The Debrief

In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at ‘Przekroje’, a new permanent exhibition in Kraków on the history of Polish architecture.

The most important exhibits of Polish designers and architects from across the country have gone on display in two galleries at the Szołayski House, part of the National Museum in Kraków.

The exhibitions are called ‘Przedmioty’ (Objects) for the design exhibition and ‘Przekroje’ (Blueprints) for the architecture display, with both encompassing the Polish history of design and architecture from the 20th and 21st centuries.

It is hoped that the permanent exhibitions will eventually be housed in the Cracovia hotel, located opposite the National Museum and itself a monumental piece of Polish modernist architecture.

Host John Beauchamp speaks to curators Małgorzata Jędrzejczyk, Kacper Kępiński and Weronika Grzesiak about the creation of a new exhibition on the history of Polish architecture.

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

In this episode of The Debrief, we’re joined by Maria Meissner who tells us about Zen Coaching and leads us through a simple meditation to kickstart 2022 on a good note.

Based on the island of Sobieszewo, which is a part of the Baltic City of Gdańsk, Maria Meissner works in the Zen Coaching approach. Host John Beauchamp gets comfy and takes a deep breath for this inaugural episode of 2022.

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

In this special end-of-year edition of The Debrief, John Beauchamp is joined by Jarosław Juszkiewicz, a broadcaster, YouTuber, astronomer, and perhaps best known for being the Polish voice of Google Maps.

After three decades of manning the microphone at Polish Radio Katowice, Juszkewicz has now branched out into developing his own shows as well as working with the Silesian Planetarium in Chorzów.

During this special edition of the show, we talk turkey about the shift from radio to online and digital, as well as look forward to the exciting developments at the planetarium, the largest in Poland. All that, and a lot of festive talk in between.

Wesołych Świąt! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays! ⛄🎄 

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

Cover image in public domain from Polona.pl

Dinosaur specialists are hailing the find at the most spectacular dinosaur discovery ever in Poland, the biggest of its type in Europe and possibly the world.

The discovery of hundreds of Jurassic period dinosaur fossils was made near the village of Borkowice in central-east Poland by Prof. Grzegorz Pieńkowski from the National Geological Institute in Warsaw and geologist and paleontologist Dr. Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki from Uppsala University.

John Beauchamp speaks to Prof. Pieńkowski about the find.

In this week’s review:

• 2022 budget approved by lower house of Polish parliament
• Polish HICP inflation up by 7.4 pct y/y in November – Eurostat

And this week saw the 40th anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Poland, when the communists cracked down on the leaders of the Solidarity trade union as well as putting Poland on lockdown until July 1983. Head on over to the TFN website for an interview with photographer Chris Niedenthal, who captured iconic images showing the reality of that time in Poland.

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

In the show this week host John Beauchamp speak to Dr Agnieszka Olszewska from the Museum of Photography in Kraków.

Its long-standing headquarters, which is situated just outside the Old Town around the corner from indie cinema Kino Mikro and the Park Krakowski, has just been given a makeover, right on time for its 35th birthday.

In this week’s news:

• Young children get green light for Covid jabs
• Poland's exports to Germany on the rise - German stats office
• Abakanowicz installation smashes art auction record after going for eye-watering PLN 13.6 million

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

In this week’s show host John Beauchamp speaks to Justyna Dominiak, a passionate educator who has just made a prize-winning boardgame to get kids interested in cultural heritage.

The game – called Invest in Cultural Heritage – won the top prize in a competition run by the Polish National Heritage Institute, and plans are in place to release the game to the general public in 2022.

In this week’s review:

• Complaints filed by Poland and Hungary should be dismissed – EU official
• US ambassador nominee pledges to foster rule of law in Poland
• Poland's unemployment rate flat at 3.4 pct in October - Eurostat

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

In this week’s show, host John Beauchamp speaks to multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Karolina Cicha.

Cicha is no stranger to ethnic folk music, having released albums in a number of languages found in her native Podlasie region in north-eastern Poland, including those of well-grounded minorities such Russian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian, but also in Yiddish, Roma, and Tatar.

She’s now released a musical map of Poland’s Karaim community, the country’s smallest at around 300 people, and originally hailing from the Crimea.

In this week’s review:

• Poland to start vaccinating children between five and 11 in December
• Poland grants humanitarian visas to 40 Belarusians
• President asks Nato to boost readiness of its forces at eastern border

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

Scientists are looking to compile an international archive of how historical objects smell.

In what has been described as a ‘breakthrough project’ the joint Polish-Slovenian initiative will analyse the odours and their historical significance in an attempt to develop a new interpretation and a new narrative to describe the artefacts.

Coming up in the show, host John Beauchamp talks to Professor Tomasz Sawoszczuk from the Krakow University of Economics about the so-called Odotheka.

Coming up in this week’s review:

• Poland expects up to 40,000 Covid cases in worst scenario – minister
• Closure of Poland's ski slopes unlikely this winter
• Poland completes Baltic section of new gas pipeline

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

What better way to celebrate the anniversary of Polish independence than by talking to four top-flight scientists, who under the leadership of Professor Marek Lewandowski from the Institute of Geophysics at the Polish Academy of Sciences, left this past week on a five month mission to explore and reopen the Dobrowolski research station, which hasn’t been used since 1979.

On Wednesday 10 November the research team set sail on a Russian research vessel and icebreaker, the Akademik Fedorov, from the German port of Bremerhaven, where I managed to catch them in their cabin just a few hours before their departure to talk about what lies ahead for the mission.

Host John Beauchamp speaks to geologist and isotope geochemist Prof. Monika Kusiak, geophysicist and paleomagnetician Prof. Marek Lewandowski, ionosphere physicist Prof. Wojciech Miloch as well as geographer and geomorphologist Dr Adam Nawrot.

In this week’s review:

• Poland marks Independence Day
• Belarus president threatens to cut gas supplies over EU sanctions
• Poland’s GDP rises 5.1 pct y/y in Q3 - stats office

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!

In this week’s show, host John Beauchamp speaking to a genetics professor from Poznań, Professor Michał Witt, who states that genetic tests could help fully undertstand how the Polish nation’s most famous composer Chopin died.

It is common knowledge that Chopin was a sickly man throughout his life, but what got him in the end?

In this week’s review:

• Over 4,300 illegal immigrants detained in Poland over 3 months
• Nato calls on Belarus to observe international law
• Poland’s central bank raises reference interest rate by 75 bps

Is there anything you want to hear or read about? Why not drop me a line? You can get in touch with the show by writing to [email protected], and please remember to share, like and subscribe to The Debrief!