POLcast Małgorzata P. Bonikowska and Tomek Kniat

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

In this episode you will meet two celebrities - one human and one animal: Tomek Borkowy, a renowned Polish actor, who has lived in Scotland since the early 1980s, and Wojtek the Bear, a four-legged WW2 hero, who had no idea he wasn’t human because he was adopted as a cub and raised by the Polish soldiers, himself acting as one. What a story! All that with love for Scotland.
Also, Poland has won the top prize in the 2024 European Tree of the Year. 
A lot of information and links at www.mypolcast.com
 

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

This is the last episode before Christmas and in the year 2023.
Both stories in this episode come from Canada - from the city of Edmonton in Alberta:• Albertans United for the Children of Gaza - conversation with Thomas Lukaszuk• Music in Edmonton - conversation with Joanna Ciapka-Sangster.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
PEACE!
 

In this episode “Canada in Poland” you will hear three interviews:
• With Canada’s ambassador to Poland Catherine Godin,
• With the Head of the Canadian Studies programme at the University of Warsaw  Dr. Ewa Luczak,
• With three students of the programme.
Music by Polky, a Canadian folk band.

In this episode, you will hear three stories:
1. Moses McCormick, a super polyglot who knew 50 languages and loved Polish;
2. Maple Corner about Canadian pop culture, a Polish language blog produced by Joanna Boguslawska in Poland.
3. A secret place in Poland which has just gone through the third major transformation since WWII.