The Debrief

In this edition of The Debrief, we are up in the Biebrza National Park in northern Poland.

The wetlands-dominated area comprises Poland's largest national park, taking up some 600 square kilometres: that's around the size of Chicago, IL.

Host John Beauchamp speaks to one of the park's ornithologists and environmental scientists, Piotr Marczakiewicz about the effects of climate change on this sensitive ecosystem.

In this episode of The Debrief, we catch up with environmental scientist João Costa, a researcher at the Narew National Park in north-eastern Poland.

The Narew National Park is home to one of Europe’s few braided rivers, which provides a home to wetland flora and fauna, and – needless to say – is an area of extreme beauty.

How did this 40-something Portuguese academic get involved with the local fauna? John Beauchamp went up to the park’s headquarters up in Kurowo to find out.

In this episode of The Debrief, we take a look at urban and rural spaces in Poland, and how a foundation is aiming to change the way we think about architecture.

Host John Beauchamp talks to Agnieszka Rasmus-Zgorzelska from the Centrum Architektury foundation about how they are raising awareness of public spaces and their annual book fair, Bazarch which takes place in Warsaw on 22-23.10.2022 at the Mazovian Cultural Institute in Warsaw.

Also in the show, we talk about the foundation's podcast, Radio Architektura, and how buildings often have their own sounds...

In this episode of The Debrief, we are at home with Krzysztof Czyżewski, Polish poet, director and founder of the Borderland Foundation in Sejny, northeastern Poland.

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, many were shocked at the brutality of the massacre left behind by Russian forces in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv. As the world saw the shocked and disheartened face of Ukraine’s President Zelensky, Czyżewski put pen to paper…

He has since been helping to house Ukrainian writers and artists in Sejny, with some also resident at the Miłosz family manor house in Krasnogruda, which lies on the border with Lithuania.

After a recent study trip to Georgia, now the Borderland Foundation has published “Facing the War”, a poetry series of ten books written by Ukrainian authors in translation by Polish poets, with proceeds going to the writers.

Host John Beauchamp speaks to Krzysztof Czyżewski at his home in Krasnogruda near Sejny.

Now in its 12th edition, the Warsaw Gallery Weekend opens the autumn season with one of the largest contemporary art events in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Warsaw Gallery Weekend programme includes 33 galleries and 38 exhibitions, as well as gallery tours, meetings with artists, as well as other special events.

Jacek Sosnowski from Propaganda Gallery, who helps organise the event, is in the studio with host John Beauchamp.

In this edition of The Debrief, we’re in the central city of Bydgoszcz for the annual vintage photo festival.

Despite digital photography being available at the fingertips of everyone, everywhere, festival director Katarzyna Gębarowska underlines that analogue photography is still very much a ‘go-to’ medium for many contemporary artists.

Host John Beauchamp also hears about photographs from the lost archive of Himalayan climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, as well as an award for Polish photographer legend Tadeusz Rolke.

More information on the festival can be found here.

For many parents across Poland, the first few weeks of September always pose a challenge.

Kids going back to school, the first seasonal bugs, and a turn in the weather all put their strain on families, who try and find their groove as the school year gets under way.

In this episode of The Debrief, a slightly snotty John Beauchamp is joined by Maria Meissner in this meditation session right from the heart of the Mazury lake district.

Already tired after the holidays and worried about the winter ahead? Tune in to tune out! More on Maria Meissner can be found at her website here.

In this episode of The Debrief, host John Beauchamp talks to Nadiia Moroz-Olshanska, who helps run the Nić Ukrainian bookstore and café on Kraków’s Sławkowska Street in the heart of the Old Town.

The café originally opened in the midst of lockdown in October 2020, providing a safe haven for Ukrainians in Kraków. As Moroz-Olshanska says, Ukranians make up 10% of income tax revenue for the city of Kraków, with Nić catering for the cultural needs of the Ukranian expat population.

Since February this year, Nić is also engaged in supportive activities of the Ukrainian war effort. “By the time we got to March, we knew that we were in for a marathon, and a very long one [at that],” Moroz-Olshanska says.

More information on Nić can be found here.

In this episode of The Debrief, we speak to Marek Cecuła, a veteran ceramic artist who also the leads the design office at Ćmielów porcelain factory, about a new exhibition commemorating the Jewish people of Kielce in southern Poland.

The installation was created by Cecuła and put on display at the Museum of the History of Kielce as part of an exhibition commemorating the history of the city’s Jews, whose population was all but wiped out by Nazi atrocities in World War II, as well as the Kielce Pogrom in 1946.

“It is about people living at home and life, so I though that a porcelain plate would be good material [to work with], it’s such a domestic product,” Marek Cecuła tells host John Beauchamp.

More about Marek Cecuła’s work can be found here.

With climate change meaning hotter summers and low levels of water in one of Poland's biggest rivers, experts say that it was only a matter of time before something happened.

Images of tonnes of dead fish have flooded the Polish news for weeks, but still relatively little is known about what actually caused this disaster.

In the studio host John Beauchamp speaks to environmental geographer Michał Brennek.