Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest who volunteered to take the place of someone sentenced to death in Auschwitz. In doing so, he became a Saint in the Catholic church but not without some controversy. Listen as we discuss the man and his path to Sainthood.
Time for the news in episode 3-0-1 of The Krakcast, starting with L4 leave from work, MORE money for the sextuplets, the "Olympics" no one wants, the future of office space in Krakow, street lighting goes from yellow to white, InPost goes cold, virtual buses and we still don't like ski jumping.
We go off-topic this week to discuss the many things that make travelling by plane a hyper-stressful experience for some of us. From being unable to find seat "9D" for some mysterious reason to Poles and their weird habit of clapping when planes land, join us for a discussion of everything that makes us want to jump out at 30,000 feet.
The culture wars around the abortion issue took an interesting turn this week when the Krakow City Council approved a proposal to name an area "Women's Rights Square". By an amazing coincidence, it's right in front of the local offices of PiS. Is this a good move or not?
Removing snow is really expensive and involves a lot of salt. Or possibly coffee. That's our start this week before we move on to covid discipline cracking in Zakopane, to beach or not to beach in Krakow, the media's reaction to the media tax, Hungary and Poland are BFF's, the (possibly) final word on e-scooter rules, Polish music on Polish radio, Hotel Cracovia gets a makeover and the search for a new Hejnał player continues.
There are certain songs and artists that you hear quite often in Poland that we don't think are played as much elsewhere. That's our impression, anyway. Listen as we go through our list of songs and see if you agree with our theories about why they're strangely popular here and tell us if we missed anything really obvious.
Amazon's decision to (finally) set up shop in the Polish market is in the news this week, along with relaxing COVD restrictions, Tesco sitting on top of a gas-fuelled time bomb, hydrogen-powered buses and start-ups that get millions thrown at them for unknown reasons.
As a guide at the Auschwitz Museum for nearly thirty years, Wojciech Smoleń has a comprehensive understanding of it that few others do. Listen as we discuss a familiar subject from a very unique perspective and learn some new things about a place that is visited by more than two million people every year.
Is there a law that says that 90% of Poles have to furnish their homes with products from IKEA? It certainly seems that way sometimes. Maybe it's because of Poland's long relationship with the meatball merchants. Listen as we look at the history of the deep Polish connections to the Swedish global giant.
We start with yet another bike-sharing program (to replace the previous failed bike-sharing program) coming to town soon at the cost of 72 million zloty. After that, it's new tram ticket prices, pigeon murder, idiot mountain hikers and generally stupid winter behavior, the COVID vaccination situation, Primark says no Kraków and a top local cop gets busted at Biedronka.
No, it's not a conspiracy theory—tests have repeatedly shown that there is a measurable difference in quality between the Polish and German versions of many familiar products. Needless to say, Poland (almost) always gets the worse version and we want to know why. Join us for a discussion of this weird-but-true secret of supermarket shelves.
Financial problems at the Kino Kijów and old-school cinemas generally are our starting point this week before we move on to new tram lines, accepting fines from cops, restaurants try to save themselves, Poland refuses to be silenced by social media and the "Kraków Olympics" are still a mess.
If you don't know the story of Father Jerzy Popiełuszko, you need to check out Popiełuszko - Messenger of Truth on Netflix right now. Listen as we discuss his incredible story and his place right at the intersection of several powerful historical forces that shaped recent Polish history.
2021's first news starts with a LOT of complaining about the new sugar tax and taxes generally before moving on to celebrity COVID vaccinations (including a Polish vocabulary lesson), Dave is obsessed with Henry Cavill's legs and instructions on what to do with your pizza boxes.
As referred to by Dave.
https://web.williams.edu/HistSci/curriculum/101/garbage.html
Lifetime healthcare costs.
https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050029#authcontrib
The UK has a severe COVID problem? Let's quickly import as many people from there as possible! That's our starting point this week before we move on to Presidential penises, a smog update, looking forward to the 2022 Mayoral election, the new alcohol tax, a job opening at St. Mary's Church and the New Year's Eve curfew.
PiS might control the government, but everyone knows the REAL power in this country is Żabka. Listen as we discuss the early history and rise of the company that you literally cannot get away from if you spend any time in Poland.
In this off-topic Weekend edition, we talk about how different the Olympics have become in recent years. Is breakdancing really an Olympic sport? Is snowboarding? What about all those other sports no one really cares about?
After a quick discussion of Cyberpunk 2077, we jump into the news, including a makeover for Hala Targowa, park(ing) on Karmelicka, a discussion about trees, Olren buys media, updates on the latest fight with the EU and the mystery of carp.
Krakow's most interesting politician joins us to talk about a long list of the issues that he deals with as a member of the City Council. Listen and learn about billion-dollar budgets, tram ticket prices, electric scooters and more.
News of a coming COVID vaccine is our starting point this week, along with police controls of stores, milk bar struggles, parking at Tauron Arena, Straz Miejska drama, the future of Tesco in Krakow, brothels get busted and a depressing ending with Santa.
