The annual Gender Equality Index report amongst EU member states was released recently, with Czechia placing 25th out of the 27 EU member states. The report ranks nations based on factors such as power, money, and education to understand the position of women in society. To learn more about the situation in Czechia, I spoke with Lucie Hrdá, a feminist and lawyer based in Prague specializing in sexual and domestic violence.

Czech scientists are developing a new technology that could help in accidents involving radioactive materials. Called the RaDron, it combines autonomous drones with unique particle detectors, which can expose even unknown sources of radiation.

Jaw harp, known in Czech as brumle, is an ancient musical instrument that has been played all over the world for centuries. Here in Czechia, it is mostly used in traditional folk music, especially in Moravia, but it has also found its way into other musical genres. What is the origin of this unusual musical instrument? And how do you play the brumle? I discussed these question with jaw harp enthusiast Petr Jasinčuk .

A Prague district court has ruled in the closely-watched trial of former MP Dominik Feri, 26, who stood  accused of two charges of rape and one attempted rape. The one-time TOP 09 party politician has been found guilty and sentenced to 3 years in jail.

The closely-watched trial of former MP Dominik Feri, who was found guilty of two counts of rape and one attempted rape and sentenced to three years in jail, has sparked a public debate on sexual assault and victim treatment in Czechia. I spoke to Johanna Nejedlová co-founder of Konsent , an NGO which focuses on preventing sexual violence and creating a safer environment for women, and asked her to comment on the verdict.

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 there have been reports of increasing harassment, hate speech and sometimes even physical assaults against members of both Jewish and Muslim communities in countries around the world. So what is the situation like in Czechia? I spoke to Miroslav Mareš, a political scientist at Brno’s Masaryk University whose research focuses on political extremism, terrorism and security policy in Central Europe, to find out.

A famous London avant-garde sculpture created by Karel Vogel, a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia, is set to undergo a major renovation. The concrete figure of a reclining woman, considered to be one of London’s most important pieces of modernist sculptures, was in urgent need of repair.

Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art is now celebrating 15 years of existence. The biggest independent institution of its kind in Czechia, it runs multiple exhibitions – and holds various events in a distinctive wooden structure resembling an airship. In connection with its 15th anniversary, I visited DOX to meet founder Leoš Válka.

With a career spanning over two decades, 41-year-old Czech professional ice hockey player Tomáš Plekanec announced his retirement from the game on Saturday evening. Known as ‘Pleky’ by his devoted fans, he spent more than a decade with NHL team the Montreal Canadiens, and also played for the Czech national team, leading the squad as captain in the 2018 World Championships. To learn more about the legacy he will leave on the ice, I spoke with Radiožurnál sports reporter, František Kuna.

The award-winning Ukrainian novelist and short story writer Natalia Matolinets is fascinated by the layers of common history shared by the cities of central Europe. She was born and lives in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which, she says, has many similarities to Prague, both in its beauty and in the complexity of its past. She is in Prague for a two-month residency, as part of the UNESCO City of Literature project. David Vaughan went to meet her in the atmospheric café of the Scouts’ Institute, in the courtyard of one of the old houses on the Old Town Square.