Jan Matejko, the greatest of all Polish painters, went to the Jan Matejko School of Fine Arts, located on Jan Matejko Square in Krakow. Coincidence? Listen to our short profile of the artist behind so many iconic works and find out.
After insulting all Geminis, we get into the news, including a trilogy of animal terror, who's in the Polish middle class, nurses on strike, the sugar tax is killing us, Poland has THE WORST traffic and Happy 115th Birthday!
Poland has the same problem as many other Western nations—plenty of sex (wait, right?) but not enough babies. Why is having three kids considered a "big" family now? What happens when a society can't be bothered to reproduce itself? Who's the crazy one in this conversation, John or Gabi? Listen and make your own decisions as we serve up this massive black pill about our not-so-distant future.
Our friend Natalia, a native of Belarus, joins us to discuss the latest events related to the arrest of dissident journalist Roman Protasevich and the political climate in Belarus generally. Listen and learn how wearing red or white or even speaking Belarussian is bad idea in Europe's last dictatorship.
After John relives another supermarket nightmare, we talk about strange COVID math, high school kids and religion class, Primark comes to Krakow (yay?), Hype Park opens, new laws come into effect for pedestrians and drivers, Poland as a solar power...power, more tram tunnels coming and a discussion of fruits.
Bad traffic is our starting point this week before we move on to the public's dislike for PiS (and PiS's high support from the public), the new "Polish Deal" promises to rain cash from the sky, the Wisła Kraków stadium needs (more) money (again), the right to use cash & backwards America and THE BOARS ARE BACK!!!
Be sure to check out Sarah's YouTube channel here-
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWUldTdUDzgjKGnBpQTPvWQ
Yes, there is cricket in Krakow—almost literally in the shadow of Wawel Castle! We were joined by two members of the Krakow Cricket Club to talk about how they got started, what it's like to recruit new players in Poland and more. If you're looking for something different to do, go and check out a KCC cricket match—don't worry about the rules, you'll figure it out. Maybe.
You might not know that Polish gives you 100x the opportunities that English does when it comes to expressing yourself in the most vulgar way possible. Listen and learn some useful phrases as we discuss the many, many ways you can offend everyone (or make them laugh) with a long list of very dirty words.
In the news this week — Big paydays for CD Projekt Red bosses, the bars are (kind of) open again, Netflix is filming in Krakow, more electric scooters in town, the train station has a new name, a planned neighborhood of skyscrapers is coming and Dr. Mike needs a new place to play with his balls.
We can't afford a therapist so we have to use our show to discuss the many things that push us—ok, just John—to the edge of a nervous breakdown every time we go shopping at a supermarket. Listen and see if you share any of our neuroses and remember that THE AUTOMATED CHECKOUT IS PROBABLY NOT FOR YOU!!!
A discussion of John's allergy problem leads into news of new trumpet players in Krakow, media editors get fired by Orlen, 14m vaccinations in Poland, average wages & minimum wages, retirement payments for dogs & horses, tax cheat informers and melting down Polish coins.
Have you noticed that entries in the Polish version of Wikipedia are often much less complete than the English version, even for subjects related to Poland? Our totally non-scientific research seems to indicate that even many Poles go to the English version first. Why is there such a difference in quality between Polish Wikipedia and the English version?
Two organizers from Queerowy Maj joined us to talk about the Krakow Pride March, other events associated with it and "Queer culture" in Poland generally. Listen as we discuss all this and several issues from recent news stories involving the LGBTQ community.
May 2 is Polish Flag Day. Can we get almost twenty minutes of conversation out of a simple flag with just two colors? Listen and find out!
The news is back and after a brief discussion of when we'll all die, we move on to TWO stories about McDonald's, strawberry season is (almost) here, calling 112, Master's Degrees in Fraud, 1000zł notes, border & hotel controls this weekend and more.
A recent survey found that an income tax rate of 50% has a lot of support among voters. Then again, so does a reduction in tax rates. The PiS government is working on a new personal income tax structure to reflect the increase in wages that has taken place over the last ten years. Listen as we discuss the current laws and what might take their place.
Each of the four mounds in Krakow comes from a unique era in its history and has an interesting story to share. Listen as we go from west to east, covering the basics of each of the city's four man-made hills (on top of natural hills).
We're starting a series of episodes dedicated to talking with people from different faith communities in Krakow and we get started with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known to many as The Mormon Church. Listen as our guest tells about his conversion to the church, what being a Mormon is all about and what it's like to try to convert others.
With nearly 3m infected and more than 61k dead, it's easy to say that the Polish government has been a disaster when it comes to COVID. But what would you have done differently? Listen as we discuss if it's fair to criticize Poland for not doing more.
The news is back with an opening about the weather that sounds ridiculous today with snow on the ground. Then it's on to the annual discussion about what to do with Plac Nowy, "Pink Boxes", lots of new taxes and penalties, landlords get screwed or not (depending on how you look at it), the census gets a rough start, ads for Ukrainians in Polish and REALLY old people get free money.
