Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

Ben and Martin taka a look at the past week in Slovakia and look forward to upcoming events.

Slovak born American actress Katarina Morhacova shares her story of getting from Banska Bystrica to NY and LA. European museums' halt to co-operation with the Slovak National Gallery accellerated the decision of about a hundred of experts to leave this cultural institution. Speaking about their reasons to quit are Maria Bohumelova, Director of Collections and Acting Director of Exhibitions and Dis...

In this edition of the Slovakia Today programme, we bring you three interviews dealing with Romani visual artists coming from Slovakia. First up is Rudolf Dzurko, a Romani artist from eastern Slovakia. Although he spent most of his life in the Czech Republic, his works of art found themselves back in Slovakia at the "Only with Me Can You Hear the Grass Grow" exhibition at the East Slovak Gallery i...

Ben Pascoe talks with Mier Ukrajine co-founder and co-organizer of the Slovensko je Europa demonstrations, Marian Kulich. We also bring you sights and sounds from the demonstration that took place recently in Bratislava.

Eva Mosnáková was not only a holocaust survivor, but also a long-standing figther against extremism. Even in her old age she invested a lot of time in discussions with younger generations about war, holocaust and extremism. She died in December 2024 aged 95 years old. And what is her message for the next generations and how to people remeber her? We talked to Madeline Vadkerty, Andrej Bán a Soňa G...

Sunday Music Selection: Slovak Rap and Hip Hop

January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. The day was chosen to be the Holocaust Memorial Day. Martin Bednárik talks to Madeline Vadkerty, an American based in Bratislava, Slovakia. She is professor, author and researcher dedicated to the topic of documenting the Holocaust. Madeline's first encounter with Slovakia was in the 1990s. She c...

Patka and Ben discuss the past week and look ahead to all the great stuff Slovakia has to offer in the upcoming week.

Iconic anti-war poetry by the iconic Slovak poet Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav can be seen in a unique performance not only in English translation at the Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav Theatre in Bratislava. The language spoken on stage combines English with German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Polish and Russian. Vienna-based Slovak director David Paska worked with Bratislava and New York-ba...

Natural disasters, such as last summer’s catastrophic floods in central Europe and the fires currently ravaging California, are becoming increasingly common. While not solely caused by climate change, these events have grown more frequent and severe, largely due to rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures. Additionally, industrial and residential pollution has degraded the quality of our air, wat...

Ben Pascoe talks with senior economic analyst, Tibor Lörincz about Slovakia's economy, consolidation, hacking attacks and real estate market.

January is generally the coldest month of the year, which makes for the best conditions for "otužilci", or in English, people who like to practice cold-water immersion. We asked wellbeing coach Michal Páleník and professional in cold-water immersion Vladimír Pauco from Zdravé otužovanie organization about how to practice this activity safely and what are its benefits and risks.

Sunday Music Selection: Contemporary Classical Music

News overview: A group of Slovak MPs visited Moscow, praising the Russian President Vladimir Putin while a trip of another group of MPs to Kyiv was postponed because of security reasons. Slovak Prime Minister tries to arrange a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ben and Patka discuss the past week and look ahead to what is happening in the next week.

The President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, visited Slovakia and spoke about the idea of holding the Olympic Games in three neighbouring countries - Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. The newly appointed executive director of the International Visegrad Fund, Linda Kapustova Helbichova, presents her plans for the next three years. Culture news also about the latest meeting of the...

Rerun of the interviews with Martina Ivanová about the Slovenčina v Pohode project, Mária Koscelníková about localisation for the Slovak market and Maroš Brojo about SGDA.

Ben Pascoe talks with former Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pavol Demes, about the current situation in Slovak foreign policy and civil society.

Recent data from Eurostat show that over 14% of Slovak population lives on the poverty line. In this show, we are going to explore the problem of growing poverty in Slovakia. You are also going to hear from experts: sociologist from SAV Zuzana Kusá and trade unionist, activist and analyst Ján Košč from initiative Pracujúca chudoba.

Sunday Music Selection: Dežo Ursiny - Modrý vrch

The Interview: Marek Šulík, the filmmaker behind the film Ms President about the presidential mandate of the first female Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová. Martin Bednárik asks the director what was the making of the film like, what secrets about the presidential mandate of Zuzana Čaputová will the audience learn, and if Zuzana Čaputová liked the film after it was done. And – why is the film about...

Patka and Ben recap the last week in Slovakia and look ahead at events around the country that could be interesting for our listenters.

Jeweller and designer Petra Toth explains what it means to be inspired by one's roots, and the details that caught her eye while researching folk costumes in the Rusyn village of Mikova in eastern Slovakia.

Light pollution is an increasingly widespread problem that causes profound negative effects on the human body and the natural world. This fact has led some to push for measures that aim to mitigate these effects. The first to recognize the problem and call for change were astronomers. In this episode, we travel to the darkest place in Slovakia, Poloniny dark sky park, to experience something most...

Ben Pascoe sits down with the publisher of newspaper Dennik N, Lukas Fila to discuss how the newspaper came to be and what has changed in the Slovak media over the past 10 years.