Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

Pick of the week - Rozhýb kosti festival, Annual conference of British Archaeological Association being held in Košice

A trip to Orava where the famous literature location attracts tourist even today. RSI is speaking to experts taking part in the international meeting of archaeologists chaired by British Archaeological Association in eastern Slovakia, the region rich in Gothic art monuments.

We will spend the entire show in the picturesque region of northern Slovakia. First at Rozhýbkosti - festival for traditional folklore enthusiasts. Some of these enthusiasts come all the way from Ireland. Then to Orava through our competition.

Repeat: The increasingly sedentary lifestyle of many in Western societies has been linked with various diseases that have been on the rise for decades. Jonathan speaks with Jozef Ukropec from the Biomedical Research Centre at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, who was also a finalist for the 2021 ESET Science Award, about these disturbing health trends and how the lack of physical movement in our lifestyle is contributing to them. – For the past 10 years or so we’ve been hearing a lot about the problem of ‘antibiotic resistance’ and the lack of new antibiotics in the development pipeline, a situation that could potentially leave us more vulnerable to infectious disease than we’ve been for decades. But there are people working on the problem, including Jonathan’s guest Pavol Jakubec of the Slovak University of Technology and the small team of scientists he’s part of.

The Shop on Main Street is a 1965 Czechoslovak film about the World War II Aryanisation programme in the Slovak state. It was filmed in the small town of Sabinov in northeastern Slovakia. The filmmakers have also been praised in the USA. In 1965, the film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The town of Sabinov still commemorates the filming and implements various projects. Find out more in the first episode of our summer series on Slovak film locations.

Braindrain continues - Slovaks working in Cern and their stories. Cycling route connects now Trnava and Nitra thanks to the construction of Nitra-Močenok part. 12 Gothic churches in Gemer and Malohont regions received the European Heritage Label award.

Find that out in interviews with crew members, line-up stars, guests as well as visitors.

The 2022 entry draft to the prestigious National hockey league was very closely followed in Slovakia, since a strong generation of prospective players was to make its entry into the top league. Even more, make its entry in the top spot. Canadian Shane Wright or Juraj Slafkovsky of Slovakia - that was the dilemma for hockey commentators across the world. In the end, Slovakia ended up with six drafted players and the first two spots overall. Is the Slafkomania about to begin in Montreal? Or has it already started? Listen to learn more.

Repeat: With the problem of antibiotic resistance becoming more acute with time, and no new antibiotics in the pipeline, researchers are working hard on new ideas that could lead to future developments. Jonathan speaks with Imrich Barak of Bratislava’s Institute of Molecular Biology at SAV, who was also a finalist for the 2021 ESET Science Award, about research he and his colleagues are doing at the molecular level that could eventually have an impact on the fight against bacterial infection. – Does the Big Bang scientific theory have any implications for philosophical or religious beliefs about the origin of the universe? Jonathan puts this question to Brano Sitar, a Slovak nuclear physicist who has spent the past 25 years deeply involved in experimental research at CERN, one of the world's top scientfic institutions.

2022 will bring Slovakia its first complex law for climate protection. It is being prepared by the Ministry of the Environment. The priority goal of the regulation should be to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Dana Mareková z iniciatívy Klimatická koalícia hovorí prečo je takýto zákon dôležitý a čo by mala kvalitná klimatická legislatíva obsahovať. The city of Prešov is threatened by an ecological collapse. The problem is related to a brine leak. The salt concentrate underground is a remnant of a defunct salt production plant. Some damaged caps on boreholes are leaking to the surface under high pressure. The situation is worsening rapidly.