Stories From The Eastern West

Alchemy – the supposed ancient art of turning everyday objects into gold – is widely believed to be obsolete. Interestingly, however, every bit of this notion is wrong. First of all, alchemy is still being practised today and is doing better than ever. And second of all, it apparently was never actually an art of the physical transmutation of objects, but a very profound blend of philosophy, chemistry, physics and religion. Join us on SFTEW as we travel back to the Middle Ages!

The German Democratic Republic was known for being one of the more politically repressive countries in the former Eastern bloc. But it is also known for its long tradition of nude bathing – known in Germany as Free Body Culture or FKK. In the mid-1950s, this tradition came under threat as the GDR government tried to ban nude bathing completely. Unexpectedly for a country that had no tolerance for dissent, the East German fans of Free Body Culture fought back…

In this bonus episode, you’ll get to hear a song that usually doesn’t leave the thick walls of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards in Italy. 

The story of a man who mesmerised half a continent... In 1989, the Cold War was coming to an end. The Soviet Union and the whole Eastern Bloc were crumbling. There was confusion everywhere. One day, a state television channel started showing something really strange. A man, looking like Doctor’s Spock muscular brother, was staring at the camera promising to programme people’s brains and free them from all the pain and suffering.

After having to leave Poland, Grotowski continued his ground-breaking work in Potendera, Italy. There he began the final stage of his work at the newly-established Workcenter. This work, based on songs of tradition and objective movements, is done more or less in secrecy, away from the prying eyes of the media and mainstream theatrical world. Listen to Part 2 of our episode on Jerzy Grotowski to find out for yourself what happened there, and what goes on at the Workcenter today…

Starting out as a young director in the Polish provinces, Jerzy Grotowski soon realised that for theatre to reach its true potential the actor should attain complete mastery over their craft. His small group of actors committed to intensive daily training sessions to achieve this. Having achieved international recognition for his ground-breaking productions in the mid to late 1960s, he decided to leave theatre behind and start all over again…..

The Czech shoe-maker Tomáš Bat'a was a visionary. A deep believer in capitalism, he dreamt up a unique functionalist city and started building it around his factories in the small town of Zlin. It became more succesful than he could have imagined. Bat’a moved on to redesigning how his workers engaged in relationships, spent free-time and were educated – the very way they lived. It seemed that before WWII, Zlin was a unique place, a sort of... living UTOPIA!

As a young man, Paderewski was determined to do something about his country's plight. It had been completely wiped off the map almost a century earlier, and as the 19th century came to a close, an independent Poland seemed impossible. Using rifles and sabres to win freedom clearly wasn’t going to be enough. A different kind of weapon had to be found. For Paderewski, this weapon would be music...

Did you know that sports stars from behind the Iron Curtain were essentially competing for no money? In this little bonus episodeWładysław Kozakiewicz, the protagonist of the Arm episode, tells how he won a thousand priceless awards but very little money and why did he continue to compete. 

Hear the pole-vaulter who offended the entire Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow explain himself. The Moscow Olympics was overshadowed by a boycott – many Western countries had pulled out in condemnation of the Soviet-Afghan War. And then there was the crowd.... easily 70 000 people, booing, and jeering at every non-Soviet athlete. Meanwhile, a Polish pole-vaulter challenged them in the most provocative way possible. If you want to know how it ended, listen to ARM!

The new season of Stories From The Eastern West is nearly here! This year, we've really stepped up our game. You'll notice we have a new theme tune, and that's just the beginning...

In the early 1960s, a woman decided to end men's domination in mountain climbing. Her name was Wanda Rutkiewicz and she went on to become the first European women to climb Mount Everest, the first woman ever to climb K2, and the only female climber of her time who could challenge men and prove to them women were equal. However, underneath all this success there was loneliness, dejection, and desperate efforts to build a normal life outside of 8000-metre-high peaks… 

All of us at SFTEW want to thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for staying with us, listening, and for all your emails, comments and reviews. This is why we prepared this little Christmas bonus for you. We hope to see you in 2018, especially all those listeners who have only recently discovered the show. We’ll be back for one more episode at the start of the year before taking a break to prepare SFTEW Season 2. We’ve got lots more great stories to tell so stay tuned!

In this episode, you will find out what exactly went on inside the strange electronic depths of the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, and how through the efforts of its first director the studio became a 'window to the world', hosting the best composers from both the Eastern Bloc and the West. You'll also hear the remarkable story of Eugeniusz Rudnik, a technician who after spending countless hours helping out others with tape machines and signal generators found unexpected success!

In this episode, we delve into the story of Professor Zbigniew Religa, a man who wasn’t afraid to defy old prejudices, the medical system and society, the communist party and hundreds of roadblocks to help others. How did he manage to do that? What does it take to shake an obsolete system and build a modern cardiac surgery clinic in the middle of nowhere? And why do our societies sometimes desperately need rebels? Find out in the latest episode of Stories From The Eastern West.