Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

RERUN: Listeners Tribune and 6th competition round - Orava.

In the "Anna&Anna" series, the two teenagers reveal their plans for summer school holidays which started in Slovakia on July 1. The founder of the largest multigenre festival in the country reveals his highlights of its 25-year-long history.

On the show we will vistit the Folk festival in Východná, which took place just this past weekend. Then we will learn more about the new car manufacturer heading to Eastern Slovakia. This Wednesday we bring you also the first round of summer tips for your travels around Slovakia.

Special holiday edition – Two historical figures that are intimately bound up with the identity of Slovaks and Slovakia are the 9th-century saints Cyril and Methodius, whose holiday is celebrated today. Jonathan speaks with Slovak historian Samuel Trizuljak to find out why these two names loom so large in the cultural and religious identity of this country.

Echoes of Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival to take place in Bratislava and Košice this summer. High school students from Trnava represent Slovakia take part an internationa competition with their electric vehicle. How many children are having summer vacation now?

Richard Vesely, head of the jury at the 2022 Hviezdoslav Kubin, lends a helping hand in explaining to foreigners the Slovak phenomenon of poetry-reading contests. Eve Blau of Harvard University gives her impression of the Bratislava urban form after her lecture at an international conference hosted by the Faculty of Architecture and Design at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.

On the show we will observe 25th anniversary of publishing the first Harry Potter book, back in 1997. How did Pottermania affect Slovakia? The first book came out in Slovakia in October of 2000, when the filming of the first Harry Potter movie was already underway. More than one million copies were sold since then. Fanbase in Slovakia gathers at events, plays quidditch and even travels to places related to the saga.

With cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and others losing over half their value in a matter of weeks, in the midst of the current economic crisis, people are wondering whether investing in Crypto is such a good idea after all. Jonathan speaks with cryptocurrency expert Pavol Luptak about the reasons for this sudden and dramatic drop in value, how crypto-enthusiasts protect themselves against such radical fluctuations, and what he believes about the future of cryptocurrencies more generally. – Repeat: Recent years have seen a sharp increase in attempts by social media platforms like Google or Facebook to exercise control over what their users are allowed to post or share online. Driving this phenomenon has been the widespread feeling that these companies are in some sense like publishers, and therefore responsible for what users do on their sites. Jonathan speaks with Robert Moro of the Kempelen Institute of Intelligent Technologies, who specialises in AI and its use on social media, about these very questions.

Energy poverty is a widespread problem across Europe. According to the European commission, between 50 and 125 million people are unable to afford proper indoor thermal comfort. A common European definition does not exist, but many member states of the EU acknowledge the scale of this socio-economic situation and its negative impact translated into severe health issues and social isolation. The Slovak Academy of Sciences wants to change this. A group of experts is collecting data for the first study of this topic in Slovakia. Dušana Dokupilová researcher of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Prognostic Institute reveals more in the interview. Experts of the Office for Regulation of Network Industries have drafted a new version of the "Concept for the protection of energy-vulnerable consumers". This contains, among other things, concrete proposals for comprehensive and systemic solutions.