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The historic building of the National Museum overlooking Wenceslas Square is undergoing a major renovation that is set to end in 2018. The museum has had to relocate thousands of exhibits and is using the time to create new collections and work on a modern, interactive presentation. I spoke to the head of the museum’s collection-building and exhibitions department, historian Michal Stehlík, about the renovation and the challenges it poses.

In recent years literacy experts have expressed concern that children are not reading enough for pleasure and that many youngsters are never read to by their parents. They claim that children who are left to fill their own time, watching TV and playing computer games may be at a serious disadvantage later on in life. In an effort to offset this alarming trend a Czech NGO is organizing an annual week of events to provide inspiration for a habit that may turnaround a child’s life.

Czech President Miloš Zeman is one of the few European leaders who accepted the invitation to attend victory celebrations in Moscow marking the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII. The decision stirred widespread controversy in the Czech Republic and the government postponed its decision on whether to finance the trip until the president’s office announced that he would not be attending the military parade on Red Square. In an exclusive half-hour interview for Radio Prague’s Russian service the president explained why he would not be attending the

ARTĚL Glass is a luxury crystal glass company that offers original collections handmade by Czech artisans. Established in 1998 by American designer and entrepreneur Karen Feldman, ARTĚL Glass now has three design stores in Prague and a growing number of customers around the world.

With the start of the tourist season in April hundreds of castles and chateaus around the Czech Republic open their doors to visitors. In addition to their historical value these sites have become cultural hubs, providing a wonderful backdrop for the concerts, theatre performances, craft fairs and historical fencing shows that are regularly organized to attract visitors.

The world of monastic schools in Bhutan is veiled in mystery. It is home to around 4,000 boys, some of them as young as five, training to become monks. In a ground-breaking project UNICEF is entering this closed-off world to establish a child-protection framework in a centuries-old order.

One of the VIP guests at this year’s international film festival Febiofest was 1950s Hollywood actress Kim Novak, best known for her lead role in Alfred Hitchcock’s famous movie Vertigo. Born Marilyn Pauline Novak, to Czech parents, Kim dreamed of becoming a great artist, and she even won two scholarships to the prestigious Chicago Art Institute, but her life followed a different path after she was discovered by a Hollywood agent.

Many foreigners who settle down in Prague are opening their own small restaurants and food specialty shops, bringing their country’s food culture to the Czech Republic. The Slovenian couple Meti and Primoz run a Deli and Diner in Prague 6 which offers a variety of Slovenian and Mediterranean dishes that celebrate fresh and locally grown ingredients. I sat down with Meti to talk about how they got the idea of opening a restaurant and what makes their restaurant Nenasyta the 25th best restaurant in Prague.

Nowadays fear of exposure to radioactivity generally revolves around artificial radiation sources, such as nuclear power facilities. What most people do not suspect is that the biggest threat of exposure to the population is commonly caused by natural sources –in the Czech Republic by radon, a gas without odour, colour or taste that is the leading cause of cancer in non-smokers.

Hip hop seniors from New Zealand, Korea’s keyboard-wielding e-Sports stars and the fabulist who “legitimised” the Iraq war. These were just some of the huge range of subjects explored at the colourful One World international festival of human rights documentaries, which came to a close in Prague on Wednesday night.