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Recently the Prague Spring Swing Festival packed out the Grand Hall at the Lucerna Palace, confirming the dance style’s growing popularity in the Czech Republic. Milo Saidl has been one of the pioneers of swing in this country as a leading member of scene mainstays the Zig Zag group. Today, however, Saidl is living out a long-held dream as a dance instructor in New York. When he came into our studios recently on a visit to Prague, I asked him how he had got into swing in the first place.

Forum 2000 was started 20 years ago this year as an annual conference on global issues. But where is the organisation at today, nearly five years after the death of founder Václav Havel? And – given developments on the Czech political scene in recent years – what shape is Havel’s own legacy now in? I discussed those questions and more with Forum 2000’s executive director Jakub Klepal. My opening question centred on how the organisation had developed since Klepal first joined in 2004, after stints living and studying in Mexico and the US.

The Art in Box gallery in downtown Prague primarily focuses on photography. In over five years of existence, it has put on exhibitions by the great exile photographer Jan Lukas, filmmaking legend Jan Švankmajer and scores of other noteworthy names. The small gallery is run by the Slovak-born curator, artist and journalist Nadia Rovderová. When we met recently at Art in Box, I asked Rovderová what had first brought her to the Czech capital.

Emil Aslan was born in Armenia, lived in Moscow and in his late teens moved to Prague, where today he is associate professor in Russian and East European Studies at Charles University’s Institute of International Relations. So I thought he’d be the ideal person to ask about ex-Soviet communities in the Czech capital, the city’s reported attraction to the Russian intelligence services, and relations between the two states. But when we met, I first asked Aslan what had led his family to relocate from Moscow to Prague, which they had been visiting

It is perhaps fitting that the Human by Yann Arthus-Bertrand is the only film to have had its premiere at the UN General Assembly. Based on over 2,000 interviews shot around the globe, the documentary does nothing less than attempt to capture mankind in three hours and 20 minutes. Arthus-Bertrand intersperses testimonies on everything from war to love with stunning images of nature, reflecting his background as a pioneer of aerial photography. When we spoke at Prague’s One World festival of human rights documentaries I asked the French director

“I’m always a potential killer,” says “Lauri”, the unseen narrator of the Finnish film White Rage, one of the highlights of this year’s One World festival of human rights documentaries. The term white rage refers to the mind-set behind the cold planning of atrocities and the narrator recounts how he himself plotted a massacre at his school after being bullied for many years. Fortunately Lauri – who wrote an anonymous article about his experiences in a top Finnish magazine – didn’t carry through his bloody plans. From his narration it appears he

Charlotte Fairman – nicknamed Charlie One – is an English vocalist who has been living here in Prague for the last two decades. The singer moved to the city after appearing on Petal, a classic UK house track by mid-1990s dance outfit Wubble-U. But here she is best known as the front-woman of Ohm Square, who have been a fixture on the local dance scene for many years. When Charlie came into our studios recently, I asked what had first brought her to the city she now calls home.

Last month Jan Hubík became one of the first people in the Czech Republic to have a microchip inserted in his body, specifically his left hand. Indeed the 20-something student was the organiser of a group implantation at Paralelní polis, a futuristic Prague institution where all transactions are in the Bitcoin virtual currency. When we spoke at the café at Paralelní polis, I asked Hubík what kind of chip he had in his body.

The organisation Liga otevřených mužů, League of Open Men, are currently running Dry February, a campaign aimed at encouraging Czech men to abstain from alcohol for the month. To find out why, I spoke to the group’s Lukáš Talpa. Our conversation also took in a wide range of other gender issues, including stay-at-home fatherhood and the lack of male teachers in Czech schools. To begin, I asked Talpa to characterise Czech men in general.

One of the most thought-provoking documentaries to hit local cinema screens in recent months has been Czechs Against Czechs by Tomáš Kratochvíl. In the highly personal film, the young director – a member of the majority population – goes to live in a desperately poor Romany ghetto in north Bohemia. Along the way, he also encounters far-right activists who organise anti-Roma demonstrations, as well as members of the public who don’t hide their hatred of the ethnic minority. When we spoke, I asked Kratochvíl what had first led him to set up home in