Weight of the World

Weight of the World began with the idea of creating community. Not just through podcasts, but also with public events that invite people to spend time together hashing out potential solutions to fractious times – or simply reaching beyond their usual bubbles to make new connections. In a special bonus episode, WOW partners with the Vaclav Havel Library and New York University Prague to bring you a...

We've had the pleasure of speaking to an amazing array of Europeans (and one American) who've shared their unique personal perspectives on the Trump administration's assault on U.S. democratic norms and institutions. One by one, they've all offered fantastic advice on how we can all push back together against rising authoritarianism. That's why we thought we'd use this week...

Philip Reeker

Tomáš Sedláček is a man on a mission. An economist, philosopher, presidential advisor, and author, he’s now also the director of the Václav Havel Presidential Library in Prague, and he’s blazing a trail to spread the philosophy of the Czech playwright/president to a world hungry for a deeper, more meaningful  narrative. Havel’s writings are more relevant than ever today, says Tomáš, and the framew...

Everyone’s life has an inflection point. For Tomáš Madleňák, it came on February 21, 2018, when Slovak investigative reporter Ján Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kušnírová were shot dead in their home in a mafia-style hit. Angered by the culture of impunity that led to the murders, Tomáš left a promising career in foreign policy to follow in Kuciak’s footsteps.  Untangling ties between criminality...

Born into a family of stalwart communists in post-war Czechoslovakia, Jan Urban grew up as ‘the perfect commie kid,’ ready to do battle with the imperialist west. But a classroom fistfight, and a surprising confession by his father, a high-ranking member of the Communist Party, began to change all that.  A trip to London in the swinging ‘60s – and a chance encounter with Paul McCartney – didn’t hu...

Gabrielius Landsbergis has had a front-row seat to history, both as an observer, as a child growing up in a prominent Lithuanian family as the country regained its independence from Soviet occupation, and as a politician and diplomat, making an impact on the world stage himself, via his values-driven diplomacy. After finishing his four-year term as foreign minister, Gabrielius reflects with WOW ab...

When Maskym Eristavi was a small boy in eastern Ukraine, his father gave him the gift of a tape recorder. What ensued was a passion for asking questions and recording the personal stories of the people around him. There were colorful memories of weddings and birthdays, but there were also silent gaps where relatives vanished without a trace, and their narratives along with them.  Ever since, Max h...

Hungary's Katalin Cseh knows a thing or two about opposing strongmen. She founded one of the first opposition parties to the country's perpetual prime minister, Viktor Orban, served as a Member of the European Parliament, and is currently an MP in the Hungarian National Assembly. She's been pushing back against authoritarianism in her own country for over 15 years, and she's now worried the Orban...

What does it mean to grow up together with your country? Ask Martin Laine, an investigative reporter who was born two years after his country, Estonia, began to build back from a half-century of communist control. The country is now a robust democracy, but Martin doesn't take it for granted. "Democracy is something that's constant, and has to be protected constantly," he says.

Natalie Kocab is a writer, musician, and, more recently, a passionate pro-democracy activist. Born to an American mother and a Czech father in communist Czechoslovakia, she straddled two incredibly diverse worlds while growing up in a dissident family. In conversation with Weight of the World, Natalie talks about her unique childhood, her evolution to activism, the all-too-familiar red flags of au...

Born in 1984, growing up under Uncle Enver in Communist-era Albania, it took an American to ask him for the first time what he thought about things. 

Petr Kolář is one of the Czech Republic’s foremost diplomats, having served as ambassador to the United States, Russia, Sweden, and Ireland. He is currently an advisor to the Czech president, Petr Pavel. In conversation with Weight of the World, he talks about his personal and professional ties to America, the threat of rising authoritarianism, and what we all must do to safeguard democracy and th...

Weight of the World is a media and public events platform aimed at bringing together  European voices of solidarity at a time when humanitarian values and historic alliances are under assault.