Once Upon a Time in Eastern Europe
7 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago -Telling the magical stories of Hungary's first independent English-language newspaper, Budapest Week, in a series of interviews with its editors, writers, founders, staff and readers.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
#6 - Os Davis
November 27, 2020 20:00 - 1 hour - 45.8 MBMore than a decade after I left Budapest Week, I met a handful of younger writers who had worked for the newspaper during its last days of publication. Although we had never worked together, these new friends—Elysia Gallo, Esther Holbrook, and Os Davis—spoke about Budapest Week with the same passion that the founders and I felt for the paper. In this interview, Os Davis told me his stories of the newspaper's final years.
#5 - Kate Carlisle & Steven Carlson
November 06, 2020 20:00 - 42 minutes - 29.1 MBKate Carlisle asked me to turn the mic around and let her interview me. I happily agreed. When I first met Kate, she was a production designer working side by side with Editor, Tom Popper and Copy Editor, Desmond MacGrath. She came on shortly before I left the newspaper, but we traveled in the same circles. In more recent years, Kate has captured my attention on social media with her vegan humor, animal memes, and what appeared to be a budding romance with a former Budapest Week colleagu...
#4 - Chris Condon
October 25, 2020 17:00 - 1 hour - 60.7 MBChris Condon joined the Budapest Week just over a year after we launched. He started as a reporter, worked his way up to News Editor, and eventually served as Editor-in-Chief. Chris belongs to a generation of journalists, Hungarians and foreigners, who cut their teeth reporting for the Budapest Week. He also worked for the paper long after I left, which means he was able to share a few stories I hadn't heard. For example, moving offices and discovering a gun concealed in a wall cavity sinc...
#3 - Bob Cohen
October 19, 2020 18:00 - 1 hour - 70.9 MBWhat to say about Bob Cohen? Our friendship predates the newspaper. The other foreigners I met knocking about Eastern Europe in the late '80s were an odd bunch: itinerant language teachers, folk musicians, folklore researchers, linguists, and other misfits. That's a pretty good description of Bob. As soon as we started the paper, I wanted to bring Bob onboard. The only reason we hesitated was because of his unreasonable demands to be paid. But it worked out in the end because Bob Co...
#2 - Rick Bruner
October 14, 2020 19:00 - 57 minutes - 39.3 MBI met Rick Bruner through his father, Richard W Bruner. Dick was the first editor of the Budapest Week, as well as my mentor and friend. Rick Bruner, Tibor Szendrei and I are the three surviving founders of our newspaper. That's a sobering thought. Dick was the gray eminence of our little startup team. He convinced us it could be done. He introduced us to his wide circle of friends, and many of them became our contributors, supporters and friends. Rick and I had a contentious relationship...
#1 - Tibor Szendrei
September 28, 2020 20:00 - 1 hour - 41.8 MBTibor Szendrei was one of the first people to commit to creating the Budapest Week, and as our single Hungarian partner, Tibor also had the most to lose. In this episode, he talks about why. We knew we could count on Tibor when, for example, a local printer required 300 dots per centimeter, rather than per inch. But he was so much more than an interpreter. Tibor's silver tongue smoothed relations with our key partners, including distributors, computer suppliers and printers, especially whe...
#0 - Bruce Lewis
September 19, 2020 22:00 - 1 hour - 51.9 MBI asked my old friend, Bruce Lewis, to kick off this project with me by recording the pilot episode. He's is an accomplished guitarist, born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Bruce and I were introduced by a mutual friend, Bob Cohen. Bruce became my roommate shortly after I left the newspaper, kicking and screaming. He wrote a few pieces for the Budapest Week, but this interview isn't really about the newspaper, although I did try to steer it in that direction. Bruce describes what it w...