Central Europe Matters

In Slovakia, political polarization seeps into everything. Disinformation emanating from Russia and spread by Slovak "alternative media" platforms has transformed the information landscape. This creates enormous challenges for media organizations in the country. How do you continue to focus on what really matters when faced with actors whose aim is to loosen people's grip on reality and make them question the truth of everything?
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Seven years after investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová, were murdered in cold blood, journalists in Slovakia continue to expose corruption and shed light on the troubli...

It is hard work confronting the darker chapters of our shared past. When faced with horrors like those that occurred on Slovak soil during the Second World War, it is easier to look away. To try to forget. 
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Others still never learn about the crimes committed by the wartime Slovak regime against citizens of the country. About what neighbors did to neighbors. 
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Yet in what Hana Kubatová – who you will meet in the second main interview of this week's episode – calls the spirit of historian Tony Judt, nations and people can never move on from the mis...

Hey listener! I accidentally published the first draft of this episode earlier today. Sorry about that! This represents the final version of the episode. I hope you like it. 

Why did I quit my secure job in Oslo in early 2025 so that I could dedicate myself full-time to starting a podcast, this podcast?
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In the first three episodes of the podcast, you've met people from all across Slovakia who have shared their fears, hopes and visions for a better country. They have demonstrated openness and vulnerability during our conversations and for that I am grateful to...

Why did I quit my secure job in Oslo in early 2025 so that I could dedicate myself full-time to starting a podcast, this podcast?
⠀
In the first three episodes of the podcast, you've met people from all across Slovakia who have shared their fears, hopes and visions for a better country. They have demonstrated openness and vulnerability during our conversations and for that I am grateful to them.
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Now it's my turn to be open and vulnerable. Why am I doing this work? Why do I consider Central Europe Matters a mission as much as a po...

Many Slovaks thought they had gotten authoritarian strongmen leaders out of their system when Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar lost his reelection bid in 1998. Almost twenty years later, the current Slovak government is led by former Communist Robert Fico, whose coalition government attacks independent media, starves independent culture of financing, and in televised rants and social media tirades accuses political opponents and Slovaks who didn't vote for him of progressive fascism and ideological terrorism.

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To understand what Fico's brand of take-no-prisoner politics means for Slovakia and its people, I spoke to a political scientist, an auth...

What happens when you wake up one day and find yourself living in a different country?

     
In this week's episode, we move from the fall of communism in 1989 to the emergence of an independent Slovak state in 1993.

     
For most of this episode, I spoke to people living in Bratislava, the dynamic and at times architecturally puzzling Slovak capital, before returning to Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia for my final conversation. I also made a brief stop in Košice in eastern Slovakia.

     
The thread running through this episode is: what prevents so...

This episode marks our first trip to Slovakia and the start of season 1, Slovakia – Democracy under attack. Buckle up – it's going to be a wild ride. Follow me, host Jeff Lugowe, as I speak with activists, researchers, artists and concerned citizens about the battle currently underway in Slovakia over the country's democratic future.
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We begin in  Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia to meet Sandra and Lea, two activists with the organization Not in our Town (Nie v nasom meste).
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Then we move a few hours northwest to the city of  Žilina. There, I sat down with three hi...

Season 1 will take listeners on a trip around Slovakia — a small, mountainous country on the eastern periphery of the European Union  — currently in the throes of a democratic crisis. Join host Jeff Lugowe as he meets people living in the big cities and deep in the countryside and hears how they are fighting for their democracy.

Slovakia — Democracy under Attack launches in August 2026. Subscribe today to get the first episode in your podcast feed.

Central Europe Matters is an new, independent narrative podcast. Read more about the podcast and the upcoming season by visiting:  https://www.cent...