The KrakCast

Anyone who lives in Krakow has seen them many times — groups of Israeli high school kids on trips to visit various places associated with Jewish history. After being suspended in 2020 because of Covid, these trips were supposed to resume this summer but have been canceled by the Israelis after a dispute over some of the details of how the trips are organized. Listen as we discuss what the argument is all about and if there is a solution going forward. 

Our first news of official summertime covers locks disappearing on one bridge and an insane design on another, skateboarders like the Grunwalk monument for their own reasons, death on an electric scooter, strip clubs finally get, uh, busted and a rare example of "good" graffiti disappears. 

Hungarian is a strange language but we love it anyway. Join us as TWO experts guide us through the unique sounds, absurdly long alphabet and references to horse anatomy that make this Europe's most mysterious national language. And, yes, as usual, we include some seriously bad words. 

The news is back with Iga Świątek and her second win at the French Open, Wisła Kraków's tragicomedy gets even funnier, a Polish woman turns 116, wages are WAY up since last year, sign reform and ugly streets in Krakow, you cannot keep Poles away from a place to swim and more. 

Join us as we talk about two studies that rank Poland last in Europe for both access to contraception and LGBT rights. After that, we look at statistics that show a dramatic decrease in the number of university students in Poland and that more than 60% of current students are female. What does it all mean? We're not sure but that doesn't stop us from offering very strong opinions on everything. 

The news is ON, with updates about parking problems, an end to free rides for Ukrainians, most Poles still think Russia is a threat, U.S. troops to stay here permanently, Le-ROY MerLIN (or however you say it), 130 women for 100 men in Krakow, another example of how bomb jokes in airports just don't work and a brush with fame in our HQ.  

The Polish government places a lot of restrictions on various professions regarding how they can operate, just like any government. But there are some especially interesting restrictions on how lawyers in Poland have to work and a new law will add an indirect limitation on how doctors are used in advertisements for medical products. Listen as we discuss how these laws work (or will work) in practice and what the point of it all is. 

The news is back with insulting ethnic slurs, Zakrzówek gets a makeover (and kills another person), another huge private student dormitory opens, a Good Lood update, little dragons will soon be all over town, drinking alcohol outside and Wisła Kraków goes down, down, down. 

John has been open about his weird fascination with Eurovision and this week is a good time to talk about it since Poland has a chance to make the finals. Listen as we give a brief history of Poland's mostly disappointing history at Eurovision and speculate on how many millions of points Ukraine will get at this year's "competition". 

This week in the news, the Matura has high school students nervous, everyone except Dr. Mike is making a lot more money than they did last year, cat cafes weren't awful enough so now we have rabbit cafes and who really thinks that Krakow has amazing street food? Seriously, we want to know. 

In our second news of this week, we talk about coal mine disasters, how nobody likes skateboarders, France's Macron has some harsh words for the Polish PM, supermarket self-checkout fraud, Leroy Merlin and others attracting protests, the ongoing mystery of the blue sausage van at Hala Targowa, marathons, cheerleaders and boring European flags. 

Among our totally random topics this week are vaccine shots, Iga Swiatek, nuclear power from Ukraine (?), Ryanair expanding in Poland, a mystery film crew in Krakow, new license place for cars in Krakow and pretty much everyone wants to go on strike. 

Did you know that the numbers 2, 3 and 4 have some mystical, magical power in Polish? When you look at a door, do you see one or two of them? Did you know that humans and animals die differently in Polish? These are just some of the mysteries we discuss in this look at some "WTF?" aspects of Polish. 

Ukrainian men are not allowed to leave the country and have to stay and fight or somehow help the war effort. What would Polish men do in a similar situation? It's a tough question with no one correct answer but we try to find one anyway in this discussion of how Poles would react to a theoretical Russian invasion. 

Lots of people talk about it, but few actually do it. Losing a lot of weight takes time, discipline and a lot of...steak? Listen as our guest describes the lifestyle changes he made to lose 30kg, the foods he ate to do it and why you maybe shouldn't invite him to your next party. Congratulations, Paweł! 

A Krakow City Council member says Auchan has blood on its hands, more free transport and parking (?) for Ukrainians, no increased tram prices (for now), bad timing for an air raid siren, we will never mention "Cracow Monsters" again and the worst funeral ever. 

Born in Białystok, Ludwik Zamenhof was the creator of Esperanto, an invented language that was supposed to help erase conflict and bring humanity together. Join us for a short discussion of this multilingual peace activist, doctor, philosopher, humanitarian and namesake of countless schools, buildings and streets, including here in Krakow. 

Listen as we discuss more news items involving the effects of the Ukraine situation on Poland, including more volunteers for the self-defense force, Biden's people clarify what he "really" said, more problems in the real estate market and more. 

In the news this week, we cover how Sean Penn saved the world, the mask mandate is (mostly) gone, another tax fail by the government, stealing from nuns, getting stabbed on Florianska street, the REAL "oldest" football club in Krakow and the European Games can't find their wallet. 

When a country of 40 million people adds another 2 million in less than a month, what happens to the real estate and job markets? Should Russian runners be banned from Krakow marathons? Is being associated with refugees going to affect tourism? Where are a million Ukrainian kids going to go to school? There are bigger, more important issues still in play right now but in this episode we look at some emerging topics produced by the conflict in Ukraine.