The Debrief

In this episode of The Debrief, we are in the newly opened Sybir Memorial Museum in the city of Białystok, which aims to highlight centuries of Russian and Soviet deportations to Siberia.

Host John Beauchamp speaks to the Sybir Museum’s head of education, Dr Piotr Popławski.

The Sybir Memorial Museum in Białystok, which opened on the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939, is the largest and most important institution dealing with deportations to Russia and later the Soviet Union.

At its centre are not the political forces that led to the deportations but rather the experiences of its victims.

In this week’s review:

• Poland will consider French investment in nuclear plant - official
• September unemployment falls to 5.6 percent - stats office
• Researchers to create ‘library of historic smells’

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 episode host John Beauchamp talks to Dr Corinne Fournier-Kiss from the University of Bern in Switzerland, who is an expert on George Sand, the long-time lover of Frederic Chopin and herself an acclaimed novelist and social revolutionary of her time.

But what was Sand’s relationship with Chopin really like and how is she perceived in Poland and back in her native France? Dr Fournier has recently had her monograph on Germaine de Staël and George Sand translated and published in Poland, and we managed to catch up with her in her busy schedule while she was recently in Warsaw.

In this week’s review:

• Third Covid-19 jab to be available in coming weeks, PM announces
• Canadian Bruce Liu wins Chopin competition
• Warsaw restaurant breaks world record for tallest ever pancake tower

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!

Host John Beauchamp goes 100% geek this week and talks about quantum computing with scientist and investor Dominik Andrzejczuk, who wants to transform Poland into a ‘Quantum Valley’.

In this week’s review:

• PM to speak at EP debate on Polish constitutional ruling
• French power group wants to build nuclear reactors in Poland
• Three Polish MedTech start-ups chosen for Google’s 2021 European Accelerator programme

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 episode of The Debrief, we take a look at the issue of Polish folk art from an anthropological point of view.

Host John Beauchamp talks to renowned ethnographer and anthropologist Dr Ewa Klekot about a new book she’s written about the issues of Polish folk art and how all is not what it seems once you scratch under the surface.

In this week’s review:

• Poland ready to increase number of Covid-19 hospital beds
• Poland’s Monetary Council unexpectedly raises interest rates
• Zakopane alpinist becomes first woman in the world to scale Nepal’s ‘killer mountain’

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!

A Polish avant-garde film dating from before World War II has been found in the German federal archives. The movie, called ‘Europa’, was made by surrealists Stefan and Franciszka Themerson and is a critique of the rise of Nazism in germany at the beginning of the 1930s.

During the war the film was thought to have been destroyed, but one copy has been unearthed in Berlin and is to get its world premier at the London Film Festival later this month.

Host John Beauchamp talks to Wojciech Kozłowski, Director of the Pilecki Institute, which was instrumental behind the film’s unearthing.

In this week’s review:

• Poland sends Egypt over 100,000 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine
• Majority of Poles want shopping Sundays back – poll
• New centre dedicated to Polish Enigma codebreakers opens in Poznań

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!

Host John Beauchamp talks to Jessica Bruder on her award-winning book Nomadland, which has also been turned into a ground-breaking new film starring Frances McDormand showing the trials and tribulations of life on the road and so-called vandwelling following the financial crisis over a decade ago.

In this week’s review:

• Polish president accuses Belarus of hybrid attack
• PKN Orlen plans to buy Poland's first hydrogen-powered train
• New Centre of Polish Folklore showcases country’s rich and wonderful dance traditions

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!

Host John Beauchamp speaks to Stefan Tompson in the studio for a chat on his latest work, how conservative aesthetics has a chance to make a comeback in cultural marketing and the issue of how content often overpowers form in film-making.

For those listeners who haven’t come across Stefan’s work, he is known for his educational videos which highlight Polish history, some of which have taken YouTube by storm, and he is a PR adviser and strategist for organisations linked to the current government as well private enterprises.

Apart from that, he is seen as a Wunderkind among conservative circles in Poland. However, that doesn’t stop Stefan from a fair amount of critique of how conservative circles approach the so-called culture industry.

In this week’s review:

• Poland donates Covid vaccines to Uzbekistan, thanks for evacuation help
• Ruling party leader says Poland's future is in EU, no ‘Polexit’
• August inflation rises to 5.5 pct y/y - 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 programme, John Beauchamp takes a look at an educational project which brings together students from across Europe to meet in the continent’s borderlands. We hear from Beata Tomczyk and Jarosław Kociszewski.

The women from the Ruty Uwite group sing in Lemko, a dialect of Rusyn, about life, love, the seasons, and of course the lush nature which makes up the entire Beskid mountain range.

Straddling the Slovak border, the Beskid Niski in particular is of outstanding beauty and is the home to some of Poland’s Lemkos, an ethnic group which stretches across the Beskid mountains and foothills in Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Lemkos, and Rusyns in general, are just one ethnic group which cross borders in this part of Europe, and are just one of many groups which students had the chance to find out about in a project run by European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, a multinational organisation set up by a number of European culture ministers in 2005.

In this week’s review:

• Polish, Ukrainian PMs discuss sovereignty, stability, security
• Poland’s Monetary Council leaves all interest rates unchanged
• Poland’s largest collection of comics goes on show as first step towards creating country’s first Comic Museum

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!

Full disclosure: I had a chance to participate in the project, where I helped the participating students with audio production in the region, while my colleagues were in Ivano-Frankivisk in Ukraine and Usedom in Germany, just a stone’s throw from the Polish port city of Świnoujście.

We talk to two prominent journalists in Poland, Arleta Bojke from Poland’s public broadcaster TVP, as well as Michał Potocki from the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, about a book which they’ve just published which contains harrowing tales of what is happening to independent journalists on the other side of the border in Belarus.

It’s no secret that Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenka has cracked down on all opposition forces since the rigged election in the summer of 2020. We get the inside story on their latest book, ‘Partyzanci’, or ‘Partisans’.

In this week’s review:

• Poland agrees to take in 500 Afghan refugees
• Health min warns daily Covid infections may hit 5,000
• Most Poles want to work remotely or in hybrid mode after pandemic

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!

A sneak preview of a new audio play by journalists and lovers of oral history Barbara Caillot and Aleksandra Karkowska, a spin-off of their earlier book ‘Na Giewont Się Patrzy’ which looks at the local lore of the Tatra Mountains, complete with authentic górale highlanders and music from the Trebunia-Tutka family.

There is no news this episode – our weekly reviews resume in September!

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!

Audio clip used with permission from the authors.