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Updated 09/02/2024
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Updated 02/28/2022
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Updated 06/02/2020

10/04/2019

IRYNA

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. Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter! 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 Further reading Photos of Everyday Life in Ukraine in the 1990s // on Slate.com Wearing Adibas & Fuma: Memories from Growing up in the 1990s // on Culture.pl Anne Applebaum Recalls Poland's Food Revolution // on Culture.pl Coup of August 1991 // on Wikipedia.org Andrei Sakharov // on Wikipedia.org Credits Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak & Żenia Klimakin Edited by Adam Zulawski Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski

10/04/2019

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20 min
09/02/2024

Długa 26

One of the most renowned addresses of pre-war Jewish Warsaw. Długa 26 housed the socialist Bund party headquarters from 1936 onwards, as well as the capital’s first school with Yiddish as the language of instruction. Other political organisations based here included the Masada Zionist youth union. Alter Kacyzne had his professional photography studio in one of the three courtyards the building had before the war. Born in Vilnius, he came to Warsaw in 1910. Kacyzne was a writer, journalist and publisher, as well as co-author of the screenplay for The Dybbuk, perhaps the best-known and most celebrated film in Yiddish produced in Interwar Poland. However, he was probably best-known for being a much sought-after photographer. Apart from taking snapshots of Warsaw’s bohemian scene, he also documented the everyday life and the poverty of Jewish shtetls in Interwar Poland and beyond, sending his photos to New York to be published in ‘The Forward’, or ‘Forverts’, the long-running Yiddish newspaper. Israel Joshua Singer, the older brother of writer and Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, also worked at Kacyzne’s workshop for while, and they co-founded a literary journal together which was published up until 1939. How to listen: Unseen is available as a downloadable podcast, although it is best experienced through the Echoes geolocative storytelling app available for iOS and Android. After loading the app, search for soundwalks in Warsaw and you’ll find Unseen. Further reading: • Sto Lat, ‘Dybbuk’! Celebrating & Commemorating the Classic Yiddish Play – Online // on Culture.pl • Possession: 100 Years of ‘The Dybbuk’ // on Culture.pl • Alter Kacyzne // bio on Wikipedia.org • Isaac Bashevis Singer // bio on Culture.pl • 8 Remarkable Yiddish Books from Poland // on Culture.pl • From ‘Last Sunday’ to ‘Last Shabbos’: Poland’s Legendary Jewish Tangos// on Culture.pl • The Lost World of Yiddish Films in Poland // on Culture.pl • The Rise & Fall of Polish Song // on Culture.pl

09/02/2024

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7 min
09/01/2022

CHAIN

In the very last episode of Stories of The Eastern West as you knew it, we’re taking you to Estonia, 1989. A group of people there made 2 million others hold hands and create a human chain of unprecedented size and significance. The Baltic countries had a truly turbulent 20th century. They went from regaining their independence to losing it to the USSR and becoming subject to a ruthless policy of Russification. Unsurprisingly, they needed something big to jump on the bandwagon of the 1989 peaceful revolutions that liberated several countries from the USSR’s influence. What they came up with was a human chain linking Tallinn with Riga and Vilnius. This huge event is something hard to wrap one’s head around nowadays when we think about the scanty means of communication the organisers had. Our producer Wojciech went to Estonia and got a chance to talk to several people who co-organised or participated in the event. How was it at all possible? Why wasn’t it thwarted by the communist regime? How do people remember such a defining moment in their lives over 30 years later? Further listening KAIE / our episode from our mini-series The Final Curtain about ‘The Singing Revolution’ that Adam mentions in the show Further reading The Longest Unbroken Human Chain In History / an article on estonianworld.com All the human chains in one place / an article on wikipedia.org Further watching The Inimitable Baltic Way / a Lithuanian documentary Thanks Ivi Gubinska, Reet Villig, Eve Sildnik, Andres Tarand and Lukas Hioo for taking the time to discuss this incredible event with us. Keiu Telve and Maia-Liisa Anton for connecting us with Baltic Way participants and their thoughtful discussions about the meaning of the event. Credits Written & produced by Wojciech Oleksiak Edited by Adam Zulawski & Nitzan Reisner Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

09/01/2022

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26 min
08/31/2017

COMPETITION

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. Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter! 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 reading The Frederic Chopin Institute / official website The Riot Police at the Philharmonic & Other Scandalous Histories of the Chopin Piano Competition / on Culture.pl 4 Winners of the Chopin Competition Who Became Superstars / on Culture.pl It's getting better and better. An Interview with Dang Thai Son / on Culture.pl A Foreigner’s Guide to the International Chopin Competition / on Culture.pl Ivo Pogorelić / on Wikipedia Dang Thai Son / official website 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.

08/31/2017

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26 min
01/17/2019

NAKED

The German Democratic Republic was known for being one of the more politically repressive countries in the former Eastern bloc, with its Stasi secret police keeping a firm grip on any form of dissent. But it is also known for its long tradition of nude bathing – known in Germany as Free Body Culture or FKK. In the mid-1950s, this tradition came under threat as the GDR government tried to ban nude bathing completely. Unexpectedly for a country that had no tolerance for dissent, the East German fans of Free Body Culture fought back… Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter! 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) Further reading Freikorperkultur (Free Body Culture) explained / at Wikipedia.org Nudity in Germany: The Naked Truth / at CNN Travel Will Public Nakedness Fade Out in Germany? / at Citylab.com Love in the Time of Communism / book by Josie McLellan at Amazon.com. The chapter on FKK in East Germany was an invaluable resource in researching this topic. 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

01/17/2019

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24 min
01/31/2019

TRANSMUTATION

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... Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter! 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 Further reading How to turn things into gold / on scientificamerican.com (the thing we promised in the podcast!) The Origins of Alchemy & The Pole who Played with Oxygen / on Culture.pl Who Was Michael Sendivogius? Biography Of An Alchemist / on Culture.pl Water Which Does Not Wet Hands / a book by Dr Szydlo on Sendivogius and Mediaeval alchemy, on Amazon.com Thanks Zbigniew Andrew Szydlo / for revealing all the secrets of transmutation and alchemy to Adam, our editor and host. Dr Szydlo is an acknowledged chemist, educator and a great performer with a mission of presenting experiments outside of the classroom. Mark Stavish / for talking with us about the state of alchemy today. Mark is the director for the Institute for Hermetic Studies in Pennsylvania and a life-long student of esotericism with over 25 years experience in comparative religion, philosophy, psychology, and mysticism with emphasis on Traditional Western Esotericism. Rafał T. Prinke / for explaining how close Sendivogius really was to the world of science. Dr Prinke is a historian specialising in astrology, esotericism and ancient games. John Beauchamp / for his Sendivogius impersonation. John is a seasoned radio journalist, currently working on Unseen Warsaw, a series of soundwalks located in Warsaw. Credits Written & produced by Elizabeth Lawrence & Wojciech Oleksiak Edited by Adam Żuławski Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Żuławski Research by Monika Proba

01/31/2019

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23 min
01/31/2022

The Passion of St Luke: Belief and Redemption

“I was aiming for something that seemed unreachable”, said Penderecki of the St Luke Passion, a work written to mark one thousand years of Christianity in Poland, but commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Münster Cathedral. How was such a fundamental expression of faith received in Communist era Poland, and where does the St Luke Passion sit in a lifetime of composing sacred music? In this podcast we reflect on belief and redemption in choral music. Transcription WCAG

01/31/2022

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44 min
10/07/2021

DAISIES

Vera Chytilová was the most important woman director of the Czechoslovak New Wave – although she remains relatively unknown outside of Central Europe. As the first female student of the prestigious FAMU film school in Prague, she had to fight in order to do things her own way. During the creative explosion of the Czechoslovak New Wave, she made her most well known film ‘Daisies’ (1966) – a surrealist pop-art comedy, about two young women who set their minds on creating humorous destruction around them. The 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of her country stopped Chytilová’s promising career dead in its tracks, but unlike Miloś Forman (‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest’, 1975) and others, she refused to emigrate, despite the huge personal cost. After seven years of professional exile, she was allowed to return to filmmaking in the late 1970s, once again finding critical success. After the privatisation of the Czech film industry in the 1990s, she was one of the first to adapt with ‘The Inheritance’ (1992) – a scathing satire on the effect free-for-all capitalism was having on her fellow citizens. Having never compromised on her beliefs, she remained a moral authority in her country until her death in 2014, and continues to inspire those lucky enough to come across her films for the first time. Listen to the episode to hear her fascinating story. Click here to get the transcript Like our show? Sign up for our newsletter! Further reading Vera Chytilova Dies at 85; Made Daring Films in Czech New Wave // on nytimes.com "It's still revolutionary' : Věra Chytilová’s Daisies comes sixth in BBC poll of films by women // on Czech Radio.cz The Cinematic Gems of the Czechoslovak New Wave // on Hyperallergic.com Poles Conquer Czech Cinema // on Culture.pl The Most Powerful Films From Beyond the Iron Curtain // on Culture.pl Further watching Naughty Young People: Chytilová, Kučera, Krumbachova (2012) // documentary at Vimeo.com Thanks Tereza Kučerova // set designer and visual artist, for talking to us about her mother, and her childhood memories of the dramatic events of 1968. Anička Hanáková // for helping translate our conversation and sharing her own memories of her grandmother. Dr. Michal Bregant // director of the National Film Archive in Prague, for sharing his experience of working with Chytilová in the 1980s. Professor Jan Bernard // for talking about his former teaching colleague at at FAMU. Dr. Jindřiška Bláhová // Assistant Film Studies Professor at Charles University, for sharing her knowledge of Chytilová's life and work. Jakub Felcman // filmmaker and former student of Chytilová at FAMU, for talking to us about the Czech director as a teacher and mentor. Lastly, a special thanks to Barbora Lochmanová from the Czech Film Center and Jitka Rohanova from the Polish Institute in Prague for their help in making the episode possible. Credits Written & produced by Piotr Wołodźko Edited by Wojciech Oleksiak & Adam Zulawski Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Zulawski Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak

10/07/2021

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27 min
01/17/2022

Brigade of Death: Memory and Outrage

On 8 September, 1939, when Krzysztof Penderecki was just a few weeks shy of his sixth birthday, German forces took control of his home town of Dębica with its majority Jewish population. Between then and the liquidation of the Dębica ghetto in 1943, the young Penderecki had to witness the Nazi regime’s systematic intimidation, segregation and extermination of Europe’s Jews as it played out literally his own doorstep. Twenty years later he took Leon Weliczker’s Holocaust memoir, Brigade of Death, and constructed a work for narrator and electronics which, following its premiere, would not be performed again until 2011. Reflecting on a painful history in this podcast, we explore Brigade of Death and the reactions of different generations of listeners to Penderecki’s work. Transcription WCAG

01/17/2022

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35 min
09/02/2024

Długa 8A

One of the most important locations in Yiddish theatre. Michał Weichert, a lawyer, but also an avant-garde director and theatre theoretician, lived at 8a Długa Street from the mid-1930s. A figure of great merit for the history of Yiddish and Polish theatre, he founded the Young Theatre (Yung-Teater). Originally hailing from Galicia, the Polish territory partitioned by Austria-Hungary, Weichert settled in Warsaw only in 1918, as a mature man of 28. He came to the capital after a stay in Berlin, where he studied under the supervision of the famous director Max Reinhardt, a theatre reformer. In Warsaw, he had an intensive career as a publisher and director, as well as a pedagogue. From the early 1920s, Weichert organised experimental acting studios in the capital, the first Jewish acting schools of their kind. Their graduates formed the core of the Yung-Teater in 1932, which Weichert was director of until 1939. One of the seats of the Yung-Teater was located nearby, at 19 Długa Street, almost opposite 26 Długa Street, another building that is part of this series of Unseen. LINK TO 01-Dluga-26 How to listen: Unseen is available as a downloadable podcast, although it is best experienced through the Echoes geolocative storytelling app available for iOS and Android. After loading the app, search for soundwalks in Warsaw and you’ll find Unseen. Further reading: • Jewish Theatre in Poland: Fragments of an Illustrious History // on Culture.pl • Jung Jidysz // bio on Culture.pl • Where is Poland? // a multimedia guide about the era 1795-1918 when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned by three neighbouring empires • 8 Remarkable Yiddish Books from Poland // on Culture.pl • From ‘Last Sunday’ to ‘Last Shabbos’: Poland’s Legendary Jewish Tangos// on Culture.pl • The Lost World of Yiddish Films in Poland // on Culture.pl • The Rise & Fall of Polish Song // on Culture.pl

09/02/2024

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4 min

All of Culture.pl's audio offerings in one place. Culture.pl is the largest and most comprehensive source of knowledge about Polish culture, run by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM).