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Eva Jiřičná is perhaps the best-known living Czech architect. Her London-based firm Eva Jiricna Architects is famous for its sleek boutiques and dramatic staircases, while in recent decades she has designed a number of acclaimed buildings in her native country. Based in the UK since the late 1960s, Jiřičná was born in the Moravian town of Zlín, where her dad was an architect with the Baťa shoe company. In the first half of a two-part interview, Eva Jiřičná, who is 77, recalls her early childhood in the Nazi Protectorate.

When Czechoslovak dissidents produced samizdat literature in the late communist period they did so in large part thanks to the material and financial support of the Charter 77 Foundation. It was run by František Janouch, a Czech émigré who is still mainly based in Sweden. In the second half of a two-part interview with the nuclear scientist, we discussed his relationship with Václav Havel, the Velvet Revolution and the work of the Charter 77 Foundation today. But first I asked Mr. Janouch, now 85, how the organisation had managed to get printers

A nuclear scientist, František Janouch is perhaps best-known for the Charter 77 Foundation, which he set up in exile in Sweden to provide dissidents in his native Czechoslovakia with financial support and technical equipment in the latter years of the communist regime. In this the first half of a two-part interview, Mr. Janouch – who turned 85 last week – recalls the war, his years in the Communist Party, his forced emigration and the beginnings of the Charter 77 Foundation.

In 1988 Tim Simenon earned overnight fame when his first single as Bomb the Bass became an international hit. The dance musician and producer went on to release a host of Bomb the Bass albums, as well as producing the likes of Neneh Cherry and Depeche Mode and remixing tracks by David Bowie, Massive Attack and many more huge names. Today, believe it or not, Simenon is to be found behind the counter of Brixton Balls, a meatballs takeaway that he opened on Prague’s Korunní St. earlier this summer. To learn more about this unlikely sounding change

Czech viewers will finally get the chance to see Anthropoid at the end of September, when the much-anticipated movie hits cinemas around the country. Exploring the daring operation to assassinate Nazi governor Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in 1942, the film was directed and co-written by Englishman Sean Ellis. However, Anthropoid had considerable Czech input, including from Zdeněk Špitálník of Prague’s Military History Institute, who served as historical adviser on the movie. When we met at his office, I asked the young historian when he had first

Earlier this year the Czech government made international news with its plan to promote “Czechia” as a snappy alternative to the cumbersome “the Czech Republic”. So far how has successful has this rebranding exercise actually been? I discussed that question and more with Professor Petr Pavlínek, a geographer who teaches at Charles University and at the University of Nebraska. He’s a member of the group Initiative Czechia, which began by advocating for the Czech-language name Česko before focusing on its English equivalent. I first asked Professor

Though the next Czech presidential elections don’t take place until the start of 2018, Marek Hilšer has already thrown his hat into the ring. A doctor by profession, the 40-year-old is perhaps best known for his eye-catching civic activism, such as when – protesting Russia’s treatment of Ukraine – he and a colleague stripped to the waist and held up NATO and EU flags at the Office of the Government. When we spoke I asked Hilšer to tell me a little about his background.

Struck as a PhD student by the philosophical language used by Václav Havel in his famous 1990 speech to the US Congress, Aviezer Tucker went on to write The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patočka to Havel. More recently Tucker, whose wife is Czech, has turned his attention to what really happened when communism fell at the end of the 1980s. We discussed his latest book The Legacies of Totalitarianism – and his call for a new kind of dissident today – when the Israeli-born political philosopher visited our studios recently. But

Over 100 Czech athletes are set to take part in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, an event that for some will no doubt be the pinnacle of an entire lifetime in sport. But what would be a satisfactory medals haul from the perspective of the Czech Olympic Committee? And why hasn’t the team adopted the name Czechia? I discussed those issues and more with COC chief Jiří Kejval, himself a former international rower. But I first asked Mr. Kejval for his reaction to tennis stars Tomáš Berdych and Karolína Plíšková pulling out of the Olympics, citing

For the last decade the independent label Starcastic has been releasing much of the best Czech and Slovak alternative music, including in recent times from the likes of Please the Trees, Bonus and Mayen. The man behind the label is Slovak-born Marek Čulen, a well-known figure on the Prague music scene. Ahead of events celebrating Starcastic’s 10th anniversary, I asked Čulen what had led him to establish the label back in the mid-2000s.