes Canada there. * How an extreme sport can lead to much more than an adrenaline rush and records.

Interviews:

• Johannes Schneider - a German, born and educated in Germany, who also lived for a number of years in Austria, now a Canadian, talks about his native country's troubled past - WWII and its relationship with Poland (part 2 of the interview),

• His Excellency Stephen de Boer - Canada’s Ambassador to Poland since December 2015.

• Tomasz Kozłowski - a psychologist by profession, whose life passion is extreme sports - mainly skydiving, mountain rescues. Author.

Also in this episode: • Paradise Cave • Foreigners in Poland - who and why? • "Smacznego! Eating Polish" - traditional pork chops

• Goodbye to one of the best - Zbigniew Wodecki's music

In this episode you will hear: • How a young German sees the complicated relationship between Germany and Poland - the past and the present (part 1).

• How it is possible to master the "impossibly difficult" Polish language when you are British,

• How to travel the world with a young child and have extra fun.

Interviews: • Johannes Schneider - a German, born and educated in Germany, who also lived for a number of years in Austria, now a Canadian, talks about his native country's troubled past - WWII and its relationship with Poland (part 1 of the interview),

• Richard Washington - a Brit, who has lived and worked in Poland for nearly 7 years, fully fluent in Polish, talks about his adventure of learning Polish,

• Sergiusz Pinkwart - a journalist, blogger, author and passionate traveller, specializing in travelling with a child and writing about it with his wife.

Also in this episode: • POLcast's 1st Birthday - our summary

• Roberto, a Maltese radio journalist working in Poland, talks about his experience of living in Poland

• “Smacznego! Eating Polish” - apple raisin cake

• Leonard Cohen in Polish.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations

This is our special episode, made entirely in Poland.

Both Malgorzata and Tomek happened to be in Poland and our separate visits had a few-day overlap. Actually, one of the segments was recorded in Vienna, where Malgorzata travelled to receive a prestigious award - The Golden Owl, often called the Polish Oscars. Hers was in the category of Media, which did include our POLcast as well.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations

In this episode you will hear: * Interviews:

• Ela Kinowska and Piotr Sobierajski – Polish Canadians who are travelling across Canada (now in the North) with their RED COUCH to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada and record of Canadians from coast to coast to coast

• Minister Valerie Adams-Patterson – minister of communities responsible for housing of Guyana and her delegation (including a Polish Canadian and a Guyanese Canadian) on their way to Poland

• Jakub Nagrodzki - a Cambridge University student of medicine and president of the Cambridge University Polish Society, main organizer of the 10th Congress of Polish Student Societies in the UK held at Cambridge University.

Also in this episode:

• The peculiarities of the Polish language - vocabulary traps • Non-Poles about Poles and Poland • “Smacznego! Eating Polish” – delicious strawberry pie • Poles' love for jazz - jazz festivals in Poland.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations

In this episode you will hear: * How a Canadian Jew returned to his native Poland after 75 years. * Why a Polish runner is running 1600 km from Canadian Yukon to Alaska * How a non-Pole got fascinated with Polish WWII history and what this fascination resulted in * Was Christopher Columbus Polish?

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations

In this episode:

How a number of coincidences and one man’s determination have changed the lives of two people living thousands of miles apart and unaware of each other,
About the winter capital of Poland and the centre of the highlanders’ culture,
How a Polish Canadian has been involved in the arts community of Melbourne, Australia.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this special Christmas episode you will hear about Polish traditions and we will play you some beautiful Polish carols. We are making a two week break so that if you have missed any of POLcast episodes, you will be able to catch up during that time. We are coming back after New Year - first Sunday of 2017.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode:

About a Polish Canadian pianist’s mission to revive the music of Holocaust-silenced or exiled Polish Jewish composers
Why the Polish language sounds like one long tongue twister
Why a young Polish Canadian cinematographer chose an unusual career path - From an international cinematography festival to making the right choices

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode:

How a 3 year old boy’s amazement at a grand piano in a shop window led to international musical career
Why Poles are getting a car ready for Tom Hanks
How a community spirit can change lives of refugee families and bring people together.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode:

What is important in studying history - Part two of the interview with an American historian doing research on Poland,
How the Polish language expresses closeness and what is the function of Brudershaft,
How an animal psychologist can help in a court and in protecting animal welfare.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode:

What an animal psychologist can teach us about our love for animals
How a Polish virtuoso pianist and politician is celebrated in the US
How a father’s teaching assignment at Polish universities in the 1980s shaped the life of an American historian specializing in Poland and Eastern Europe.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode:

Part 2 of our interview with a Canadian Polish photographer/author who had unprecedented access to women’s prisons in Afghanistan
More about famous Poles, but this time not ones that we can be proud of.
About a unique underground organization helping the Jews in German occupied Poland during WW2.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * About a Canadian from a Chinese family who got fascinated with Polish history and who feels really at home in... Warsaw * About November the 1st being a very special day for Poles * How a Polish passport helped a Canadian photographer get into places in Afghanistan that are inaccessible to others and what came out of this.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * About Poles as treasure hunters as shown in a BBC film * A Field-marshal of the Ottoman Army and the Governor of Aleppo - what does he have to do with Poland? * What happens when your hunch that you are not who everybody thought you were in finally confirmed.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * * What it’s like to live with a Pole - a foreigner’s take on Poles - part one of our new series * The Polish alphabet - what are all these weird looking letters * That you can and should become a gatherer - a Polish Canadian’s interest in and book about mushrooms and edible plants.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * About a three-language play based on the poetry of Polish Nobel Prize leaureate Wislawa Szymborska premiering in Toronto. * About the only Polish military cemetery in North America. * About a musician’s fascination with Polish Renaissance and Baroque music

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode:

About a Polish Canadian pianist’s mission to revive the music of Holocaust-silenced or exiled Polish Jewish composers;
Why the Polish language sounds like one long tongue twister;
Why a young Polish Canadian cinematographer chose an unusual career path - From an international cinematography festival to making the right choices

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * About a three-language play based on the poetry of Polish Nobel Prize leaureate Wislawa Szymborska premiering in Toronto. * About the only Polish military cemetery in North America. * About a musician’s fascination with Polish Renaissance and Baroque music

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * * Why it was Poles and not other nations that built Hollywood, * How we need to be careful and beware of linguistic traps * About making a documentary about one of the most well-known Poles.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * How Hollywood was created by Poles - research and two books by a renowned American filmmaker/author * That Hell does exist - in Poland * How a British singer sang for Soviet gulag survivors in Poland.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * How the survivors as well as their children and grandchildren preserve the memory of the “Siberian experience”, the part of Polish history still unknown to the world * How a radio show can grow in popularity over 45 years * About the world premiere of the latest film by Andrzej Wajda Powidoki (Afterimage) at the Toronto International Film Festiwal

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * About a Canadian writer who authored two books about the role of Poles in the New World. * What it’s like to grow up in a family haunted by trauma - a book by a Polish American writer

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * About Ludwig, the robot, constructed by a young Polish scientist and his team in Toronto to help people with Alzheimer’s disease * About Poles and drinking - from stereotypes to reality * What it’s like to be a son of the renowned British historian of Poland prof. Norman Davies.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations.

In this episode: * How Polish patriotic songs can be made interesting to the 21st century audiences - * Are young Poles any different from their Canadian peers? * How Poland features in the largest North American festival of Jewish culture - Toronto’s Ashkenaz Festival.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * How a young Canadian musician, a Juno award winner, sees Poland after living and working there * How the inhabitants of Cracow deal with dragons * How a Canadian actor/playwright wrote a play about his Jewish roots after making a visit to Poland which changed his way of thinking about his identity and all he had ever learned about Poland

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * * How an American from Ohio teaches himself Polish * How Poles watch foreign films on TV * How an actor from the Polish town of Opole became a Canadian theatre director and succeeded in building bridges between Poland and Canada

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * * About Lilac Girls and what this mysterious phrase has to do with Poland. * How Canadian teenagers of Polish descent are passionate about Poland

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * About a program which allows talented Polish teenagers to study in best British high schools and then continue their education in top universities in the world. * How a young Canadian filmmaker’s interest in Warsaw made him move there and resulted in a number of documentaries about its past

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * * How a Canadian astronomer of Polish descent has been recording UFO sightings for 27 years. * About something as Polish as storks and Polish vodka * How Poles have embraced Oxford style debates.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * How Polish avant-garde theatre is studied and admired all over the world * How Polish soups are perfect for hot summer days - part one of our biweekly series: Smacznego, Eating Polish * How tragedies from the past can bring people from different cultures together

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * About building bridges with the past and across cultures * What you need to know when you are invited to a meal in a Polish home * About being a Pole Down Under - the Aussie perspective * About Arabs from Poland

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode:

How a passion for Polish food has turned into a successful business for a Polish-American couple,
How an immigrant from Poland created a cosmetics empire in the US,
How a 92-year-old, young at heart Polich American created an amazing art oasis in Montana.

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * Where in Poland you can have a beer in a cellar as old as mediewal crusades * How history is not just about the past * How we celebrated the POLcast launch at the Polish Consulate with great guests and fantastic musicians

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * What city you should definitely visit in Poland and what a unique place you will find there * How a Canadian Polish vocalist has become a star in Poland, the country she left as a child * More about Polish food and language - how a kind of restaurant that all Poles know and like would make no sense in English

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * About a very special connection between a book and a unique album by a world class Polish jazz pianist; * How a Pole played a huge role on the road to the smart watches of today; * How a family of circus artists brought up an actor who has acted in five languages in theatres in many countries, including The Royal Shakespeare Company

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * * What is jazz to one of the greatest jazz musicians, born in Poland, living in the US and Canada; * How being a woman at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries did not stop a Polish scientist from winning two Nobel prizes; * How can young people make a difference, according to a young Polish Canadian living and working in Brussels; * Why a Canadian without Polish roots plans to retire in Poland and is studying the Polish language

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * How the Polka dance is not what it seems to be * Why some Canadians invest so much time and effort to learn Polish? * How a photographer sees her work in our image obsessed world * How a famous Polish immigrant helped to change Canada

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode:

How an American professor remembers his three years in Poland which included martial law
What Polish invention is commonly used in electronics, and
How a Polish Canadian jazz vocalist decided to live in Poland

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode:

Why the Polish language is perfect for talking to your lover
How being a genius pianist helped in inventing car parts
Why two American girls think it's cool to be bilingual
How a seminar for curious Polish Americana and Canadians led to a unique online publication

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * Poles and their mushrooms * One man’s dream to reverse the Tower of Babel * How the twenty-first century engineering and Renaissance meet in Toronto * What Poles and aboriginal peoples have in common * Kobzy – Polish back-pipes

For full length interviews, visuals and a lot of additional information please visit our website at myPOLcast.com

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet. If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode:

Why a young, successful British singer sings about Polish history and everybody loves it.
How is it to grow up in a Polish-Persian family.
How a Polish pharmacist invented a process which produces gasoline.
Why the Polish language is special when it comes to talking to your lover.
About Poland export specialties: vodka, beer and... bison.

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * Polish idioms * Canadian jazz musican and his incredible story that joins art, family mystery and Poland (part 2) * Cabbage – the Polish way * An extraordinary four-legged soldier * Can you guess this sound from Poland?

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * Husaria – about our logo * Canadian jazz musican and his incredible story that joins art, family mystery and Poland * Why the Polish language is so difficult * How best to see the whole of Canada: by cycling from the Pacific to the Atlantic * Can you guess this sound from Poland?

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..

In this episode: * “All that Jazz” – about our tagline and POLcast * “No mean Yes” in Polish * “Music and History” – how young Canadians experience LIVING HISTORY in Poland. * “Dogs’ blood” – can swear words be funny?

POLcast is the FIRST EVER English language podcast about Poland and Poles around the world. It's a colourful weekly audio magazine delivered directly to your computer, smartphone or tablet.

If you have a Polish customer, colleague, girlfriend or grandmother – you will hear something that will help you to enrich these relations..