This story is featured in our Episode 42. Richard Washington is British. He is the Director of Communications and Recruitment at the College of Europe’s Warsaw campus in Natolin. Despite less than 7 years in Poland, he speaks excellent Polish and this is what we talk about on POLcast. Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands to a British father and a mother from the Caribbean island of Curacao, he holds a Master of Arts in Modern History from the University of Oxford (1995). After a career as a theatre actor (he graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts…
Author: Malgorzata P. Bonikowska
This is our special episode, made entirely in Poland (except one segment recorded in Vienna). Both Tomek and I happened to be in Poland and our separate visits had a few-day overlap. One of the segments was recorded in Vienna, where I travelled to receive a prestigious award – The Golden Owl, often called the Polish Oscars. Mine was in the category of Media, which did include our POLcast as well. Award gala: While in Vienna, the day before the Golden Owl award gala, all the recipients were invited to a beautiful concert by Camerata Polonia, a Polish chamber…
This story is featured in our Episode 40 While I was interviewing Ela and Piotr about their Red Couch Tour project in the Polish Consulate in Toronto, it turned out that there was a meeting going on in another room. Consul General Grzegorz Morawski had very special guests – minister of communities responsible for housing of Guyana, the hon. Valerie Adams-Patterson with her official delegation, who came to get their Polish visas on the way to Poland. The delegation from Guyana was accompanied by Tom Krupa, a Polish Canadian and his business partner Esmond Gamo Klass, a Canadian of Guyanese…
This story is featured in our Episode 40 They radiate energy and enthusiasm – two friends who created a unique idea which they conceived of three years ago and which has found so much support and interest in Canada that it became a reality. There are three of them – two Polish Canadians Ela Kinowska and Peter Sobierajski and the red couch with the Canada 150 logo on it. The three will travel across our vast country which this year celebrates its 150th birthday. Those who are invited to sit on it, share their stories which reflect the incredible mosaic…
Dorota Wiland Dorota Wiland is an animal psychologist and animal rights activists, based in Poland. She is the founder and president of IUS ANIMALIA Animal Protection Foundation, coordinating a number of recent animal protection and nature preservation campaigns, also involved in animal-related legislative processes in Poland as a consultant to the Parliamentary Group of Animals’ Friends. Her professional specialization are pathological behaviours in animals, including captive wild animals in ZOOs and circuses, resulting from poor living conditions. In her private life she is a loving foster-mum of four dogs and a horse, all of them once victims of human cruelty…
This story was featured in: Episode 24 Some stories are unknown to the world although they are as tragic and important as others that the world is familiar with. Most people know about the beginning of WWII – the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland on September 1, 1939. Very few, however, know that Poland was also attacked by the Soviet Union from the east, just 17 days later. The Soviets took over half of Poland, the lands in the east, called Kresy, arrested and then secretly murdered 22,000 of Polish officers and Polish intellectuals in what is called the…
This story was featured in: Episode 23 EDDIE ZAWADZKI (1959-2016) Canadian writer, journalist, broadcaster, sports commentator, author, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 57. His two most recent books are about Poles and their accomplishments in the New World: Death of sportscaster ‘King of Fight’ Eddie Zawadzki by Judi McLeod Remembering boxing promoter Ed Zawadzki by Steve Buffery Eddie’s blog The story of Eddi and Muhammad Ali A Tribute to Eddie IN POLISH: Pożegnanie na zawsze z Eddie’em Zawadzkim Pomóżmy Eddie’emu Zawadzkiemu ••• In the POLcast Tribute we used parts of an interview with Eddie conducted…
This story was featured on: Episode 23 Donna Solecka Urbikas Donna was born and grew up in Chicago but her Polish-born mother and much older half sister had endured the wartime trauma of Soviet gulag slave labour in Siberia. War and exile created a profound bond between mother and older daughter, which was inaccessible to Donna. Donna wanted to be like all her American friends, but her family life was very different – it was full of horrible memories of her sister and their common mother. She explores these painflul family issues and her process of understanding and coming to terms…
This story was featured in: Episode 22 FRANK RUDZICZ Ludwig the robot is the result of extensive research in speech recognition, robotics and Artficial Intelligence by Dr. Frank Rudzicz, a third generation Pole from Toronto. In his early 30s, he has a doctorate in computer science and numerous publications., and is a scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute as well as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. His goal is to improve the quality of life of individuals with cognitive or physical disabilities, especially suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Ludwig not only talks,…
This story was featured in: Episode 20 Ariel Bialski aka Heights Beats Ariel is a 31-year-old Toronto DJ, drummer, piano player, composer, music producer, actor, comedian, who has released three albums. His beats made it to a Juno award-winning hip hop album in Canada. He has composed music for commercials, film and TED Talks. He is currently living and working in Poland, where he is a highly successful and popular DJ and musician. Ariel produces his own podcast Heights Beats: The Podcast Ariel’s website The album that sounds like 1,000 bucks Ariel told us a lot of interesting (and frankly…