The Ornate and the Minimalist: Stories from Warsaw’s Cultural Core Step into the very heart of Warsaw, where two strikingly different buildings—one steeped in ornate socialist grandeur, the other a beacon of minimalist modernity—stand side by side: the Palace of Culture and the Museum of Modern Art's new exhibit. Listen to an exclusive interview with curator Natalia Sielewicz, offering an insider’s perspective on the museum’s vision and collection. Stay tuned until the end for a special surprise...
Mar 30, 2025•37 min•Ep. 104
Listen to some stories from my visit to Warsaw: • 10th birthday of POLIN - an award winning museum in Warsaw which tells the story of the Jewish community in Poland. • An artist's art in Yiddish. • A Trinidadian in Poland. • A multiethnic oasis in Warsaw. • A Warsaw unique church. • Enjoying live Chopin music in the iconic park in Warsaw - a 65-year-old tradition.
Dec 05, 2024•51 min•Ep. 103
Today I will take you on a trip to two continents and to two places almost 10,000 km apart. • The first one is in Poland. It’s the city of Sopot, on the Baltic Sea coast. You will meet Canadian Polish photographer and film personality Ela Kinowska • My second POLcast guest is a black musician/composer whom I heard playing Chopin's music on his keyboard north of San Diego, California. Also, you will learn about a Polish inventor Stefan Kudelski, whose work truly revolutionized Hollywood! And fina...
Sep 11, 2024•41 min•Ep. 102
What a long way it has been since the idea to create POLcast was born 9 years ago! It started in 2015 and Episode #1 was released on March 15, 2016. This anniversary calls for memories and summaries. In its 8 years POLcast has released 100 episodes. I have interviewed well over 200 hundred people and brought you stories from all the continents (well, except for Antarctica, but weather- or climate-wise we did reach far north - Alaska and the Canadian Yukon). In this special episode I walk you thr...
Aug 02, 2024•51 min•Ep. 101
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.
May 03, 2024•38 min•Ep. 100
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.c...
Apr 18, 2024•41 min•Ep. 99
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....
Mar 04, 2024•49 min•Ep. 98
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!
Dec 23, 2023•53 min•Ep. 97
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.
Jun 20, 2023•48 min•Ep. 96
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.
May 01, 2023•51 min•Ep. 95
Meet Marajke Slomka from Brussels, a polyglot born in Poland. And a story of Gacek the cat, the tourist attraction in Szczecin.
Apr 04, 2023•37 min•Ep. 94
In this Christmas episode, the last one in 2022, you will hear two interviews: • UCL Leaders - a great annual conference initiated by Polish students • A WWII puzzle solved - new thriller “Who Has Buried The Dead” and • Christmas music. WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT!
Dec 10, 2022•1 hr 57 min•Ep. 93
In this episode you will hear about: Poland’s and Canada’s November 11th Canada Study Tour program for Polish hight school students and Alina Deja’s love for Canada EKRAN Toronto Polish Film Festival #13 A stolen Stradivarius and other unknown stories from POLcast Facebook
Nov 11, 2022•44 min•Ep. 92
“Fight With Art” is the largest online charity auction in the world to offer humanitarian aid for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People. POLcast is talking to Michael Rubenfeld, its organizer, a Canadian performance maker, cultural producer, playwright and actor, who now lives in Cracow, Poland.
Sep 22, 2022•42 min•Ep. 91
From 1940 Kazachstan to 2022 Canada Today I am speaking to two women whom I have interviewed before: • ALICJA EDWARDS (born in 1924) Alicja Edwards is a 98-year-old writer, painter, pianist and antique expert and dealer. She lives in Eureka, Montana. Her paintings showing the traumatic years in Kazachstan in the 1940’s are now telling this incredible story of survival as part of Alicja Edwards exhibit at the Muzeum Pamieci Sybiru (The Sybir Memorial Museum) in Bialystok, Poland. • Louiza Szacon ...
Jul 21, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 90
Mississauga Polish Day 2022. I will take you on a trip to Mississauga, a city neighbouring Toronto, to experience a colourful, joyful Mississauga Polish Day 2022 - celebration of Poland, polishness and Ontario’s Polish community. May 2022 was the first Polish Heritage Month in Ontario.
Jun 15, 2022•48 min•Ep. 88
This is my second special POLcast Episode - a tribute to Ukraine, to our Ukrainian sisters and brothers who are fighting heroically to defend their country against Putin's army. This episode is about Canadian-Polish help for Ukraine. • Toronto artists for Ukraine This huge concert “With Ukraine” was organized in Toronto by local artists to show their solidarity and love for Ukraine and to raise money for Ukraine. The idea came from two Polish folk singers from the renowned group Polky. • "United...
Apr 26, 2022•51 min•Ep. 87
This is a special POLcast Episode - a tribute to Ukraine, to our Ukrainian sisters and brothers who are fighting heroically to defend their country against Putin's army. We stand with Ukraine and will do all we can to help and support you. This episode shows many faces of this support - in Poland, Canada, and England.
Mar 14, 2022•52 min•Ep. 86
In this episode: • Interview with Ewa Stachniak, a Polish Canadian writer * Christmas music by Joanna Ciapka-Sangster and Magda Papierz, Ola Turkiewcz and Vocal Ensemble of MAVO Academy of Arts and Music MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Dec 22, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 61
In this episode I’d like you to meet my two guests: Anna Paluch from Ottawa, Canada, and Piotr Surmaczynski from London, UK. We talk about indigenous culture, art, and history, about identity, Polishness, emigration and more. Visit POLcast at www.mypolcast.com
Oct 23, 2021•52 min•Ep. 60
An interview with Canadian historian, author and educator Zig Misiak about the history and aftermath of Canadian residential schools as well as his 50 years of work with and for Canada's First Nations.
Aug 23, 2021•53 min•Ep. 59
In this episode you will hear my interview with Ilona Kowalik Urbaniak, a mathematician and musician, born in Poland, living in Canada and now working in Cracow, Poland.
Jun 14, 2021•42 min•Ep. 58
An interview with Sabina Baral, who wrote an extremely successful book in Polish "Zapiski z wygnania" (Notes from Exile). The book talks about her family's experience of being made to leave Poland in March 1968, as a result of the ruling communist party's anti-Semitic purge. Those forced to leave were made stateless and were subjected to humiliating exit procedures. Sabina left Poland with her parents, parting with her Polish boyfriend. This was the end of her life in the country where her famil...
Apr 12, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 57
In this episode you will hear three interviews with: • Ewa Henry- Dawson, head of the Canada Team of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, about this year’s 29th annual campaign in Canada, pandemic-style. • Irene Tomaszewski, a Canadian writer, editor and translator of Polish descent living in Ottawa, for many years the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Review, an online English-language magazine on Polish culture, established in 2008. We talk about Bogumił W.Andrzejewski, a Polish linguist an...
Feb 27, 2021•39 min•Ep. 56
In this Episode, we present two interviews, with: • Prof. Bart Bonikowski, American sociologist from NYU, teacher and advisor of Amanda Gorman at Harvard; • Joanna Ciapka-Sangster, a Polish Canadian violinist from Edmonton, Canada.
Jan 23, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 55
I hope that while listening to this POLcast episode you will forget about the pandemic and this weird Christmas 2020. This episode #78 celebrates the beauty of Christmas through music. You will learn a lot about Polish carols and other Christmas traditions. In this special Christmas episode I interview Joanna Ciapka-Sangster , a Polish Canadian violinist from Edmonton, Alberta. Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!...
Dec 24, 2020•36 min•Ep. 54
POLcast Episode 77 features two experts talking about Poland, its current situation, its geopolitical position, the present, the past, and the future
Nov 25, 2020•46 min•Ep. 53
In Episode 76 we are talking about antisemitism in two Polish language newspapers published in Canada. You will hear three interviews with: • Michael Mostyn, the Chief Executive Officer of B'nai Brith Canada, • Matthew Samulewski, an activist in the Polish Canadian community, mostly its younger generation, • Thomas Lukaszuk, a Polish-born Canadian politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, who served in the provincial cabinet and was the Deputy Premier of Alberta. See: ...
Aug 17, 2020•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 52
In Episode 75 you will hear: Interviews: • Students connect in a coast-to-coast event Quo Vadis Conferences Canada and the Polish Students’ Association (PSA) at the University of Toronto have teamed up to co-host an online conference just for students! POLcast is happy to be the event’s media patron. • Grammy Award nominee’s passion for jazz In February I conducted this carefree – pre-COVID-19 – interview with Kinga Heming, an amazing Polish Canadian jazz singer, who was born in Poland, moved to...
Jun 14, 2020•50 min•Ep. 51
The pandemic... Every day brings us new numbers - every single one of them represents someone whose life has been affected by this horrifying pandemic that has changed our world in ways we could not have imagined or predicted. Someone infected or deceased. Those numbers keep growing every day and we all pray or wish for the day when we hear that they have begun to drop. Today we will talk about mental health, a very important face of the COVID-19 crisis. • Kids and the pandemic I talk to Dr. Ewa...
May 03, 2020•46 min•Ep. 50
