Once Upon a Time in Eastern Europe podcast

06/10/2023

22/09/2022

Here's a piece from Kester Eddy profiling an independent Hungarian-language conservative weekly newspaper. Hard times in the big city, indeed.

Newspaper publishers in the serious “broadsheet” category would argue it’s never been an easy business, made progressively harder with the advent of the internet, COVID, and now a dramatic rise in operating costs. In Hungary, arguably no paper has had it tougher than Magyar Hang, the Hungarian...

04/06/2022

What was it like starting an English-language newspaper in Budapest in 1991?

Here's a full video of "The Budapest Week, then and now," a public talk held on May 12, 2022 at the Open Society Archives in Budapest.

The event featured former editors Michael Kovrig, Pablo Gorondi, and Tom Popper, moderated by Esther Holbrook.

https://www.osaarchivum.org/press-room/announcements/the-budapest-week-then-and-now-from-now-on-available-online

Public talk of May 12, 2022, by the former editors Michael Kovrig, Pablo Gorondi, and Tom Popper moderated by Esther Holbrook is now available online for those who could not participate in the event. The former editors of Budapest Week gathered to discuss what starting an English-language newspaper....

19/05/2022

The Open Society Archive in Budapest is still editing the video from last week's event, which brought together Tom Popper, Pablo Gorondi Palkó, Michael Kovrig and Esther Holbrook to discuss the challenges and rewards of launching an English-language newspaper in Hungary. Meanwhile, here are a selection of photographs from that event. Enjoy!

04/04/2022

More 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.

https://podcast.onceuponatimeineasterneurope.com/1347982/6580714-6-os-davis

More 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 ...

13/03/2022

It makes me feel old to see Nic Robertson leaving Moscow, and it breaks my heart to recall the naive hope and optimism of the early '90s.

"We were the first western media to broadcast live from the fabled military parade ground, yards from Lenin's tomb in the shadow of the Kremlin's foreboding brick walls, and were witness to the Soviet Union's last party Congress."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/11/europe/leaving-russia-analysis-robertson-intl-cmd/index.html

There is a burning rage when you see what's happening in both Ukraine and Russia, knowing innocents will suffer, and you find your voice strangled and struggling to shout against the obvious concocted insanity of Putin's justification for the war.

08/03/2022

Kate Carlisle was an early supporter of our effort to digitize the archives of Budapest Week, offering her services as sounding board, confidant and cheerleader.

For this issue of the podcast, Kate offered to interview me.

https://podcast.onceuponatimeineasterneurope.com/1347982/6255352-5-kate-carlisle-steven-carlson

Kate 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...

25/02/2022

Chris Condon belongs to a generation of journalists, Hungarians and foreigners, who cut their teeth reporting for the Budapest Week.

https://podcast.onceuponatimeineasterneurope.com/1347982/6053110-4-chris-condon

24/02/2022

https://podcast.onceuponatimeineasterneurope.com/1347982/5965345-3-bob-cohen

23/02/2022

I 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.

https://podcast.onceuponatimeineasterneurope.com/1347982/5896837-2-rick-bruner

22/02/2022

Tibor 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.

https://podcast.onceuponatimeineasterneurope.com/1347982/5644948-1-tibor-szendrei

Tibor 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 loca...

21/02/2022

Thirty-plus years ago, a group of friends decided that Budapest needed an English-language weekly newspaper.

That paper, Budapest Week, is now a historical record of Hungary's transition from socialism in the early 1990's. With our partners at the Open Society Archive, we have just succeeded in digitizing the first three volumes of the newspaper.

I started this podcast to help publicize this project, and I ask my old friend, Bruce Lewis, to record the pilot episode, on September 19, 2020.

Bruce Lewis 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 was like to live in Budapest in the early 1990s, and how his experiences changed him.

He also talks about some of the talented musicians he met and played with, throughout his many years gigging in Europe.

Here is that podcast, for your listening pleasure:
https://podcast.onceuponatimeineasterneurope.com/1347982/5513335-0-bruce-lewis

17/02/2022

Good news! I'm happy to announce that our team in Budapest has digitized the first three years of Budapest Week, covering March 1991-94.

I'd like to thank our partners at the Open Society Archive, who supervised the scanning work and will continue to work with us to put these newspapers online.

Click here to learn more about this project, and to contribute: https://gofund.me/ad10e964

This invitation goes out to all of us who took part in creating Budapest Week, as we… Steven Carlson needs your support for Budapest Week Digitization Project

15/11/2020