PURE

31 perc 4. évad 1. rész Culture.pl, Stories From The Eastern West

Chernobyl had cast a shadow over our childhoods. It was reportedly the cause of all the chronic diseases we’d struggled with. In the summer of 2018, we went there.

We wanted to walk into the belly of the beast, to debunk any nonsense around it. To hear about the doom, catastrophes, and everyday struggles.

But what we came back with was something else entirely – a beautiful and uplifting tale about love. Love for home, love for nature, love for people. Something stronger than the biggest nuclear accident in the history of humankind.

With uncertain times ahead of us all… it has given us the hope that we can overcome a whole lot, if only we care.

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If you happen to be a Russian speaker, you can listen to the original (Russian) version of this episode.

Time stamps

[00:00] Why we went to Chernobyl
[05:50] We find Evgeny, a former teacher
[07:57] ‘In 1986, nobody expected it...‘
[09:11] People weren’t informed about the disaster
[10:11] The evacuation of Chernobyl
[11:55] Evgeny returns to Chernobyl for the first time
[14:19] Evacuation centre dilemmas
[16:45] Chernobyl clean up
[20:45] Evgeny returns for good (and bad)
[24:40] Did other people try to come back?
[25:49] Living in Chernobyl in 2018

More about Chernobyl

4 rooms // a sound art project showing you what the empty spaces of Chernobyl sound like
Drone fly-by // see Chernobyl’s abandoned places for yourself from a bird’s-eye perspective
Haunting Images // a photo gallery with photos taken by Lasse Damgaard
The Babushkas of Chernobyl // a documentary movie about a group of older ladies living in a distant corner of the exclusion zone

Credits

Written & produced by Żenia Klimakin & Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Nick White & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner, Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Guitars by Michał Przerwa-Tetmajer
Special thanks: State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, Ygor Egorov, Serhyi Dmytriyev, Julia Kononenko

Announcing Season III

1 perc 4. évad 43. rész Culture.pl, Stories From The Eastern West

This year, we've travelled to the far reaches of the globe for you: we went deep down into the Chernobyl Exclusion zone, visited New Zealand, and went back in time and space to deliver yet another set of stories that changed our world.

Stay tuned: the first episode drops July 16th!

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PUPPETS

24 perc 3. évad 8. rész Culture.pl

In 1938, Hitler's forces marched into Czechoslovakia, a country that had only gained its independence two decades earlier. A puppeteer named Josef Skupa was ready to fight back with the help of Spejbl and Hurvínek – a father son duo of wooden puppets. Because the Nazi German occupiers didn't seem to take puppets very seriously, Skupa's theatre in Pilsen was able to put on satirical performances that directly referred to the occupation and gave ordinary Czechs hope that one day things would be better. Eventually Skupa's luck would run out – the Gestapo even arrested his puppet duo. But all three were destined to become household names in the Czech Republic, a country that takes its puppets seriously...

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Time stamps

00:48] Imagine if Kermit the frog took on the Third Reich
[02:12] Josef Skupa and Kašpárek farewell the Austrio-Hungarian Empire
[04:36] A modern kind of puppet theatre
[07:25] Spejbl and Hurvínek battle Nazi insects
[08:30] Munich Conference and Carousel over Three Floors
[11:44] Voničky and Long Live the Future
[14:50] Death threats and a final anti-fascist play
[16:28] Arrest of Skupa and his puppets
[17:58] Escape from prison, Spejbl and Hurvínek rescued from the trash
[20:51] Legacy of Josef Skupa and his puppets
[21:43] Puppet-making workshop with Mirek and Leah
[23:21] Credits

Further watching

Spejbl goes Mushroom Hunting // short episode from the 1974 bedtime series Return of Spejbl and Hurvinek, voiced by Josef Skupa's protege Miloś Kirchner. On Ceskatelevize.cz (Czech only)

Further visiting

Spejbl and Hurvinek Theatre // Puppet theatre in Prague opened by Josef Skupa in 1945 as a continuation of his theatre in Pilsen. They hold regular shows for kids and families.
Plzeň Puppet Museum // Puppet museum located in the historic centre of Plzeň (Pilsen), the town where Josef Skupa opened his first theatre and the birthplace of Spejbl and Hurvínek.
Puppets in Prague // Puppet-making workshop in Prague run by Mirek Trejtner and Leah Gaffen. Temporarily being run online.

Credits

Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Wojtek Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Thanks

We’d like to thank Denisa Kirchnerova from the Spejbl and Hurvinek theatre in Prague, Tomáš Pfejfer, curator at the Puppet Museum in Pilsen, and Nina Malikowa for sharing their knowledge about Josef Skupa and his performances during WWII.

Thanks also to Leah Gaffen and Mirek Trejtner from Puppets in Prague for talking to us and inviting Piotr to their skeleton-making workshop.

Lastly, a special thanks to Jitka Rohanova from the Polish Institute in Prague for her help in making the episode.

WITNESS

25 perc 3. évad 7. rész Culture.pl

Back in 2019, we got the chance to interview Anastasija Gulej. She was 95 at the time, living a happy life in one of Kyiv's suburbs. If you didn’t know her, you’d never tell be able to tell that she wakes up every day with the horrors of her past. Her past as an Auschwitz-Birkenau inmate.

Anastasija was already 18 years old when she was taken there, which makes her memories especially valuable. She remembers things perfectly clearly, she understood what was going around her, she knew what it was.

We strongly believe that keeping the memories of such events in mind is our duty, even more so now, when most of the people who could remember it are gone.

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Time stamps

[01:29] Beginning of the war
[05:22] The first time Anastasija was afraid
[07:31] Auschwitz-Birkenau
[15:56] The Death March
[20:17] Liberation. Bergen-Belsen Camp
[22:25] Post scriptum
[24:19] Credits

Further watching

Zofia Posmysz: Memory That Will Save Us // on Culture.pl
Preserving Memory: The Conservation of Auschwitz-Birkenau // on Culture.pl
Preserving Memory: The Barracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau // on Culture.pl
Preserving Memory: The Art of Auschwitz-Birkenau // on Culture.pl

Credits

Written and produced by Wojciech Oleksiak & Żenia Klimakin
Edited by Wojciech Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

WITCHES

24 perc 3. évad 6. rész Culture.pl, filmmaker Clara Kleininger

‘Romania today is possibly the only European country where you can bump into a witch at the supermarket.’

The history of witches in Europe is a tumultuous and violent one. Always on the margins of society and in opposition to any form of hierarchy, their presence sparked fear and prejudice which led to prosecutions and witch hunts. But unbeknownst to many, their traditions have outlasted all of this. In Romania, the 21st century has turned out to be a surprisingly good time for witches.

As a child, Clara learned that they could make anything happen. As a grown up, she had a few questions about it all and decided to knock on a witch’s door. But interviewing a witch turned out not to be so simple...

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Time stamps

[01:08] The spell
[02:09] Ball lightning
[07:14] Clara & her grandmother try to interview a witch
[12:51] Clara & Monika team up
[13:51] The most powerful witch in southeastern Europe
[15:21] What a witch can do
[16:30] Back to square one
[23:00] Credits

Further watching

Witchcraft in Romania // video on VICE Asia Youtube channel

Credits

Written & produced by Monika Proba & Clara Kleininger
Edited by Wojciech Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Thanks

A huge thanks to Mrs. Ardelanca and her daughter for foreseeing only good events.

LUNAR

35 perc 3. évad 5. rész Culture.pl, director Andrzej Zulawski, actor Andrzej Seweryn, cameraman Andrzej Jaroszewicz

In the summer of 1976, the late Polish film director Andrzej Żuławski, responsible for infamous cult classics such as The Devil (1972) and Possession (1981), was given a green light to shoot the most expensive film ever made in Poland. On the Silver Globe was meant to be a massively ambitious science-fiction epic set on the Moon, showing the birth of a new civilisation, and produced without the benefit of modern special effects. But things didn't quite go to plan.

The huge ambitions of a temperamental and demanding director combined with the financial and technological realities of 1970s Poland meant that the production faced an uphill battle from the first day of shooting. But with over 70% of the film already shot, and the end almost in sight, On the Silver Globe unexpectedly fell victim to the whims of a Communist Party hardliner and was relegated to cinematic history.

How do you make a space opera without Hollywood special effects in a state-run economy? What were the crew doing in Mongolia? Who was Janusz Wilhelmi and why did he shut down the production? And does the story ultimately have a happy ending?

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Time stamps

[01:24] Intro
[02:56] Flying to the Moon
[05:10] Economic strife & a controversial director
[07:20] Making a space opera without special effects
[10:09] The Gobi Desert as the Moon
[12:10] Production delays & cost overruns
[16:15] Script changes & Hamlet monologues
[18:37] A burning Shern
[22:03] Wilhelmi arrives on the scene
[25:55] ‘It’s over, lads.’
[29:38] Is this how the story ends?
[33:54] Credits

Further watching

On The Silver Globe // fragment of the film after digital restoration, on Kadr Film Studio’s Youtube channel.

Further visiting

CETA Audiovisual Technology Centre// If you happen to be in the beautiful South-West city of Wrocław, you can visit the building that used to house the Wrocław film studio, which served as a base for the film, as well as such classics as The Saragossa Manuscript by Wojciech Jerzy Has. These days it houses a state-of the art special effects studio, but remains the home of the surviving costumes and props from On the Silver Globe.

Credits

Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Wojtek Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Thanks

We'd like to thank Andrzej Jaroszewicz, Andrzej Seweryn, Stefan Kurzyp, and Jerzy Śnieżawski for talking to us. Many thanks also to Daniel Bird for guiding us through the strange world that is On the Silver Globe. And lastly, a special thanks to Maria Duffek, costume designer at the CETA audiovisual technology centre in Wrocław for her help and extensive knowledge.

ORPHANS

33 perc 3. évad 4. rész Culture.pl, Polish Embassy in Wellington

After the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east in 1939, many thousands of Polish families were deported to Siberian forced labour camps. There they not only faced bitter cold but constant hunger. Then Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and the families that were now allowed to leave tried to get as far south as possible. In many cases, only their children made it all the way to safety in Iran. Some Polish orphans were resettled in places like South Africa and Mexico, but a group of 700 would end up travelling on a US Navy ship to the small island nation of New Zealand, on the other side of the world.

How did the children survive their perilous journey from Siberia to Iran, and end up in a place called Pahiatua in the New Zealand countryside? How did they adjust to a new life surrounded by sheep and cattle, and what happened when the camp they had begun to call home was finally shut down for good?

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Time stamps

[02:10] Deportation from Eastern Poland to Siberia
[06:15] Everyday life in the Labour Camps
[09:30] The USSR joins the allies, amnesty, and getting out of Russia
[12:08] The Polish Army gathers orphans from the countryside
[14:30] Arrival in Pahlavi and Isfahan
[16:25] Iran becomes dangerous and the children need to be resettled
[17:05] Leaving for New Zealand on a US Navy Transporter
[18:45] Arrival in Wellington and the camp in Pahiatua
[21:21] Life in the countryside
[23:49] The NZ government takes over caring for the children
[25:18] Settling down, finding careers and getting married
[28:03] Living the two cultures side by side
[28:50] The arrival of Stefania's parents
[30:30] Finding your place in the world

Credits

Written, produced & presented by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Thanks

This episode was produced with help from the Embassy of Poland in Wellington. We'd like to extend many thanks to Ambassador Zbigniew Gniatkowski and Anna Gołębicka-Buchanan for helping us get in touch with the protagonists of our episode. We'd also like to say thank you to Stanisław Manterys, Malwina Zofia Rubisz Schwieters and Jozef and Stefania Zawada for telling us their story, and to Karolina Palej for her assistance.

NAM

28 perc 3. évad 3. rész Culture.pl, Hai Bui Ngoc, Krystyna Starczewska,

As much as The People’s Republic of Poland may seem a distant country hidden behind the Iron Curtain, it was an open and welcoming one... towards other socialist states. Student exchange programmes were one of the many ways of building international socialist partnerships.

The Vietnam War was just ending when Hai ‘Nam’ Bui Ngoc had reached university. He was one of the few lucky ones given a chance to travel to the other side of the world to study ship building. After a few weeks spent travelling by train from Hanoi to Warsaw, he saw everything other than what he had imagined. But this was only the beginning of his incredible journey...

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Time stamps

[01:08] What does Nam mean?
[02:09] The end of the world: growing up during the Vietnam War
[07:14] Moving to Poland to study shipbuilding
[12:51] Vietnamese secret agents appear
[13:51] Becoming a guru
[15:21] Love
[16:30] Escape
[20:44] 'What saved me was a hand'
[23:22] Asylum in France
[24:13] Problems in heaven & a difficult return to Poland
[25:36] Where home is

Credits

Written & produced by Monika Proba
Edited by Wojciech Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

SHIPYARD

29 perc 3. évad 2. rész Culture.pl, Joanna Duda-Gwiazda, Andrzej Gwiazda, Henryka Krzywonos, Aleksander Maślankiewicz, Halina Lewna

In August 1980, after the firing of popular shipyard worker, Anna Walentynowicz, a strike broke out at the Vladimir Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. Suddenly this massive complex on the Polish coast, with 16,000 employees and of huge strategic importance for the Polish economy, was under worker occupation, and every day other workplaces in Gdańsk and around the country started joining in.

Very soon the communist leadership in Warsaw realised that this wasn't just another strike they could snuff out with promised pay rises, or indeed by force. As for the shipyard workers, they realised that this was a chance to force the government to accept something they had long been fighting for… trade unions that were independent from the state, and run by the workers themselves…

So who exactly was Anna Walentynowicz and how did her firing provoke a strike that took hold of the country? Why did Henryka Krzywonos stop her tram on a busy intersection in Gdańsk? How did a shipyard become a focal point for the battle for freedom and democracy? Did the strikers ultimately get what they were fighting for?

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Time stamps

[01:02] 1980s Poland: a country on the verge of a revolution
[05:09] The strike starts at the shipyard...
[07:19] ...and spreads to other workplaces in Gdańsk
[12:10] How it looked from the other side of the fence
[13:39] The strike becomes a country-wide protest
[17:05] The protesters meet with the government delegation
[22:00] The Gdańsk Agreement is signed
[23:45] 'Solidarity' is founded by members of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee
[27:40] Credits

Further watching

Who is Anna Walentynowicz? // an hour-long documentary about Anna Walentynowicz and the 1980 strikes (Polish/German with English subtitles)
Robotnicy 1980 // a documentary about the strikes and negotiations at the Gdańsk shipyard (Polish only)

Further visiting

Stocznia jest kobietą - Shipyard is (a) female // a mobile app and audio tour that lets you discover the history of the Gdańsk shipyards through the eyes of the women who worked there. Android phone users can find it here.
European Solidarity Centre // a museum in Gdańsk dedicated to the shipyard and the history of the Solidarity movement.
Anna Walentynowicz Exhibition // a special exhibit on the grounds of the shipyard dedicated to the work and activism of Anna Walentynowicz. Presented in the shed she used to work in.
The Institute of Urban Culture in Gdansk // free walking tours of the shipyard and other historic areas in Gdańsk.

Credits

Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Wojtek Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner, Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

Many thanks to Joanna Duda-Gwiazda and Andrzej Gwiazda, Henryka Krzywonos, Aleksander Maślankiewicz, Halina Lewna and everybody else we spoke to along the way during the making of this episode.

And a special thanks to Anna Miller from the Arteria Association and Metropolitanka Group in Gdańsk, for her knowledge and assistance.

Also be sure to check out our special mini-series on the democratic revolutions of 1989: The Final Curtain. You can also find it in our feed.

EWA & LENA

14 perc 3. évad 12. rész Culture.pl, The Final Curtain

How a teen's letter to a stranger in the Soviet Union led to a long-distance friendship that has lasted decades.

Like many teens growing up in the People’s Republic of Poland, Ewa decided to send a letter to a stranger in the Soviet Union. Lena from Moscow wrote back to her, and they quickly found they had a lot in common, including a love of both dogs and Vysotsky records.

They continued writing as they entered new phases in their lives. They began careers, started families, and of course there were the revolutions that changed everything around them from communist to capitalist. And they're still writing today... forty years later.

How did Ewa find her penpal? Did the 1989 revolutions affect their friendship? And why have they never met? Find out in this episode of The Final Curtain.

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Click here to listen to the Polish version of this episode!

Time stamps

[01:35] How Ewa found Lena
[03:48] Instant friends
[06:38] Exchanging gifts by post
[08:49] The fall of communism
[11:58] Still writing, but will they ever meet?

Credits

Written & produced by Monika Proba
Edited by Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

KAIE

18 perc 3. évad 11. rész Culture.pl, musician Kaie Tanner, The Final Curtain

How a giant communal song festival helped Estonians regain independence from the USSR. Part of our mini-series The Final Curtain.

In the Estonia Kaie Tanner grew up in, learning Russian at school was compulsory, and her mother and her friends often sang 'forbidden songs' at home – Estonian folk songs that the Soviet authorities disapproved of. Music was a huge part of her life, but she didn't expect that it could help her country win independence. But in 1987, when Kaie Tanner attended the massive Estonian Singing festival as a teenager, something unexpected happened. After the officially sanctioned event had finished, the hundreds of thousands of Estonians stayed and kept singing their own Estonian folk songs all through the night – and the Soviet authorities were powerless to stop them.

What was the Singing Revolution? How did it lead to the independence of Estonia and the other Baltic states? Was it possible for Estonia's Russian- and Estonian-speaking citizens to finally move on from past resentments? Find out in this episode of The Final Curtain.

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Time stamps

[02:07] A childhood in Soviet-dominated Estonia
[06:27] How Estonians tried to sing their country into independence
[10:01] Was the USSR military intervention successful?
[12:38] Independence! Kaie becomes a music teacher
[14:53] A country comprised of two peoples
[18:24] Credits

Thanks

This episode was produced with help from the Embassy of Poland in Tallinn. We'd like to extend many thanks to Ambassador Grzegorz Kozłowski, who kindly greenlighted our co-operation, and to Sławomira Borowska-Peterson, who helped us understand Estonian history, society and reality much better.

Credits

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

PETRILA

21 perc 3. évad 10. rész Culture.pl, The Final Curtain, artist Ion Barbu, miner Cenusa Catalin

How a Romanian mining town that lost its mine fought to turn its remains into a cultural hub.

In our second and final episode on Ion Barbu and the town of Petrila, we learn how the mine, the town's main employer, was unable to achieve profitability in the new era of capitalism and was closed down for good. Ion had spent 15 years of his life at the mine, and for him and many others it was more than just a place of work. So when the mine's crumbling buildings were in line for demolition, Ion decided to try and save them by using art to revitalise the town.

What happened to the town once the mine closed? Did Ion manage to save the buildings of the former mine? What happened next? Find out in this episode of The Final Curtain.

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Time stamps

[01:23] Why the mine was closed?
[03:07] Meeting another miner: Cenusa Catalin
[09:55] Ion gives us a tour around a gallery in Deva
[11:30] What does the process of closing a mine look like?
[16:26] Ion gives us a tour around the Plumber's Museum
[19:05] The many more museums that Ion wants to open
[20:38] Credits

Credits

Written & produced by Monika Proba
Clara Kleininger was our associate producer for this story
Edited by Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

ION

19 perc 3. évad 9. rész Culture.pl, artist Ion Barbu, The Final Curtain

How a Romanian miner made political caricatures at a time when making fun of the country's leadership could mean a visit from the secret police.

After finishing university in 1978, Ion Barbu was assigned to the Petrila mine as a topographer. He only intended to be there briefly, but despite attempting other jobs such as local reporter and museum curator, he ended up staying at the mine for the next 15 years...

How did Ion balance being both a miner and a political caricaturist? What happened when the secret police arrested him for mocking the Romanian president? How does he recall the sudden and violent fall of the Ceaușescu regime? Find out in this episode of The Final Curtain.

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Time stamps

[02:04] How Ion became a miner...
[05:04] ... and a caricaturist
[09:50] The Securitate, the dreaded secret police of communist Romania
[12:34] How did the political changes look from inside the Petrila mine?
[16:47] Ion explains why 'We should say goodbye to the past laughing'
[18:42] Credits

Credits

Written & produced by Monika Proba
Clara Kleininger was our associate producer for this story
Edited by Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
The last song was performed by Fanfara Minerilor din Cavnic

IRYNA

19 perc 3. évad 8. rész Culture.pl, The Final Curtain, radio journalist Irina Tkachenko

How a single mother in Kyiv experienced the end of the USSR and survived the harsh economic realities of life in post-communist Ukraine in the early 1990s. Part of our mini-series The Final Curtain.

Iryna Tkachenko is a music conservatory graduate and journalist who became a single mother just a couple of years before the demise of the Soviet Union and the political and economic turbulence that followed the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Her wage as a radio journalist wasn't really enough to survive, but after the complete collapse of the Ukrainian economy, you were considered lucky to have a job at all. She bought clothes at second-hand shops and travelled to Moscow to buy things that you couldn't get in the mostly empty stores of Kyiv. She took on extra jobs and did whatever she could to survive but never lost her positive outlook on life.

How did Iryna end up selling toy cars on the streets of Kyiv? How did she and her friends react to the putsch of August 1991? How did she cope with the early days of capitalism? Find out in this episode of The Final Curtain.

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Time stamps

[01:10] An unusual single mom
[06:00] How Iryna became a businesswoman... for one day only
[07:50] The August Coup & the uncertainty it brought on
[11:17] Why didn't she go to work abroad?
[14:15] And what was she doing instead?
[19:10] Credits

Credits

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak & Żenia Klimakin
Edited by Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

EDGAR & MICHAEL

22 perc 3. évad 7. rész Culture.pl, Distel Kabarett, The Final Curtain

How East Berlin's leading political cabaret tried to get their message through despite strict state censorship... and what happened when the system they were laughing at ceased to exist.

For the citizens of the GDR, laughter was often the best medicine when dealing with the absurdities of the political system they lived under. And if you were a resident of East Berlin, there was no better place than Kabarett Distel (meaning 'thorn' in German).

The content of Kabarett Distel shows was strictly censored, so performers had to find clever ways to fully communicate with their audience – who would be focussed on every word and facial expression. Even if it was likely that the Stasi secret police was watching. As the regime began to crumble, late 1980s members of the cabaret joined other East Germans on the streets to demand democratic reforms.

How did the cabaret respond to the tumultuous events of 1989 and the opening of the Berlin Wall? How did Kabarett Distel adapt to the new democratic reality, where you were suddenly free to say what you like? Find out in this episode of The Final Curtain.

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Time stamps

[01:01] Laughing at the system
[06:00] Testing the boundaries of censorship
[10:13] The final years of the GDR
[12:43] The fall of the Berlin Wall and what it meant for Kabarett Distel
[14:32] Unification, scandal & the Stasi
[18:22] Staying relevant & funny in a free system
[19:59] Almost time to pack our suitcases

Credits

Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

TYMON

18 perc 3. évad 6. rész Culture.pl, The Final Curtain, musician Ryszard Tymon Tymański

Meet the headstrong musician who's been viciously rebelling against both of the systems he lived under... and created some truly worthwhile art along the way.

Tymon Tymanski came of age in the 1980s, probably the bleakest years of the communist regime. Much like teenagers in the West, he turned to punk rock and artistic rebellion as a way of protesting the stagnation of the society he lived in. He met like-minded young people at the University of Gdańsk, played in various bands, and formed the avant-garde art group Totart, whose absurd, and often obscene, performances and happenings aimed to provoke disorder and outrage. Then, in 1989, the whole system came tumbling down. Like other artists, Tymon had to adapt to the new reality of total artistic freedom and economic uncertainty.

How did Tymon and his band Miłość (Love) end up creating a whole new musical genre? What did the arrival of free-market capitalism in the 1990s mean for artists and musicians? Is it possible to remain uncompromising as an artist and still pay the bills?

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Time stamps

[01:25] Coming of age in the 1980s
[04:08] The origins of Totart
[06:12] Absurdity & transgression
[08:43] 1989 & the end of censorship
[10:48] A new band & a new music genre
[13:29] Disillusionment & surviving as an artist

Credits

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Adam Zulawski
Music by Tymon Tymański, Sni Sredstvom Za Uklanianie, Tymon Tymański & The Transistors, and Totart
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

JACEK

24 perc 3. évad 5. rész Culture.pl, musician Jacek Kleyff, The Final Curtain,

How a banned singer-songwriter became an unwilling musical hero through his home-copied cassettes.

Jacek Kleyff was an increasingly popular topical songwriter in 1970s Poland. But he was unwilling to bend to the demands of the communist state's censorship, so the authorities reacted by banning him from appearing in public, including radio and TV. But he didn't stop recording, and his songs, circulated through the underground on home-made cassettes, became anthems for the Polish democratic opposition.

What did Jacek do when he was blacklisted by the communist authorities? How did he become a cult figure within the Polish opposition? What did he do when the regime fell? Find out in the latest episode of The Final Curtain.

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Click here to listen to the Polish version of this episode!

Time stamps

[01:25] Coming of age during the grim 1970s in Poland
[03:56] Jacek founds the Salon of Independents and becomes an oppositionist
[06:23] Salon gets banned, Jacek goes on to play solo
[09:57] Jacek writes a song which... starts a revolution
[15:22] Jacek gets banned for life and casts himself away...
[18:15] ... but still makes some noise from the underground
[20:35] The system's gone. What does it mean for Jacek?

Credits

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Special thanks to Lauren Dubowski for her brilliant translation of 'Sejm'

SIEGBERT

24 perc 3. évad 4. rész Culture.pl, The Final Curtain, journalist Siegbert Scheffke

How an East German cameraman filmed the first major demonstrations in the GDR from the top of a church steeple in Leipzig. A month later, East Germany would effectively cease to exist. Part of our mini-series The Final Curtain.

Siegbert Schefke was officially unemployed after being fired from his job as a building engineer. Unofficially, he began to arrange for diplomats to smuggle videotapes from East Germany to be broadcast on West German TV stations. As it happens, most East Germans could also pick up Western TV on their receivers. Siegbert didn't really know how to use a video camera, but that didn't really matter, what mattered was that the world could see what was really going on behind the Wall.

How did Siegbert and his friend Aram Radomski end up filming the first major protest in the GDR on 9th October 1989? How did they outfox the Stasi and get the footage to the West? Find out in the newest episode of The Final Curtain.

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Time stamps

[01:08] Born in the GDR
[03:50] From part-time revolutionary to full-time revolutionary
[06:22] Smuggling videotapes to the West
[08:40] Foreign diplomats & secret codes
[11:11] The Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig
[14:27] Making history
[18:22] The day the Berlin Wall fell
[21:12] What next?

Credits

Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

WOJCIECH

23 perc 3. évad 3. rész Culture.pl, The Final Curtain, activist & businessman Wojciech Stawiszyński

How Polish opposition activists began transmitting their own pirate radio and 'hacked' communist-run state TV. Part of our mini-series The Final Curtain.

Wojciech Stawiszyński was an opposition activist, who suddenly found himself in charge of running Radio Solidarność, a mobile radio station that would be the voice of the pro-democracy Solidarity movement. Their success depended on a sophisticated game of cat and mouse with the authorities, with each broadcast taking place at a new location.

In the darkest period of martial law, they had to resort to incredibly complicated ways of operating, funding, broadcasting and even communicating with each other.

Did they make it through? Did they manage to outmaneuver the communist secret services? What happened when communism was gone? Find out in the latest episode of The Final Curtain.

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Click here to listen to the Polish version of this episode!

Time stamps

[01:08] How Wojciech found himself in charge of the outlawed Radio Solidarność
[03:50] How do you reach listeners when the secret police is on your back?
[05:55] Radio Solidarność programme content
[09:05] Outsmarting the communist regime with technology
[14:35] Hardships and low points
[16:42] How to live a dangerous dual life
[20:36] Adjusting to capitalism after 1989

Credits

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Music by Blue Note Sessions
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

CHRIS

19 perc 3. évad 2. rész Culture.pl, The Final Curtain, photographer Chris Niedenthal

How a photographer from London gave the rest of the world a glimpse of everyday life behind the Iron Curtain. Part of our mini-series The Final Curtain.

The Polish-British photographer Chris Niedenthal found himself in the heart of Communist Poland in the 1970s and 80s, documenting both how ordinary people lived, as well as the major political events leading up to the collapse of the Soviet-backed regime.

His photographs ended up in major Western periodicals, such as Newsweek, Time, Der Spiegel and Forbes. Through his camera, he created a window into the Polish People's Republic for the rest of the world to peer through.

His iconic photograph of an armoured vehicle in front of a poster for the film ‘Apocalypse Now’, taken after martial law was declared in Poland, remains one of the defining images of the period – but how did he end up taking it, and what happened next?

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Time stamps

[01:07] How he came to Poland
[04:15] The election of John Paul II and how it changed Chris’ life
[05:30] Martial law and Chris’ most iconic photo
[10:04] Other revolutions Chris witnessed and photographed
[12:59] How he happened to be the first photographer to shoot the fall of the Berlin Wall
[16:00] What did Chris do after communism had ended?

Credits

Written & produced by Monika Proba
Edited by Adam Zulawski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski
Music by Blue Dot Sessions & SIR HARDLY NOBODY (Chris Niedenthal's band)

ZBIGNIEW

25 perc 3. évad 1. rész Culture.pl, The Final Curtain, activist Zbigniew Bujak

How a well-known opposition leader evaded capture by the communist authorities for almost five years. Part of our mini-series The Final Curtain.

In the early 1980s, Zbigniew Bujak was the head of Solidarity in the Warsaw region, a pro-democratic labour movement that was gaining in strength. So much so, in fact, that the communist leadership declared martial law in December 1981 in order to stop the opposition dead in its tracks. Hundreds of political activists were arrested, including much of the leadership of Solidarity. But Bujak managed to go into hiding before they had a chance to find him. Making use of an underground oppositionist network as well as methods of masking his movements, he managed to evade capture for five years.

Keeping Zbigniew in hiding became crucial for the underground opposition since not only was he orchestrating anti-regime actions, but his continued freedom remained a symbol of the secret police’s weakness.

How did his hiding end? What was the long-term impact of his activity? What did freedom mean for Bujak himself? How does he remember the shift of power from his own perspective? You’ll find all the answers in the opening episode of Stories From The Eastern West’s new mini-series The Final Curtain.

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Click here to listen to the Polish version of this episode!

Time stamps

[01:45] Life in 1970s Poland
[04:51] Zbigniew Bujak starts his anti-regime activities
[09:47] Martial law
[11:25] Going into hiding
[17:17] Arrest. What next?
[19:37] Glasnost: what it means, and what it meant for Poles
[22:37] Communism is gone. Who takes over now?

Credits

Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Adam Zulawski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

Announcing: The Final Curtain

1 perc 3. évad 30. rész Culture.pl, Stories From The Eastern West

THE FINAL CURTAIN: a new series of personal tales from the Eastern Bloc’s demise. Launching August 23rd in the Stories From The Eastern West feed!

The year 1989 saw a big change. All of Central and Eastern Europe took a U-turn within less than three years and transformed from the grey land behind the Iron Curtain into several independent, quickly developing, free market democracies.

The team behind Stories From The Eastern West is marking this occasion with The Final Curtain, a special mini-series featuring personal tales from the Eastern Bloc’s transformation.

Through these remarkable accounts told by people who lived through circumstances we would now hardly believe, The Final Curtain offers an important snapshot of a pivotal moment in Europe’s history.

Find out more on SFTEW.com as well as our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can also sign up for our newsletter.

CRACKED

26 perc 2. évad 10. rész Culture.pl, Wili Miettinen, Taneli Tikka

Finland + technology = Nokia, doesn’t it? Yes, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Finland is responsible for many technological breakthroughs from the last couple decades, such as the SSH cybersecurity protocol used on over half of the world’s web servers, and Internet Relay Chat, which people born in the 1980s will remember as the first instant messenger.

But back in the early 1990s, Finland’s tech scene was mostly just a lot of teenagers pirating software illegally. They would code at squat parties filled with cigarette smoke. None of the glossy corporate world that lay ahead was on anybody’s mind.

In this episode, Molly Schwartz, who lived there for almost two years, goes on a journey to the roots of Finland’s tech transformation. She dives deep into 8-bit music, pixelated computer screens and the days when games were distributed on C-cassettes. Just how did this small, cold, dark and sparsely-populated country become an IT powerhouse?

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Time stamps

[02:26] Wili Miettinen runs away from home and starts coding and… pirating
[03:58] What were the beginnings of the Demoscene?
[06:45] Demoparties!
[08:28] Why was it so difficult to create demos back in the early 1990s?
[09:39] Demosceners start using their skills to make money...
[12:28] … and serious business players take notice
[14:40] Introducing Taneli Tikka
[17:40] Taneli Tikka invents proto-Twitter
[19:28] The demoscenes’ impact on the startup scene
[23:02] Molly’s final monologue
[24:45] Credits & thanks

Further watching

Second Reality PC Demo by Future Crew / on YouTube.com
Making Of Second Reality / Future Crew / on YouTube.com

Thanks

Wili Miettinen / for telling us about his personal experiences throughout his long career and how the tech industry grew out of squats and parties. You can find him on Twitter (where his username is, of course, OG): @wili
Taneli Tikka / for talking to us about his experiences at Assembly as a teenager and how his forays into inventing social media. You can also find Taneli on Twitter: @tanelitikka
Molly would also like to thank all the people who helped her along the way. Her special thanks go to Jussi-Pekka Harviainen, Pekka Aakko, Marko Reunanen and Jukka Kauppinen.

Credits

Written & produced by Molly Schwartz
Edited by Adam Żuławski & Wojciech Oleksiak
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Żuławski

HUNT

21 perc 2. évad 9. rész Culture.pl, Piotr Lisowski from the National Museum in Warsaw, art historian Maria Poprzęcka

During WWII, the Third Reich had a systematic policy of plundering artwork from countries they invaded. In occupied Poland, this took place on a massive scale. Over half a million individual works of art were taken over the course of the war, including countless national treasures.

But while some of these works of art were destined for the walls of high-ranking Nazi party officials and the planned Führermuseum, others were marked for destruction. In fact, there was one particular painting that the Germans were really keen to get rid of.

‘The Battle of Grunwald’ was painted by Jan Matejko in the late 19th century and portrayed a battle that had happened over 500 years ago, so why did the Third Reich want it gone so badly? And just how would it avoid being captured seeing as it was 10-metres long and weighed nearly a tonne?

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Time stamps

[00:58] How big is this painting then?
[03:00] The evacuation begins
[04:43] What makes this painting so wanted?
[07:32] The journey continues and tragedy strikes
[10:19] Time to hide this enormity somewhere safe...
[14:48] ...with the hunt at its peak
[16:09] The Germans are gone. What next?
[18:20] Where is the painting today and is it worth seeing?
[20:10] Credits

Further watching / listening

The Tale of the Battle of Grunwald / by the National Museum in Warsaw, on youtube.com (Polish Only)
Hitler's Fuhrermuseum / by the Art Curious Podcast, an excellent episode about stolen art in WWII and Hitler's planned Fuhrermusem.

Thanks

Prof. Maria Poprzęcka / for talking to us about the history of the painting and its incredible war-time adventures. Poprzęcka is a professor of Art History at the University of Warsaw and presents an art history show on Polish Radio.

Piotr Lisowski / for talking to us about the painting and its restoration, and sharing with us its many secrets. Lisowski is a paintings conservator at the National Museum in Warsaw.

The National Museum in Warsaw / for their assistance.

John Beauchamp / for becoming Piotr Lisowski's English voice. John is a seasoned radio journalist, currently working on Unseen Warsaw, a series of soundwalks located in Warsaw.

Grażyna Soczewka / for becoming the voice of Maria Poprzęcka. Grażyna is head of the Artists & Works section at Culture.pl and is our go-to voice for many of our videos.

Credits

Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Adam Żuławski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Żuławski

TRANSMUTATION

22 perc 2. évad 8. rész Culture.pl, chemist Zbigniew Andrew Szydlo, historian Rafał Prinke, Mark Stavish of the Institute for Hermetic Studies

Alchemy – the supposed ancient art of turning everyday objects into gold – is widely believed to be obsolete. Interestingly, however, every bit of this notion is wrong.

First of all, as it turns out, alchemy is still being practised today and, according to one of our guests, is doing better than ever. And second of all, it apparently was never actually an art of the physical transmutation of objects, but a very profound blend of philosophy, chemistry, physics and religion.

Join us on SFTEW as we travel back to the Middle Ages and meet Michael Sendivogius, an alchemist who contributed to the discovery of something absolutely essential...

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Time stamps

[01:10] A transmutation in Emperor Rudolph’s court
[03:37] Why were alchemists sought after?
[04:43] What actually happened at the Emperor’s court?
[06:39] What was alchemy really all about?
[08:42] Were alchemists nothing more than a bunch of fraudsters?
[10:53] Alchemical code
[12:51] ‘There’s a secret substance in the air’
[13:47] How Sendivogius came to his startling discovery
[17:29] Alchemy is not dead
[21:07] Credits

Further watching

Zbigniew Andrew Szydlo’s latest Ted Talks Appearance / on YouTube.com

Zbigniew Andrew Szydlo sets things on fire / on YouTube.com

Time stamps

[00:19] Imagine it's the middle of summer
[02:21] Train across the border
[03:43] Meeting Dr Wolle
[04:57] A bit of history
[06:45] Lake Motzener
[08:33] The 1930s & WWII
[09:57] The birth of the DDR
[12:39] FKK outlawed
[15:07] Opening of the floodgates
[17:13] Mass popularity
[18:07] The Iron Curtain falls
[20:00] Free Body Culture survives?
[21:35] Conclusion
[22:46] Credits

Further watching

1976 News Report from an East German Beach (with Christmas Carols?!) / at mdr.de (Central German Broadcasting) CONTAINS NUDITY (in German)

Thanks

Dr Stefan Wolle / for sharing with us his knowledge about the origins of Free Body Culture and its popularity in the former East Germany. Dr Wolle is the Head of the Research Department at the DDR Museum in Berlin.

Reinhard Gens / for inviting us to visit the AKK Birkenheide eV: FKK Verein (Birkenheide General Body Culture Association) at Lake Motzener, and for speaking to me about the history of FKK and his own experiences. Reinhard is retired and an FKK enthusiastic since the late 1950s.

Jürgen Krull / for inviting us to his club and talking to me about the history of FKK and Adolf Koch. Jurgen Krull is the President of the Familien-Sport-Verein Adolf Koch e. V. (Adolf Koch Family Sports Association) in Berlin.

Mark / for talking to us about this experiences with FKK. Mark is an FKK enthusiast and member of the Adolf Koch Family Sports Association.

The DDR Museum in Berlin / for their assistance. The DDR Museum is located in Central Berlin and is open 365 days a year.

Colin Delargy & Sabrina Schaffarczyk / for their linguistic assistance and helping Piotr navigate the Berlin FKK scene.

John Beauchamp / for becoming Dr Wolle's English voice. John is a seasoned radio journalist, currently working on Unseen Warsaw, a series of soundwalks located in Warsaw.

Credits

Written, produced & presented by Piotr Wołodźko
Edited by Adam Żuławski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Żuławski

Rabbithole Two

6 perc 2. évad 5. rész Culture.pl, Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards

In this bonus episode, you’ll get to hear a song that usually doesn’t leave the thick walls of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Italy.

If you want to know more about Grotowski, check out our two-part story about him in the episodes SEARCH and CONTINUATION.

Keep up to date with SFTEW by following us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. And if you like our show, sign up for our newsletter!

MESMERISED

27 perc 2. évad 6. rész Culture.pl, Dr Romuald Polczyk, journalist Jan Morawicki, Maria Litwin,

The story of a man who mesmerised half a continent...

In 1989 the Cold War was coming to an end. Soviet Union and the whole Eastern Bloc were crumbling. There was confusion everywhere. One day, state television channel started showing something really strange. A man, looking like Doctor’s Spock muscly brother, was staring at the camera promising to programme people’s brains and free them from all the pain and suffering.

Who was he? Where did he come from? Did his methods have anything to do with medicine or science? Or, was he just another charlatan who profited from people’s insecurities in turbulent times? Listen to MESMERISED, a Stories From The Eastern West episode on the rise and fall of Anatoly Kashpirovsky, a man who mesmerised half a continent.

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You can also follow SFTEW on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram.

Further watching

Kashpirovsky wishing his Youtube followers a happy 2019 / on Youtube
A 72-year-old Kashpirovsky lifting 245kg (540lb) / on Youtube
The first full episode of Kashpirovsky’s TV show, 8th October 1989 / on Youtube
Highlight footage of Kashpirovsky meeting with a live audience in 1989 / on Youtube
Footage from the live operation on Lyubov Grabovskaya, 31st March 1988 / on Youtube

Thanks

Żenia Klimakin / for recounting his meeting with Kashpirovsky from a few years back. Żenia is a journalist at Culture.pl/ru.

Krzysztof Rowiński / for delivering wonderful voice over for Żenia Klimakin to open and close this episode. Krzysztof is a PhD scholar in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Maria Litwin / for being resistant to Kashpirowsky's super powers and telling us what she saw, when nobody else was looking.

Polina Justova / for becoming the English voice of Maria Litwin. Polina is an editor for Culture.pl/ru and also works as a literary translator and language teacher.

Jan Morawicki / for helping us build a political perspective on those hectic times. Jan Morawicki was born in Saint Petersburg in Russia. He is a journalist and anthropologist working at the University of Łódź, Poland

Jerzy Oleksiak / for devoting his time to becoming Jan Morawicki’s English doppelganger. Jerzy is a former intern at Culture.pl, but now digs holes in the desert, looking for traces of extraterrestrial presence back in Ancient Egypt.

Romuald Polczyk / for explaining why hypnosis can actually work. Dr Polczyk works at the Institute of Psychology at the Jagiellonian University. He wrote his doctoral thesis on hypnosis.

John Beauchamp / for becoming Kashpirovsky’s dusty English voice. John is a seasoned radio journalist, currently working on Unseen Warsaw, a series of soundwalks located in Warsaw.

Zuzanna Grębecka / for helping us dig into the meanderings of Soviet pop culture and science. Dr. Grębacka works at the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw.

Grażyna Soczewka / for becoming the voice of Zuzanna Grębecka. Grażyna is head of the Artists & Works section at Culture.pl and is our go-to voice for many of our videos.

Marcin Kuropatwa / for inviting us into his childhood memories where Kashpirovsky was capable of anything. Marcin Kuropatwa is an ethnographer and a musician, and works for the National Museum of Ethnography in Warsaw.

Credits

Written & produced by Monika Proba
Edited by Adam Żuławski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Adam Żuławski, Monika Proba & Nitzan Reisner

CONTINUATION

25 perc 2. évad 5. rész Culture.pl, Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski & Thomas Richards, Howlround Theatre Commons, Professor Paul Allein, Maja Komorowska

After having to leave Poland, Grotowski continued his ground-breaking work in the United States, before finding a permanent home in Pontedera, Italy. There he began work on Art as Vehicle, the final stage of his work at the newly-established Workcenter. This work, based around songs of tradition and objective movements, arranged into performance structures, is done more or less in secrecy, away from the prying eyes of the media and mainstream theatrical world.

In the late 1990s, the Workcenter started to show its work to select groups of people, and open itself to the world. Listen to Part 2 of our episode on Jerzy Grotowski to find out for yourself what happened there, and what goes on at the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards today…

You can catch up with Part 1 of this story here. Both these episodes are a Stories From The Eastern West collaboration with the Theatre History Podcast, produced by Howlround Theatre Commons, a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram.

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Time stamps

[01:15] Intro
[02:26] Meeting Thomas Richards
[04:19] Work on acting and songs of tradition
[06:57] Period in the US coming to an end
[08:28] Transmission of the work
[09:34] Flight to Italy
[11:00] Beginnings of the Workcenter
[12:30] Who are we?
[14:24] Members of the Workcenter
[16:00] Sacrifices and controversies
[18:06] Performance of The Living Room
[22:02] Conclusion
[24:30] Thanks & credits

Also worth visiting

The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards / official site of the Workcenter in Pontedera, Italy
Jerzy Grotowski Institute / official site of the Wrocław-based institute

Thanks

Prof. Paul Allain / for talking to us about Grotowski's life, work, and his important influence on the world of the performing arts. Paul is a Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Kent and former director of the British Grotowski Project.

Maja Komorowska / for sharing with us her experience of working with Grotowski and the Theatre of the 13 Rows in the early 1960s. Maja is an acclaimed theatre, film and television actress.

Thomas and Cécile Richards / for giving their time and helping make this episode possible. Thomas Richards is the Director of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Pontedera, Italy. Cecile is Richard’s assistant and a member of the centre.

The members of the Workcenter in Pontedera / especially Lynda Mebtouche and former member of the Open Program Alejandro Thomas-Rodriguez for sharing their experiences.

Grażyna Soczewka / for skillfully providing the English voice-over for Maja Komorowska.

Episode credits

Michael Lueger (Theatre History Podcast): co-presenter
Wojciech Oleksiak: sound design, mixing
Piotr Wołodźko: co-presenter, script, production
Nitzan Reisner: co-host, sole beacon of light
Adam Zulawski: co-host, editor

SEARCH

21 perc 2. évad 4. rész Culture.pl, Thomas & Cecile Richards of the Grotowski Workcenter, actress Maja Komorowska, theatre professor Paul Allain

Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) undoubtedly had a profound influence on the transformation of contemporary theatre over the last 40 years.

Starting out as a young director in the Polish provinces, he soon realised that for theatre to reach its true potential as a communion between actor and spectator and survive in the age of mass entertainment, the actor should attain complete mastery over their craft. His small group of actors committed to intensive daily training sessions to achieve this, while Grotowski began to radically experiment with theatrical texts in order to achieve his vision.

But having achieved international recognition for his ground-breaking productions in the mid to late 1960s, he decided to leave theatre behind and start all over again…..

This episode is a Stories From The Eastern West collaboration with the Theatre History Podcast, produced by Howlround Theatre Commons,a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram.

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Time stamps

[00:55] Intro
[03:38] The beginning
[05:15] A new phase of intensive training
[08:16] The rehearsal process
[10:31] Out into the world
[13:33] Do we need spectators?
[15:34] A different direction
[17:39] Travels to Haiti
[18:11] Dangerous times
[19:47] Thanks & credits

Further watching

Letter From Opole / (1963, dir. Michaela Elstera) short film providing a glimpse into the work of Grotowski's team at the Theatre of 13 Rows in Opole. Only in Polish, but worth checking out for non-Polish speakers nonetheless

Also worth visiting

The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards / official site of the Workcenter in Pontedera, Italy
Jerzy Grotowski Institute / official site of the Wrocław-based institute

Thanks

Prof. Paul Allain / for talking to us about Grotowski's life, work, and his important influence on the world of the performing arts. Paul is a Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Kent and former director of the British Grotowski Project.

Maja Komorowska / sharing with us her experience of working with Grotowski and the Theatre of the 13 Rows in the early 1960s. Maja is an acclaimed theatre, film and television actress.

Thomas and Cécile Richards / for giving their time and helping make this episode possible. Thomas Richards is the Director of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Pontedera, Italy. Cecile is Richard’s assistant and a member of the centre.

Grażyna Soczewka / for skillfully providing the English voice-over for Maja Komorowska.

Episode credits

Michael Lueger (Theatre History Podcast): co-presenter
Wojciech Oleksiak: sound design, mixing
Piotr Wołodźko: co-presenter, script, production
Nitzan Reisner: co-host, ambassador of righteousness
Adam Zulawski: co-host, editor

SHOETOPIA

25 perc 2. évad 3. rész Culture.pl, About Buildings and Cities

The Czech shoe-maker Tomáš Bat'a was a visionary. A deep believer in capitalism, he dreamt up a unique functionalist city and started building it around his factories in the small town of Zlin. It became more succesful than he could have imagined. Bat’a moved on to redesigning how his workers engaged in relationships, spent free-time and were educated – the very way they lived. It seemed that before WWII, Zlin was a unique place, a sort of... living UTOPIA!

Our producer Wojciech travelled to Zlin to do a reality check. How was the city doing almost a century after the death of its ‘founder’? Does it still live the utopian dream? What happened to the shoe factories and functionalist twin houses?

This episode is a Stories From The Eastern West co-production with About Building and Cities, a highly-respected podcast about architecture. Follow them on Twitterand Instagram, and consider supporting them via their Patreon.

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Time stamps

[01:07] Early days of the Bat'a Company
[02:43] The Bat'a ground rules
[06:50] Luke & George from AB+C break down Zlin's utopian architecture
[14:02] Almost a hundred years apart, can we still judge the Batian system?
[19:20] Is it possible to export a city?
[24:06] Thanks & credits

Further watching

Standing on Solid Ground / a gallery of Zlin’s most interesting sites / on Monocle.com

Thanks

Mariusz Szczygieł / for writing Gottland, the book that was stuck in our producer’s head for over a decade and inspired the whole journey. He is an highly-renowned journalist and writer.

Vit Jakubicek / for spending many hours with our producer and explaining the Batian system in great detail. Vit is a curator at the Zlin Regional Gallery and a lecturer at Tomas Bata University in Zlin.

Sonya Zhuravlyeva / for sharing her Zlin contacts with us. Sonya wrote an absolutely great article about Zlin for Monocle titled Standing On Solid Ground. She’s a freelance journalist, sub-editor and copywriter based in London.

Pavel Velev / for inviting us to the Bata Foundation villa and kindly devoting to us a good portion of his last day at work before he went on vacation. Pavel is director of the Tomas Bata Foundation.

Dr Zdenek Pokluda / for beautifully telling us the story of Batian business adventures. He is the author of a trilogy about Batian Zlin and a scholar at Tomas Bata University in Zlin.

Milan Balaban / for interpreting our interview with Dr Pokluda. Milan is a scholar at Tomas Bata University as well as a very helpful and kind man.

Lucie Smardova / for warmly inviting us to a local event and later to her home in one of the Bata houses. Lucy is an art historian and activist, she organises events popularising knowledge about Zlin’s original architecture and history. Together with her husband, she runs the Bata Infopoint, a good place to start discovering Zlin’s residential area.

Episode credits

Wojciech Oleksiak: script, scoring, sound design, mixing
Adam Zulawski: host, editing
Nitzan Reisner: host, guidance and protection
Luke Jones (AB+C): co-host
George Gingell (AB+C): co-host

SUPERSTAR

26 perc 2. évad 2. rész Culture.pl, pianist Marek Żebrowski, author Adam Zamoyski

In 1863, the 3-year-old Ignacy Jan Paderewski probably wasn’t aware that his fellow Polish countrymen were in the midst of a doomed uprising against the autocratic ruler of his homeland. But he definitely knew something was wrong when Russian Tsarist police arrested his father, dragging him away while the young Ignacy tried to stop them.

As a young man, Paderewski was determined to do something about his country's plight. It had been completely wiped off the map almost a century earlier, and as the 19^th century came to a close, an independent Poland seemed impossible. Using rifles and sabres to win freedom clearly wasn’t going to be enough. A different kind of weapon had to be found.

For Paderewski, this weapon would be music...

This episode was produced with the help of the National Museum in Warsaw.

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Time stamps

[00:28] The many stories about Paderewski we don't tell
[01:36] Historical Background
[03:48] Paderewski chooses music as his weapon of choice...
[06:57] ...and becomes a superstar...
[11:29] ...only to turn into a politician
[15:04] World War I
[21:50] Paderewski puts Poland back on the map...
[23:36] ...and returns to music!
[25:17] Thanks and credits

Further watching & listening

Moonlight Sonata – a feature film from 1937 with the only available footage of Paderewski performing / on YouTube.com
Nelson Goerner & the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra play Paderewski's Piano Concerto in A minor op. 17 / on YouTube.com
Marek Żebrowski & cellist Lars Hoefs play a concert in Paderewski's former manor / on Youtube.com
Marek Żebrowski talks about the Paderewski Festival's youth competition held every year in California / on Youtube.com

Thanks

Marek Żebrowski / for sharing with us his extensive expertise on Paderewski, and even playing Paderewski’s pieces for us on the piano. Marek is a concert pianist and composer, as well as director of the Polish Music Center at USC Thornton School of Music. He is also director of the Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles, California,

Adam Zamoyski/ for telling us about how Paderewski rose to become a world-famous pianist and the first prime minister of a newly-independent Poland. He is a London-based historian and best-selling author.

Nelson Goerner / for agreeing to talk to us about Paderewski as a performer and composer. Nelson is a renowned Argentinian concert pianist. In 2015, he recorded Paderewski’s piano concerto with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The National Museum in Warsaw / our partner for this episode, for their knowledge, support and co-operation, especially Ewa Drygalska & Magdalena Pinker.

Eliza Rose & Nial Morgan / for tape syncing the interview with Marek Żebrowski at his LA home 9 timezones away.

SFTEW team credits

Wojciech Oleksiak: editing, scoring, sound design, mixing
Piotr Wołodźko: production
Nitzan Reisner: host, wind beneath our wings
Adam Zulawski: host, script

Rabbithole One

7 perc 2. évad 1. rész Culture.pl, Olympic athlete Władysław Kozakiewicz

Did you know that sports stars from behind the Iron Curtain pretty much competed for no money?

In this little bonus episode, Władysław Kozakiewicz, the Olympic athlete from our ARM episode, tells of how he won a thousand priceless awards but very little money, and why he still loved competing.

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ARM

18 perc 2. évad 1. rész Culture.pl, Olympic athlete Władysław Kozakiewicz

Hear the pole-vaulter who offended the entire Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow explain himself.

Władysław Kozakiewicz, a pole-vaulter who dominated the event for over a decade, didn’t have much luck during the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Despite being a strong favourite, he failed to medal, after his foot broke while taking a warm-up jump. Four years later, he was healthy and ready to make up for the Montreal upset – but there were other adversities to overcome.

The Moscow Olympics was overshadowed by a massive boycott – many Western sports powers had pulled out in condemnation of the Soviet-Afghan War. The overall atmosphere was gruesome and to make things even worse, the judges were doing their best to make sure athletes from the Soviet Union won. And then there was the crowd.... easily 70 000 people, booing, jeering and whistling at every non-soviet athlete.

Kozakiewicz felt strong and challenged them in the most provocative way possible. If you want to know how it ended, and how far the repercussions of his daring behaviour went, listen to the ARM, the very first episode of Season II of Stories From The Eastern West!

This episode is a Stories From The Eastern West co-production with WBUR’s Only a Game. Check out their show and episode archive at http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame.

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Time Stamps

[00:54] The Black Power protest
[02:09] Historical Background
[03:10] The strange atmosphere of the Moscow Olympics
[05:57] How the competition rolled out
[08:37] The arm!
[11:24] The aftermath of Kozakiewicz's controversial behaviour
[13:52] Kozakiewicz's struggles with the Polish communist authorities
[16:30] Thanks & credits

Further Watching

Władysław Kozakiewicz’s winning jump / on YouTube.com

Black Power Salute / Mini documentary / on YouTube.com

Renaud Lavillenie sets the current World Record / on YouTube.com

Thanks

Władysław Kozakiewicz / for sharing his story with us and giving us a ride from the train station to his home on the edge of a forest. Władysław Kozakiewicz is a legendary pole-vaulter, an Olympic gold medallist and a world record breaker.

Joachim Ciecierski / for becoming Władysław Kozakiewicz’s English voice. Joachim is a long-time journalist at Radio Poland, Poland’s official international broadcasting station.

DJ Spike & Break Da Funk / for allowing us to use Masztalesz, the funky tune playing during the credits and throughout the bonus episode.

Credits

Karen Given (Only a Game): editing

Wojciech Oleksiak: script, scoring, sound design, mixing

Nitzan Reisner: host, one-person pep rally

Adam Zulawski: host, editing

Announcing Season II

1 perc 1. évad 16. rész Culture.pl

The new season of Stories From The Eastern West is nearly here!

This year, we've really stepped up our game. You'll notice we have a new theme tune, and that's just the beginning...

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CLIMB

34 perc 1. évad 15. rész Culture.pl, author Bernadette McDonald, mountaineer Piotr Pustelnik

Discover the relentless climber who changed the world's deadliest sport...

In the early 1960s, a woman decided that the way men were dominating the world of mountain climbing didn’t make any sense. She went on to defy the whole community and became an icon, a trail-blazer who energised the whole community of female climbers and proved that women are capable of being self-sufficient, excellent climbers.

Her name was Wanda Rutkiewicz and to date, she is one of the most memorable female climbers, the first European to climb Mount Everest, the first woman ever to climb K2, and the only female climber of her time who could challenge men and prove to them women were equal.

However, underneath all this success there was loneliness, dejection, and desperate efforts to build a normal life outside of 8000-metre-high peaks…

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Time stamps

[02:06] A handful of facts before we go

[06:56] Wanda’s first Himalayan Experiences

[12:10] Mount Everest, K2 and other achievements

[19:53] The Caravan of Dreams

[23:40] The Decline and Kanchenjunga

[29:10] But what is it that makes people climb?

Further watching

Art of Freedom / an Adam Mickiewicz Institute documentary about Wanda and other exceptional Polish climbers of the Himalayas
Jennifer Jordan: Women of K2 / a WGBH Forum lecture about the first female climbers of K2

Thanks

Bernadette McDonald / for sharing with us her memories of Wanda as well as opinions of other climbers that she gathered during the writing of her book Freedom Climbers. Bernadette is a Canadian-born author of several non-fiction books, primarily on mountain culture topics, including Brotherhood of the Rope, Tomaž Humar, and Freedom Climbers. Her most recent book Art Of Freedom, tells the story of another outstanding Polish climber: Voytek (Wojtek) Kurtyka

Piotr Pustelnik / for taking time out of his busy day and sharing with us his views on Wanda and mountain climbing in general. Piotr is a legendary climber, and one of the few people who has successfully climbed all fourteen of the eight-thousanders. He recently released his autobiography: Ja, Pustelnik.

Samuel Crowin / for putting his field recordings on the Internet and available under a creative commons license. Samuel travelled from the south of India to Nepal and back again in the winter and spring of 2015 and recorded hours of genuine music and ambiances. Thanks to his generous approach we were able to present you the most realistic local music you can get.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, Grażyna Soczewka & Michael Keller

[BONUS] UNCLE

4 perc 1. évad 14. rész Culture.pl, historian & writer Nina Witoszek

Learn how observing an old Christmas tradition resulted in a mystery that was never resolved.

All of us at SFTEW want to thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for staying with us, listening, and for all your emails, comments and reviews. This is why we prepared this little Christmas bonus for you. We hope to see you in 2018, especially all those listeners who have only recently discovered the show. Check out our older episodes, we hope you enjoy them as much as other listeners have told us they have. We’ll be back for one more episode at the start of the year before taking a break to prepare SFTEW Season 2. We’ve got lots more great stories to tell so stay tuned!

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Read more

Thanks

Nina Witoszek / for kindly telling us her Christmas story. Nina is a celebrated author as well as a research professor at the University of Oslo.

You / all of our listeners who supported us throughout our first season!

EXPERIMENTAL

28 perc 1. évad 14. rész Culture.pl, art historian David Crowley, art curators Agnieszka Pinder & Paweł Nowożycki, music critic Antoni Beksiak

Discover the Iron Curtain's unlikeliest music haven and the people who made it happen.

In 1957, the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES) first opened its doors in Warsaw, and would very soon become an important European centre for the creation of exciting and original electro-acoustic music. But how did such a place even come to be built in Poland, just a few years after the death of Stalin and the severe artistic restrictions of Social Realism?

In this episode, you will find out what exactly went on inside the strange electronic depths of the PRES, and how through the efforts of its first director, Józef Patkowski, the studio became a 'window to the world', hosting the best composers from both the Eastern Bloc and the West. You'll also hear the remarkable story of Eugeniusz Rudnik, a technician from a small Polish village, who after spending countless hours helping out others with tape machines and signal generators found unexpected success and recognition.

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Further listening

Psalmus by Krzysztof Penderecki, 1961
Etude aux Chemins de Fer by Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer, 1948
Studie 1 by Karlheinz Stockhausen, 1953
Study for One Cymbal Stroke by Włodzimierz Kotoński, 1959
Symphony - Electronic Music by Boguslaw Schaeffer, 1966
Ode to Light (Sculpture) by Arne Nordheim, 1968
Mobile for Magnetic Tape by Eugeniusz Rudnik, 1965

Further watching

15 Corners of the World / on Ninateka.pl (Click 'English version' to the right of the player for subtitles)
Eugeniusz Rudnik Q&A / from the Polish Cultural Institute in London's Youtube channel
Uncovering the Soul of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio link opens page / on Culture.pl's Youtube channel

Thanks

Antoni Beksiak / for kindly initiating us into the technological and musical history of the studio. Antoni is a music critic, musician and festival curator (Turning Sounds et al.). He leads the bands Niewte and Gęba.

Łukasz Strusiński / for inviting us to the International PRES Conference in Łódź (October 2017) and helping us navigate this topic. Łukasz is a classical music expert and part of the Master Project team at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Agnieszka Pindera / for sharing her knowledge about the studio and those closely involved with it, including Józef Patkowski, Eugeniusz Rudnik and Władysław Sokorski. Agnieszka is a curator at Muzeum Sztuki in Łodź and organiser of the International PRES Conference held at the museum in 2017.

Paweł Nowożycki / for talking to us about the iconic Black Room at PRES and its planned re-construction at the new Museum of Modern Art (MSN) building in Warsaw. Paweł is a curator at MSN and head of the PRES reconstruction project.

David Crowley / for shedding light on the historical and artistic background of the studio as a place of creative openness behind the Iron Curtain and its important links with Western studios and composers. David Crowley is the Head of the School of Visual Culture at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner & Piotr Wołodźko

REBEL

25 perc 1. évad 13. rész Culture.pl, journalist Dariusz Kortko, physicist Zbigniew Nawrat

Get to know the doctor who defied prejudices, the media and the entire system to save people’s lives.

In 1967, South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first successful heart transplant. This milestone achievement inspired many other clinics to successfully attempt their own heart transplants… but not in the Eastern Bloc. It took almost 20 years, a broken career, great charisma and a truly rebellious man to finally start saving people’s lives by giving them new hearts.

In this episode, we delve into the story of Professor Zbigniew Religa, a man who wasn’t afraid to defy old prejudices, the medical system and society, the communist party and hundreds of roadblocks to help others. How did he manage to do that? What does it take to shake an obsolete system and build a modern cardiac surgery clinic in the middle of nowhere? And why do our societies sometimes desperately need rebels? Find out in the latest episode of Stories From The Eastern West.

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Time stamps

[00:00] Background: Christiaan Barnard & the first successful heart transplant back in 1967.

[04:00] Why, almost 20 years later, were there still no heart transplants in the Eastern Bloc?

[06:09] How one man defied the system and started a revolution that aimed to make heart transplants possible.

[09:06] Professor Religa’s work ethic and team-building abilities.

[13:55] The programme of heart transplantations begins.

[19:00] The first successful surgery brought a flood of patients. Where did they find donors?

[20:50] How Professor Religa capitalised on his popularity to save even more people.

[23:35] Why does our society sometimes need rebels?

Thanks

Dariusz Kortko / editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza Katowice and author of the bestselling biographies of Professor Religa and alpinist Jerzy Kukuczka. For providing us with a great overview of Religa’s life and career.

Zbigniew Nawrat Ph. D. / theoretician physicist and pioneering researcher in the artificial organ domain, specifically in heart valve prostheses and blood pumps. For sharing his memories and experiences being Professor Religa’s deputy at FRK – Fundacja Rozwoju Kardiochirurgii.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner & Michael Keller

SPY

26 perc 1. évad 12. rész Culture.pl, NYT reporter Benjamin Weiser, Washington Post journalist David E. Hoffman

Throughout the Cold War, both the Soviet Union and the United States used espionage extensively to gather information about the opposing side. To do this, they often relied on individual operatives to provide the information that technology often couldn’t.

This episode will focus on one lesser-known Eastern European operative named Ryszard Kukliński, an officer in the Polish Army and a spy for American intelligence. We’ll discuss how Kukliński joined the army and his swift rise through the ranks. We’ll try to understand why he became disillusioned with the army and decided to work with American intelligence. Towards the end of the episode, we explore how his fascinating story can help us to better understand the nature of Cold War espionage.

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Time stamps

[02:46] Kukliński’s early years

[06:00] What made Kukliński decide to work with the CIA?

[09:50] How did he communicate with the Americans?

[12:15] A few of the close calls Kukliński experienced

[13:20] The end of his mission and the exfiltration

[17:30] Putting Kukliński’s mission into the wider context of the Cold War

[22:40] What happened to Kukliński after the fall of communism in Poland?

Further reading

Kukliński: How the CIA’s Best-Placed Cold War Spy Escaped the Eastern Bloc / on Culture.pl
CIA – The Villification and Vindication of Colonel Kukliński / on CIA.gov
Jack Strong – the movie by Władysław Pasikowski / on Culture.pl
Colonel Kuklinski’s obituary / on New York Times
He Betrayed His State, But Not His Nation? / on Visegrad/Insight
David Hoffman’s official website and books / on davidhoffman.com
A Secret Life: The Polish Colonel, His Covert Mission, And The Price He Paid To Save His Country (EN) / by Benjamin Weiser
Ryszard Kukliński Życie ściśle tajne (PL) / by Benjamin Weiser
The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (US edition) / by David E. Hoffman
The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal (UK edition) / by David E. Hoffman

Thanks

Benjamin Weiser / for kindly explaining all the details of Kuklinski’s mission to us. Benjamin Weiser is a reporter covering the Manhattan federal courts for New York Times. Before joining The Times in 1997, he worked for 18 years at The Washington Post. There he received the George Polk Award and the Livingston Award.

David E. Hoffman / for providing us with an outsider’s perspective and putting Kukliński’s deeds into a wider context. David E. Hoffman is an American writer and journalist for The Washington Post and the PBS flagship investigative television series, FRONTLINE. He won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for his book The Dead Hand about the legacy of the Cold War arms race.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner & Michael Keller

BABY

28 perc 1. évad 11. rész Culture.pl, film critic Michał Oleszczyk

Delve into the fascinating background of classic horror film Rosemary’s Baby and learn how it was made.

In 1968, Rosemary’s Baby debuted in theaters and terrified unsuspecting audiences. The film was a box-office success and was widely acclaimed for its dark plot and disturbing realism. Moreover, many of the controversial issues it grappled with, such as Satanism and pregnancy, quickly made it one of the most iconic films of its generation. But in the aftermath of the film’s release, this story of success quickly becomes one of tragedy and mystery.

In this episode, we present the story of an innovative film that completely changed Hollywood and our understanding of how films should be made. You’ll learn about the origins of the film and how a little known director revolutionized Hollywood. We’ll discuss why this film was so unique in terms of style and aesthetic. Finally, we’ll look into the mysteries surrounding the film and the so-called curse of Rosemary’s Baby.

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Time stamps

[02:33] Our guest and film expert Michał Oleszczyk paints the scene

[04:27] Why was a little known European director chosen to direct an adaptation of the best selling novel?

[08:55] What makes the film stand out?

[14:31] Why there are hardly any special effects in Rosemary’s Baby?

[16:39] How does the film comment on the current issues of its time?

[19:10] Why’s the movie rumored to be cursed?

[23:16] Did Rosemary’s Baby changed the horror genre?

Thanks

Michał Oleszczyk / for inviting us to Collegium Artes Liberales and telling us everything we wanted to know about Rosemary's Baby but were afraid to ask. Michał is a film critic, University professor, and programmer. Following Michał's social media profiles is definitely a good idea. For English follow twitter/michaloleszczyk and we recommend following his facebook.com/michal.oleszczyk for Polish speaking audience.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, Nitzan Reisner, John Beauchamp & Michael Keller

NUCLEAR

28 perc 1. évad 10. rész Culture.pl, historian Martin Sherwin

Discover how Joseph Rotblat went from creating nuclear bombs to winning the Nobel Peace prize.

The American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is generally considered to be one of the most, if not the most, important events of the 20^th Century. It succeeded in bringing about Japanese capitulation and the end of the Second World War, but, at the same time, marked the advent of nuclear weapons. For the first time in history, civilizations could be completely wiped off the map with the push of a button. For most, this was a terrifying prospect. For a man Józef Rotblat, it was a call to action.

In this episode, our hosts will tell you the remarkable story of Józef Rotblat, a nuclear physicist and peace activist. We’ll discuss the suffering he endured in his early life and how this shaped his worldview. We’ll talk about his time at the Manhattan Project and his motivations for leaving. We’ll also dedicate a significant portion of the episode to talking about Rotblat’s lifelong activism and his enduring legacy.

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Time stamps

[02:00] Joseph Rotblat’s difficult youth

[05:30] Rotblat’s involvement in the Project Manhattan

[10:05] Is it even possible to leave a super secret military project?

[12:00] How Hiroshima and Nagasaki made Rotblat become a vocal peace activist

[16:50] What led to the founding of the Pugwash Conferences?

[19:20] Noble Prize for Rotblat and Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

[21:00] Should scientists take a Hippocratic Oath of some sort?

[24:20] Rotblat’s legacy and contribution to anti-nuclear movement

Thanks

Dr. Martin Sherwin / for being so kind and allowing us to interview him during his sabbatical. Martin Sherwin is an American historian. His scholarship mostly concerns the history of the development of atomic energy and nuclear proliferation.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, Lea Berriault, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner & Michael Keller

PALACE II

27 perc 1. évad 9. rész Culture.pl, anthropologist & author Michał Murawski, architect Maria Wojtysiak, architect & activist Czesław Bielecki

Learn how a strange unwanted building became a lasting symbol of a capital city.

In the first of our two-part series on Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science, our hosts discussed the post-war rebuilding of the savagely-destroyed Warsaw and the controversial origins of the palace’s construction.

In the concluding part of our series, our hosts dive deeper into the palace’s corridors and explore the massive impact it has had on Warsaw. For example, after initial deliberation, what was the palace actually used for? What did people think of this palace shortly after its creation? What do they think about it now? Above all, how has this palace, despite the controversy surrounding it, become a cultural icon for the city?

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Time stamps

[00:37] Brief recap of our last episode, about post-war Warsaw and the palace’s construction.
[03:39] A guided audio tour through the palace itself.
[11:20] What did Polish people think about the palace?
[13:37] Why did people write letters to the palace and what did they write about?
[18:00] How did the palace become the focal point of public debate after the fall of communism?
[23:00] How has the palace come to be a lasting symbol of Warsaw?

Thanks

Michał Murawski / for generously devoting his lunchtime to telling us about the social life of the palace. Michał is architecture and city anthropologist based at the Department of Russian, Queen Mary’s, University of London.

Maria Wojtysiak / for telling us about her childhood ties with the palace, and explaining why she decided to fight to put it on the list of Poland’s Objects of Cultural Heritage. Maria is a renowned architect and a member of numerous organisations that aim to preserve Warsaw’s historical buildings.

Czesław Bielecki / for sharing his ideas about turning the palace into a museum about communism. Czesław is an architect and political activist, a former political prisoner of the communist state, and a democratic dissident.

Createtours / for kindly giving us an in-depth tour of the palace and telling us all their entertaining stories about it.

The America Programme at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute / for inviting us to their conference about the palace and making the interview with Michał Murawski possible.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, Lea Berriault, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner & Michael Keller

PALACE

22 perc 1. évad 8. rész Culture.pl, architecture anthropologist and author Michał Murawski, journalist and head of Stacja Muranów Beata Chomątowska

Find out about the creation of Stalin's controversial Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw.

Following World War II, much of Poland lay in ruins and unfortunately found itself on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. Warsaw was no exception. By the end of the war, the city was virtually destroyed and for a short time many considered moving the capital elsewhere in Poland. Once the reconstruction efforts had begun, the Soviet Union, eager to spread their influence to the newly-formed communist nation, presented the Polish people with an architectural gift. That gift, the Palace of Culture and Science, was a 42-story Stalinist skyscraper that would be constructed right in the heart of Warsaw.

In the first episode of our two-part series on Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science, our hosts discuss post-war reconstruction efforts in Warsaw and the strange origins of this Stalinist colossus. What were the immediate challenges of rebuilding a city that was almost entirely razed during the war? Would the reconstructed city look like it did before the war? Or would older architectural designs be jettisoned in favor 'socialist realism'? Lastly, why would this palace, a manifestation of Stalinist excess, be built in a city that still lay mostly in ruins?

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Time stamps

[03:44] What did Warsaw look like after the Second World War?
[05:06] Why did some government officials want to move the Polish capital?
[07:02] What was the conflict between modernists and conservatives during the post-war reconstruction efforts?
[09:28] What was the chosen solution for rebuilding Warsaw?
[11:53] Why did they decide to build a skyscraper in the middle of a ruined city?
[14:48] What problems did the palace present for the devastated city?
[15:22] What were the plans for construction and how were they carried out?
[19:07] What happened to the palace after it was built?
[19:55] Palace: Part II preview

Thanks

Beata Chomątowska / for kindly agreeing to tell us the story of Warsaw being resurrected from the ashes. Beata is a writer, journalist and the president and co-founder of the Association of Social and Cultural Initiatives Stacja Muranów.

Michał Murawski / for generously devoting his lunch time to telling us about the social life of the palace. Michał is an anthropologist of architecture and cities based at the Department of Russian, Queen Mary, University of London.

America Programme at the Adam Mickiewicz Institute / for inviting us to the conference about the palace and making the interview with Michał Murawski possible.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Lea Berriault, Nitzan Reisner & Michael Keller

ZOO

25 perc 1. évad 7. rész Culture.pl, Warsaw Zoo’s Ewa Strzyżewska, Klara Jackl & Karolina Dzięciołowska from POLIN Museum of the History of Polish J

Hear how the Żabiński family saved the lives of countless Jews during the Nazi German occupation.

In September 1939, Nazi Germany began their infamous invasion of Poland and occupied the country shortly thereafter, thus marking the beginning of the Second World War. Amidst all the destruction and loss of human, a nearly unbelievable act of selflessness proved to be a light of humanity that shone through the darkness and desolation of war in, of all places, a zoo.

In this episode, our hosts discuss the remarkable story of Jan and Antonina Żabiński and the Warsaw Zoo. How was this formerly prosperous zoo transformed into a shelter for Jewish refugees escaping the brutality of the Nazis? How was Jan Żabiński able to travel in and out of the Warsaw Ghetto and save so many Jewish people in the process? How were the Żabińskis able to avoid being discovered? Most importantly, what can Jan and Antonina’s daring act of humanity teach us about compassion, altruism, and selflessness?

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Time stamps

[02:43] Introduction to the Warsaw Zoo as well as Jan and Antonina Żabiński
[04:10] Origins of the Crazy Star Villa and how it got its unique name
[05:01] The Warsaw Zoo’s rise to prominence in the 1930s
[05:39] How the German invasion of Poland in 1939 affected the Warsaw Zoo
[08:00] How the Żabińskis became involved in underground resistance efforts against the Nazis
[08:42] Jan’s relationships with entomologist Szymon Tenenbaum and German officer Friedrich Ziegler
[11:15] The mystery of how Jan Żabiński was able to travel in and out of the ghetto
[12:58] How the Warsaw Zoo was converted into a shelter for Jewish people
[14:07] How the Żabińskis were able to hide Jewish people and avoid being caught
[18:37] The Żabińskis become the 'Righteous Among the Nations'
[22:20] What can we learn from the Żabińskis’ altruism?

Thanks

'PANDA' Foundation for the Development of the Warsaw Zoo & Ewa Strzyżewska / for kindly agreeing to give us a tour around the villa and tell us the story of the Żabiński family.
Klara Jackl / a co-ordinator from POLIN's web project Polish Righteous: Recalling Forgotten History, who kindly provided us with in-depth knowledge about who the Righteous Among the Nations are.
Karolina Dzięciołowska / the author of a virtual exhibition House Under the Crazy Star, who kindly allowed us to interview her.
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews / the wonderful museum that worked with us throughout the process of creating this episode.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Lea Berriault, Nitzan Reisner, Michael Keller and Weronika Fay.

ESPERO

27 perc 1. évad 6. rész Culture.pl, Universal Esperanto Association president Mark Fettes, Łukasz Żebrowski, the Bialystok Esperantist Association

Learn how Ludwig Zamenhof single-handedly created an entire language, Esperanto, in the 19^th century.

Esperanto is the most widely-spoken artificial language in the world today. It has allowed people from vastly different backgrounds with vastly different cultures to connect with one another and share experiences. Despite its success, many often forget Esperanto’s humble origins and the fascinating story of its creator, L.L. Zamenhof, a man whose main goal was bringing peace to the world.

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Time stamps

[00:25] A quick reminder of the Tower of Babel legend
[02:50] Introducing Mark Fettes, president of the Universal Esperanto Association
[03:30] How living in multi-cultural Białystok shaped L.L. Zamenhof’s views on peace and minorities’ rights
[06:48] How a teenage Zamenhof came up with his first version of the constructed language
[08:30] What is Zionism, and what is Homaranismo?
[11:40] Zamenhof's struggle to make Esperanto popular
[16:42] Our hosts go to Białystok to attend an Esperanto convention
[19:39] How the US Army (mis)used Esperanto in their combat training programme
[21:03] What is a gateway language?
[23:05] Is Esperanto just a language or is it a philosophy? Why is Esperanto worthwhile?

Further reading

Thanks

Mark Fettes / president of the Universal Esperanto Association. Mark kindly agreed to tell us the story of Zamenhof’s mission for bringing peace to the world.

Łukasz Żebrowski / Esperanto and beer blogger. Łukasz gave us plenty of advice on how to discover the world to Esperanto, let us know about the convention and largely helped in scheduling the interview with Mark Fettes. Thanks Łukasz!

Przemysław Wierzbowski / president of the Bialystok Esperantist Association. For kindly inviting us to Esperantists convention and facilitating finding great interviewees.

Conference participants: Michaela Stegmaier, Hamlet Randall, Mathieu Desplantes, Szabolcs Szilva and Iwona Zalewska who kindly gave us a short introductory Esperanto lesson.

Esperanto pop song playlist

Let It Be / The Beatles

Esperanto National Anthem

Jolene / Dolly Parton

Hello / Adele

New York, New York / Frank Sinatra

Unconditionally / Katy Perry

I’m a Believer / The Monkees

Check our full playlist on Youtube!

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner & Michael Keller

BOWIE

22 perc 1. évad 5. rész Culture.pl, author Agata Pyzik, Chris O'Leary from Bowiesongs

Explore the meaning and story behind one of David Bowie's most iconic songs.

In 1973, while travelling by train across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, David Bowie had a brief and seemingly insignificant stopover in Warsaw. However, what he witnessed there, and elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc, served as an inspiration for Warszawa from the widely-acclaimed 1977 album Low.

In this episode, our hosts John and Nitzan will look deeper into the origins of this iconic song. Why was Bowie so fascinated with Eastern Europe and the nature of Cold War politics in the first place? How did the sights and sounds that Bowie witnessed during his brief time in Warsaw impact the song’s creation? What were the inspirations for the sonorous yet mysterious lyrics found in the song? And finally, our hosts will attempt to answer arguably the most perplexing question – is Warszawa even about Warsaw?

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Time stamps

[03:30] How Bowie’s drug addiction led him to move to the centre stage of Cold War politics, West Berlin

[04:12] The origins of Bowie’s new album and his collaboration with Brian Eno

[07:20] How Bowie’s fear of flying led to his journey across the Soviet Union and his eventual stop in Warsaw

[09:51] Bowie’s famous walk in Warsaw and how his experience inspired the melodious lyrics found in Warszawa

[12:00] The creation of Warszawa’s ambient and mesmerising melody

[14:25] The creation of Warszawa’s lyrics and how Bowie’s experience behind the Iron Curtain influenced these lyrics

[17:03] How Low redefined Bowie’s musical career and impacted people on
both sides of the Iron Curtain

[19:19] Is Warszawa actually about Warsaw?

Further listening

Warszawa (song) / on YouTube.com
Tony Visconti's lecture for Red Bull Music Academy / on redbulmusicacademy.com
Brian Eno's lecture for Red Bull Music Academy / on vimeo.com
Low (full album) / on Spotify

Thanks

Agata Pyzik / critic, writer, author of Poor but Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West. Agata kindly agreed to take us on a walk following the footsteps of David Bowie's visit to Warsaw and tell us the story of Warszawa's creation. You can get her book here.

Chris O'Leary / writer, editor, and journalist based in western Massachusetts, author of the Pushing Ahead of the Dame blog, devoted to analysrd himself reading several lines from his book Rebel Rebel. You can get his amazing book here.

The Culture.pl video team / for letting us use their recording of the walk with Agata Pyzik.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner, Michael Keller & Weronika Fay

BULLETPROOF

23 perc 1. évad 4. rész Culture.pl, Professor Sławomir Łotysz science historian, Lisa Treynor curator at the Royal Armouries in Leeds

Learn how a Polish monk created the first bulletproof vest and, in doing so, changed the world.

In 1897, at a public demonstration in Chicago, a man accomplished the unprecedented and seemingly physics-defying feat of stopping a bullet. After being shot with a revolver at close-range, and temporarily falling to the ground, the man was completely unscathed. That man, Kazimierz Żegleń, had succeeded in creating a vest that made him bulletproof.

In this episode, our hosts John and Lea discuss the man behind the vest, Kazimierz Żegleń, and the story of its creation. Who was Żegleń in the first place? How was he inspired to create a potentially life-saving vest and how did he manage to invent it? What was the immediate impact of this supposedly bulletproof vest? Did it save any lives? And finally, how has Żegleń’s invention influenced modern-day bulletproof vests?

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Time stamps

[02:10] Introduction to Kazimierz Żegleń, creator of the bulletproof vest

[03:33] Why would a monk become interested in durable materials?

[05:00] How did Żegleń create his bulletproof vest?

[08:10] How Żegleń’s daring public demonstration of vest his vest came to fruition?

[10:45] How is silk even capable of stopping bullets?

[12:45] Why Żegleń went to Europe and met the ‘Polish Edison’

[16:00] Did Żegleń manage to turn his invention into a commercial success?

[18:25] Why was 1901 such an important year for bulletproof vests?

[20:20] The legacy of Żegleń’s invention

Thanks

Sławomir Łotysz / professor at the Institute of the History of Science at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Professor Łotysz kindly agreed to tell us the story of Kazimierz Żegleń, as well as provide us with lots of materials on Żegleń's inventions and biography. Professor Łotysz's research was made possible largely thanks to the generous support of the Chemical Heritage Foundation of Philadelphia.

Lisa Treynor / curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, who kindly agreed to explain to us how on earth silk is capable of stopping bullets.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, Lea Berriault, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner, Michael Keller & Barbara Rogala

BEAR

23 perc 1. évad 3. rész Culture.pl, Wojciech Narębski from Anders Army, Professor Tadeusz Kaleta

Hear all about a brave bear named Wojtek who came to join the army in a time of war.

After being released from Soviet prison camps, exiled Polish soldiers reunited under General Władysław Anders and were informally dubbed ‘Anders Army’. This army, after evacuating the Soviet Union, traveled to the Middle East to join Allied forces. While in Iran, the Anders’ Army added an unlikely member to their ranks who played an important role in the company as he helped to boost morale, carry ammunition, and perform guard duties. Though this soldier may appear to be rather typical, he was far from it. He was, after all, a Syrian brown bear.

In this episode, our hosts John and Nitzan discuss the unbelievable story of Wojtek the bear and his legendary role in the 22nd Company of Anders’ Army. How did the army find this bear and why did they keep it, even incorporate it? How did Wojtek contribute to the military efforts? And what became of him after the war was over?

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Time stamps

[02:10] A brief introduction to events in Poland during the Second World War

[05:35] How Wojtek was introduced to the Anders’ Army

[08:35] How Wojtek was incorporated into the army

[11:14] How could a bear be tamed and trained as a soldier?

[14:27] How did the soldiers manage to feed an animal as large as Wojtek?

[15:58] How Wojtek helped his company at the Battle of Monte Cassino

[17:57] What happened to Wojtek and his company following the battle

[22:35] Wojtek’s impact on Polish soldiers and his legacy

Further watching

Thanks

Wojciech Narębski / emeritus professor of the Polish Academy of Sciences and ex-soldier of the Anders' Army, who kindly allowed us to interview him and told the story of the unit Wojtek served in.

Tadeusz Kaleta / professor at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, who kindly explained how bears behave in their natural habitat.

Songs & sound clips

On My Way to New Orleans / Performed by Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan; Issue Number: Edison Blue Amberol: 2650, Edison Record: 3744; Release year: 1915

Jazz Baby / Performed by Marion Harris; Released under Victor Records; Release year: 1919

WWII Chronicle / Film Bulletin; Produced by Signal Corps Photographic Center; Issue no 48

Air Raid Siren Sound Effect / A RNaudioproductions original recording // Audio 2005

Writing on Paper with Pen Sound Effect / A SoundEffectsFactory original recording

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner, Michael Keller & Barbara Rogala

STONES

24 perc 1. évad 2. rész Culture.pl, Daniel Wyszogrodzki author about the Rolling Stones, Paweł Brodowski editor-in-chief of Jazz Forum

Find out what happened when the Rolling Stones went behind the Iron Curtain.

One of the common characteristics shared by communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe was their vehement opposition to Western culture. Fearing its potentially subversive effects, Western culture was continually discouraged and often suppressed by the authorities. Shockingly, in 1967 the Polish government gave permission to the Rolling Stones to hold a concert in Warsaw, making them one of the first rock-and-roll bands from Western Europe to perform on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain.

In this episode, our hosts will discuss the story of the Rolling Stone’s legendary performance in Warsaw in 1967. Why did the Rolling Stones become interested in performing in Eastern Europe? How was this unlikely performance arranged by the Polish government? Did anything notable happen during or after the concert? Why did the Polish government even allow this concert to occur in the first place? What was the impact of this performance on Polish society and the political environment of the Cold War?

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Time stamps

[03:00] How the descent Iron Curtain created a sharp cultural divide between East and West?

[05:30] How Rolling Stones became notorious for inciting chaos at their concerts?

[06:45] Why did the Rolling Stones want to play on the other side of the Iron Curtain?

[08:28] Why did they play in Warsaw rather than Moscow?

[10:30] How was the concert in Warsaw arranged?

[12:00] What happened when the Rolling Stones arrived and performed?

[17:55] Legends and myths surrounding the concert’s aftermath.

[19:00] Why did Communist authorities even allow this concert to occur in the first place?

[21:20] What were consequences of holding this concert?

Further watching

Thanks

Daniel Wyszogrodzki / author of the book about the Rolling Stones titled Satisfaction, who kindly agreed to tell us the story from the Stones’ perspective.

Paweł Brodowski / editor-in-chief of the renowned Jazz Forum magazine, who kindly agreed to tell us the story from the perspective of a Warsaw-based music fan who actually attended the show.

SFTEW Team: Wojciech Oleksiak, Adam Zulawski, Lea Berriault, John Beauchamp, Nitzan Reisner & Katherine Alberti

COMPETITION

26 perc 1. évad 1. rész Culture.pl, with the Frederic Chopin Institute & music professor Paweł Kamiński

Learn how the result of a piano competition had the power to shock an entire nation.

The International Chopin Piano Competition takes place every five years and brings the most talented pianists from around the world to Warsaw, Poland. The one rule for the competition, as its name would suggest, is that pianists may only play the works of Frédéric Chopin. These types of competitions have an unfortunate reputation of being elitist and uptight, but, as you will learn, that could not be further from the truth in this instance.

In this episode, we bring you the story of the 1980 edition of the Chopin Competition and why it was one of the most contentious in recent memory. We’ll also tell you the fascinating story of Ivo Pogorelić, the most interesting yet controversial pianist you’ve probably never heard of. Finally, we’ll attempt to answer some of the difficult questions that the event raises about classical music and the nature of art competitions.

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Time stamps

[03:30] The origins and background of the International Chopin Piano Competition

[06:04] Who is Ivo Pogorelić and what makes him so controversial?

[08:36] Should Chopin’s music be interpreted subjectively or objectively?

[09:50] Ivo’s playing style

[13:00] What happened that made this competition so contentious?

[15:04] Who won the competition?

[16:55] The aftermath of the competition

[18:02] Can we judge someone’s interpretation of a piece of art?

[20:39] Why do we even have competitions?

Further listening

Frederic Chopin Institute YouTube Channel / interviews with experts who appeared in the episode and lots of performances from various editions
An interview with Garrick Ohlsson / on the Chopin Institute's YouTube channel
An interview with Nelson Goerner / on the Chopin Institute's YouTube channel
An interview with Kate Liu / on the Chopin Institute's YouTube channel
Ivo Pogorelich Chopin Polonaise op.44
Ivo Pogorelich Chopin Ballade No.2
Ivo Pogorelich Chopin Etude Op. 25 No.6
Ivo Pogorelich Chopin Piano Sonata No.2 Mvt I
Ivo Pogorelich Chopin Piano Sonata No.2 Mvt. IV
Dang Thai Son Chopin Concerto No. 2
Dang Thai Son Chopin Nocturne No. 2 Op. 62

Performances we used in this episode

Szymon Nehring, Etude in A minor Op. 25 No. 11 (first stage of the 2015 competition)
Ivo Pogorelich, Chopin Piano Sonata No.2 Mvt 1 (1980 competition)
Seong Jin Cho, Chopin Sonate B flat minor Op. 35 (second stage of the 2015 competition)
Dang Thai Son, Chopin Nocturne in E Op.62 (1980 competition)

Thanks

Frederic Chopin Institute / for all their help and allowing us to use their rich archives.

Paweł Kamiński / professor at Fryderyk Chopin Warsaw University, who kindly allowed us to interview him.

Christine Jezior / director of the stunning documentary Why Competitions for sending us a copy of the film and allowing us to use it in the show.

Stories From The Eastern West

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