One on One | All stories

Rachel Kanarowski has the kind of job that must make her the absolute envy of her peers. At only 30, she is the editor-in-chief of the Czech version of InStyle, a major international women’s magazine. At the magazine’s offices, we discussed shopping in Prague and the Czech take on style. But first Kanarowski described the unlikely sounding way in which the opportunity to enter the business arose, and how she made the most of that chance.

Jakub Mareš is one of the operators of the Hub, Prague’s biggest co-working centre. They are a new kind of shared working environment where people whose main tool is their notebook computer can rent a desk for as many hours a week as they need. Located in a former printing factory in the Smíchov district, the Hub features a large open office space, meeting rooms, a bar and lounge area, and even a summer terrace. When we spoke there recently, I asked Mareš (30) why he and his colleagues had launched the project in Prague, and why now.

The Czech Republic recently saw an outbreak of tensions between the country’s Romany minority and parts of the majority population. People in the isolated northern Bohemian region of Šluknov began holding anti-Romany rallies to protest a growing crime rate in the region; the government reacted by sending in the police but also by adopting a plan to tackle the issue of Romany exclusion and impoverishment. To discuss these and other issues, Radio Prague spoke to Gwendolyn Albert who for the past 15 years has been working with the Romany advocacy group,

Christopher Harwood is a lecturer in Czech at Columbia University in New York. When I met him at his office on Columbia’s Upper West Side campus, we discussed Czech literature, the difficulties of learning Czech, and how Professor Harwood himself had become good enough at the language to teach it at one of the world’s leading universities.

Starting October, well-known Czech cook Richard Fuchs will be taking over the post of head chef at Prague’s Four Seasons’ restaurant Allegro, replacing the Italian Andrea Accordi, under whose direction the kitchen became the first in the former Eastern Block to be marked with a Michelin star. Richard Fuchs, who has cooked in restaurants all over the world and just wrapped up his gig at Prague’s Monastery restaurant, will also be the first Czech to lead Allegro. Ahead of the start of his engagement, he speaks about his cooking style, respecting ingredients

The Czech artist and designer Eva Eislerová originally wanted to be an architect. Instead, she became one of the most highly regarded makers of art jewellery in the world, after emigrating to New York in the 1980s with her half-Czech, half-English husband, John Eisler. Today Eva Eisler, as she is known to her collectors, spends most of her time back home in Prague, where she teaches at the metals department at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design.

One man who probably more than anyone else can claim to represent one of the Czech Republic’s biggest success stories ― beer ― is Jan Veselý, general director of the Czech Beer and Malt Association. The association groups the biggest Czech breweries and hop producers. In today’s programme, Mr. Veselý talks about the massive changes he has witnessed in the industry which had moved from the planned economy to privatization and the take off of micro-breweries.

Czeslaw Walek, who studied law with a focus on human rights, has been in the media a lot in recent weeks, due to his role as the director of the Prague Pride festival. Previously, he has held government offices such as director of the Office of the Council for Roma Affairs. He has lived in both Krakow and Budapest and is a member of the Czech Republic’s Polish minority. He speaks about his work, human rights and how he feels the first Prague Pride festival went.

Although she was born in Britain and has never lived in the Czech Republic, the actress and broadcaster, Veronica Hyks, is every bit as Czech as she is English. She speaks Czech without a hint of an accent, and gives every impression of being totally at home in Prague, even though it has never been more than her “virtual” home. Veronica Hyks tells David Vaughan how this came about in this week’s One on One.

New York native Gail Whitmore, a classically trained opera singer, “came to Prague for four days in 2001 and just never went home.” Since then she has involved herself in activities from singing (in which regard she’s known as the “Human Jukebox”), moderating and radio hosting, to her prime profession as a counsellor, dealing particularly with crisis prevention and street harassment. Most recently she was involved in the Prague Pride festival, where she manned both the stage and the crisis hotline. With quite a lot to talk about then, I started