
Poslechněte si podcast: “It was year zero”: Miloš Hroch maps ‘90s Czech shoegaze scene in new book
Perhaps the only time Czech rock bands have made a significant splash internationally was in the early 1990s, when groups like the Ecstasy of St. Theresa were covered in the UK music press. EOST, who made the independent charts in England, were the vanguard of a local iteration of the shoegaze genre then in vogue in London. And that scene is the subject of the new book Šeptej nahlas: Český shoegaze mezi Východem a Západem (Whisper Aloud: Czech Shoegaze Between the East and the West) by music journalist and academic Miloš Hroch. I spoke to the author at our Prague studios.
Prague Talk
A regular interview series hosted by Ian Willoughby
Ester Geislerová: Parents are always more complex than how we know them from our childhoods
Artist and actress Ester Geislerová has spent much of 2026 introducing people to the story of her late father Petr Geisler. This began with an exhibition dedicated to the journalist and calligrapher at Prague’s DOX art space and more recently has centred on her documentary A Pint of Ink, which premiered at Karlovy Vary. The film is produced by Ester’s sister Anna Geislerová, one of Czechia’s most famous actresses. Ahead of the recent cinema release of the documentary, I spoke to Ester Geislerová, who is also involved in a project named Therapy Through Sharing.
From Brno to the world: Architect Ondřej Chybík on aiming beyond Czechia’s borders
After cementing its reputation in Czechia with an acclaimed multipurpose arena, the young Brno-based architecture studio Chybík + Krištof is increasingly going international. The firm has significant projects in London and Paris in the pipeline – and ambitions to work even further afield in future. I caught up with co-founder Ondřej Chybík, who is 41, at the company’s bustling offices in central Prague.
Irish Ambassador Alan Gibbons: “Each member has different history, but EU project transformative”
After holding a number of senior roles in Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs, Alan Gibbons became the country’s ambassador to Czechia in 2023. With the Dublin government taking over the rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1, I sat down with Mr. Gibbons to ask what that means for Ireland, and for his own role. We also discussed the scenes in March when thousands of Irish football fans descended on Prague, the gap between Irish and Czech attitudes to the EU – and much more.
“In the US they only know Kundera” – Jan Zikmund on bringing today’s Czech writers to the world
Earlier this year, Jan Zikmund launched Zikmund Literary, an agency that primarily aims to help Czech authors find readers around the world. But how does he plan to achieve this? How do books from this country tend to fare in foreign markets? And what other states can Czechia learn from in this arena? I discussed these questions and more with Zikmund, who is in his mid 30s and previously helped promote Czech writing in English-speaking countries at the state-funded Czech Literary Centre.
Prague Fringe at 25: Steve Gove and Angus Coull on early days of leading fringe festival
Since its seat-of-the-pants beginnings in the early 2000s, the Prague Fringe has established itself as one of the leading events of its kind in Europe. Indeed, this year the festival is marking no less than a quarter century of existence with a packed programme that gets underway on May 22. The Prague Fringe was first dreamt up by two friends: Steve Gove, who still runs it, and Angus Coull, who is now back in the pair’s native Scotland. And ahead of this year’s landmark edition, Gove and Coull shared often colourful recollections of the festival’s beginnings.
From London to Bohemia: Benjamin Souček on restoring stately homes, and family roots
London-born Benjamin Souček renovates stately homes in Czechia, the country of his forefathers. Indeed, Souček – who is also active in Prague cricket circles – has even received an award at the Czech Senate for his contribution to the country’s cultural heritage.
Inside Prague’s 1990s English-language media boom: Mark Baker on the expat press era
Alongside the general explosion of freedom in 1990s Prague, there was also a boom in English-language newspapers and magazines in the city. The short-lived age of titles such as Prognosis, The Prague Post, Think and many others is the subject of a recent series of blog posts by travel writer Mark Baker. I spoke to Baker, who at one point was business editor at The Prague Post, at our studios.
From “dark mode” to real-life connection: How Pavlína Louženská reads the future
Pavlína Louženská is a trend forecaster, helping banks, startups and other organisations understand likely developments in the coming years – and plan accordingly. When we spoke, the conversation took in the methods Louženská employs to predict the future, why Czechs may be less bothered about keeping up to date than other nations, whether it’s embarrassing to be a “laggard” – and much more.
New Czech Radio U.S. reporter Ciglerová on Czech-Americans and MAGA, trading Miami for Washington
Jana Ciglerová is just about to become Czech Radio’s correspondent in Washington. Unusually the journalist is moving there not from Prague but Florida, where she has lived for the best part of a decade and worked for a Czech media outlet. Ahead of this big switch, I asked Ciglerová about everything from keeping up with the non-stop pronouncements of President Trump to how living in the U.S. has shaped her sons’ lives.
Vít Hořejš and Bonnie Stein on their indie movie co-starring 200-year-old Czech marionettes
This week saw the first screening in Prague of the independent movie Wooden Hearts, which stars Vít Hořejš, founder of the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre. The fiction film also features many of the traditional puppets that Hořejš – who left Czechoslovakia in the late 1970s – uncovered in an old Czech church in Manhattan several decades ago. He and his life partner Bonnie Stein, who produced Wooden Hearts and also appears in the charming picture, stopped by at our studios just ahead of the screening.
"In the ‘90s the architecture was much more interesting": Jan Bureš on post-1989 Prague buildings
Devade (Nineties) is the title of a fascinating new book and exhibition looking at architecture in Prague in the first decade after the Velvet Revolution. Among the best known buildings referred to are hotels such as the Hilton and the Don Giovanni, as well as the Myslbek Palace and the now iconic Dancing House. I discussed the challenges faced by Prague’s architects in the 1990s – as well as the advantages they enjoyed – with one of the book’s authors Jan Bureš, an architect and journalist who was himself born in 1996.