Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

News and Topical issue. Listen to the interview with doctor Karol Hornáček in the first part of our programming to find out more about the history of spas and to learn what health benefits a spa can bring you and where in Slovakia you can find one. Then we will look at the preventive campaign Nezabudni na mňa v aute or Don’t forget me in a car. The campaign aims to raise awareness about cases when children or animals were forgotten in hot cars and tries to educate the public in order to react accurately when involved in such a situation. And finally, at the end of our programming, we will bring you some tips about interesting places you can visit in Slovakia this summer.

Umberto Eco in Louvre, Wes Anderson in Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna and Michal Hvorecký in LGPMB. Pohoda festival streamed live also via RSI.

Following the news segment, we will speak to the outgoing British ambassador to Slovakia, Andy Garth, whose mission to Slovakia covered rather turning point events, such as Brexit, journalist's murder, as well as coronavirus pandemic. However, as he confirms, the past 6 years were not only drama for him. Bratislava downtown hosts an international exhibition of political cartoons. On the show we also begin a regular segment of summer tourist news and tips.

In June of this year, one of Slovakia's most respected university faculties suddenly lost 2/3 of its academic staff, with eight of them dismissed and 18 resigning in protest - this among the latest developments in a crisis that has engulfed the faculty since January, when the former dean, Maria Bielikova, was fired from her academic post without warning by the new dean, Ivan Kotuliak. The crisis has polarised members of the faculty and led to a formal proposal by the University Rector that the new dean be removed from his post. Jonathan McCormick speaks with several people close to the situation, on both sides, to learn how the crisis reached this critical point, and what impact all this could have on the future of the faculty.

News and Topical Issue. How have the elderly in Slovakia experienced the coronavirus epidemic?

The career of Marián Hossa in a nutshell after he became only the third ice hockey player born in Slovakia to become a member of the NHL hall of fame. On the occasion of the end of an unusual school year, we interviewed various people who shared their unique experiences.

News and Topical Issue. Iin the first part of today’s programme we are going to look at the term "ecosystem service" and are going to discuss its value with Ján Černecký from the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic and in the second part we will look at the Bratislava Danube park – a joint project of many renowned architects, urbanists and environmentalists that should contribute to the protection of the Danube as well as opening the area to so called “soft tourism”.

On the Wednesday show we will find out why the popular Slavic saints, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, also known as the patrons of Europe, have quite a few churches in the United States and Canada dedicated to them. Later we will hear from the Roman Catholic priest Ben Kosnáč, who served for 20 years in a Sts. Cyril and Methodius church in Sterling Hights, Michigan. And towards the end of the show, we will visit the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto and look for the Slovak hockey legacy there.

While the kinds of problems faced by large cities are often very similar, the approaches to solving them can vary widely. Thus in recent years has the concept of 'innovation' been increasingly applied within the circles of European city bureaucracies, with Bratislava recently creating a new position in its bureaucracy with the title of "Chief Innovation Officer." Jonathan McCormick recently spoke with the very first bearer of that title here in Slovakia's capital, Petra Dzurovčinová, to find out just what it is that a Chief Innovation Officer actually does. Lydia Machova is a language teacher and language-learning expert who speaks nine languages, but was frustrated when she saw that her students were not achieving the results she expected. Thus she decided to rethink the way people actually learn second languages, including the methods used by 'polyglots'. The result, many claim, is a very effective approach to learning any language whatsoever. Jonathan McCormick recently had the chance to speak with her about it.

News and Topical Issue. Summer travelling in Slovakia.