POLcast

The Ornate and the Minimalist: Stories from Warsaw's Cultural Core Step into the very heart of Warsaw, where two strikingly different buildings—one steeped in ornate socialist grandeur, the other a beacon of minimalist modernity—stand side by side: the Palace of Culture and the Museum of Modern Art's new exhibit. Listen to an exclusive interview with curator Natalia Sielewicz, offering an insider's perspective on the museum's vision and collection. Stay tuned until the end for a special surprise: a song about the Palace of Culture—written and performed especially for this episode. Think you can guess who the artist is? Contact me at mbonikowska@rogers.com.

Listen to some stories from my visit to Warsaw: • 10th birthday of POLIN - an award winning museum in Warsaw which tells the story of the Jewish community in Poland. • An artist's art in Yiddish. • A Trinidadian in Poland. • A multiethnic oasis in Warsaw. • A Warsaw unique church. • Enjoying live Chopin music in the iconic park in Warsaw - a 65-year-old tradition.

Today I will take you on a trip to two continents and to two places almost 10,000 km apart. • The first one is in Poland. It's the city of Sopot, on the Baltic Sea coast. You will meet Canadian Polish photographer and film personality Ela Kinowska • My second POLcast guest is a black musician/composer whom I heard playing Chopin's music on his keyboard north of San Diego, California.  Also, you will learn about a Polish inventor Stefan Kudelski, whose work truly revolutionized Hollywood!  And finally, the linguist in me always loves to give you something about the Polish language. Visit POLcast website - https://www.mypolcast.com.

What a long way it has been since the idea to create POLcast was born 9 years ago! It started in 2015 and Episode #1 was released on March 15, 2016. This anniversary calls for memories and summaries. In its 8 years POLcast has released 100 episodes. I have interviewed well over 200 hundred people and brought you stories from all the continents (well, except for Antarctica, but weather- or climate-wise we did reach far north - Alaska and the Canadian Yukon).  In this special episode I walk you through the idea and history of POLcast. Many people and stories are mentioned and acknowledged. My sincere thanks to all of them: POLcast collaborators, partners, interviewees, and - most of all - to YOU, our loyal POLcast listeners from over 100 countries all over the world and to our invaluable sponsors-donors. Thank you for all the awards and distinctions granted to POLcast! In this episode you will hear many voices - people from many countries talking about POLcast. Thank you for all these kind words. Changes to POLcast are coming soon so stay tuned!

May 2024 - the very first Polish Heritage Month in Canada. I'm talking to Irek Kuśmierczyk, liberal MP of Polish descent, representing a dynamic city of Windsor since 2019. How did it happen? Katy Carr's song “Polonia” ends the episode.

In this episode you will meet two celebrities - one human and one animal: Tomek Borkowy, a renowned Polish actor, who has lived in Scotland since the early 1980s, and Wojtek the Bear, a four-legged WW2 hero, who had no idea he wasn't human because he was adopted as a cub and raised by the Polish soldiers, himself acting as one. What a story! All that with love for Scotland. Also, Poland has won the top prize in the 2024 European Tree of the Year.  A lot of information and links at www.mypolcast.com  

This is a conversation I had during my visit to Kraków with Michael Rubenfeld, a Canadian Jewish theatre artist: writer, director, actor, and producer, who moved to Poland 8 years ago. There aren't many Jewish Canadians who settle in Poland for good. Michael talks about how this happened and why, how life in Poland differs from Canada, what it's like to do theatre in Poland. He also talks about his presence on social media, which has become a valuable source of knowledge about Poland for him.

This is the last episode before Christmas and in the year 2023. Both stories in this episode come from Canada - from the city of Edmonton in Alberta: • Albertans United for the Children of Gaza - conversation with Thomas Lukaszuk • Music in Edmonton - conversation with Joanna Ciapka-Sangster. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! PEACE!  

In this episode “Canada in Poland” you will hear three interviews: • With Canada's ambassador to Poland Catherine Godin, • With the Head of the Canadian Studies programme at the University of Warsaw  Dr. Ewa Luczak, • With three students of the programme. Music by Polky, a Canadian folk band.

In this episode, you will hear three stories: 1. Moses McCormick, a super polyglot who knew 50 languages and loved Polish; 2. Maple Corner about Canadian pop culture, a Polish language blog produced by Joanna Boguslawska in Poland. 3. A secret place in Poland which has just gone through the third major transformation since WWII. 

Meet Marajke Slomka from Brussels, a polyglot born in Poland. And a story of Gacek the cat, the tourist attraction in Szczecin.

In this Christmas episode, the last one in 2022, you will hear two interviews: • UCL Leaders -  a great annual conference initiated by Polish students • A WWII puzzle solved - new thriller “Who Has Buried The Dead” and • Christmas music. WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT! 

In this episode you will hear about: Poland's and Canada's November 11th Canada Study Tour program for Polish hight school students and Alina Deja's love for Canada EKRAN Toronto Polish Film Festival #13 A stolen Stradivarius and other unknown stories from POLcast Facebook

“Fight With Art” is the largest online charity auction in the world to offer humanitarian aid for Ukraine and the Ukrainian People. POLcast is talking to Michael Rubenfeld, its organizer, a Canadian performance maker, cultural producer, playwright and actor, who now lives in Cracow, Poland.

From 1940 Kazachstan to 2022 Canada Today I am speaking to two women whom I have interviewed before: • ALICJA EDWARDS (born in 1924) Alicja Edwards is a 98-year-old writer, painter, pianist and antique expert and dealer. She lives in Eureka, Montana. Her paintings showing the traumatic years in Kazachstan in the 1940's are now telling this incredible story of survival as part of Alicja Edwards exhibit at the Muzeum Pamieci Sybiru (The Sybir Memorial Museum) in Bialystok, Poland.  • Louiza Szacon from KONEKT A Polish Canadian professionals' organization, whose launch we celebrated on POLcast in 2018 - Konekt has been growing and expanding. I'm talking to Louiza Szacon again to find out how Konekt has evolved and where it's going now. ____________________________________ MUSIC “Ukrainian Village” composed and played by Derek and Brandon Fiechter, identical twins from Indiana.  

Mississauga Polish Day 2022. I will take you on a trip to Mississauga, a city neighbouring Toronto, to experience a colourful, joyful Mississauga Polish Day 2022 - celebration of Poland, polishness and Ontario's Polish community. May 2022 was the first Polish Heritage Month in Ontario.

This is my second special POLcast Episode - a tribute to Ukraine, to our Ukrainian sisters and brothers who are fighting heroically to defend their country against Putin's army. This episode is about Canadian-Polish help for Ukraine. • Toronto artists for Ukraine This huge concert “With Ukraine” was organized in Toronto by local artists to show their solidarity and love for Ukraine and to raise money for Ukraine. The idea came from two Polish folk singers from the renowned group Polky. • "United for Ukraine" - gigantic aid campaign in Edmonton "United for Ukraine" is the brainchild of of two former politicians from the Canadian province of Alberta. Nobody has ever done anything like this.   

This is a special POLcast Episode - a tribute to Ukraine, to our Ukrainian sisters and brothers who are fighting heroically to defend their country against Putin's army. We stand with Ukraine and will do all we can to help and support you. This episode shows many faces of this support - in Poland, Canada, and England.

In this episode: • Interview with Ewa Stachniak, a Polish Canadian writer  * Christmas music by Joanna Ciapka-Sangster and Magda Papierz, Ola Turkiewcz and Vocal Ensemble of MAVO Academy of Arts and Music MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!    

In this episode I'd like you to meet my two guests: Anna Paluch from Ottawa, Canada, and Piotr Surmaczynski from London, UK. We talk about indigenous culture, art, and history, about identity, Polishness, emigration and more. Visit POLcast at www.mypolcast.com

An interview with Canadian historian, author and educator Zig Misiak about the history and aftermath of Canadian residential schools as well as his 50 years of work with and for Canada's First Nations.

In this episode you will hear my interview with Ilona Kowalik Urbaniak, a mathematician and musician, born in Poland, living in Canada and now working in Cracow, Poland. 

An interview with Sabina Baral, who wrote an extremely successful book in Polish "Zapiski z wygnania" (Notes from Exile). The book talks about her family's experience of being made to leave Poland in March 1968, as a result of the ruling communist party's anti-Semitic purge. Those forced to leave were made stateless and were subjected to humiliating exit procedures. Sabina left Poland with her parents, parting with her Polish boyfriend. This was the end of her life in the country where her family had lived for generations. And a new beginning.  

In this episode you will hear three interviews with: • Ewa Henry- Dawson, head of the Canada Team of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, about this year’s 29th annual campaign in Canada, pandemic-style.   • Irene Tomaszewski, a Canadian writer, editor and translator of Polish descent living in Ottawa, for many years the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Review, an online English-language magazine on Polish culture, established in 2008. We talk about Bogumił W.Andrzejewski, a Polish linguist and his connection to Somalia. • Pola Janowska and Mery (Marysia) Grupinska, two Polish high school students, actively involved in Global Awareness Movement (GAM), an initiative created by young people from Poland, developed and managed entirely by its young inventors, with mentorship of Jola Kulik from Young Talent Management.

In this Episode, we present two interviews, with: • Prof. Bart Bonikowski, American sociologist from NYU, teacher and advisor of Amanda Gorman at Harvard; • Joanna Ciapka-Sangster, a Polish Canadian violinist from Edmonton, Canada.

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!  

POLcast Episode 77 features two experts talking about Poland, its current situation, its geopolitical position, the present, the past, and the future

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

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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

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.

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".

In Episode 68 you will hear: Interviews: • How young Polish Canadians stirred up Polish youth around the world - 10 years of Quo Vadis  On September 20-22, 2019 delegates from all over the world came to Toronto to celebrate 10 years of Quo Vadis, a unique youth movement, one and only in the world. POLcast talks to Ania Barycka, the conference spiritus movens, organizer and veteran. • An Australian Quo Vadis organizer's experience with polishness While at the 10th QV conference in Toronto, I met a really enthusiastic young Pole Szymon Motylek, who now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. His life is quite a story... • A Hongkonger with a Polish heart I met Ericsson Singh at Quo Vadis. Born in Hong Kong, he loves Poland, speaks the language and is very active in the Polish Club at the University of Toronto. He sees his future in Poland with his Polish fiancee Kinga. What a story! and • Smacznego! Eating Polish - Polish goulash (gulasz) • Music - POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode (a Polish Canadian nominated for a Grammy 2020).

In Episode 67 you will hear: Interviews: • Was it worth it? A story of an immigrant's journey Liliana Arkuszewski lives in Ottawa. Her book about her immigration journey written in Polish has now been translated to English and recently published.  • A true hero who risked his life to save others Mr. Franciszek Paslawski, who just passed away in September 2019, was the last Righteous Among Nations still living in Canada. This is his story and the story of those who owe him their lives. • In love with Dawson City, Yukon Matylda Lis, a vivacious young Polish Canadian woman who travels all over the world, has fallen in love with Dawson City, Yukon, famous for the Klondike gold rush. Matylda spends all her summers there and has become a part of its community. and • Smacznego! Eating Polish - plum crumble • Music - POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode.  

In Episode 65 you will hear: Interviews: • Murder, cover up and forced silence - the war was not over for Poles Wanda Kościa talks to Piotr Szkopiak, British writer/director and his most recent film “The Last Witness”, a thriller which talks about the Katyn 1940 monumental masacre, in itself a tragedy, but also about another tragic aspect of it - the coverup by the Allies, who didn’t want to reveal the Soviet guilt, ascribing it to the Germans. The film also shows the fate of Polish refugees after WWII who lived for years in displaced persons’ camps in Britain, unable to return to their motherland controlled by the communist Soviet Union after the war, and unable to openly talk about why they had to stay in Britain and what had happened. • The future of money and information Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology - everybody talks about these hot terms but not everyone understands what they are all about. It's all explained by Thomas Jankowski, the Chief Digital & Growth Officer at Coinsquare, Canada’s leading exchange for trading Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies. and • Smacznego! Eating Polish - super apple recipes • Music- POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode.    

In Episode 64 you will hear: Interviews: • Polish language, literature and culture lovers at a North American university Why is it that not only people with Polish roots but also people who have no Polish blood in them study Polish literature, culture and language in countries outside Poland such as Canada? • The land of mosquitos and Poles in Ontario (Part 2) Kaszuby, an area in northern Ontario, about 200 kilometres west of Ottawa, named after the part of northern Poland from which the first settlers came, is the site of the first Polish settlement in Canada. The Kashubian language and childhood memories... • A translator's gift to English language readers  Bill Johnston, a professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University and an award winning prolific translator of Polish literature of all genres and epochs, did the unthinkable - translated the legendary Polish national epic "Pan Tadeusz" by Adam Mickiewicz (1834), in verse. “Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania” was published by Achipelago Books in 2018. How did he do that? and • Smacznego! Eating Polish - super beet recipes • UPDATES - what's new in the POLcast family? Recent achievements of POLcast interviewees. • Music- POLcast's surprise at the end of the episode.

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • From building capitalism in Poland to writing books and helping others Agnieszka Dydycz tells her story of the very beginning of capitalism in Poland and her role in creating capital markets at the national level, her interactions with the biggest institutional global investors, and then... her life as a writer and her charity work.   • Polished ice - curling in Poland Adela Walczak lives in Poland, a country without any curling traditions and without any curling facilities. Until now, because Adela decided to build a world class curling club in her home town Łódź, in the centre of Poland. And she did!   • The land of mosquitos and Poles in Ontario Kaszuby, an area in northern Ontario, about 200 kilometres west of Ottawa, named after the part of northern Poland from which the first settlers came, is the site of the first Polish settlement in Canada. and • Great Poles - Marian Smoluchowski • Smacznego! Eating Polish - sorrel soup

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • Polish art in Indian palaces Poland’s connections with many geographically distant countries are a fascinating topic. This story of a famous pre-war Polish painter whose art decorates many palaces in India is told by a Canadian POLcast listener born in India. He had just come back to Canada after visiting his home country and was fascinated with artist Stefan Norblin’s contribution to India’s culture. • Basia’s love line Basia lives in a small town in Ontario. On a line between two trees in front of her house she hangs donated winter clothes as well as hats and scarves she and her daughter make. They are free for anyone who needs them.  and • The minorities of Poland – Lemkos. • Smacznego! Eating Polish – pork roast

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • If you cannot buy it – make it yourself: a story of Kannuk vodka Imagine that you go to a store and want to buy something special as a gift – well, you cannot because it’s simply not available. 99.9 per cent of people would simply leave saying: “too bad. I wish they produced it” and go buy something else. But not Adam Szymkow… • The world’s largest orchestra “plays” for sick kids This year for the 27th time, Poland’s largest fundraising campaign – the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, which collects money for medical equipment for Polish paediatric hospitals – has “played” in Poland and dozens of countries, including Canada. Every year the fundraising drive ends in a grand finale concert – ours was held at the Fregata Restaurant in Mississauga. • Great Poles – Zbigniew Religa, a legendary cardiologist • Smacznego! Eating Polish – bigos

This is our special Christmas Episode so we would like to wish you WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT i SZCZĘŚLIWEGO NOWEGO ROKU!   In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • Art helps people in a remote African village For six years Ted Dawson has travelled every fall to rural Tanzania, an area next door to Kilimanjaro, to help local people build and modernize infrastructure. In November, for the first time, he took with him Ewa Henry, a Polish Canadian artist, who opened an art program there, empowering local youth and help them get some income. • A Polish pre-war story getting yet another life in California What I really love is when fascinating stories grow by getting extensions and often new lives. Here is one such story. Ana Bayat, a multilingual actress from San Francisco, met and heard the music and the story of Canadian jazz musician Ron Davis at the Edinburgh's Fringe Festival. It's the story of how Ron, a child of Holocaust survivors, discovered that his mother Alicja was right about his grandfather's pre-war past in Warsaw immortalized in a famous song "Bal na Gnojnej" a.k.a. "Bal u Grubego Jośka". Now Ana is writing a play about Ron's mother Alicja.   • Money must not prevent anyone from experiencing the shows Arthur Wachnik, actor, musician, singer, is the artistic director of an over 3000-seat venue - Christian Performing Arts Centre in Toronto. We talk about this great centre, its mission and its recent brand new show The Nativity Musical. • Great Poles - Janusz Korczak • Smacznego! Eating Polish  - yummy Christmas traditions

We are releasing this episode on a very special day - today, on 11 November 2018, Poland and Poles around the world are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence. After 123 years of partitions, on 11 November 1918, the dream of generations of Poles came true: the Polish state was reborn and Poland reappeared on the maps of Europe. In this episode you will hear:The story of 100 years of Poland's independence Special gift to Poland on its 100th anniversary of independenceInterviews:• Each child deserves to learn musicArthur Lewinowicz, a violin and viola player, composer and teacher, has made it his life mission to help kids with various disabilities and special needs learn to play the violin and enjoy music. His school Singing Strings in Toronto offers unconventional music education to everybody, including kids from low income families. • Celebrating Poland - top young Polish writers in Toronto“Celebrating Poland” at the 39th Toronto International Festival of Authors featured a panel discussion and a Q&A with three top young Polish authors chaired by our own Canadian best selling author Eva Stachniak and hosted by prof. Tamara Trojanowska, Director for the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the UofT, former director of the Polish Language and Literature Program. • Love for Polish cuisine - comfort food with multiple personalitiesEvery episode of POLcast brings you a taste of Polish cuisine - those yummy recipes come from Laura and Peter Zeranski, authors of two cook books sold around the world and a hugely popular blog.

In this episode you will hear:Interviews:• A ticking piece of Poland with a charity twistRobin Devine makes beautiful watches which she donates as gifts to hundreds of veterans, at the same time providing significant support for many charities (over 22 years around half a million dollars have been donated to numerous charitable causes). Now on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland's independence, she created an exquisite Polish Eagle Watch to celebrate this special occasion. • It starts with a bang - Scotland and PolandWanda Koscia talks to Neal Ascherson, a renowned Scottish author and journalist, with books and articles on a wide range of topics: including the Congo, the Spanish Civil War, archaeology, Scotland and more, an expert on Poland, who recently published his first novel “The Death of the Fronsac”. • EKRAN - 10 years of Polish film in TorontoThe 10th EKRAN Toronto Polish Festival is starting very soon, on November 5. Nine years is a long time - lots of films, guests, screenings, events. It's a perfect moment to look back. • Great Poles - Henryk Sienkiewicz • Smacznego! Eating Polish  - halusky

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • Poles and Jews meet through their common music Olga Avigail Mieleszczuk, born in Poland, is a singer, accordion player and researcher of Eastern European musical folklore. Since the very beginning of her creative work, she has been focusing on Jewish music of Ashkenazi roots. She converted into Judaism and now lives and works in Jerusalem. She performed at Toronto’s Lula Lounge at the 2018 Ashkenaz Festival with her three Polish musicians. • The Things of Warsaw When I was in Poland in June, I attended the official opening of the Museum of Warsaw, also referred to as the Museum of Things, located in a number of historic buildings in the Old Town Market Square. From law and math to the cutting-edge computing technology Bohr Technology Inc., based in Warsaw, works on creative ideas behind the new revolutionary quantum computers, which in the next 5 years will probably start replacing classic computers for the purpose of solving optimisation problems. Witold Kowalczyk and Przemyslaw Chojecki are the founders and the brains behind this innovative startup company. • The statue of Fahrenheit in Gdansk • Smacznego! Eating Polish – peach turnovers • We leave you with “Rebecca” sung by Olga Mieleszczuk

In this episode you will hear: A childhood dream that came true Maple syrup, Leonard Cohen, hockey – these are Canadian icons. There is one more, very special – Anne of Green Gables, the red-haired orphan whose life in Avonlea in Prince Edward Island was described by author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Bernadeta Milewski is a Pole living in the US, whose life has been influenced by Anne of Green Gables in many ways. The money is on the road – a study of immorality After the successul premiere of hs feature debut “22 Chaser”, we talk to Polish Canadian filmmaker – Rafal Sokolowski, an award-winning film and theatre director whose short films have been shown worldwide. White and red hearts from Chicago The Jeopardy-style 2nd annual contest tests elementary and high school students of Polish language schools in Canada and the US on their knowledge about Poland – its history, geography, culture, traditions (and this year also sports) – all in Polish. Great Poles – about themselves and their recent accoplishments and projects • Smacznego! Eating Polish – Polish sauces

This is a special episode of POLcast, recorded during my visit to Poland in June, where Margaret received the prestigious journalistic Maciej Plazynski Award for her work on POLcast. In this episode you will hear:Interviews:• And the M. Plazynski award for POLcast was granted by….Jarosław Włodarczyk is the president of the Press Club Polska. This organization is the founder of the annual Maciej Płażyński award together with Jakub Plazynski, a son of the late Maciej Plazynski. This year’s award in the category of “Journalist of a Polish diaspora medium” was granted to Margaret P. Bonikowska for her work on POLcast. • The inspiring time at the steering wheelJeremy Wallace is the charge d’affaires at the Canadian Embassy in Warsaw, now the acting chief diplomat there until the arrival of the new Canadian ambassador. • Helping the talented Polish teenagers study abroadMarzena Reich helps to place Polish teenagers in prestigious British boarding schools. • The freedom that comes at a priceTwo Muslim students from Turkey talked about their experience of Poland. • “The best Canadian thriller of 2018”?Rafal Sokolowski talks about his feature directorial debut “22 Chaser” which opened on Friday June 6, at the Carlton Cinemas in Toronto. Also in this episode: Some sounds of Warsaw: Great Poles – the team of POLcast’s collaborators talk about themselves The song at the end of Epsode 55 was recorded at the Music Theatre in Gdynia during the show “Poczekalnia” after the award gala

In this episode:• The eye - where the microscope and the paintbrush meet Eva Henry (Toronto) is an artist and Dorota Skowrońska Krawczyk(California) is a scientist who work together to create VISIONS.• Looking for love stories across Canada Monika Grzelak, a photographer from Toronto, drove across Canada to find and photograph couples in love.• The teacher taking his students far away from the classroom There are special teachers - Marcin Zarod is one of them. Also in this episode: Coś z Polski Great Poles -  Kazimierz Nowak Smacznego - Fruit tarts  

In this episode you will hear: Interviews: • MozART Group - string virtuosos with appetite for fun There are four of them, most accomplished virtuoso string players (two violins, a viola and a cello),  graduates of prestigious music Academies in Warsaw and Łódź. They have been playing together since 1995, when  they began to create their own style - classical music with humour - their own unique musical cabaret. Now the award winning MozART Group is admired all over the world, their DVDs fly off the shelves (and the internet) and each of their YouTube videos is watched by hundreds of thousands and often over a million viewers all around the world. Each year they visit over 20 countries on all the continents. • Konekt - a new brand of Polishness In Episode 48 we talked about a movement of young dynamic Polish Canadian professionals who have organized 12 annual youth conferences called "Quo Vadis?", which means "Where are you going?”, the last of which was held last fall in Burlington. They had been meeting and talking about the future of Canada’s Polish community until they came up with Konekt, a new young Polish Canadian professionals’ own organization.   Also in this episode: • Greatpoles.pl on Andrzej Panufnik. • Updates  - Marek Probosz:  Auschwitz No. 423 • Smacznego! Eating Polish: chicken in lemon sauce • The Holy Mountain of Grabarka: [gallery type="slideshow" ids="37047,37048,37049"]