Oct 9, 2026 · 53 min · 10 segments
On this show Warren's guest is author, podcaster and activist Veronika Perkova. Veronika is a resident of the Czech Republic and is active in environmental issues and in promoting women's rights and…
Warren BellHost
Now, not everybody in this part of the world knows a lot about Czech Re- the Czech Republic.
Um, the, the Czech culture was never one that was involved, for example, in the colonial process.
It was, it was, it was indirectly, but most of the time it was the colony [laughs] for other people to invade rather than the other way around.
Uh, Sweden tried to invade, uh, the country, and Brno was the city that resisted and was not, did not fall to the Swedes.
Uh, and that was only the beginning because then the Nazis came in, uh, in Second World War, uh, and following their departure, the Soviet Union, which was forming, um, became the new overlord, if you like.
So Czechoslovakia's had a lot of experience with being on the receiving end of other people's ambitions rather than being able to sort of perpetrate their ideas.
I think Czech people think partly that they're victims, so they're not really very ambitious people who would like to, you know, conquer the world.
They always feel like they've been the victim of either the Germans or we were, we used to be part of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy.
And since we're in Central Europe, there have always been some bigger empires than us, um, taking, taking over our territory.
This, I would say it like this small spirit, and, um, also tied to communism, of course, because in communism you were not supposed to stand out.
You couldn't oppose because if you oppose, then you, you could have ended up in prison, or you, you or your children could not have gone to school.
Now, not everybody in this part of the world knows a lot about Czech Re- the Czech Republic.
Um, the, the Czech culture was never one that was involved, for example, in the colonial process.
It was, it was, it was indirectly, but most of the time it was the colony [laughs] for other people to invade rather than the other way around.
Uh, Sweden tried to invade, uh, the country, and Brno was the city that resisted and was not, did not fall to the Swedes.
Uh, and that was only the beginning because then the Nazis came in, uh, in Second World War, uh, and following their departure, the Soviet Union, which was forming, um, became the new overlord, if you like.
So Czechoslovakia's had a lot of experience with being on the receiving end of other people's ambitions rather than being able to sort of perpetrate their ideas.
I think Czech people think partly that they're victims, so they're not really very ambitious people who would like to, you know, conquer the world.
They always feel like they've been the victim of either the Germans or we were, we used to be part of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy.
And since we're in Central Europe, there have always been some bigger empires than us, um, taking, taking over our territory.
This, I would say it like this small spirit, and, um, also tied to communism, of course, because in communism you were not supposed to stand out.
You couldn't oppose because if you oppose, then you, you could have ended up in prison, or you, you or your children could not have gone to school.
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