The Warsaw Wire Podcast

Is Poland heading for a jobs crisis? The headlines certainly make it seem that way. But despite rising unemployment figures, Poland still has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, while employment remains close to record highs. In this episode of The Warsaw Wire, labour economist Piotr Lewandowski helps us unpack this paradox. We discuss unemployment, AI, automation, labour shortages, mi...

Conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland's main opposition party, is campaigning on a pledge to scrap the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS), branding it “Brussels’ cash machine.” However, most of the ETS funds that were spent under PiS’s own government were largely used to support the state budget. Just 1.3% went toward projects that would actually reduce emissions and ease costs in the lo...

Poland is rethinking how it protects one of its most critical systems: the national power grid. As a NATO member bordering Ukraine and a key transit hub for Western military support, Poland has become increasingly concerned about hybrid threats - from drone incursions to sabotage of infrastructure.  In this episode of The Warsaw Wire, Alicja Ptak speaks with Louisa Naks of The Wall Street Journal...

Poland will launch its first offshore wind farms this year, a historic step for a country that still generates more than half of its electricity from coal. The shift is not just technological but geographic: the centre of gravity of Poland’s energy system is moving from the coal-heavy south to the cleaner north, where offshore wind projects - alongside a planned nuclear plant - are set to anchor a...

In this episode of The Warsaw Wire, host Alicja Ptak, deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland, speaks with Paweł Wiejski, climate and energy expert, about how insights from the recent winners of the so-called “Nobel Prize in economics” can be applied to Poland’s shift away from coal. Drawing on the work of economists Philippe Aghion, Peter Howitt and Joel Mokyr, the conversation explores why i...

Poland is undergoing one of the most dynamic economic transformations in Europe. Ten of the EU’s 20 fastest-growing cities of the past 15 years are in Poland. Among them: Katowice. Located in the country’s south and long associated with coal and heavy industry, Katowice has rapidly reinvented itself as a hub for technology, gaming, and foreign investment, a shift increasingly recognised by interna...

Poland’s public debt is rising at one of the fastest rates in the European Union, but is the situation actually dangerous? In this episode of The Warsaw Wire, Alicja Ptak speaks with Aleksander Kieroński, an economic analyst at Polityka Insight, to break down what’s really happening with Poland’s finances, what’s behind the rapid increase in debt, and whether the country is heading toward a fiscal...

Thirteen years ago, “Poland Can Into Space” was just an internet meme, a joke about ambition and national pride. As it turns out, underdog success stories aren’t only for the movies. Sometimes they happen in real life, and Poland’s booming space industry has proven the internet jokesters wrong. In this episode of The Warsaw Wire, Alicja Ptak speaks with Wojciech Brzeziński, science journalist and...

Ahead of COP30 in Brazil, Poland’s lead climate negotiator, Katarzyna Wrona, outlines the country’s strategy: calling for action from major emitters, emphasising just transition, and balancing economic growth with environmental responsibility.

Poland is Europe’s most coal-reliant country and despite political promises, it still burns more of the fuel than any other EU member. In this deep-dive video essay, Alicja Ptak explores the history, politics, and economics that keep coal at the heart of Poland’s energy mix, and why moving away from it has been so difficult. From miners’ political power in Silesia to EU climate rules, carbon taxes...

Poland says it will largely exit coal by 2035, but will it really? And can it make the clean energy shift fast enough to keep energy prices down, meet EU targets, and avoid another political backlash? In this episode, Alicja Ptak speaks with Tobiasz Adamczewski, Vice President of Forum Energii, about the future of Poland’s energy transition. They unpack the country’s coal legacy, the political con...

In this debut episode of The Warsaw Wire, journalist Alicja Ptak speaks with economist Marcin Piątkowski, author of Europe’s Growth Champion, about Poland’s extraordinary transformation over the past three decades. Together, they unpack the country’s long struggle with inequality and underdevelopment, the paradoxes of communism, the impact of EU membership, and the risks that could now threaten it...

In 1989, Poland was broke, exhausted, and on the brink of collapse. Three decades later, it has become one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies and perhaps its most surprising success story. This audio feature, written and read by Notes from Poland senior editor Alicja Ptak, tells the story of how Poland went from post-communist turmoil to “an unprecedented economic miracle”. Based on an intervie...

Welcome to The Warsaw Wire — a new podcast exploring the forces shaping Poland’s economy, energy and business landscape. Hosted by Alicja Ptak, senior editor at Notes from Poland, this series brings you smart, accessible conversations with economists, entrepreneurs and decision-makers about Poland’s rapid transformation — and the tensions behind it. In upcoming episodes: - How Poland went from pos...