Podcasts about slovenians

“I can always return and do the same thing here, but I need to go somewhere and experience a different culture.”This episode with Alenka Moze was a beautiful journey across cultures, creativity, and finding purpose. Alenka is a Slovenian actor, singer, writer, and teacher who has made Vietnam her home. Her story is one of courage, reinvention, and following your artistic calling—even when it means starting over in a completely new country.We talked about everything from her first impressions of Vietnam's wild traffic and intense heat, to her love of summer rolls and morning glory. But more than that, we dug into deeper themes—what it means to live in alignment with your passions, the healing power of the arts, and how community theater and emerging vertical films are creating space for creativity in Vietnam.If you're curious about the arts scene in Vietnam, how expats are contributing to creative communities, or just want an inspiring story of someone who's bravely followed her heart—you'll love this one.Key TakeawaysDiscussion about the small Slovenian community in Vietnam and their interactions.Alenka's transition from teaching in Slovenia to pursuing a career in the arts in Vietnam.Reflections on the differing perspectives on the Vietnam War between Slovenians, Americans, and Vietnamese.Alenka's first impressions of Vietnam, including the traffic, heat, and cultural adjustments.The challenges and opportunities of producing English language plays in Vietnam.Chapters and Timestamps00:03:22 - Slovenian"Send me a message!"7 Bridges Brewing Co. - An award winning Vietnamese craft brewery from Da Nang, with breweries across Vietnam!Rabbit Hole Irish Sports Bar - Check out their new location on Tran Nao with the best views in the city over Landmark 81! Try Descript for free here! Want to start a podcast? Book a Discovery Call with me on how Seven Million Bikes Podcasts can help you!Support the show

Every year on the 31st of October, an Eastern European country named Slovenia celebrates Reformation Day - the day Martin Luther posted his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. It's a national holiday when people stay home from work and school. Particularly interesting is that less than 1% of Slovenians are Protestant! So why these celebrations? Tune in to Kids Talk Church History as Emma, Christian, and Ruth discuss this with Slovenian historian Todd Hunnicut and delve into the adventurous life of Primoz Trubar, the father of the Slovenian language. Thanks to the generosity of our friends at Reformation Heritage Books, we are excited to offer a bundle of Simonetta Carr's books to two listeners! The winner will be selected just in time for Christmas. Register here to win this special giveaway! Show Notes: Episode 46 about Cyril and Methodius: https://kidstalkchurchhistory.podbean.com/e/cyril-lucaris-a-controversial-reformer/ Trubar Forum: https://trubarforum.si/ (Be sure to click on the English setting, unless you read Slovenian!) YouTube videos created by Todd Hunnicut and his teammates about Primoz Trubar: https://youtu.be/aQnARBpsK7k?si=jSUKwt6oXk4wgaM7 https://youtu.be/_MJw39g3834?si=p6nynZojtFN8OclT  Article by Simonetta Carr about Primoz Trubar: https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/primo%C5%BE-trubar-%E2%80%93-protestant-reformer-who-fashioned-language Other Resources from Todd Hunnicutt:  A small booklet with three chapters summarizing the message of the first Slovene book, the Katekizem. It is designed as an evangelistic tool, but it also shows key ideas from the Katekizem.  An English translation of the first printed Slovene song. Here is a link of my wife, myself and a friend singing it in Slovene. The tune is a German church song, but a completely different text. It's a great summary of the Gospel message, mixing the biblical narrative of Genesis 3 and 4 with extra Gospel/Christ comments. Imagine this being the first ever printed song in the language, and the solid, simple Gospel message in it. https://youtu.be/zZ8LgodEFRk?si=IxFDPv1bJVdqKYxi A section introduction and three chapters I wrote for the Slovene version of the missionary/Christian hero biographies book, Hero Tales. A family devotional with stories from Trubar's life that might be the most appealing of these to kids. The final section of the Katekizem, the “Sermon on Faith.” This is key because the phrase “Stand and Withstand” which is well-known, which is on the Slovene €1 coin, is here in its proper context. It's on page 5 in the fourth paragraph. The part before that, where he defines true faith, I find to be very, very profound; I quote this in sermons in English and in Slovene often because it's a gritty, realistic, biblical view of what faith is – basically holding on to God's truth on the Word no matter what.

In this light-hearted summer special of "Feel Slovenia the Podcast," Dr. Noah Charney takes you on an entertaining journey through Slovenian humour. He delves into what makes Slovenians laugh by engaging with three of the country's top comedians – Boštjan Gorenc, Gašper Bergant and Perica Jerković.Charney reflects on his own experiences, including the amusing challenge of keeping pace with Slovenian audiences and understanding their unique sense of humour. He contrasts Slovenian comedy with American and British styles and also touches on how humour reflects broader cultural identities and societal norms.This episode is a delightful exploration of Slovenian culture and the universal language of laughter. Perfect for those looking for something light-hearted during the summer season, it offers a fresh perspective on how humour functions in Slovenia compared to other regions. Feel Slovenia the Podcast is brought to you by the Slovenian Tourist Board and hosted by Dr Noah Charney.Sound Production: Urska Charney For more inspirational content, check out www.slovenia.info and our social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Tripadvisor.

Special guest Mateja Solar, parish leader and administrator from the Pastoral Union of Slovenj parishes, joins us from Slovenia to tell stories of parish renewal in her region.    More Resources:  MORE on this story and Mateja's Pastor, Father Simon Potnik  READ  Wounded Witness: Reclaiming the Church's Unity in a Time of Crisis   LEARN about COACHING at our website  COME  to our online event: “Missional Engine Failure: 3 Alpha Breakdowns in a Parish” on Tuesday, Feb.13, 2024 • 10 AM Pacific • Noon Central • 1 PM Eastern   

We're revisiting this Christmas classic from 2021. Happy Holidays!Slovenia is a small country in Central Europe nestled between Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. It's a land of snowy white peaks, green valleys, and turquoise rivers. The country is beautiful in all seasons, but it is perhaps at its most magical around Christmastime. This nation of just over 2 million people is visited by, not one, not two, but three different "santas" every festive season. But it hasn't always been this way. Each Santa has had his moment in the spotlight—each in a different period of Slovenia's complicated history. And in order to have a Christmas season that reflects that history and speaks to all Slovenians, you need three magical men.The Three Santas of Slovenia

One of the first things you will notice in Slovene slang is the amount of German words! English ones as well, but given its history, German was way more present throughout the lives of Slovenians than English. Those are the words that are not only to be heard from youngsters since they`ve been a part of the language for some time now. Words like ‘cajt' (German = die Zeit – time), glih (German = gleich, right away, right now), plac (=der Platz – space, place) švicati (g. schwitzen – to sweat), pucati (g. putzen = to clean) are just some of many that you can hear every day.Support the showSupport Slavstvuyte through www.buymeacoffee.com/slavstvuyteFollow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin.For additional information, go to www.slavstvuyte.org All inquiries, questions, and comments can be sent to slavstvuyte@gmail.com

Read the transcript of this podcast and see the full show notes: https://therealnews.comAna Jakopič is a lawyer, organizer, and trade union leader in Slovenia. Currently, Ana is working as a field organizer and lawyer for KS 90, the Trade Union Confederation 90 of Slovenia (Konfederacija Sindikatov 90 Slovenije), where she focuses on organizing kindergarten workers, food industry workers, and port workers. We talk to Ana about the different kinds of workers she organizes with on a daily basis, the struggles working people across Slovenia are facing, and how connected/disconnected those struggles currently feel to the strikes taking place in Europe and beyond. But we also talk about Ana's life and her winding path into the labor movement; we talk about growing up in the post-Yugoslavian world, and about the impacts the Russo-Ukrainian War is having on Slovenians' lives today.Music/Post-Production: Jules TaylorHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer:Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

Ana Jakopič is a lawyer, organizer, and trade union leader in Slovenia. We talk to Ana about the different kinds of workers she organizes with on a daily basis, the struggles working people across Slovenia are facing, and how connected/disconnected those struggles currently feel to the strikes taking place in Europe and beyond. But we also talk about Ana's life and her winding path into the labor movement; we talk about growing up in the post-Yugoslavian world, and about the impacts the Russo-Ukrainian War is having on Slovenians' lives today. Additional links/info below... Ana's Twitter page Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "'We Need ESCALATION': More STRIKES Coming In UK And France" The Real News Network, Workers of the World (series)  AFP, "Thousands of Nurses Strike over Wages and Poor Working Conditions in Slovenia" People's Health Dispatch, "Health Workers in Slovenia Go on Strike" Permanent links below... Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song

Will and Jaren have a provocative conversation with the infamous Chris, AKA @MVPLuka77 (FIRE MARK CUBAN is his handle) from Twitter for a more light hearted episode. They get into his insane year as a season ticket holder that has included run ins with security, getting kicked out of games, partying it up with Slovenians, and much more. Will and Jaren wanted to give Chris the opportunity to tell his story and to change the perspective around him a little as he is a genuine down to earth guy who can very clearly separate his passion at games with real life and they feel as if there have been some misconceptions around him this year. He has a lot of cool stories in this one as a devout lifelong NBA fan and newfound Mavs fan and its definitely one of the more 'funner' podcasts will and Jaren have done and they hope to have Chris back on the show at some point! Y'all enjoy the episode! -Follow us on Twitter @mainstream_mavs and like, subscribe, and give us a good rating or comment down below on whatever listening platform you are listening on, thank you for listening to this podcast and supporting!

The verdict is in: Slovenians like butts. On the show: Booth flies off the handle and leaves Brennan high and dry to investigate a Spring Breaker's murder with a new partner. New characters abound! Angela continues to delight! HODGINS! takes several steps back in Kelly's eyes. Email us at squintcastpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @squintcast Like us on Facebook @ Squintcast, A Bones Podcast Follow Kelly on Instagram and TikTok @fab_empire_ Follow Brittany on Instagram @brittany81523 Thanks for listening!

Today the team talks about past weeks' racing in the Tireno Adriatico and Paris - Nice. The Slovenians ruled both races. The Tireno was won by Primoz Roglic and Paris Nice by Pogacar. Geoff, Jack and Gerry contemplate how it is possible to stay in form throughout the spring classics, rest, and be ready for the Giro (Roglic) and the Tour de France ( Pogacar and Vingegard). How are Wout, Mathieu and Pidcock doing? Let me tell you....they all had headliners one way or the other.There is an excellent segment in the podcast where they talk about tires, rolling resistance, and tire width, and they reminisce about their old bikes!A short preview of next week's races tops of this podcast. And yes......we kept the podcast within the hour! Enjoy episode 46!

Randy and Dean Warren discuss the latest in professional cycling. Dean just has returned from a vacation trip and he and Randy talk about how well Tadaj Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Primož Roglič (Team Jumbo-Visma) each win three stages and the overall at Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. These races will be followed by the first monument of the season, Milan-Sanremo.

Sara Isaković is a world-class swimmer from Slovenia. She won a silver medal in the 200 meter freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Not only did she take home a silver, but her time of 1 minute and 54.97 seconds made her just the second woman in history to swim that race in less than 1 minute and 55 second. She was also the first Slovenian swimmer to win an Olympic medal. But that's just part of her story. She's a great athlete but also a top scholar, coach and entrepreneur. After her swimming career, she has focused on developing a mental training program. Today, she coaches top athletes, managers and more in how mindfulness and mental preparation can maximize one's potential. To top it off, she even designed and published a unique board game about mental training.In the podcast, she explains why Slovenians are so good at sports, what made her so good, why Janja Garnbret is her favourite Slovenian athlete and which Slovenian dish helps you achieve top results. 

Luka Doncic's Trainer had some interesting comments about the Dallas Mavericks star player... so it got us thinking... Nick Angstadt (@NickVanExit) is joined by Lauren Gunn to discuss Luka Doncic training in the offseason and what his season could be like if he entered the season in 'the best shape of his life.' How would the Mavs be better that last year? Which other Maverick would benefit the most? Who would enjoy a Luka Doncic MVP more: Mavs Fans, Slovenians, Luka, or Mark Cuban? Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: Locked On Mavericks Follow/Subscribe Anywhere: linktr.ee/LockedOnMavs Follow Locked On NBA: linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! | Offers from our sponsors: lockedonpodcasts.com/offers Built Bar - Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order. BetOnline - BetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Luka Doncic's Trainer had some interesting comments about the Dallas Mavericks star player... so it got us thinking...Nick Angstadt (@NickVanExit) is joined by Lauren Gunn to discuss Luka Doncic training in the offseason and what his season could be like if he entered the season in 'the best shape of his life.' How would the Mavs be better that last year? Which other Maverick would benefit the most? Who would enjoy a Luka Doncic MVP more: Mavs Fans, Slovenians, Luka, or Mark Cuban?Subscribe to our Youtube Channel: Locked On MavericksFollow/Subscribe Anywhere: linktr.ee/LockedOnMavsFollow Locked On NBA: linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! | Offers from our sponsors: lockedonpodcasts.com/offersBuilt Bar - Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline - BetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slovenia's best ambassadors are its elite athletes. This small country has an astonishing number of world class athletes, and many–including top cyclists Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar, who are official ambassadors of Slovenian tourism. Slovenians love sports and engaging with the outdoors – the country is perfect for it. Whether you're interested in mountains or plains, coast or hills, Slovenia has it all. Tourists looking for a sporty holiday need look no further. And this diversity of terrain makes Slovenia the perfect spot for a cycling holiday.In this very special episode, Dr Noah Charney had a chance to interview Tadej Pogačar. He's the reigning, two-time Tour de France champion, an Olympic bronze medalist, and still only 23 years old. He also won Tour of Slovenia last year and will fight to keep the title this year as well. In the podcast, they discuss Slovenia's gastronomy, his personal life and trainings and where to cycle when you visit Slovenia. If you want to see the video that brings you closer to the remarkable energy of Tadej Pogačar, while he rides along the most impressive and demanding cycling routes in Slovenia and trains for Tour de France 2022, click here. There's another great video that we invite you to see: the ultimate Slovenian Quiz Challenge featuring Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič.For more cycling inspiration read the article about top ten reasons for cycling holidays in Slovenia. 

Somewhat like Croatians, many Slovenians fled the former Yugoslavia to escape conscription and many found their way to Tasmania in the era of mass hydro-industrialisation that occurred in the 50s and 60s. Peter and Rebeka though are a new generation of Slovenians, who, thought they spent some of their childhood under Yugoslavia, have mostly lived in independent Slovenia. Before deciding to settle in Tasmania, Peter had been to Australia many times before due to a family connection in Sydney, and Rebeka had toured in her role as an opera singer. 3 years ago they decided to start a new life in Tasmania, with the small city life and an environment not too dissimilar from their homeland being a big part of the appeal, and Peter was able to secure work in Hobart as a jeweller. The transition to this new life has not been without its challenges both practical and cultural , and I'm sure that migrants from other backgrounds will relate to some of their stories. Rebeka also performs as a part of a Slovenian-Tasmanian folk band, and excerpts of the music can be heard during this episode. Music is Kaj ti je deklica? ( What is wrong my dearest ?) by Slovenian/Tasmanian folk band Lastovke (Swallows)

Slovenia is a small country in Central Europe nestled between Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. It's a land of snowy white peaks, green valleys, and turquoise rivers. The country is beautiful in all seasons, but it is perhaps at its most magical around Christmastime. This nation of just over 2 million people is visited by, not one, not two, but three different "santas" every festive season. But it hasn't always been this way. Each Santa has had his moment in the spotlight—each in a different period of Slovenia's complicated history. And in order to have a Christmas season that reflects that history and speaks to all Slovenians, you need three magical men.The Three Santas of Slovenia

Slovenia is a small country in Central Europe nestled between Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. It's a land of snowy white peaks, green valleys, and turquoise rivers. The country is beautiful in all seasons, but it is perhaps at its most magical around Christmastime. This nation of just over 2 million people is visited by, not one, not two, but three different "santas" every festive season. But it hasn't always been this way. Each Santa has had his moment in the spotlight—each in a different period of Slovenia's complicated history. And in order to have a Christmas season that reflects that history and speaks to all Slovenians, you need three magical men.The Three Santas of Slovenia

C'est parti pour le Fume c'est du belge #27 ! Comme d'hab' Pompon déboule tel un super héro, venu sauver l'humanité à coups de riffs épais comme des bulldozers. Dans ce numéro, focus sur Ivan Andreini, leader de plusieurs formations dont les Nervous Shakes, mais aussi chroniqueur radio et fondateur de fanzine. Let's rock ! Dans l'ordre: F.N. Guns, Marc Maron & Friends, Lawstreet 16, Daggers, Guilt Monkey, Castles, Jane Doe & The Black Bourgeoises, Hawaï City Five, Shake Appeal, Jenkinses, Nervous Shakes, Slovenians, The K, Annabel Lee, The Loved Drones, Von Stroheim, La marmite.

C'est parti pour le Fume c'est du belge #27 ! Comme d'hab' Pompon déboule tel un super héro, venu sauver l'humanité à coups de riffs épais comme des bulldozers. Dans ce numéro, focus sur Ivan Andreini, leader de plusieurs formations dont les Nervous Shakes, mais aussi chroniqueur radio et fondateur de fanzine. Let's rock ! Dans l'ordre: F.N. Guns, Marc Maron & Friends, Lawstreet 16, Daggers, Guilt Monkey, Castles, Jane Doe & The Black Bourgeoises, Hawaï City Five, Shake Appeal, Jenkinses, Nervous Shakes, Slovenians, The K, Annabel Lee, The Loved Drones, Von Stroheim, La marmite.

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended her support for legal abortion this week, saying God gave her free will, to honor her responsibilities. Pelosi is working to pass an abortion bill in California. The Women's Health Protection Act would allow for abortions, in some cases, throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Her local ordinary, the archbishop of San Francisco, has said the bill is nothing short of child sacrifice. Dioceses in Canada continue to announce their policies for COVID-19 vaccines. The Diocese of Saint John New Brunswick, has said proof of vaccination will not be required for Mass or the other sacraments. Other dioceses in the province have said they will require proof of vaccination to attend Mass. The U-S bishops' conference, and Catholic Charities, are ramping up their efforts to welcome refugees from Afghanistan. The organizations will welcome upwards of 7,500 refugees. The USCCB is one of nine resettlement networks in the United States, and it is partnering with 45 Catholic Charities agencies, to provide resettlement services. Eight elderly nuns in the Philippines have died of COVID-19, after an outbreak at their convent. The outbreak infected 62 sisters in the community. 52 staff and personnel also tested positive for COVID-19. The convent is located in Manila. Today the Church remembers Blessed Anton Martin Slomshek. Anton was born in 1800 in Slovenia. He was largely responsible for the nearly 100% literacy rate among Slovenians. He is the first Slovenian to be beatified.

From the first week, some might even say the first stage time trial, Primož Roglič's third consecutive Vuelta a España win was never much in doubt. Even after crashing  once, he didn't lose any time. And he looked relaxed the entire race, allowing the jersey to fall to Odd Christian Eiking for an extended period mid-race, while patiently biding his time to take it back. In the end, the time gaps between Roglič and his closest rivals on the podium, Enric Mas and Jack Haig, reflected a stellar performance where he was in control right through the final time trial. On the final episode of the Aérogramme podcast with La Course en Tête from the 2021 Vuelta a España, there is a lot of action to recap from the final grand tour of the year—which some pros were calling the most difficult  of their career owing in large part to the unrelenting heat throughout the race. Plus, there are plenty of questions raised about the future of cycling.Beyond the GC race, the 2021 Vuelta had other memorable stories, including Fabio Jakobsen winning three stages and the green jersey after his horrific life-threatening crash last year. Or the long run of Eiking in the red jersey and the ascent of his Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert team. And several other riders like Jack Haig, who finished third overall, showed what they can do on a big stage. And there's a big question looming over the final weekend: what happened to cause Miguel Ángel López to abandon on the penultimate stage after losing contact with the main group? Has anything like this ever happened before?We also discuss whether the race outcome would have been the same if Roglič's compatriot and young phenom Tadej Pogačar were at the race. Four of the last six last grand tours have been won by one of the two Slovenians. How long will this domination last?It's also no secret that the Ineos Grenadiers have been less dominant as of late. The team's DS Olly Cookson provides insight into their tactics on stages 17 and 20. He describes a team that is approaching racing much differently than the Sky and Ineos incarnations of the past, taking more risks along the way.  And the crew at La Course en Tête provide their final assessments of the Vuelta: was it a good grand tour?Listen to the latest episode of Aérogramme for the full conversation!Aérogramme is presented by the Belgian Waffle Ride. 

In this episode of Kilometre 0 we meet some of the other Slovenians. The small country has two of cycling's superstars, Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar. But beneath them there are a lot of other good riders, three of whom are riding the Vuelta a España.  We speak to Jan Tratnik of Bahrain Victorious, Jan Polanc of UAE-Team Emirates and Luka Mezgec of Team Bike Exchange. We also hear from Gorazd Štangelj, a former professional who's now a sports director at Bahrain, and Marko Dzalo, a soigneur with Ineos Grenadiers. Kilometre 0 by The Cycling Podcast is supported by Supersapiens: energy management for committed athletes and coaches. See Supersapiens.com.

On Friday, June 25, 2021, members of the Slovenian community gathered in Melbourne at Federation Square and celebrated the 30th birthday of the Republic of Slovenia. - V petek, 25.junija 2021, so se nekateri člani slovenske skupnosti v Melbournu zbrali na Trgu federacije in s kratkim programom počastili 30.rojstni dan Republike Slovenije.

Stage two of the Tour de France saw another hilltop finish, another devastating attack by one of the stage favourites, and an emotional win on the line, but this time it was Mathieu van der Poel, who also took over the yellow jersey, dedicating it to his late grandfather, Raymond Poulidor. In tonight's podcast Richard Moore, François Thomazeau and Kate Wagner pick over the stage and the rivalry between Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic, the Slovenians who finished first and second last year. We also hear from our audio diarist, Victor Campenaerts. The Cycling Podcast is supported by Supersapiens and Science in Sport. Supersapiens is a continuous glucose monitoring system that helps you make the right fuelling choices. See supersapiens.com For 25% off all your SiS products, go to scienceinsport.com and enter the code SISCP25 at the checkout.

On Friday, June 25, 2021, members of the Slovenian community gathered in Melbourne at Federation Square and celebrated the 30th birthday of the Republic of Slovenia. - V petek, 25.junija 2021, so se nekateri člani slovenske skupnosti v Melbournu zbrali na Trgu federacije in s kratkim programom počastili 30.rojstni dan Republike Slovenije.

The 2021 Tour de France is upon us and it is the most traditional appearing route for a generation. How shall the Slovenians fair? What can the entire Ineos Grenadiers do to combat these top men? What of the sprints? What of the rivalry between the Mighty Aces--from the mud-pits of cyclocross now they shall clash at the biggest cycling race in the world in front of hundreds of millions. There is a lot to be excited for this Tour, let us dive in. 

V tretji oddaji smo se pogovarjali o potovanjih v času korone. Naša gosta sta bila Simona in Jure Čuček, prostovoljca in novinarja Popotniškega združenja Slovenije, poznana sta tudi kot blogerja sLOVEnians travel. Izkušena popotnika, ki sta preko svojih potovalnih izkušenj in doživetij predstavila svoje poglede na turistično dejavnost v času svetovne pandemije koronavirusa. S01 E03 Gosta: Simona in Jure Čuček, Slovenians Travel Moderator: Tilen Nipič Premiera: Facebook Popotniško združenje Slovenije, 13. 5. 2021 Projekt poteka v sodelovanju z MKC Maribor/Mladi Maribor.

Slovenia will celebrate 30 years of National Day and its independence in June. For this important occasion, the community in Sydney is preparing a special celebration on Sunday, 27 June at Mounties club. The Annual Slovenian of the Year NSW awards are also being incorporated into the day. We spoke with the Chairman of the overall event and Chairman of the Slovenian of the Year awards committee, Walter Šuber and Branko Fabjančič about new information and how you can book your seat to this important occassion. - 25. junija bo Slovenija praznovala 30. obletnico državnosti. Za ta pomemben dan bo celotna slovenska skupnost v NSWu pripravila posebno prireditev v Sydneyu, ki bo v nedeljo, 27. junija, v Klubu Mounties. Takrat bo tudi podelitev priznanj najbolj zaslužnim Slovencem v NSWu. O novih informacijah smo se ponovno pogovarjali z voditeljema prireditve, Valterjem Šuberjem in Brankom Fabjančičem.

How are IMGs navigating through the residency application process during COVID-19? Despite the constraints that this global phenomenon has presented, is there a possibility for you to use it to your advantage? Slated to start her Emergency Medicine Residency in June of 2021 at the University of California Davis Medical Center, Slovenian doctor Lara Zekar's success is proof of her mantra, "Impossible is not a fact - it's a dare." From the beginning of her medical journey and especially at the point where she decided she wanted to become a US Resident in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Zekar has moved with intention, determination and dedication toward her goal. She completed her medical degree at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine in 2018 and from there spent her time making pointed decisions which ultimately made her a very competitive candidate when applying for US residency. When asked to share her residency application story, Dr, Zekar notes that it indeed was a marathon and not a sprint. Here are a few of the highlights of her journey: She figured out that she was passionate about Emergency Medicine during one of her unofficial clinical rotations in the US. She started researching the steps that would be necessary to achieve this aspiration. Since she was one of the few Slovenians to have ever gone through this process, she faced significant obstacles, however, she used her resources to her advantage to combat them. During her 4th and 5th year of medical school, she studied for 9 months on and off for the USMLE exams for which she ended up scoring 258 and 269 for step one and step 2 respectively. She participated in a medical humanitarian mission to Kenya and ensured that even when she was not at school or at the hospital, she was staying active in the medical field through volunteering and externships. She decided to do unofficial rotations in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Emergency Medicine in order to attain Standardized Letters of Evaluation (SLOEs) which are a key requirement for Emergency Medicine residency applicants. She meticulously compiled a list of over 90 programs to which she would apply and land a whopping 6 interviews. As such, Dr. Lara encourages IMGs to: Be the most competitive candidate you can be, focus on getting the highest scores but still not neglecting the other parts of your holistic application. Be detailed, intentional and meticulous. Do not let the fact that it feels like all the odds are stacked against you stop you from trying to defeat the impossible. You can reach out to Dr. Lara via her email: lara.zekar@gmail.com and her twitter @LaraZe6 Listen to the full episode using the links below: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-img-roadmap/id1490731292 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/45NNJ7ewtqynqyssbwm1xz Google Podcasts:https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9mOGMzY2EwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1490731292/the-img-roadmap-podcast RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/the-img-roadmap-GE0MMg --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ninalum/support

The first head to head battle of Primoz Roglic and Tadej Pogacar would be on the roads of the Basque Country in Spain. Would it be a battle of the Slovenians or would they be upset by the strength of the Ineos squad featuring Giro Champion Tao Geoheganhart, Adam Yates and Richie Carapaz? A fullContinue reading "Itzulia Tour of the Basque Country Race Recap"

Lanterne and Benji recap stage three of Itzulia Basque Country, a wall finish but without rain today and with a lot of the other teams more than happy to help the two Slovenians chase down the break. Show Partner | https://lecol.cc Introducing Drops Le Col | https://lecol.cc/pages/introducing-drops-x-le-col If you enjoy the LRCP, and you want to support us by leaving a tip, feel free to do so here: https://ko-fi.com/lanternerougecyclingpodcast

Damian Ahlin is an Argentine Slovenian who lives with his wife Mariana in the capital Buenos Aires. His immense love for his parents' homeland drives him to work selflessly in the Slovenian community. He spoke exclusively about this and other things for SBS. - Damian Ahlin je argentinski Slovenec, ki z ženo Mariano živi v prestolnici Buenos Aires. Njegova neizmerna ljubezen do domovine njegovih staršev ga žene k požrtvovalnem delu v slovenski skupnosti. O tem in še o čem je ekskluzivno spregovoril za SBS.

Slovenia will celebrate 30 years of National Day and its independence in June. For this important occasion, the community in Sydney is preparing a special celebration on Sunday, 27 June. The Annual Slovenian of the Year NSW awards are also being incorporated into the day. We spoke with the Chairman of the overall event and Chairman of the Slovenian of the Year awards committee, Walter Šuber and Branko Fabjančič about the plans. - 25.junija bo Slovenija praznovala 30. obletnico državnosti. Na ta pomemben dan bo celotna slovenska skupnost v NSWu pripravila posebno prireditev v Sydneyu, ki bo v nedeljo, 27. junija. Takrat bo tudi podelitev priznanj najbolj zaslužnim Slovencem v NSWu. O tem smo se pogovarjali z voditeljema osrednje prireditve, Valterjem Šuberjem in Brankom Fabjančičem.

All three members of the Council for Slovenians abroad to the Slovenian Government, Frances Urbas Johnson in Victoria, Walter Šuber in NSW and Jerneja Svetičič in Queensland talk about the themes presented at the annual meeting in December and what is important for the community in Australia in 2021. - Člani sveta vlade Republike Slovenije za Slovence po svetu, ki predstavljajo Avstralijo, so spregovorili o letnem srečanju, ki je potekal v decembru in o temah, ki so jih predstavili.

Slovenia is celebrating many milestones this year. To find out what's in store for Slovenians all over the globe, listen to this podcast. - Letos se bodo v Sloveniji zvrstile številne obletnice. Prisluhnite, kaj vse nas čaka v tem letu.

The Slovenian ambassador to Australia, his excellency Jurij Rifelj speaks to all Slovenians on the 30th anniversary of the announcement of plebiscite for Slovenian independence on 26th December, 1990. - Slovenski veleposlanik v Avstraliji, njegova excelenca Jurij Rifelj je spregovoril o današnjem prazniku, 30. obletnico razglasitve plebiscita in dneva samostojnosti in enotnosti.

All three members of the Council for Slovenians abroad to the Slovenian Government, Frances Urbas Johnson in Victoria, Valter Šuber in NSW and Jerneja Svetičič in Queensland talk about the important themes in the community in Australia that they will present at the annual meeting in December. - Člani sveta vlade Republike Slovenije za Slovence po svetu, ki predstavljajo Avstralijo, so spregovorili o pomembnih temah za slovensko skupnost v Avstraliji, ki jih bodo predstavili na Svetu vlade v decembru. Člani so Frances Urbas Johnson iz Viktorije, Valter Šuber iz NSWa in Jerneja Svetičič iz Queenslanda.

The Office for Slovenians abroad opened their annual grant program for 2021, which will be available to submit until 30th November. We speak with Suzana Martinez, who covers Australia and NZ at the Office for Slovenians abroad, about the finer details of this year's program, which will for the first time be able to be submitted via email. The detailed forms and information related to this year's grant program is available on their webpage:https://www.gov.si/zbirke/javne-objave/javni-razpis-za-razpisno-podrocje-b-v-letu-2021-financna-podpora-slovencem-po-svetu/ - Pred kratkim je Urad Vlade Republike Slovenije za Slovence v zamejstvu in po svetu objavil Javni razpis za razpisno področje B v letu 2021: finančna podpora Slovencem po svetu. S Suzano Martinez smo se pogovarjali o podrobnostih razpisa. Rok prijave je do 30. novembra 2020.Celotna dokumentacija je na voljo na spletni strani Urada:https://www.gov.si/zbirke/javne-objave/javni-razpis-za-razpisno-podrocje-b-v-letu-2021-financna-podpora-slovencem-po-svetu/

Pozdravi from Slovenia!   To kick-off my visit, I decided to take a free walking tour of the capital city of Ljubljana. I always enjoy walking tours in each city I travel to as they're a really cool way to get more familiar with the area and its history. The tour guide spoke English very well and had a good sense of humour which made the walk through the small city highly enjoyable.    We visited Ljubljana's famous Triple Bridge and caught the sights and sounds of the cosy and car-less city centre. Along the river, there are plenty of bars and quaint restaurants where locals and tourists alike flock to in the evenings.    Ljubljana is home to around 300,000 inhabitants, making it one of Europe's smallest capital cities. Slovenia was the first of the former Yugoslavian countries to gain independence in 1991 and 2004 became a member of the United Nations.    But before I get stuck into my adventure, here are a few more facts about where I am:   10 FUN FACTS ABOUT SLOVENIA Slovenia is the only country in the world with LOVE in their name. And the capital, Ljubljana, translates to ‘The Loved One'. Slovenians love bees. There are around 90,000 beekeepers in a population of just two million – that's one in 20 people. It is tiny. Slovenia covers less than 0.004% of the Earth's surface and has a population of just a little over 2 million. The capital, Ljubljana, is the country's largest city but is also small compared to other European cities with less than 300,000 inhabitants. It's one of the world's most environmentally friendly nations, according to The Environmental Performance Index. The index indicates which countries are meeting internationally established environmental targets. Only four nations are better: Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and you guessed it: Denmark. A remarkable 53.6% of Slovenia is protected land, the 2nd highest percentage than any nation on earth behind Venezuela. With more than half of its total area covered in forest, Slovenia really is one of the greenest countries in the world. In fact, Ljubljana was named Europe's Greenest Capital in 2016. And more than 500 brown bears roam the Slovenian forests.  The people are tall and old. Slovenia has one of the tallest populations on the planet, with a typical male measuring an average of 1.8 m (5.9 feet) tall. Additionally, the average Slovenian age is 43.5 years old, making it also one of the oldest populations in Europe.  There's one winery or vineyard for every 70-75 people and in Maribor they have the world's oldest vine which is 400 years old. Slovenians love wine: they are the 6th biggest consumer of wine in the world per capita. Slovenia has a tiny coastline spanning a meagre 46km (30 miles).  You can spend a night in a Ljubljanan jail without doing a crime. Hostel Celica is an old prison where the cells have been renovated into rooms, but it still has the same appearance as a prison cell.  Slovenia has the world's largest ski jump. Planica is an epic place for ski-lovers, especially if you like heights. The ski jump is legendary and many world records have been set here.   MEET WINE MAN SASO PAPP The next day, I met up with my good Slovenian friend, Saso Papp. He runs an online business selling wine across Europe. It's kinda funny that the rest of the Balkans drink Rakia but as I mentioned above, Slovenians really love wine.  “It's true that Slovenia has many vineyards. Although I have some vines, I personally don't have a vineyard, but most people I know do. The problem with having so many vineyards is that the wine can turn out to be bad if you are not careful. In the Balkans, most people brew their own Rakia, and in Slovenia most people make their own wine” Saso says. “With a Slovenian population of 2 million people, about 30,000 are winegrowers – 3,000 of which are professional winemakers and bottlers. Additionally, we have over 200 winemakers that make sparkling wine which is very rare for such a small population". Saso explains that the Slovenian climate is perfect for winemaking, as Slovenia sits on a similar line of latitude with southern France's famed wine regions. Slovenia's microclimate also plays an important role. “We have a perfect climate in the Western part of the country which borders Italy and the Adriatic Sea, bringing warmth. In the Eastern region of Slovenia, we make fresh, crisp white wines thanks to the cooler temperatures.” Saso tells me more about Slovenia's 400-year-old vine which is named the oldest vine in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The vine was discovered not long-ago during renovations in a forgotten part of the city of Maribor. The vine was carbon dated and is currently the world's oldest vine still producing grapes.   SIMILARITIES BETWEEN SASO AND ME I know Saso from the radio industry. We've met many times over the years at various radio conferences around the world and have become good friends through our love for radio. I realised that we have a lot in common: Saso was a Group Program Director where he programmed 17 local radio stations. I'm a co-founder and co-owner of a group of radio stations that run 17 local radio stations.  He quit a good job because you got tired of working for an idiot. I did the exact same thing.  He was part of a successful morning show, and so was I (even though the station he was on was a national commercial radio station fighting with a station he helped create). Both of us have left life behind a radio station life. However, we both continue to do voiceovers and consult to radio stations, plus we're both podcasters now. All because the passion never dies… We are both old farts.   VINOO.CO Saso was in morning radio for almost 15 years before leaving the radio scene in 2013 to start his own mobile radio app business. He then turned his love for wine into a new business aimed at helping local winemakers market their products to a global audience.  Saso created Vinoo, a wine selling platform that matches Slovenian winemakers with customers who can browse and order local wines from anywhere in the world. Find your Radio Vagabond discount for Vinoo.co at the end of this post. I'M FAMOUS IN SLOVENIA On Tuesday morning, I made my way to a local radio station where I was scheduled to have 2 interviews to talk about my life as a digital nomad. Then I met up with Janez Usenik, a journalist from the national TV station 24UR, who interviewed me on the street. Check out the full interview here.  And it was funny to see myself on national TV that same night. When I stepped on the plane the next morning, the guy in the seat next to me looked at me a few times and then said, “Aren't you the homeless guy I saw on TV last night?”How weird is that to be recognised by a random stranger. I guess I'm famous in Slovenia now…   SASO ABOUT THE EARLY YEARS When Slovenia broke out of Yugoslavia, Saso was in his early 20's. He tells me more about what it was like to grow up during that time. “We were lucky that Slovenia didn't experience much of the harsh realities of the conflict apart from minor skirmishes over a period of 10 days. At that time, I was conscripted to the army but thankfully I was not involved in any warfare”. After gaining independence, Slovenia struggled to gain strong financial footing. However, Slovenia is currently boasting the highest GDP of all countries previously part of Yugoslavia. From this, a popular Slovenian saying emerged, saying “We are the best in the village” referring to the other ex-Yugoslavian territories. The saying has evolved to form a second part, “But we are the worst in the city” referring to Slovenia being the first of the territories to be included in the European Union. Saso jokes that Slovenians like to think of themselves as the best of the ex-Yugoslavian countries, largely because they drink lots of wine and are considered the northern part of the Balkans, but the southern part of Europe. It was great catching up with my old friend. I hope our paths cross again soon.   METELKOVA ART CENTRE If you're into street art, you should definitely visit Metelkova Art Centre, also known as Metelkova mesto. It is an alternative culture centre in Ljubljana, developed from a squat in a former army barracks and is one of the best-known attractions of Ljubljana. It's home to a large number of clubs hosting concerts, club nights, and one-off club events featuring underground artists and DJs from around the world.  The centre also hosts art performances, exhibitions, and a festival from time-to-time.  The history of Metelkova mesto as a cultural centre goes back to 1993, when the northern part of the barracks complex was squatted by a group of about 200 volunteers. The initiative came from an independent association of mainly underground artists and intellectuals known as Metelkova Network to stop the abandoned army complex from being pulled down.  Being a thriving place for a free creative spirit, the complex is undergoing constant change. I visited on a quiet afternoon but was still a very interesting place to visit. I took a lot of pictures of the street art that you can find below - but not the people. There was a sign saying “No photos of people. This is not a zoo.” So, remember to respect that when you go.  As I was packing my bags for my next journey, I saw Melania Trump on the TV addressing Americans from the White House. Melania is Slovenian, and when I asked the funny tour guide if this fact has boosted tourism in Slovenia, his answer said it all “Hmmm...no, not really.” Until next time - my name is Palle Bo, and I gotta keep moving.   GET YOUR VONOO.CO WINE DISCOUNT HERE Just go to vinoo.co and use the promo code "RADIOVAGABOND15" to get 15% off and free shipping all over Europe if you buy 6 bottles or more from the same winemaker. This code is valid for one year (until 18 November 2021), and can only be used once per user, so make sure you get enough! 

Father Darko Žnidaršič from Sydney addressed all Slovenians during these challenging times and spoke about tomorrow's celebration at their church. - Pater Darko Žnidaršič je s poslušalci delil svoje lepe in pomenljive misli v času koronavirusa ter spregovoril o jutrišnji žegnanjski nedelji.

Full Text of ReadingsThursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 452All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Blessed Anton Martin SlomshekAnton Martin Slomshek who was born November 26, 1800 at Ponikva, Slovenia is the first Slovenian to be beatified. Slomshek is known as a great educator, largely responsible for the nearly 100% literacy rate among Slovenians, a remarkable turn around from the very poor state of the nation's educational levels at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the Slovenian education system had been crippled by the Austrian empire's suppression of their native language and culture. This left them without their own schools, texts and magazines and newspapers.As bishop, Anton Martin Slomshek reformed the schools in Slovenia, and rebuilt the education system, giving it Catholicism and Slovene history as a foundation. He wrote many textbooks, began a weekly review, and wrote many books and essays concerning whatever questions he considered relevant to the intellectual needs of his people.He founded a society for the spread of Catholic literature, an organization responsible in large part for making possible the rejuvenation of the Catholic cultural base of the Slovenian nation.He was known as a simple and humble man, possessed with a childlike purity, and was loved by his priests and his flock.Blessed Anton once remarked, "When I was born, my mother laid me on a bed of straw, and I desire no better pallet when I die, asking only to be in the state of grace and worthy of salvation."Blessed Anton died September 24, 1862 in Maribor, Slovenia and was beatified September 19, 1999 by Pope John Paul II. Saint of the Day Copyright CNA, Catholic News Agency

Johan's prediction of all Slovenians in leaders jerseys except green is coming true. He and JB discuss the departure of Bernal, the race coming to the Méribel ski station and if he thinks Roglic told Kuss to try and join Lopez.  THEMOVE is presented by OURA. Visit OURA to learn more about the most accurate sleep and health device on the market. Use the code TheMove25 at checkout for 25% off your next purchase of AMP Visit ROKA and use the code THEMOVE at checkout for 20% off your first purchase. Use the code HYPETHEMOVE for 10% off at Hyperice  

Life is full of highs and lows and a cycling life is no exception. Week 2 of the 2020 Tour de France just wrapped up with 2 Slovenians on the podium. We talk about our highlights and lowlights. They include Hirschi getting his win, Porte's holding on, Sagan's relegation, and Bernal getting drrroooooppppeeed and out of contention. We also celebrate a the last road stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, raced like a classic, and won by a classic's rider, MVDP.

In this episode of The Cycling Podcast from the Tour de France Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and François Thomazeau recap the second and final stage in the Pyrenees. It was the most absorbing stage of an intriguing first week and leaves the Tour beautifully poised going into the first rest day. We recap stage nine, which was brought to life by Team Sunweb’s Marc Hirschi, who went so close against Julian Alaphilippe a weeks ago. We also discuss how the overall battle is turning into a race between two Slovenians, stage winner Tadej Pogacar and the new yellow jersey Primoz Roglic, and Colombia’s Egan Bernal, with Guillaume Martin and Romain Bardet still in the mix for France. OUR SPONSORS iwoca became The Cycling Podcast’s title sponsors in March 2020. iwoca specialises in supporting small businesses and can lend between £1,000 and £250,000. iwoca have been accredited by the British Business Bank to offer CBILS (Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans Scheme) – the scheme is now open, so businesses can apply for a loan rather than just register interest. To find out more, go tohttps://www.iwoca.co.uk Science in Sport is The Cycling Podcast’s longest-standing supporter. It’s a relationship that stretches back to the 2016 Giro d’Italia. Listeners can get 25% off Science In Sport’s range of energy drinks, bars, gels and cakes at scienceinsport.com (http://scienceinsport.com/) with the code SISCP25 The next generation Wattbike Atom is supporting all our Tour de France coverage this year. The new Wattbike Atom is available from £90 per month at wattbike.com (https://wattbike.com/) DVinecellars has curated a selection of wines matched to the Tour de France for us. Choose from the green jersey, polka-dot jersey, yellow jersey or Grand Tour cases at https://www.dvinecellars.com/  Tune into Kilometre 0, our weekday morning show, every Monday to Friday during the Tour.

Michelle Pušič Ryall is a Canadian Slovenian, who only a few months ago started a Facebook group 'Slovenska kuhinja' (Slovenian kitchen). Interest in the group amongst Slovenians around the world is growing daily. We spoke with Michelle about this group and why she started it. - Michelle Pušič Ryall je kanadska Slovenka, ki je pred nekaj meseci pričela skupino na Facebooku, pod imenom ''Slovenska kuhinja''. Skupina ima veliko zanimanja med Slovenci po vsem svetu, tudi v Avstraliji. Michelle je spregovorila o njeni ustanovitvi.

This week we catch up with Visit Slovenia and Inspirock to learn more about how they used itinerary creation and an engaging, personalised experience to encourage Slovenians to travel domestically this summer.

Dr Kaja Antlej is Lecturer in Industrial Design and CADET Virtual Reality Lab Researcher – Museums and Heritage at the School of Engineering, Deakin University, interested in human-centered design and digital heritage/virtual museums (design and evaluation). We spoke about virtual reality, her work at University and also about how connected younger Slovenians in Australia are during these challenging times. - Dr. Kaja Antlej je predavateljica industrijskega oblikovanja na Deakin University, raziskovalka in predsednica Slovensko-avstralskega akademskega društva (SAAA). Pogovarjali sva se o virtualni resničnosti, o njenem delu na univerzi in o tem, kako se mlajša generacija Slovencev v Avstraliji povezuje v času COVIDa-19.

I had an excellent conversation with Samo Burja of Bismark Analysis. Samo is one of the most original thinkers I have encountered in the last two years, and it was great to have him share some of his ideas here. You can follow him on Twitter, read his writing, or watch his videos on Youtube. Here is Samo on Botswana and political stability - and how Rome handled the "succession problem". The manuscript of Samo's book is here. You can find us on most podcast platforms as "Ideas Untrapped".TRANSCRIPTTobi: Welcome to Ideas Untrapped and today I am with Samo Burja. Samo is a sociologist and he is the founder and president of Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm. Samo is also an original thinker who has come up with his own theory of history that he called the Great Founder Theory. Welcome, Samo.Samo: Thank you, Tobi. It's a pleasure to be on the show.Tobi: Briefly please, explain the Great Founder Theory. You call it the Theory of History, can you explain it, in the most simplest form, for us.Samo: Well, everyone has a theory of history. There are some people who believe that history is driven by technology, that technology is the most important thing that changes the world. There are others who think that it is the great people - the generals and individuals and scientists and artists. And still, others think it's driven by economic forces like capitalism and so on. So, everyone has opinions on it. Many historians have arguments on it. Many economists have arguments on it, and political scientists. Great Founders Theory which is my theory proposes that history is driven by the exceptional individuals who make the institutions that we all rely on - the founders of states, the founders of exceptional companies, the founders of religions, the prophets or the statesman or the industrialists of history - and that were you to remove someone from history where there to not be that particular individual, that exceptional and unusual individual, history could have gone very very differently. And also it's not just a way to interpret history it's a way to predict the future because it means that instead of necessarily looking at just the economic fundamentals or just the technological fundamentals of a country, you might actually want to look at: well, is there anyone in the country that might be a founder of new institutions? Because I think that be it a state, a company, or an organised religion, over time as you move away from their founding, these institutions can become corrupt or dysfunctional. So even if a country seems to be doing extremely well, if it doesn't have this type of person around who might rebuild the institutions or build them anew, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, 200 years from now, it will do worse. And a country that at first might not seem promising, might suddenly, like, shift to become the centre of the world if it had enough of such people.Tobi: I found your theory on Great Founders interesting. One is that the conventional wisdom, if I can call it that, on thinking about institutions is not vested in people. There is a common saying that "oh, it's about the institutions and not the people", that's how you build enduring systems that can be fair, that can be just, that can order society. So, now, I think the fear...or in places like Africa where there is a long history of coups and bad leaders, how does [the] Great Founder Theory differ from the Great Man Theory of history?Samo: Yeah, it's an important distinction to make, because not every powerful person is a great founder in this sense. They are often people who appropriate or merely direct institutions and organisations that others created. And then at times, if they tried to create an institution, they might not be very good at it. So the big distinction that I would make is that the individuals who can be exceptional - this kind of, like, far-sighted social engineers, I think they are extremely rare. I think they are not just rare in African history, they were in European history and in Asian history but, over time the fruits of their labour accumulate. An example in SouthEast Asia I think would be Lee Kuan Yew. I think that he was an excellent founder of the city-state of Singapore, which was previously a British colony and developed it extremely well. I think in Africa there are some leaders who are definitely worthy of administration, I think that I wrote an article on Botswana for Palladium Magazine where I examined the origin of Botswanan stability and how the royal family of the country actually made extremely good decisions as to how to approach decolonialisation (sic) and so on. And then Paul... I think Paul Kagame deserves, despite his critics and his critics do have a point that he is very much authoritarian in a way, I think he's done a remarkably good job of both developing Rwanda and healing the deep social wounds that the Rwandan genocide caused in the 1990s. And I can certainly relate to that because the 1990s was also the period where - you know, I'm originally from Slovenia, it's a country in the former Yugoslavia - that country was also torn apart, right? So this kind of, like, tearing apart of societies, I think that can be done by almost anyone. The building together of societies, the re-creation of them, the healing of them, the transformation of them, that is very very rare. So I think that that would be the big distinction.Tobi: Yeah. One issue that you've written extensively about is succession, and...Samo: Uh-hmm.Tobi: This is a very important problem with institutions and leaders and founders as well. Two examples: you talked about Kagame...Samo: Hmm hmm.Tobi: I've always found Kagame interesting because Rwanda seems to be in an equilibrium where Kagame does not really trust anybody as a successor, so that's why he's been in power for so long. Some of his speeches, some of the analysis that comes from...[trails off]. It seems like he sees himself as probably the only credible custodian of that healing process, from that horrible experience; and also in Nigeria here we had a very good example when we transitioned to democracy in 1999 and we had a president who had a particularly good second term in office. There were economic reforms, and there was growth. There was some form of shared prosperity in the society and he wanted a third term because he could not trust anybody, even within a system that he built or that was built around him. So explain to us - how important is the succession problem and how do civilizations and societies that have managed that problem really well, how did they do it?Samo: It's an extremely difficult problem, and I think solving the succession problem probably distinguishes the most successful societies or the most long-lived ones from, like, the ones that struggle. In particular, I think that it has two parts: there is skill succession and there is power succession. Where skills succession means that the next person in a position has comparable skills and knowledge and ability to carry out an office. If say, hypothetically, in ancient times, a wise king is succeeded by a foolish son, right? The song can easily undo what the father had done, they can easily endanger the society. On the other hand, you might have a situation where there is a failure of power succession where, for example, there is a wise ruler but there is another wise individual who could come into power but doesn't really have the resources to reach for that position, even if the formal position still exists, it might be encumbered or disabled. There is such a thing as a powerless president. For example, today in Afghanistan, the president of Afghanistan is best understood as the mayor of Kabul. The power of this government does not extend beyond the capital city itself, with the outline regions still - 19 years after the US invasion, they're still basically governed by the Taliban or are directly governed by, like, basically US military forces. So in that case, the power just is not there to govern the space. Now, with regard to the trust between people, the trust has to be justified on a number of grounds. The very interesting thing here is if you consider [that] it's best to have a loyal competent person work with you and work for you and eventually when you have to go, as all people do, either because of old age or because of term limits or because you want to do something else with the remainder of your life, that person is the best person to hand it off to. It is, ironically, sometimes better to have someone who is loyal but incompetent than to have someone who is disloyal and incompetent, at least when it comes to politics. So, in an interesting way, as you point out, Kagame has difficulty finding someone or trusting someone. He has this fear of political opponents and I think this fear is locally rational but ideally, it would be best for society as a whole to have a higher level of trust. There are societies that have transitioned in history from lower to higher trust setups. One example I like to bring up is in the ancient Roman empire, there was a period of the so-called Five Good Emperors. One of these is Marcus Aurelius who is very famous for his stoic philosophy.Tobi: Yeah.Samo: The Roman empire was in a period of crisis then, so this is not when it was most powerful. This was when it was engaged in civil wars where generals would fight each other and direct their armies against each other to try to win in these wars and become emperor. And the solution was very interesting, perhaps a little bit a matter of happenstance, perhaps a little bit a matter of design. The Romans had this institution of adoption where you can declare someone your son and you adopt them as your son even if the person was already an adult. So there was this interesting political trick that was only possible because everyone so firmly respected [not only] family but simultaneously also this kind of strange idiosyncratic practice of adoption where you spiritually make someone your son even if they are not biologically your son. Not all societies have this, only a few societies practice this in human history. So because adoption was [a] widely spread practice, when a Roman emperor who was old would declare a general his son, the idea of killing your son will just make you so unfit to rule that whoever was adopted as the Emperor's son understood that they were most certainly safe.And on the other hand, they also understood that it's no longer in their interest to undermine the works of the previous emperor or raise themselves in rebellion because all they have to do is support the current emperor and then they get to their turn afterwards. I note for example that Botswana has a very good string of presidents where each president was the vice-president of the previous one and the vice-presidents are carefully selected for this kind of skill and partially also their friendship with the Botswana royal family, so this has helped them to avoid a lot of the troubles of other resource-rich countries. So that would be a different example than the Roman example. And a third example of a way this can be done is the Japanese practice of Moko Yoshi which is the practice of - in Japan, again there is a strong emphasis on family and there is a strong emphasis, however, also on honour and on company performance. And they well understand sometimes that your son might not always be...first of, you might not have a son, but secondly, your son might not always be the most talented at business. So the practice of Moko Yoshi is called son-in-law adoption - it means that for a wealthy industrialist or entrepreneur, they will try to find for their daughter a husband who has business sense and then the daughter marries the man with business sense but the daughter doesn't take her husband's name. Rather the husband takes this prestigious name and some of Japan's biggest companies in their past had made use of this. I think Toyota was an example and I think a few other of their household name companies. This allowed it so that the next CEO of the company, the next head of the company had reason to trust this person because this person is their son-in-law and not only their son-in-law, [but] because the Japanese put so much on to the owner of the family name, this person would be interested in supporting it and supporting the original vision of the company. So this is another way you can produce this kind of trust. These are the three interesting examples - one is through marriage, another one was through adoption, and another one was through this long period of cooperation where you have someone that is your right-hand man, that you work with for 5 or 10 years, you are the president, they are the vice-president, and you sometimes would do interesting things where I think the succession went like this ...I mean I have to possibly check my notes on this but they [Botswana] also had some aspects of this familial bond that can overcome this distrust where, you know, basically president Festus Mogae served as Quett Masire's vice-president but then...Tobi: Yeah.Samo: President Ian Khama who was the son of Seretse Khama who was the first president to try to lead this effort to leave the British empire and achieve independence. So he didn't put Ian Khama directly in charge, no, he rather put Quett Masire and this gave this opportunity that, you know... if Ian was not the best selection, you could have just gone with his vice-president but instead there was still this opportunity to rely on the family connection at the end of the day because someone who was like a close family friend, it would feel difficult for them to move against the son of someone else who was once their close friend and someone who had raised them up to the position of president. So, again, the relationship had to be developed before the country became independent in an interesting way, right? This initial friendship, because then the stakes are lower. So I would say that testing and building close ties before you are in the position of power might actually be the best way to get relationships you can rely on even after you are in power. This was a long answer and relatively involved, but I hope it laid out some of these mechanisms well enough.Tobi: Listening to that bit, I'm wondering does not democratic ideals or what we have come to define as democratic ideal not conflict with these succession strategies that you laid out. I mean I'll give you an example.Samo: Uh-hmm.Tobi: In party politics, for example, in Nigeria, politicians practice some kind of what you would call the "adoption system" but in social discourse, in political discourse, we have labelled it as "God Fatherism" and it is fundamentally perceived as unfair - that whatever comes out of that process does not represent the consensus of the people and so there's an instinctive reaction negatively...Samo: Yes.Tobi: To that. So does democracy conflict with succession in a way, the way you look at history?Samo: I think that democracy is very interesting. I will describe democracy as something that can deeply undermine trust or can deepen trust immensely. And it kind of depends [on] how well-functioning the society is in the first place. So I would say that in a well-functioning democracy, you might have people who compete and in public criticize constructively their opponents and proposed better plans for the good of the country. Yet then, when the president is elected or when the party is elected, the two parties or the two candidates who are rivals still trust the other side to adhere to [the] rule of law and believe that at this point, now that the election is over, the best course for everyone is to work together towards a better country and then you repeat this process every 4 years or 8 years or 10 years...so this is, I think, democracy at its best - where it allows you to express constructive criticism, advancement, the public good on the basis of the social fabric of already well-developed political relations, where there is a sense of shared interest among all the citizens of the country. Now, where it works the worst...I'm going to now reference back the example of the introduction of democracy in my own country Yugoslavia (I was born in Yugoslavia, I was a kid when it broke apart in the 1990s). The best way for Slobodan Milosevic who was a Serbian to win elections was to stoke the sort of resentment and anger of the Serbians that, to be honest... some real problems...there was a real conflict between Albanians and Serbians in the province, of course. But this immediately made it so that Slovenians, Croatians, Albanians, and others felt increasingly uncomfortable, they didn't want to live in a country that was completely dominated by Serbian elites in Belgrade. Before 1980, there was essentially, like, a dictatorial system where Tito was in charge. From 1980 to 1990, there was this tentative federal balance that was non-democratic, so there was this balance of power between the various wings of the Communist party, and then this balance of power was shattered by the introduction of democracy. So what I'll say here is - democracy is extremely powerful...it's a very powerful way to transform the balance of power of a society and put to the test the trust that already exist in a society or does not. So I would say that what is popularly understood as a democratic ideal which is that democracy itself will bring about higher trust, I think this is false. It is however true that high trust, high maturity, and high sense of, like, shared destiny and responsibility among a people, and among the elites of a people of a country, that this can allow democracy to express very very good government. And in fact, if you think about it, in a well-functioning democracy, the selection process should work better than, say, in a monarchy. Again, the hypothetical example of a monarchy that's hereditary, you know... the first son inherits or the kingdom is split between all the sons of the king. These were the two methods of inheritance in the ancient Middle East or Europe in medieval times.Either one of those systems is kind of a throw of the dice. It's sure that the successor will be loyal, at best, if they're good son but they might not be competent, and in a well-functioning democracy and a high trust system, you should, in theory, have this. But I think it's a very delicate machine, I think it relies on [the] rule of law, and it relies on elites that feel that there is [a] common ground. So even though it's a democracy and there is a will of the people, even in democracies some people are more powerful than others. I think this is a fact. If you look at modern... any western country you want to look at, some people are wealthier, some people are more powerful, some people are more influential, some people have more sway over the public's opinions, some people are charismatic - whether it's America or Canada or Germany or any of the Asian democracies such as South Korea or Japan, it works this way. The elites still matter. I think that in this sense, the best way to implement a democratic system is to first create this sense of shared purpose and shared destiny in a people, and to balance the interests of all the groups that live in the country. And I think here I would reference the work of Machiavelli who wrote in one of his books, I think it was on the Discourses on Livy - he said that the constitution of a country, be it a monarchy, a republic or a democracy is always the work of a single man, the single individual. I don't think that's quite true. I think it's usually a small group of people, organised around an individual, like say, America's founding fathers were... but I think it says something very real. I think democracy has difficulty producing the preconditions for its own success.The question is, do you want to be friends and do you support the entrepreneurial young man that doesn't have much money to his name? - SBTobi: That's interesting. That sort of leads me to my next question.Samo: Uh-hmm.Tobi: Are there deep roots element to having a great founder? And here is what I mean: from research in cultural evolution, I think from the works of Joe Henrich and co., societies are classified as either low trust or high trust...Samo: Hmm.Tobi: And we know that high trust societies (they) tend to handle some of these problems like (we've talked about) succession really well. So are there cultural or biologically intrinsic elements to societies that managed to invent credible institutions or produce great founders, at least, more than other rival civilizations?Samo: Well, there is an interesting question of what exactly is producing great founders, right? I don't think I really know the answer to that, I believe that an openness to exceptional skill is very worthwhile. So a society that values the great scientist or the great artist or perhaps be kinder to the great religious and spiritual leader or the wise and thoughtful political leader or the very productive and industrious economic leader, and importantly it will be open to what these people look like before they are successful. Like, everyone wants to be friends with Rockefeller when Rockefeller is already rich. The question is, do you want to be friends and do you support the entrepreneurial young man that doesn't have much money to his name?Tobi: Uh uh.Samo: I think this kindness to what the beginner's stage looks like because if you imagine someone that can go on this trajectory to shape a society - to, like, notably improve it - this person is going to be saying some very strange things when they're young. They are not going to be doing whatever everyone else is doing. His parents might be like "well, you should become a lawyer or a doctor" and instead this person has this seemingly crazy dream that just later on in life turns out not to be crazy. They might still, as part of this dream, receive a lawyer's education. But instead of, say, going to a law firm, they might create either a political party or they might start lobbying for the change of a particular law that enables a particular kind of business or city government or they might run for an office or they might spend 10 years reading books and being a scholar for some reason that's very difficult to explain to others. So there has to be in a society, I think, a desire for excellence, some tolerance for eccentricity or at least the harmless kinds of eccentricity and an encouragement or at least... it cannot be too focused on trying to stamp out creative. Now, ironically, I think some very high trust societies will actually suffer some long-term problems because they have this philosophy where, you know... you hammer the nail that stands out. I think in say modern Denmark or Scandinavia and perhaps also in modern Japan. It's actually extremely difficult to be someone that does something different. Partially because things seem to be working pretty well - there is a healthcare system, the streets are clean, the economy has been stable, everyone's been rich for as long as they can remember - so why are you being a troublemaker and saying you do everything different from everyone else? Who are you to think that you are special or that you know better?So this actually, I think, in the long run, might make Japan, again, and Denmark fragile. And I think this is an advantage to say, some other rich countries such as the US and over time more and more China [which] actually still retain this possibility of being contrarian, not in your words necessarily. It's not respect for necessarily people who are disrespectful to society at large or loud (though certainly such people that can succeed in the United States), it is more [of] a tolerance for a very different way to approach your career and intellectual and economical life. And then I'll add some more components to this - so I had this drive for excellence, this tolerance for eccentricity, the tolerance for the beginner to choose a different life path than other talented young men and women might choose. I think the availability of local traditions of knowledge is immensely important. Where, by traditions of knowledge, I mean the possibility of finding mentors who themselves are exceptionally skilled or exceptionally successful or exceptionally insightful.Historically, there were some universities that played this role and they didn't necessarily play this role through "well, you know, the students and the students are taught by the teachers", it's more as... if you went in medieval, times in England to Oxford, it was just a place where all the smartest scholars of Europe had gathered or say the Cervon in France. And whether or not you were a student of the university, if you could travel there, you could talk to them and you could write with them and you could listen to them. The availability of this knowledge immensely sped up progress and similar things can be said of Florence in the Renaissance. Florence is a city in Italy renowned for its great art. If you were a sculpture or a painter, your craft - your art - will progress much much faster if you could go to Florence and ideally apprentice yourself to someone. But even if you couldn't apprentice yourself, merely walking through the streets of Florence - they had the practice of having these workshops that were open to the street, you could actually just literally see what people are up to and what kind of stuff is produced. And it had this, again, this culture of critique where they would have high standards, so they would examine critically what artists are making and compare it to each other and they were quite direct and open about it much as Italians sometimes are even till today - they are quite disagreeable. So I think this availability of other experts, people who perhaps themselves are not great founders but have quite great mastery in things like rhetoric or law or human organisation or technology or understanding of the country and its issues. The availability of such people can greatly aid great founders. So this perhaps is just kind of the preconditions for this and I'm happy to comment on any specific countries or regions but each of those is like quite involved things... so...Tobi: Let's talk about China. Samo: Perfect. Perfect.Tobi: Interesting article, by the way, yesterday. I read it. Packed with so much insight. And of course, China, in the last decade, has been the most important economic partner to most African economies, so whatever happens in China, the extension of its global power reaches every corner of the African economy.Samo: Uh-hmm.Tobi: You talked about Deng Xiaoping and how he managed to handle the succession problem and Xi who is currently torn between keeping the fire of Marxism burning or watch it die out with modernism and all. How big a threat is the internal political contradictions that China face right now? How big a threat is it globally?Samo: Well, I think that China is facing an immense challenge, I'm very glad that you enjoyed the article. The article in Asia Times outlines my position which is that they did an immensely good job of resolving the contradiction of how to have economic growth with a Marxist ideology. But the problem is they do need the Marxist ideology to keep their political system together. So the succession problem there is driven not just by this difficulty with Marxism where it can always be interpreted in this way that actually shuts down capitalism and economic production - where if the successors of Xi don't take it seriously enough, they have no political principle with which to maintain power and perhaps this could be replaced by something like a democracy but I think that's not trivial at all. It might very easily shatter the country apart as it had numerous times in its long history. China has this long history of dividing into smaller fighting countries and then reuniting. These dynastic cycles have happened several times in the twentieth century. They had terrible civil wars at the start of the 20th century. So it's very risky to undermine the political structure of the country, it's very risky. And then on the other hand, if you take the Marxism too seriously, especially if you take the Maoism too seriously, you might end up destroying this engine of economic growth because then how can you have in a communist society billionaire's, which China obviously does, right, Jack Ma and so on. I think that civil society enables a civilization robustness. Hyper centralised systems can seem very efficient but they can be very fragile. As soon as the centre fails, everything fails. - SBThe succession problem has an even more fundamental issue where while Chinese industry allows for exceptional and strange individuals, like a lot of the billionaires are somewhat eccentric, their academic system does not. Their scientific progress is much slower and the students are very very good students but they don't pursue bold research and a lot of the members of the Chinese Communist Party go through the somewhat academic selection process. And then there is another selection process of "well, which party member advances within the Communist Party of China?" Well, it's the one that doesn't rock the boat. It's the one that's, you know, quiet and agrees with the policy and supports the policy. And in an important way, of course, you can have someone like Xi who he is very reserved in speech, very obedient, plays by the rules and when they come into power they pursue their bold plans they had all along or they acquire and grow into [the] office and become bolder. But for the most part, this is just going to be "yes men" and Xi is the last member of the generation that saw the possible failure of the Communist system. He saw the failure of it in his youth when his family and he himself were targeted by the Chinese red guards during the so-called Cultural Revolution. For a few years, he spent his childhood exiled in the countryside feeding pigs, and that probably stuck in his memory. He understands how despite, I'm sure Xi is... I’m sure he believes in Marxism but he understands this failure part of it and then later in his life he saw the collapse of the Soviet Union. We have to understand that for the Chinese, the Soviet Union in the 1980s was kind of the elder brother, just as in the 1990s Eastern Europeans might admire the wealth and development of Western Europeans. So in the 1960s and 70s, Chinese communists both admired and envied the global power and the technological development of the Soviet Union. So seeing the Soviet Union collapse was this big shock for the communist part of the world, only a few communist countries stayed communist after the fall of the Soviet Union - North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, and China and that's basically about it. All of the African and European countries that had experimented with socialism basically abandoned it, it was no longer a viable system. Xi saw this again as a young man, and already on his career...so in a way, he saw both of the failures in [indistinct word].Tobi: Hmm.Samo: He is going to be in power for a while more and I don't think anyone who is of a younger generation has that sort of experiences. All they have is the experience of maneuvering in a Communist Party, ruling an already fairly developed China. So their intuitions and knowledge of what does failure look like for political system or how do unwise decisions come about? it's going to be in a way much impoverished. So I think there is a knowledge transmission problem here. I think power succession works fine because the Communist Party has such control over the country but knowledge succession is a big problem for them and they have a lot of difficulty solving it.Tobi: Somehow I wonder whether these are not (maybe they are, maybe they are not) symptoms of increasing prosperity. One very important point you made in that essay was how much order is necessary to create and maintain a market system. I think a lot of people underestimate that. We all like to believe in this Hayekian vision of an emergent market. So...Samo: Like an idealized market set of rules where people exchange goods and they, sort of, discover what's...together they discover what's the best economic outcomes through the price system and so on.Tobi: Yeah, yeah...I mean, we've been taught to believe that. So when I look at China, people like Ang Yuen Yuen have said that Deng Xiaoping reforms were based on having a decentralized approach to policy and here you have Xi, again, who is so centralised in his approach to economic management. But if you look at cosmopolitan cities like Shenzhen and every other metropolis in China that have seen incredible prosperity in the last 40 to 50 years, isn't the current tension a necessity? That is, when people make more money, when they become more successful, they demand more rights. They become less obedient, they become less conformist, what do you think of that?Samo: I think that there is a strong set of prerequisites in terms of enforcing these relatively strong rules that enable personal liberty in the first place. That you don't have to fear whether or not your store will be expropriated and that you can rely on [the] courts if someone else, say, double-crosses you in a business deal, those are absolute absolutely massive. It just means that people, once those two things become true, then the most rational course of action is to participate in the market and benefit from the market. Until those things are true it's very difficult. And again what is supporting those courts? What's supporting that political order? Well, that's not trivial at all. That took a lot of work in the first place. And I think that this development that we saw in China was that... the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution was a quiet realisation among the remaining members of the Communist Party because they had been purging each other (those internal fight), was that "you know, this got out of hand, I would like more security in my political career. I don't want to be killed on charges, I don't want to be imprisoned, I don't want to be exiled, I'm going to work together with the other people to make sure nothing like this can happen again. And as a side effect of this almost kind of self-interested political aspect, this enables a reformer like Deng Xiaoping to produce something that has not just given political safety to this party officials, but gives economic and political safety to everyone in the society, at least to a much higher degree than was previously available. I'm not ignoring at all the fact of how heavy-handed the Chinese government can be, I'm just pointing out that the mechanic of the change that enabled this broader liberty was partially driven by the people who are already powerful. You can't obviously have this be driven by everyone in [the] existing elite, but I think every reform of society has had one sub-section of the elite interested in change and bringing in new people as allies, who previously were not part of the old elite to become part of the new one. So, there is a change in the ruling coalition... that can happen. And I think often those can be very positive if designed well and can result in what's essentially this higher degree of safety. And I think once the safety is guaranteed, then there's more room for personal expression and this bottom-up order.Tobi: Interesting. Interesting, Samo. So I'm just going to toss out a few theories and framework and I want to hear your reaction to that and weather GFT affirms or refutes that. Acemoglu and Robinson talked about inclusive and extractive institutions, what do you think about that framework?Samo: I think that inclusive or extractive institutions is a good path... it's an interesting frame, right? I think that in the real world, an institution can be both inclusive and extractive. So I think there is some insight there, but I think my perspective on institutions is that they can easily combine many things that seem mutually contradictory. So I'll say it sometimes gives the correct answer but it's basically not as total as it's presented.Tobi: Hmm. In their framework, at least they've extended their theory with their new book, they talked about this narrow corridor where... I don't want to call it perfect, but this balance between the power of the state and the freedom of the civil society as this zone where prosperity sort of exists. Is that...I find that hard to believe somewhat despite all the evidence they marshalled in their book and other research papers...Samo: Uh-hmm, Uh-hmm, Uh-hmm...Tobi: So what role does civil society play in GFT?Samo: In GFT, civil society is the space where new institutions can be designed without the approval of the centre, without the approval of central power because GFT has this self component of high-medium-low...where I think civil society is the space where the middle powers can be built. In other words, to build a great successful company you ideally don't need to have that many government friends. To successfully pursue a new political ideology or new social or ethical ideology, you shouldn't necessarily have to fully wrestle with everyone in society immediately... so, again, another additional aspects of this is I think that the civil society represents this very important redundancy. Redundancy in the positive sense where if you are on an airplane and the electronics of the airplane fails while you are in the air, you really hope that there is a backup electronic system; or if you are in a hospital and you are recovering and the electricity goes out you very much hope that there is a power generator attached to the hospital allowing whatever equipment that is needed for your health to keep on running. I think that civil society enables a civilization robustness. Hyper centralised systems can seem very efficient but they can be very fragile. As soon as the centre fails, everything fails. A strong civil society on the other hand enables not only [a] healthy competition and experimentation which of course should not endanger the centre or should not endanger the coherence and common destiny and stability of the civilization or society, but it enables a backup. So if the centre fails, there is something that is not too far from being able to become the new centre.Tobi: Interesting. Let's talk about technology for a bit, Samo. One of the things that this notion of catch-up growth is built on in economic development is that if you can facilitate technology transfer between a nation that is advanced to a nation that is behind, then you can engineer some form of economic growth. But you also have this concept of social technologies that in my own interpretation do not transfer so easily. What are your thoughts on that?Samo: I think this is very much true. I think that it's very easy to transfer, say, the adoption of a physical technology. It's like not that hard to have the users...you know, everyone has then a smartphone, right? Tobi: Yeah.Samo: It's a little bit harder to have it be sold that the workers and managers exist to run a phone factory, on the other hand, that's a little bit more difficult. And social technologies play a role in this and I think the transfer of social technology is something very interesting and tricky. I feel it is important to note that naively trying to completely copy social technologies from a completely different society can have disastrous or ineffective consequences. Because, in fact, there are already social technologies in whatever society. There is no society without its own ecosystem of highly specialised social technologies. The beautiful balance happens when one is able to learn from other societies and then customise what is introduced. I'm going to use the example here of 19th century Japan. Nineteenth-century Japan, sort of, forcibly opened to trade by Admiral Perry, basically, they are behind on military technology. They understand very well in the aftermath of the Meiji restoration that it's not just the adoption of Western science nor is it the adoption whole-scale of just Western culture and views, but they are very selective. What they do is they send their most talented students to Germany and the United States with specific missions; some of are tasked by the Japanese government as representatives to learn everything they can about how the officer system work in Germany, for example, in 19th century in Germany, 19th century Prussia? How do the ranks work? What kind of discipline and training do the soldiers go through? And they return changing the Japanese army from this relatively archaic system that's feudal, that has samurai because if you arm the samurai with the machine guns and whatever, they're not actually using the artillery, the equipment well nor are they fighting coherently or employing the correct tactics. So the army would in effect be terrible. But they copied the Western system of ranks and training - everything up from the military academies to the organisation of the provisions. They go and observe it. They participate in those armies and then they return to the country, and with the full political backing produced this transformation. And then for the ones that go to the United States, they observed the organisation of railway companies and how American companies operated internally. And note this, of course, was a very different America. This was an America that was still at the frontier - the transcontinental railroad was barely built, so there were definitely people there that knew how to build a completely new railroad system, how to finance it, how to even deal with security issues - and then that transfer goes back to Japan. And then there are people who are in London just working for several years as basically shipwrights that return and then oversee the construction of the first ship. So these are not just technical skills, all them are learning some technical skills but they are also learning things like what does a relationship look like between a soldier and a commanding officer? What does the internal organisation of a shipyard look like? How do shipyards connect with funding and with resources? And how do they select skilled labour vs unskilled labour? How do they enforce workplace discipline? What do you do if the shipwrights come drunk to the shipyard, how do you respond to that? These all seem very trivial everyday problems, but for the most part, we rely on our social understanding, our cultural, our social technology to see what is acceptable and what are the expectations that should be set and should be respected and how to resolve various kinds of conflict and how to reach various kinds of decisions - these are all things that have to be patented. Yet, despite all these expeditions to do this learning, they intentionally combined this and pursue this strategy where they picked and choose which of these practices were compatible with Japanese society. So Japan stayed Japan and successfully industrialized… and it was unsuccessful during World War II obviously, but even after WWII, Japanese society remains distinct and actually in some ways functions better than Western societies. Like, if you go to their high-speed transit, it's maintained at a higher level than you see any western country. So they combine this with some of these strengths that they have... this very broad attention to aesthetics [and] this high level of politeness that they had inherited from that particular kind of feudal society. So yeah, you have to live in a new society, I think. You have to observe it happening, and then not only do you have to live there, you have to return; and not only do you have to return, you mustn't change everything. You must change just something very narrow that works on the strengths of the other social technologies available rather than trying to wholesale imitate something that ultimately has its own flaws.Tobi: Economist Gareth Jones has this concept of hive minds where he says national IQ matters more than the IQ of an individual person and these are correlated with how successful and prosperous a society is. I'm not even going to ask how true or false that is but are higher IQ societies more likely to have great founders than not?Samo: It's a very interesting question. I mean IQ is one of those things that it might not be a good measurement, it might be a good measurement in some circumstance. I think that... yeah, I think there is whatever (I won't measure it with IQ)...Tobi: Okay.Samo: But I do think societies with intelligent people or with greater respect for intelligence or with greater ability to produce intelligent people, I think they do have an advantage here, yeah. You require also other things because as I noted, you might have extremely intelligent people that are however doing exactly the same thing that everyone else is doing. If you imagine a classroom of very very diligent student that mostly to just do the same thing that all the other diligent students...like, that might result in like, say, some well-run things. It might like result in trains that go on time or on factories that can rely on a high level of skill of their workers but the problem is those same students would never have built the train system in the first place or would never have pushed for its creation nor would they have ever pushed for the creation of the factory. So there are additional factors here. I remember reading some articles about Gareth Jones's book, I will say where he's very very right is that if you have a higher culture of intelligence in a society, it becomes easy to not have to worry about things. You don't have to worry whether trivial everyday things are taken care of, you can focus on the truly difficult parts. Again, you can rely on the train that takes you to your class to be there on time, for example. That's like easier, it's not just a matter of organisations, [it's] also a matter of, like, the competence of the rail workers and so on... and these small everyday differences, if you imagine them just through the lifetime of a potential great founder, they make a massive difference.I'm not sure I think that you need to have absolutely all of society be like this, I think it's actually sufficient to have a city that's intelligent in this way. Like I give the example of medieval Europe and the city of Oxford. I think it was quite sufficient to just have Oxford where there were a bunch of smart people around. I think it didn't much matter whether the rest of England at the time was very intelligent or not.Tobi: Hmm. That's interesting. You also talked about Life Players in your book which I greatly enjoy and for the audience, I'm going to put up a link to the publicly available manuscript for the Great Founder Theory book. How can one recognise Life Players in society or in an institution?Samo: I think Life Players are going to the people that have succeeded at very very different tasks. So they are going to be these individuals that have, perhaps, either changed careers (two or three completely different careers) and have been successful at all of them; or completely changed their interpersonal style and were as successful when they were strict as when they were jovial, when they were easy-going or people who have done intellectually completely different things. So what you're looking for is not only a very high skill in an area - again, it's very possible to be extremely skilled in an area and ultimately not be that well-adapted - what you're looking for is the combination of both skill and execution, intentionally observing their environment and success at transitioning. So (a) success at transitioning to completely new strategies and this might look like an entrepreneur that has built a successful company in one industry that [they] then specialise in a different industry and very quickly build a successful company there too. Elon Musk might be a good example where he both has created this business that's a car factory that makes electric cars - Tesla - and has also succeeded in aerospace with his company SpaceX which recently brought American astronauts to space again for the first time ever on a privately built rocket rather than a rocket built by NASA.Tobi: Uh uh.Samo: A different example of a Life Player and I have to emphasise here when I say Life Player, I don't mean I agree with everything the person does. I'm just observing that they have the skill and adaptability. I think Vladimir Putin has showed over the last twenty years in Russia an extreme adaptability where Russia pursued many different strategies to try to maintain its position in the world, and Russia right now punches above its weight. For example, the annexation of Crimea was completely inspired. Nothing like that had happened in Europe before...Tobi: Uh uhSamo: And it was done with, like, killing almost no people, I think something like three or four people died. It was incredible how they orchestrated the mere surrender of the Ukrainian army because the Ukrainian army was so confused and honestly scared with the appearance of these Russian soldiers that, note, were even not officially Russian soldiers. They were wearing no official flags or patches, so they wouldn't give any answers as to who they were. They could plausibly say that they were Ukrainian because Ukrainians and Russians (they) look similar, they speak very similar language, there's a Russian minority in Ukraine and...you know, Crimea declares independence, and then immediately after declaring independence asks to join Russia and Russia says "yes". It's kind of amazing how that can happen. Not saying it was good for Ukraine, definitely, it was good for Russia, I think. And this results in this very creative process because there is no way in the world that Putin ever planned for there to be a civil war in Ukraine, but having the fact of the civil war happen, he and his team very quickly moved tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people and carried out a military operation that had never been performed before by the Russian army. The Russian army has a long history, many centuries ago but believe me they've never engaged and subtle stuff. They usually had this very overt, very heavy-handed interventions in other countries. If you think about it like this intervention in Hungary in the 1950s, in Czechoslovakia in the '60s, they just roll in the tanks and, like, assert authority. And here? No no no. Much more flexible, very subtle. And because the conditions were so unpredictable, this is how we can know that this was not planned a decade in advance. This was a quick adaptation over the course of, possibly, as little as six months to a completely changed situation. So I think that even if you were within the same industry, if this company, if this government, if this organisation, if this institution adapts quickly to massive changes, that's a strong sign that a Life Player he is at the helms. Because no automated system continues working when the operating conditions changed. It stops working if it's the preconditions are not met.Tobi: Hmm. One of your ideas [that] I've also found very interesting is the concept of Intellectual Dark Matter. How can a society benefit maximally from its intellectual dark matter - the tacit knowledge that's around?Samo: Intellectual Dark Matter refers to this concept that makes the analogy to physical dark matter because currently when the physicists and the astronomers look at our galaxy and they count all the stars and put together all the mass, they realise that there must be much more mass there than only what's visible...Tobi: Yeah.Samo: Because, otherwise, the gravity wouldn't be strong enough to keep this spinning galaxy that we find ourselves in and other galaxies together. So they don't yet know what this missing mass is but they are investigating it. And with Intellectual Dark Matter, I think if we put together all the books, all the stuff that's on the internet, all the stuff that's recorded, I think we still find that there is missing knowledge. There is knowledge and skill that we have not explicitly, formally recorded - written down or put into words that deeply matters. And once you start thinking about that, it's very easy to come up with examples of stuff that is very difficult to put into words or put into writing. The skill of a heart surgeon that saves the patient's life. Like, that's a remarkable set of skills but how do you put into words how to perform a heart surgery? Very very difficult, right? Takes a lot of words. I have an article titled "How YouTube is Revolutionising Knowledge Transfer" and I point out that...Tobi: Yeah, I read that.Samo: I point out that for a good enough camera, recording the hand movements in these very skills, and it doesn't have to be just heart surgery, it can be as trivial as cooking or perhaps the way you treat complex machinery... recording the video and others watching this video might be much much better way to convey such knowledge. I also think that we in society, in general, like seeing the results - we like seeing the finished essay or the finished theory by a Thinker. So if I go back to the world of abstractions to either philosophy or science or whatever, we like seeing the finished theory.What we don't see is all of the crazy or stupid ideas that this very intelligent person came up with before they got the right idea. They usually do that on their own or with a close circle of friends. So, one might be tempted to think and look at an extremely successful thinker and assume that they were always very polished, that they were always very eloquent, often this is not the case. Often they are immensely long learning period. Now, I admit I might be a little biased here because I did spend most of the last decade pursuing this kind of, like, thinking, reading, investigating and for most of this time period, people were not immediately interested in my ideas.Tobi: Hmm.Samo: But about two to three years ago, the material not only clicked together but I found the words to express what I, to myself, felt I had understood for several years before, I just could not really find the way to relate it and show to others in a short period of time how in fact this is useful to them. So I think all of these things form part of Intellectual Dark Matter and there is much more. There is, for example, we might not know what the exact process is that allows you...that allows Elon's team at SpaceX, engineers at SpaceX to make that rocket, and we might not even have that available anywhere because it might be classified. There are probably rules, I actually know that there are laws in the US that prevent SpaceX from simply explaining how they're making this vehicle to a company based in a foreign country. They don't want to teach all the countries how to make rockets for obvious reasons, and more importantly, SpaceX probably doesn't want to share its rocket designs with Boeing - their competitor.Tobi: Uh uh.Samo: So there is also an element of proprietary knowledge and trade secrets for stuff that is understood explicitly, stuff that can be put into words, can be put in a document but the person who has this knowledge wants to keep a competitive advantage; sometimes for very good reasons or the organisation that possesses this knowledge doesn't want to share it. So, that also forms a type of intellectual dark matter - it's knowledge we can't directly examine.Tobi: Interesting you talked about YouTube. The global pandemic has seen an increase in virtualisation, are we going to see a reform in education away from the classroom and a reduction in direct instruction? Samo: I think that we will see an increase in autodidacts - so people who know how to learn on their own. I think, however, that most people will return to the classrooms once the pandemic has died down. I don't think there will be permanent remote instructions and I think the reason for this is that the performance seems to be much worse. It seems to actually be the case that unless you are inherently interested in the material. If you're just a kid who's going to school or taking online classes because you have to take online classes or because you have to go to school, it seems your performance is going to be worse. You're going to learn less than if you physically go there. And I think that for autodidacts, there is going to be an abundance of resources - everything from recorded lectures to tests made. So it's going to improve those chances of those who are seeking knowledge out of curiosity primarily, or out of self-development and professional development; but for the majority of people learning, I think this transition is going to be temporary. I don't think it will be a permanent shift.Tobi: So, Samo, it's kind of a tradition on the show to ask this final question. What's the one big idea that you want to see spread globally? Samo: That's a great question. I think if there is one idea that I would like to put in everyone's minds or everyone's hands, it's this realisation that...I think that the surest sign of good knowledge is the ability to act on this knowledge. So I think that there is some deep confusion as to when knowing things and when doing things - how do these two relate to each other? And I think if only we understood that there are many things that have the appearance of knowledge, such as eloquent speech or perhaps particularly good writing that don't carry the substance of it. We should always observe the practice of the individuals and organisations claiming to have knowledge. For example, the WHO...I'm sure it's made of many excellent experts - they individually know many things about the coronavirus but the organisation as a whole despite claiming to know, in its public communication seems incapable of relaying that knowledge. So I think the result should be "well we should take them less seriously on the coronavirus". And if this map between who is believed to have knowledge and who actually has knowledge, if we improve that map, as a species, I think that our ability as human beings and our societies would really rise. It will be a remarkable thing to see and I think the societies that went through golden ages, I think they basically had these happy periods where the two coincided. You know, times like the Renaissance or whatever.Tobi: That's a great idea. We're sure to help you spread it over here at least.Samo: Thank you so much for having me on the show.Tobi: Yeah. Thank you so much, Samo. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at www.ideasuntrapped.com/subscribe

We spoke with the new minister for Slovenians abroad Dr Helena Jaklitsch. - Pogovarjali smo se z novo ministrico za Slovence v zamejstvu in po svetu Dr. Heleno Jaklitsch.

Igor Podpečan is a broad musician with plenty of experience on stage. He speaks about his band's path and shares memories of his most recent travels. - Vsestranski glasbenik, avtor glasbe, aranžer, tonski mojster, producent in vodja ansambla Igor in Zlati zvoki Igor Podpečan je spregovoril o glasbeni poti ansambla, osebnih izkušnjah na odru in o nekaterih potovanjih, na katere ima zelo lepe spomine.

The new Slovenian government also brought about some changes at the Office of Slovenians Abroad in Ljubljana. We spoke with dr. Dejan Valentinčič, who is the new Secretary of State (državni sekretar). - Nova slovenska vlada je v mesecu marcu prinesla nekaj sprememb tudi v vodstvu Urada vlade Republike Slovenije za Slovence v zamejstvu in po svetu. Pogovarjali smo se z novim državnim sekretarjem urada, dr. Dejanom Valentinčičem.

Today, in Australia we commemorate Anzac Day. It marks the anniversary of the first campaign that led to major casualties for Australian and New Zealand forces during World War One and all the conflicts that followed. We spoke with 2nd generation Australian Slovenians on what today means to them - Lenti Lenko, Walter Šuber and Frances Urbas Johnson. - Danes je Anzac Day, državni praznik v Avstraliji. Pogovarjali smo se o pomenu tega dne z nekaterimi člani druge generacije slovenske skupnosti v Avstraliji in kako so zabeležili dan v svoji družini. Oglasili se bodo Lenti Lenko, Valter Šuber in Frances Urbas Johnson.

As the current corona virus situation is gripping the world, we spoke with Andrej Kralj, Deputy Head of Mission at the Slovenian embassy in Canberra with the most recent news and advice for Slovenian citizens in Australia. - V trenutnem svetu, ko se soočamo s koronavirusom, smo se pogovarjali z namestnikom vodje misije na slovenskem veleposlaništvu v Canberri Andrejem Kraljem o novih informacijah za slovenske državljane, ki so v Avstraliji.

My name is Roberto Hernandez. I'm mexican. I am 45 years old. I have taught English since 2011. I started teaching English in classrooms of different institutes. I had 5 to 20 students. My students were from Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela. For one year I taught Spanish to Slovenians, Brazilians and Canadians. And I have a year of experience teaching online. I teach English mainly to Japanese students, but the platform also includes teaching Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese, Iranians and many other Asian countries. Sometimes students from Russia and Germany enter. I really enjoy teaching online.

Part 4 of 5 of the "What Americans Can Teach Europeans" series Americans are criticized for being ignorant of geography, languages, and the world in general. Let’s examine geography first. For example, someone from Slovakia often feels smart because he can name at least ten countries near him and explain what’s basically going on there. He says Americans are stupid because they can’t do this. Humans are regionally focused. Today, for the average human, that radius of interest and knowledge might be 500 km. For someone in Nebraska, that means being able to name 10 states around him. For someone in Belgium, that means 10 countries. The level of geographic knowledge is effectively the same. Europe and the United States are roughly the same size. Although it’s true that a Nebraskan won’t find Belgium on a map, it’s also true that a Belgian won’t find Kansas on a map. And neither will find Togo or Cambodia. People are generally ignorant of anything that is beyond their geographic radius of knowledge. src="/wanderlearn/episode/update/id/images/travels/europe/usa/USnews.png" alt="Imagine if they had asked people if they closely followed the news about Guinea Bissau" />The same goes for being aware of what’s going on. The Nebraskan will know what’s going on in Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, and maybe California. Meanwhile, the Belgian will have an idea of the general affairs in Luxembourg, Denmark, Germany, and maybe Greece. They’re all about the same distance from each other, the only difference is one crosses country lines while the other crosses state lines. And, of course, the American won’t know what’s going on in those European countries, just like the European won’t know what’s going on in those particular American states. Americans won’t know about the floods in Romania any more than a Romanian will know about the tornadoes in Oklahoma. However, the European persists and says that Americans don’t know anything about world events and yet everyone knows what’s going on in America. One Latvian told me she was upset that she knows so much about America and Americans don’t know anything about Latvia. It was tough to break the news to her that Latvia’s physical, economic, and political size is insignificant. And it’s really painful to tell the same thing to the French. But it’s true. Europeans know what’s going on America not because they’re more worldly and sophisticated, but because America has a lot of influence in their affairs. America knows little about individual European countries because not one European country has much impact on America (except for perhaps Britain or Russia). Most Europeans don’t know much more than Americans about what’s happening in Uruguay, New Zealand, and Namibia because those countries are both far and insignificant to them. And those countries don’t give a shit about all the tiny European countries either. In addition, educated Europeans who do know lots of stuff about the world often compare themselves with non-educated Americans. They walk through New York and tell people, “Hi, I’m from Bulgaria, do you know where that is?” They’re horrified that New Yorkers don’t know crap about Bulgaria and conclude that Americans are geographically ignorant idiots, unlike the brilliant Bulgarians. Meanwhile, a girl from Laos goes to Bulgaria and asks the people she meets, “Do you know where Laos is?” You can guess the response. Please compare an educated, well-traveled American with an educated, well-traveled European; or the American on the street with the European on the street. You’ll discover the difference isn’t that big. Most who complain about these issues come from countries much smaller than the US. The smaller the country, the more they’re forced to look outside because they quickly exhaust the business and travel opportunities in their own country. Go live in Belgium and see how fast you get bored. People who live in big countries can spend their whole lives there and not get bored. It’s not that we’re more stupid or have a bad education system (although both of these may be true), but it’s primarily because learning about a big country is complex enough. Should Americans learn more about the world and its languages? Absolutely. We should all be flogged for our ignorance. And we should also flog ignorant people from other big countries like the Chinese, Brazilians, Russians, and the French. Why the French? Their country is smaller than Texas, so what’s wrong with that? Well, it’s always a good idea to flog the French whenever you get the chance. In short, it’s true that Americans are ignorant about world affairs and it’s a shame given how much influence the US has globally. However, Europeans are also pretty ignorant about affairs outside of Europe (their geographical focus). They know about America and China because these two large economies influence everyone's life. Yes, Europeans know more about Africa and Asia than Americans, but Americans often know more about Central and South America than Europeans. Another common criticism about Americans is that we don’t travel internationally. Again, scale distorts everything. A Hungarian feels well traveled because he’s been to 10 countries. However, most of them are probably near Hungary. If someone from Iowa logs the same miles as the Hungarian, she won’t even leave America. At best, she’ll have visited Mexico, Canada, or the Caribbean, which is what many Americans do. In other words, the Iowan might feel well traveled if he’s been to 10 US states. Each state in America is about the size of a European country: Germany is the size of Montana, Poland is the size of New Mexico, Slovenia is the size of New Jersey, Belarus is the size of Kansas, and Greece is the size of Alabama. Americans are criticized for not speaking foreign languages. Geography explains quite a bit. The Netherlands is tiny and surrounded by countries that don’t speak Dutch. They don’t speak four languages because they want to. They do it because they have to. How much incentive you have to learn a foreign language depends on: (1) the size of your country (2) the pervasiveness of your language. For instance, Americans rarely speak foreign languages well because we’re a huge country and English speakers are everywhere. Russians and Chinese speak foreign tongues as well as Americans—yeah, that bad. Neither of these big countries with their pervasive languages has much incentive to learn anything else. Slovenians live in a tiny country and few outside their country speak Slovenian, so they must learn multiple languages. It’s not that Americans are stupid or Slovenians are smart. Everyone is just practical. Furthermore, most Europeans can speak only their native language. My favorite pastime is asking Europeans if they speak a foreign language. The results are dismal. The true polyglots come from countries where just a few million people speak their language (e.g., Andorra, Slovenia, and Nordic countries). Finally, ignorance often goes hand-in-hand with being provincial, and Europeans are far more provincial than Americans. Wherever you are in Europe, ask the people you meet where they’re from. The answer is almost always the same: “I’m from here.” They were born and raised in the town you meet them in, they still live there, and they have no plans to leave. Stanford University researchers have found a strong correspondence between the genetics and geographical origins of Europeans. In fact, 90% of Europeans live within 700 kilometers (435 miles) of where they were born, and 50% to within 310 kilometers (193 miles). Ask the same question in America, and you’ll rarely get such an answer—people are usually immigrants, even if it means moving from Chicago to Miami. In San Francisco, people are often shocked when I tell them that I was born and raised there. “Wow, I’ve never met someone who was born here! You’re a native!” They make it sound as if I were a Native American. Because Americans move around much more than Europeans, Americans are less provincial than Europeans. In fact, Europe is so ridiculously provincial that most of their countries are far from united. Spain and Switzerland each have four language regions in their small countries. That alone discourages them from moving around within their country, and the idea of moving a few hundred kilometers to live in a neighboring country is scary. Italians are so regionally focused that they hardly know what is happening on the other side of their local hill. One reason so many strong European dialects persist is that people refuse to venture far. Eastern Europeans are filled with so many prejudices about people who live just a few hundred kilometers away because they’ve spent so little time there. Instead, they find jobs locally, marry locally, and die locally. Conclusion I’m embarrassed that Americans are so poorly traveled and so bad at geography and languages. Although other big countries aren’t much better, they usually are better. And yes, Europeans do know more about geography and world affairs than most Americans. However, the difference is not as big as Europeans like to believe. Moreover, I wish American media devoted as much time to news from developing nations as the European media does. On the other hand, I often assume that other countries know much more about the world than Americans, and I’m often disappointed to learn that it’s not accurate. In conclusion, it’s true: Americans are ignorant about many things. However, Europeans are hardly much better and sometimes their provincialism makes them worse.   In case you missed it, read part 1 of the What Americans Can Teach Europeans article series. More info You can post comments, ask questions, and sign up for my newsletter at http://wanderlearn.com. If you like this podcast, subscribe and share!  On social media, my username is always ftapon. Follow me on: http://facebook.com/ftapon http://twitter.com/ftapon http://youtube.com/user/ftapon http://pinterest.com/ftapon http://tumblr.com/ftapon Claim your monthly reward by becoming a patron at http://Patreon.com/FTapon Rewards start at just $2/month! If you prefer to do a one-time contribution, you can send it to my PayPal at FT@FrancisTapon.com If you prefer giving me Bitcoin, then please send BTC to my tip jar: 3EiSBC2bv2bYtYEXAKTkgqZohjF27DGjnV Health Access Sumbawa One of WanderLearn's top patrons, Kathy Kennedy Enger, asked me to draw attention to Health Access Sumbawa. I am happy to promote this remarkable nonprofit. In 2014, Jack Kennedy founded the organization to bring malaria control and healthcare to remote, impoverished communities. It started on the remote island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. Since then, it's expanded thanks to generous donations. Visit their website to learn more and to donate: https://healthaccesssumbawa.org

All three members of the Council for Slovenians abroad to the Slovenian Government, Frances Urbas Johnson in Victoria, Valter Šuber in NSW and Jerneja Svetičič in Queensland will talk more about the important themes in the continuation of the Slovenian community in Australia. - Člani sveta vlade Republike Slovenije za Slovence po svetu, ki predstavljajo Avstralijo, bodo spregovorili o pomembnih temah za nadaljevanje slovenske skupnosti v Avstraliji. To so Frances Urbas Johnson iz Viktorije, Valter Šuber iz NSWa in Jerneja Svetičič iz Queenslanda.

I'm glad you're here! We are going to Slovenia and will come back with loads of amazing ideas. How do many Slovenians think of the past under Dictator Tito? Why don't you want to whistle to the crabs? Go to my website for full show notes and follow on social medias (Twitter | Facebook | Instagram) for updates and to offer questions for upcoming shows.If you like the show, please leave a review and tell a friend.Kudos to machinespirit for the awesome cover art. Thanks for listening!

Un podcast bimestriel programmé et raconté par Jacques “Pompon“ de Pierpont sur Radio Rectangle. Durée : 80 minutes. La saga du rock belge qui se fume par les oreilles ! Hue ! Avec un Pompon plus chevaleresque que jamais, le rock belge est une chevauchée fantastique pleine de bourrins mutants, d'étalons légendaires et de fiers destriers. À nouveau sous l'effet d'on ne sait quelle potion magique, Jacquouille galope dans notre belge steppe, le couteau noir-jaune-rouge entre les dents, brassant les époques et les genres. Toute sono hurlante, il nous happe dans son rodéo infernal de riffs à rebondissements, en messager urgent d'une héroïque scène wallonne et bruxelloise. Car par ici, une région peuplée d'irréductibles cinglés résiste à l'envahisseur, et Pompon entend bien le faire savoir ! Ça cravache sec avec Zop Hopop, Keaton, Doppler, D.Majiria, Such A Noise, X-Three, Fred And The Healers, Fred Lani & Superslinger, Bertrand Lani, Cocaine Piss, Etron, Slovenians, Mad Virgins, Ablasnieff Krugz, River Into Lake et un hennissement final avec Josy & The Pony. La playlist en détail : 01. Zop Hopop : Welcome (To The Country) | Welcome (Soundstation, 1996) 02. Keaton : Intravenous | Intravenous (Concept Records, 1995) 03. Doppler : Sommeil Sourd | Rage (Autoproduction, 1996) 04. D.Majiria : Mauvais Fils | On A Marché Sur La Terre... (Galva, 2006) 05. Such A Noise : Mainstreet Lady | Raising the Roof (Columbia, 1992) 06. X-Three : If You Were A Queen | X-Three (Oompah Beat Records, 2002) 07. Fred And The Healers : Stormy Morning | Fred And The Healers (Oompah Beat Records, 1996) 08. Fred Lani & Superslinger : King of Soul | Second Life (Oompah Beat Records, 2010) 09. Bertrand Lani : I'm Not A Cheater | It Gets Bluer In A While (Oompah Beat Records, 2012) 10. Cocaine Piss : Body Euphoria | Passionate And Tragic (Hypertension Records, 2019) 11. Etron : Nation (Burn) | A World Of Nerds (Dark Dog Records, 2009) 12. Etron : Change Your Face | A World Of Nerds (Dark Dog Records, 2009) 13. Slovenians : Dirty Mind | Second Belgian Punk Contest (Make Trouble Records!, 2019) 14. Mad Virgins : Nowhere | 45T (Make Trouble Records!, 2019) 15. Ablasnieff Krugz : Ego | 45T (Make Trouble Records!, 2019) 16. River Into Lake : The Book On Your Chest | Let the Beast Out (Humpty Dumpty Records, 2019) 17. Josy & The Pony : Secte équestre | Eponyme (Freaksville Records, 2019)

Un podcast bimestriel programmé et raconté par Jacques “Pompon“ de Pierpont sur Radio Rectangle.Durée : 80 minutes.La saga du rock belge qui se fume par les oreilles !Hue ! Avec un Pompon plus chevaleresque que jamais, le rock belge est une chevauchée fantastique pleine de bourrins mutants, d'étalons légendaires et de fiers destriers. À nouveau sous l'effet d'on ne sait quelle potion magique, Jacquouille galope dans notre belge steppe, le couteau noir-jaune-rouge entre les dents, brassant les époques et les genres. Toute sono hurlante, il nous happe dans son rodéo infernal de riffs à rebondissements, en messager urgent d'une héroïque scène wallonne et bruxelloise. Car par ici, une région peuplée d'irréductibles cinglés résiste à l'envahisseur, et Pompon entend bien le faire savoir ! Ça cravache sec avec Zop Hopop, Keaton, Doppler, D.Majiria, Such A Noise, X-Three, Fred And The Healers, Fred Lani & Superslinger, Bertrand Lani, Cocaine Piss, Etron, Slovenians, Mad Virgins, Ablasnieff Krugz, River Into Lake et un hennissement final avec Josy & The Pony.La playlist en détail :01. Zop Hopop : Welcome (To The Country) | Welcome (Soundstation, 1996)02. Keaton : Intravenous | Intravenous (Concept Records, 1995)03. Doppler : Sommeil Sourd | Rage (Autoproduction, 1996)04. D.Majiria : Mauvais Fils | On A Marché Sur La Terre... (Galva, 2006)05. Such A Noise : Mainstreet Lady | Raising the Roof (Columbia, 1992)06. X-Three : If You Were A Queen | X-Three (Oompah Beat Records, 2002)07. Fred And The Healers : Stormy Morning | Fred And The Healers (Oompah Beat Records, 1996)08. Fred Lani & Superslinger : King of Soul | Second Life (Oompah Beat Records, 2010)09. Bertrand Lani : I'm Not A Cheater | It Gets Bluer In A While (Oompah Beat Records, 2012)10. Cocaine Piss : Body Euphoria | Passionate And Tragic (Hypertension Records, 2019)11. Etron : Nation (Burn) | A World Of Nerds (Dark Dog Records, 2009)12. Etron : Change Your Face | A World Of Nerds (Dark Dog Records, 2009)13. Slovenians : Dirty Mind | Second Belgian Punk Contest (Make Trouble Records!, 2019)14. Mad Virgins : Nowhere | 45T (Make Trouble Records!, 2019)15. Ablasnieff Krugz : Ego | 45T (Make Trouble Records!, 2019)16. River Into Lake : The Book On Your Chest | Let the Beast Out (Humpty Dumpty Records, 2019)17. Josy & The Pony : Secte équestre | Eponyme (Freaksville Records, 2019)

It is our hundredth episode! We are delighted to still be here and even more thrilled that you, are listeners, are still here. To mark this august occasion, Darach, Clodagh and Peadar have dipped into the mailbag to see what’s vexing ye all this week.  Expect unusual chicken salads, terrified Slovenians, language learning tips and maybe even the occasional non-glottal stop. --- Please visit http://www.dropchef.com and use the promotional code given in today’s episode. Dropchef match your order with meals donated to children in need. --- Contact the show: twitter - @motherfocloir and @theirishfor email - motherfocloir@headstuff.org

Los Machucos, the toughest climb so far of the Vuelta a España, saw the two Slovenians, Primoz Roglic and Tadej Pogacar, ride away from their rivals. At the summit it was 20-year-old Pogecar who took his second stage win. Richard Moore and Daniel Friebe were there and they discuss the stage and its implications on the battle for the red jersey, which currently Roglic is winning. We hear from his young American teammate, Neilson Powless, there are the latest instalments from our audio diarists James Knox and Nick Schultz, and, with Knox finishing 13th on the stage, we get an assessment of his performance so far from his sports director, Wilfried Peeters.  The Cycling Podcast is supported by Rapha and Science in Sport OUR SPONSORS For the past year, Lionel, Richard and Daniel have been bringing you their favourite thought-provoking and interesting articles from The Economist.  They have covered a range of subjects from sport and world politics, to science, technology, arts and the environment. The broad range of topics shows that there is something in The Economist for everyone. As a Cycling Podcast listener, The Economist is offering you the opportunity to receive a free print copy. All you need to do is text CYCLING to 78070 to get your smart guide to the forces changing your world Rapha has launched its new custom kit giving you the chance to design your own Rapha kit. Begin your journey now. Choose from the varied set of templates, pick your colours and add your logos. Make your mark with Rapha Custom athttps://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/custom/ Pédaleur de Charme Pédaleur and pédaleuse de charme t-shirts, caps, and jerseys are in stock in all sizes on the Rapha websitehttps://www.rapha.cc/fr/en/stories/the-cycling-podcast-rapha You can nominate a rider for the Pédaleur de Charme award throughout the Vuelta a España. Science In Sport are offering all listeners 25 per cent off their range of energy bars, drinks and gels at https://scienceinsport.com (https://scienceinsport.com/) . Use the code SISCP25 when you reach the check-out. The Cycling Podcast's Grand Tour 2019 In November, we will be going on a Grand Tour, with live events scheduled in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland. We still have a couple of dates to confirm but the schedule so far will take us to Bristol, Cardiff, Worcester, Dublin, Belfast, London, Edinburgh, Leicester and Manchester. For tickets to any of these shows – or our event in Harrogate during the World Championships – go tohttps://thecyclingpodcast.com/live-events Tonight’s episode is sponsored by Roka sunglasses, as worn by Miguel Angel Lopez (and Lionel Birnie). If you would like to get 20% off, go to Roka.com/vuelta The music in this episode is by Más y Más. (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Agarrate-Mas-Y/dp/B000F6ZGQC)

The two most famous Slovenians in the world-- Slavoj Zizek and Melania Trump-- face off in an exclusive clip from the ZizekCast! Plus Orson Welles tries his hand at podcast copy! And Slavoj and Melania duet on Pink Floyd.Created by and starring James AdomianArt by Barry BlankenshipTheme song by Henry KoperskiSupport The Underculture on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/theundercultureFollow The Underculture:https://www.instagram.com/underculturepodhttps://twitter.com/theunderculturehttps://www.facebook.com/TheUndercultureThe Underculture with James Adomian is a Forever Dog podcast:https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/the-underculture/

In this very special #Patchat I am joined by my road trip buddy, pizza partner, and sometimes co host Anja Proske. We discuss the finer points of all inclusive resort life in Varadero, and Anja's first impressions of Cuba. We also recount the worst day of our trip so far, and why we think will look back at it as a funny story. In addition we also talk about our visit to Cienfuegos, and getting drunk with some Slovenians in Trinidad. 

Alex and Fiona are joined by guest single man Ben Jeffers (Joe Corcoran) to figure out what's up with 2,000 Slovenians and then get him a fate (romantically!).  Fiona hosts, Sonic's there, plus a WEDDING!  Can't miss sleepy sal! SPONSOR: Good Movie! MUSIC: "Happy Happy Game Show" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Nick Angstadt and Isaac Harris discuss the Mavs loss to the Heat, Luka vs Dragic, and Dirk's final matchup against Wade.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dalton Trigg (@dalton_trigg) and Matt Galatzan (@MattGalatzan) recap the Dallas Mavericks' 105-99 loss to the Miami Heat, a game that did not disappoint the large number of Slovenians that made the trip to see countrymen Luka Doncic and Goran Dragic square off against one another. The guys then take a look at where the Mavs stand in the tankathon 'race to the bottom' before having DallasBasketball.com's Mike Fisher on the show to discuss 1) why D-Wade's legacy isn't as close to Dirk Nowtizki's as the national media would have you think, 2) the Mavs options for creating more cap space in free agency this summer, and 3) his exclusive with Mavs owner Mark Cuban on the Rick Carlisle / Los Angeles Lakers rumor. Thanks for listening! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/step-back-mavs/support

Nick Angstadt and Isaac Harris discuss the Mavs loss to the Heat, Luka vs Dragic, and Dirk's final matchup against Wade.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 81, featuring songs from The Charley Few, Booze and Glory, This Means War, Stars & Stripes, Slovenians, Sonic Ammunition, Lagwagon, Battlefield, Smashing Pumpkins, and The Revolting Cocks . Dustin’s picks are from Belgium. Chris is picking great classic Oi!, great cover to cover albums from 90’s skate punk bands, and 90’s Grunge for a Guilty Pleasure.

Michael Manske is a radio journalist from the United States who has been living in Maribor, Slovenia for more than a decade. What happens when two American expats in love with Slovenia (and with their Slovenians wives) hang out for the first time?

In this English language episode of Slovenology, host Noah Charney interviews stand-up comic Perica Jerkovic about comedy, what Slovenians find funny, and watching basketball in the Luka Doncic era.

Last week we gave Whambolt! the reigns, but this week it's our turn to bring you our favourite tracks from the second half of 2018. So get ready for nine superb tracks from Vice Squad, Radium Cats, Gino And The Goons, Centurion Sect, Apocalypse Babys, Slovenians, Subsonics, Crashed Out and Lord Bishop Rocks.Time travel warning, Vice Squad, online rants, The Radium Cats, Tony has your Facebook comments, it's slowly getting lighter, Jen Glen confusion, last week, Christmas, Tony nearly set fire to his house, Paul's Christmas with the family, Paul's plan for his death, Buzzcocks, not From the Vaults, The Apocalypse Babys, Tony's International Gig Guide, the week ahead, Izzatwat, Podchaser, Lord Bishop Rocks and what are our resolutions?Song 1: Vice Squad – And Then You DieSong 2: Radium Cats – My Girl is Like UraniumSong 3: Gino And The Goons – Wrong side of A Cigarette Song 4: Centurion Sect – Hen NightSong 5: Apocalypse Babys – Drop The BombSong 6: Slovenians – I’m Not BatmanSong 7: Subsonics – You Got EyesSong 8: Crashed Out – Just Another GigSong 9: Lord Bishop Rocks – My Generation

As well as meeting a real life Punky listener and a long time contributor to the show we also find the time to bring you nine great songs from Slovenians, Des Demonas, Cocksparrer, Th’ Losin Streaks, Dustaphonics, You Want Fox, The Raging Nathans, Leadfoot Tea and Buzzbomb.Additional material?, Nations League?, Holland v Germany, Tony has your Facebook comments kinda, Uglyshoes, Tony horse update, EU, Snow Patrol, the other Paul B, meeting Punky listeners, waiting for a Chinese that never comes, expensive sausage, From the Vaults, Tony's International Gig Guide, PGOTW, Apocalypse Babys, Spice Girls, new bed Loungezotica 3000, the pattern, speeding fine, this week, The Maze, driving to Sweden, no Izzatwat this week and another marvellous Podchaser review.Song 1: Slovenians - SubliminalSong 2: Des Demonas – Bay of PigsSong 3: Cocksparrer – Chip On My Shoulder Song 4: Th’ Losin Streaks – I Don’t Care What You DoSong 5: Dustaphonics - TornadoSong 6: You Want Fox – Round & RoundSong 7: The Raging Nathans – Sucker PunchSong 8: Leadfoot Tea – Big Black, Fast BackSong 9: Buzzbomb – Russian Roulette

Coinbase, a young kid arrested for running an unlicensed money-transmitting business between Mexico and San Diego, and a 7 year journey for two Slovenians with 1000 Euros and two laptops in a garage selling their exchange for millions in 2018. The tenth birthday of the bitcoin whitepaper Coinbase raises more money in a Series E The Bitstamp acquisition A Bitcoin trader going to jail Gab is blocked by Paypal and Stripe Cindy Wang with updates from China Maplechange loses funds. Was it a hack or a scam?  

It's nearly Halloween and there's electricity in the air... so whilst we prepare our punky pumpkins we bring you another delightful set of tracks from Gino And The Goons, Slovenians, Chelsea, Fast Cars, Crash Induction, The Boys, The Ruts, Desahuciados and Verbal Warning.EPs Comedy Suburbs, Tony has your Facebook comments, Izzatwat theme controversy, Harmony In My Head compilation, Chelsea, last week, Tony has been building an electric fence, the Horse, Forest v Norwich, Gravity!, Thatcher, 1666, From the Vaults, Tony's International Gig Guide, PGOTW, The Sumac Centre, Veganism, this week, Tony will try and avoid drinking at the Sumac, Paul's off to see Bohemian Rhapsody, lack of twat, Podchaser, Verbal Warning and a reminder of the stations which carry us.Song 1: Gino And The Goons – Wrong Side Of A CigaretteSong 2: Slovenians – I’m Not BatmanSong 3: Chelsea – Look At The Outside Song 4: Fast Cars – You’re So FunnySong 5: Crash Induction – See You Next TuesdaySong 6: The Boys – First TimeSong 7: The Ruts – West One (Shine on Me)Song 8: Desahuciados – Consciencia SubvertidaSong 9: Verbal Warning – A Ploy Named Sue

Members of Sydney's Slovenian community share their fondest memories of Father Valerijan Jenko OFM OAM, who passed away on June 15th 2018 at the age of 92. - Člani slovenske skupnosti v Sydneyu se spominjajo predragega pokojnega patra Valerijana Jenka OFM OAM, ki je odšel v večnost v petek, 15. junija, 2018.

Mili Metz is thrilled to introduce Petra Garland who was born and raised in Slovenia, the only country with LOVE in its name. Petra moved to the US for love, to marry her Marine. She co-founded a social enterprise, Simbioza Genesis, which enables elderly Slovenians to gain computer skills and teaches them how to use smart phones. She has 8 years of experience in marketing, project management, and leadership. Petra completed her Bachelors degree in International Relations and her Masters in International Business. Currently, she is invested in digital marketing and discovering how to best present IT solutions to businesses. She loves discovering the world through travel and spends weekends outdoors, playing sports. Her next big challenge is learning to surf. The non profit she is promoting is VetCTAP, offering career assistance to veterans and military spouses. They made a huge difference in her adventure to landing her first job in the US: https://www.vetctap.org/donate.html

THE MINIBLURB ED people doing house visits? Medical retrieval teams having a cup of tea and taking a detailed social history? Emergency doctors going to someone's home before they come to the ED and recommending treatment at home? Including End of Life treatment? Sound Crazy? Ever been to Maribor? Slovenia? THE BLURB I spoke with Slovenian Emergency Physician and Pre-Hospital Gregor Prosen at dasSMACC. He talks like an emergency physician. He curses like an emergency physician. Gregor just exudes a type of ultra-competent critical care cool. He can do some fantastic shit and he does do it. He also goes on home visits. He gets in a car or 4wd and heads out into the country to see little old ladies, big old men, kids and strudel-makers. That part represents fantastic shit too. Listen to what Gregor considers So here I am in Australia, in western emergency medicine. We are struggling with this and that. We are struggling with end of life care. We are struggling with the filter, or lack of a filter, between primary care and the so-called critical care service that emergency personality types all signed up for. We wanted to be intubating vomiting people, with no blood pressure, while upside down in a straitjacket and wrapped in chains and underwater. In a crater lake. Over an active volcano. Using an expensive machine. Any expensive machine really. That’s what we call rewarding. It’s just not fair. Whinge. Whinge. So you go and try a bit of retrieval medicine. It looks very cool. Especially in the promo videos. (To quote Alex Psirides; “Helicopters!!!”) However, when you are getting around in one of those helicopters or some other platform there is a certain pressure on your use of that platform. How many times have aeromedical retrieval teams gotten out to the “scene” and decided to NOT bring that patient back to the hospital? Maybe that's the best thing to do? And if it is the best thing to do then will your service get paid as much? Will your service get paid at all? How much does it cost to run an aeromedical retrieval helicopter anyway? (Clue; shit-loads.) So at the end of the day it’s hard to use your judgement for some of the most important decisions. It’s hard not to get into the “You Call we Haul” trap. We actually use “Time on Scene” as a KPI. The pilot, the crew, the co-ordinator and even the helicopter itself seems to want you to get back to base ASAP. It might be whirring overhead or if it has landed just sits there and bristles. I do love these women and men. I love working with them. I love flying around over Slovenia clearly has a different history, different culture, different healthcare system, but maybe it has some seriously useful different perspectives. Gregor Prosen is pretty bloody cool. He does cool stuff. He has a cool job and some of that cool stuff is done really very differently. Let’s learn. I like FOAMed. I like it a lot. I would really like it to continue to facilitate knowledge transfer. We can learn something from the Slovenians. We can learn from the South Africans and Ugandans. We can learn something from the New Yorkers. It is not a one-way street. Long live FOAMed. Long live non-english speaking FOAMed. Long live FOAMed from everywhere for everyone. Long live the legendary Slovenian accordion player Bratko Bibič and thanks to him for the wonderful tune ”In the family garden” or “Na Domačem Vrtu” from the eponymous album by Bratko Bibič & the Madleys. You can find that on iTunes but if you find it in on vinyl it would be more impressive. If Slovenian music is your thing check this out; https://lifeinthefastlane.com/jellybean-050-with-sara-nikolic/

Today begins our series on the ideology of the communist dictator of the former Yugoslavia, Tito, and I'm telling it specifically from the perspective of my own family's ethnic background, the Slovenians. I give the history of the formation of the Slovenian identity up till Tito's time, so that we will be ready to see Titoism from the Slovenian perspective next time, when we talk about Tito himself. For a video of the mercury mines at Idrija, Slovenia, go here: http://4d.rtvslo.si/arhiv/slovenski-magazin/174472394 Be sure to support the show at www.patreon.com/deadideaspod to get your portrait drawn!

Author and Seoul-based foreign correspondent Michael Breen discusses how his fellow South Koreans regard their cousins to the north. Then a tour guide from Detroit shares some of the joys of exploring her lively city as it recovers its status as a cultural hub for the Midwest. And hear how peace-loving Slovenians compare themselves to their various, better-known neighbors. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

GRP 57- Co-hosting for this podcast is British Army Combat Medic Chantel Taylor. I had a conversation with retired Slovenian Special Forces Medic "Sidik". Slovenia is a small country located in Eastern Europe. We talk about Sidik's time in the Mechanized Infantry in which he has a peacekeeping deployment into Kosovo. During the 1990's the Serbian government was pushing into the Serbian region of Kosovo which is mostly home to ethnic Albanians. I have good friends of mine who are Albanian, and I remember a time when their fathers left the U.S. to go and help in the effort countering the Serbian advances. The Serbian military pressed into Kosovo and commenced acts of genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The United States and its allies deployed into Kosovo and bombed targets inside Serbia to stop their advances. Sidik upon his return from Kosovo began his journey into the Slovenian Special Forces Regiment. He became a Special Forces Medic and underwent his medical training here in the States alongside American Special Operations Medics. Sidik has a combat rotation into Afghanistan alongside a Green Beret Special Forces ODA. Below is an excerpt from our conversation: John: A lot of times until something bad happens people believe it could never happen until it's too late. We end up reacting. Having basic knowledge of bleeding control and tourniquet use could make a difference. Let's say someone gets in a car crash and you have a bilateral amputation of your lower leg, with a tourniquet and understanding of how to use it someone's life can be saved. Can you share with the audience a story of your deployment? Sidik: We were mentoring the Afghan Police, we ran armed reconnaissance, direct action in going after high-value targets. We went on a big operation into a valley that was Taliban-held territory. The plan was to have one team to set up over watch on top of the mountain with the other team clearing out the valley. I was on over watch. My team consisted of three Slovenians, and two Americans and a bunch of Afghani's. We started out with a couple of hundred guys, but upon reaching the top of the hill it turned out to only be us, and the American's (laughs). We got into a firefight and called in CAS (Close Air Support), but even with the gunships, these guys were still hammering us. When the op was over walking back down the hill suddenly we got 10 guys with us, and then 50 people, and by the time we got back down the hill, we had 300 guys with us again (laughter)

News Director Rick Spisak, welcomes Ludvik Poljanec candidate for Prime Minister of Slovenia and long time Human Rights Activist before the Eurpoean Commission on Human Rights. We'll also be joined by Ms. Lillian Taylor Stajnbaher, Attorney at Law, who has been retained as SPSP representative to the European Court of Human Rights. Lillian spearheads EcoLogic Advisors, an executive coaching and consulting firm. Mr. Poljanec, will discuss the problems facing Slovenians when the Constitution on paper has little resemblance to that they face in the streets. Join us: 7pm Eastern time for a consversation that every human rights activist will appreciate.

It’s episode 1 and Mike and Steve talk about Domino’s Pizza and the ups and downs of a business who tells the public that their product stinks, inspirational drunk Slovenians, and holidays that we should think twice about before celebrating.

18,000 Slovenians disappeared from official registries in 1992... Produced by Sarah Elzas for RFI.

18,000 Slovenians disappeared from official registries in 1992... Produced by Sarah Elzas for RFI.