In Episode 15 of Pole-ish, Peter and John kick off with Benny Hill’s grammatically and politically incorrect legacy, Warsaw’s striking new Museum of Modern Art, and a wild-animal challenge featuring bison, boar and beavers (naturally).

Then they’re joined by British journalist and author Jo Harper for one of their most honest and revealing conversations yet.

Jo reflects on arriving in Poland in the 1990s, building a life here through marriage, journalism and fatherhood, and the personal upheavals that shaped his writing. From Polish politics and media narratives to divorce, identity, homesickness and the strange psychology of borders, this is a raw conversation about what it means to belong somewhere, and what happens when that feeling starts to slip away.

Plus: Polish dark humour, bureaucratic frustration, flaki, and why Kazik Staszewski still hits the right note.

A funny, thoughtful, and unexpectedly moving episode about Poland and the stories we tell ourselves about home.

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Read our blog: www.pole-ish.eu

Write to us: peter@pole-ish.eu

Follow our socials: search for ‘Pole-ish Podcast’ on BlueSky, Xwitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Jo Harper: https://harpersediting.pl/

Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw: https://artmuseum.pl/

Julie Mehretu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Mehretu

Architect Thomas Phifer: https://www.thomasphifer.com/office/role/director/thomas-phifer

Benny Hill: https://bennyhill.co.uk/

Flaki: https://aniagotuje.pl/przepis/flaki

12 Groszy by Kazik: https://open.spotify.com/track/6wevlxn0kTHe6rievB13VI?si=730695c8e1974ae8

Pole-ish Guest Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/68kYaLG4XYgcjRdSjzzgcW?si=de7065757241400c

This week on Pole-ish, Peter and John welcome Oleg Tyshchenko, a Ukrainian developer behind Polish Heritage: Quiz Explorer - an app designed to help people discover Poland through quizzes, recipes, history and culture.

Along the way, we get into Polish vs Ukrainian borscht, the truth about pierogi ruskie, why philosophy still matters in tech, and how Polish heritage can survive across borders and generations.

Plus: ChatGPT takes our Five Big Questions, John talks Kraków Marathon dinosaurs, and Peter finds perhaps the least subtle bit of graffiti in Warsaw and is embarrassed about how “naughty” it is.

Come for the culture. Stay for the smalec.

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Read our blog: www.pole-ish.eu

Write to us: peter@pole-ish.eu

Follow our socials: search for ‘Pole-ish Podcast’ on BlueSky, Xwitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Bubble Boy (trailer): https://youtu.be/jSRU48wCphI?si=-bhbfkLaFwWcLYpF

Oleg’s Polish Heritage app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.olegtyshchenko.polishheritage&pcampaignid=web_share

Chopin Nocturnes (Rubenstein): https://open.spotify.com/album/5Q5m22P7jIwdMSKXqhrpaN?si=4a1c092c5aec4e09

Mery Spolsky – Miło Było Pana Poznać: https://open.spotify.com/track/72p7CkcPgKtWJjaxsAFNDZ?si=0bc35f0ce53e4477

Pole-ish Guest Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/68kYaLG4XYgcjRdSjzzgcW?si=de7065757241400c

This week on Pole-ish, we prove once again that you don’t need a wild night out for things to descend into mild chaos. Fresh(-ish) from a wholesome Kraków meetup, we recap an evening that featured cherry liqueur, questionable coordination, zapiekanka incidents, and - because it’s Poland in April - a surprise midnight snowfall. Rock and roll.

There’s also a global reality check as we discover our listeners are popping up everywhere from Vietnam to Oman (still not France… awkward), plus a deep dive into the perfect hangover cure: a full English breakfast in the middle of Kraków.

Along the way, we stumble into a hidden church, accidentally unpack a deeply disturbing Greek myth, and question some life choices.

In this episode:

· A surprisingly civilised “big night out” 🍻

· Polish wines and why you should give them a chance 🍷

· The unpredictable reactions to speaking Polish as a foreigner 🗣️

· The return of 3 in 10 (with Ipswich under pressure) ⏱️

· Oscypek appreciation hour 🧀

· And why the Polish word “no” absolutely does not mean what you think it means 🤦‍♂️

We wrap up with a nod to Majówka and Poland’s triple celebration season - so if you’re listening with a beer in hand, you’re doing it right.

As always, we’re not Polish… We’re Pole-ish.

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Read our blog: www.pole-ish.eu

Write to us: peter@pole-ish.eu

Follow our socials: search for ‘Pole-ish Podcast’ on BlueSky, Xwitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Cherry Liqueur bar: https://pianavyshnia.com/

Scandale Royale: https://scandale.pl/

Pasaż 13: https://www.myguidekrakow.com/shopping/pasaz-13

Legend of Procne: https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/procne.html

Hoopoe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopoe#

Polska Rada Winiarswa (Polish Wine Council): https://zpprw.pl/en/#

British 'champagne': https://tinyurl.com/ycd8zj64

Oscypek cheese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscypek

Pole-ish Guest Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/68kYaLG4XYgcjRdSjzzgcW?si=de7065757241400c