Episodes
Wednesday Dec 23, 2020
Christmas Episode 78
Wednesday Dec 23, 2020
Wednesday Dec 23, 2020
I hope that while listening to this POLcast episode you will forget about the pandemic and this weird Christmas 2020. This episode #78 celebrates the beauty of Christmas through music. You will learn a lot about Polish carols and other Christmas traditions. In this special Christmas episode I interview Joanna Ciapka-Sangster, a Polish Canadian violinist from Edmonton, Alberta.
Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
EPISODE 77
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
POLcast Episode 77 features two experts talking about Poland, its current situation, its geopolitical position, the present, the past, and the future
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
POLcast Episode 76
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
Sunday Aug 16, 2020
In Episode 76 we are talking about antisemitism in two Polish language newspapers published in Canada.
You will hear three interviews with:
• Michael Mostyn, the Chief Executive Officer of B'nai Brith Canada,
• Matthew Samulewski, an activist in the Polish Canadian community, mostly its younger generation,
• Thomas Lukaszuk, a Polish-born Canadian politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, who served in the provincial cabinet and was the Deputy Premier of Alberta.
See: Legality, morality, and freedom(s) – antisemitism in Polish language newspapers
Sunday Jun 14, 2020
Episode 75
Sunday Jun 14, 2020
Sunday Jun 14, 2020
In Episode 75 you will hear:
Interviews:
• Students connect in a coast-to-coast event
Quo Vadis Conferences Canada and the Polish Students’ Association (PSA) at the University of Toronto have teamed up to co-host an online conference just for students!
POLcast is happy to be the event’s media patron.
• Grammy Award nominee’s passion for jazz
In February I conducted this carefree – pre-COVID-19 – interview with Kinga Heming, an amazing Polish Canadian jazz singer, who was born in Poland, moved to Ottawa when she was five and now resides in the small town of Kelowna in the Canadian province of British Columbia. I had just seen (and loved) her performance at the Kabaret pod Banką’s annual Kabareton (Cabaret Night) but most of all – she had been nominated for coveted Grammy Award.
Sunday May 03, 2020
Episode 74 - COVID-19 #3
Sunday May 03, 2020
Sunday May 03, 2020
The pandemic...
Every day brings us new numbers - every single one of them represents someone whose life has been affected by this horrifying pandemic that has changed our world in ways we could not have imagined or predicted. Someone infected or deceased. Those numbers keep growing every day and we all pray or wish for the day when we hear that they have begun to drop.
Today we will talk about mental health, a very important face of the COVID-19 crisis.
• Kids and the pandemic
I talk to Dr. Ewa Antczak, a child psychologist, who deals with the emotional/psychological impact of the pandemic on kids.
• Poland and its first three days of May
On May 1 2004, Poland joined the European Union (EU), fulfilling its great dream to rejoin the great European family and community, from which it was isolated by the communist regime and system.
May 2 is Polish Flag Day which has been celebrated since 2004. May 2nd is also celebrated as a day of Polish diaspora or Poles abroad, so called POLONIA DAY. There are roughly 20 mln people of Polish ancestry living outside Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the largest in the world and one of the most widely dispersed.
May 3 is Poland’s national holiday: Polish Constitution Day. Poles are celebrating the declaration of the constitution in 1791, the second (after the American Constitution) democraitic, progressive constitution in the world.
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
Episode 73 – POLcast on COVID-19 (#2)
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
In Episode 73 - you will hear:
Interviews:
• The risk is obvious, but it doesn’t matter
The pandemic as experienced by someone who risks her life every day, a front line worker.
• Polish Easter
At the beginning of March, long before we realized the full scope of what was going on around us, I recorded a conversation with Maria Różanska of Just Be Cooking about Polish Easter traditions.
Tuesday Mar 31, 2020
POLcast - Episode 72 (POLcast on COVID-19)
Tuesday Mar 31, 2020
Tuesday Mar 31, 2020
Our world has changed completely. POLcast has now been transformed to COVID-19 themed podcast and will be released more frequently that once a month - every two (or three) weeks, depending on how much strength I will have to produce it.
In Episode 72 you will hear one interview only:
Facts and myths about COVID-19 and how we can all beat it
This is a conversation with Dr. Rafal Kustra, Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
Sunday Feb 23, 2020
POLcast Episode 71
Sunday Feb 23, 2020
Sunday Feb 23, 2020
In Episode 71 you will hear:
Interviews:
• “Memory is Our Homeland” – a tribute to those whose story was never told
• Canada’s dark past resonates with Poles in Poland
• Pączki –Just Be Cooking Maria Rozynska is talking about the International Pączki Day and the magic od pączki making. To attend the Just Be Cooking Pączki event and other evets, see HERE
Sunday Jan 26, 2020
POLcast Episode 70
Sunday Jan 26, 2020
Sunday Jan 26, 2020
In Episode 70 you will hear:
Interviews:
• A no-barrier approach to Polishness
It’s fantastic that children of emigrants, Poles who settled in other countries such as Canada, even though they were often born and educated here, are interetsed in their roots, cultural heritage and want to incorporate their Polishness into their identity. There are a few Polish Canadian youth organizations, including the one and only Quo Vadis movement, which we have featured on POLcast. A Polish Canadian young professionals’ organization, whose launch we celebrated on POLcast last year - Konekt is a bit different from other such groups. It’s been growing and expanding.
• Cooking, teaching and singing - all in one
I am introducing to you our new POLcast collaborator - Maria Rozynska and her Just Be Cooking. Maria will be collaborating with POLcast and will have her own segment in each episode.
Maria Rozynska created an innovative project in Toronto called Just Be Cooking - where people make food (not only Polish) under expert supervision, hear about its history and cultural signficance, listen to live music, and eat the food that they cooked in a communal meal.
• How can languages save your life?
How can knowing multiple lanuages help you stay alive? A Polish American academic Tadeusz “Tad” Haska survived WWII and the stalinist repressions thanks to his unusual linguistics talent. This incredible story was lovingly described by his granddaughter Stefanie Naumann in her book How Languages Saved Me: A Polish Story of Survival, released in September 2019 with Koehler Books.
• Goodbye to Laura and Peter Żerański - please but their great heritage cookbooks (you can learn about them here)
• Music - POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode.
Sunday Dec 22, 2019
POLcast Christmas Episode 69
Sunday Dec 22, 2019
Sunday Dec 22, 2019
This is POLcast Christmas Episode.
WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT i WSPANIAŁEGO NOWEGO ROKU!
In Episode 69 you will hear:
Interviews:
• "Music has been my lifeline": when cancer hits
Arthur Lewinowicz, a 27-year-old violin and viola player, composer and teacher, whose life mission is to help kids with various disabilities and special needs learn to play the violin and enjoy music, has been fighting cancer since August.
• Living like any other person who can see
Marta Hanyżkiewicz, born in Poland, is a student of business and psychology at New York University and Baruch College in New York City. She is blind but has decided to live her life like any other person her age who can see.
• 50th segment of Smacznego! Eating Polish
• Polish carols and Christmas songs by Magda Papierz and Ola Turkiewicz, from their 2015 album "Święta kolędą przyprószone".