When Conversation Becomes a Way of Thinking Together

Holistic Talk in Bielsko-Biała

The event’s host, Jaśmina Nowak, understands perfectly how to conduct a conversation at a time when people find it easier to shout than to listen. A Radio Wnet journalist and president of the Freedom of Speech Foundation, she will guide the audience through an evening that gives space to others — to speakers, authors, and finally to everyone who arrives with openness and a readiness to listen.

The exceptional space of the event will also play an important role.

A Cavatina Hall event that prepares us to think

Cavatina Hall ranks among the most modern concert halls in Poland. Its acoustics allow every sound to reach the listener without distortion, while the hall itself encourages concentration. Before the first voices appear on stage, music will fill the space. The Cavatina Philharmonic Orchestra String Quartet will perform a short concert of film music — a journey that needs no words in order to move us.

Talks that stay in the mind

Joanna Sadzik will appear on stage. The president of the Wiosna Association, co-creator of Szlachetna Paczka and Akademia Przyszłości, will reach into the heart of what is most human in us in her talk, “Why Do People Want to Be Good, and How Can This Mechanism Be Unlocked in Them?” For many years, Joanna Sadzik has taught that support cannot remain a one-time act.

As an expert in wise helping, she shows how people can engage responsibly in social action so that it brings long-term results. Her experience includes building bridges between business and social organizations, as well as original programs that support parents, teachers, and seniors.

Radosław Ambroży, an astronomer and popularizer of science, will take the audience on a journey titled “In Space, Time Stands Still.” This will not be an ordinary lecture about black holes and exoplanets, but an invitation to pause, look up, and ask ourselves the most important questions. As Radosław Ambroży writes on his website:

We will meet in a special place — Cavatina Hall — where together we will look at the sky, but also… deep within ourselves.

The war inside a person never ends

Przemysław Wójtowicz will bring a completely different perspective. A former sniper wounded during military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, he wrote the books Snajper wchodzi pierwszy and Zanim naciśniesz spust. In his talk, “The War Inside a Person Never Ends,” he will speak about wounds that cannot be seen at first glance. About those that remain in the mind, in reflexes, in sleepless nights, and in the silence surrounding those who have returned.

No psychologist came to me. We were lying in operating rooms, we were wounded, we needed someone. No chaplain came either. That is exactly what I would expect from the Polish army. A psychologist and a chaplain are not goodwill — they are an obligation,

Przemysław Wójtowicz recalled in an interview with Holistic News.

These three perspectives — social, cosmic, and military — may seem distant from one another. And yet the same question connects them: how to remain human in a limit situation. Holistic Talk creates a space in which these perspectives can meet and illuminate one another. The program also includes a forth talk, and the organizers will announce its topic and speaker soon.

The authors’ foyer. The second stage of Holistic Talk

Between 3:30 p.m. and 6:15 p.m., Cavatina Hall will turn into a vibrant Authors’ Zone. It is the second stage of the event. Perhaps slightly less official, more direct. But just as important and interesting.

This is where visitors will be able to meet Jacek Piekara, one of the most important voices in Polish fantasy. The author of the famous “Inquisitor Cycle” has retold the story of power, heresy, and human nature in a new way. Piekara also reaches for themes closer to everyday life — his latest reportage album looks at the Polish People’s Republic without cheap sensationalism and gives voice to those who remember.

In the foyer, between books and coffee, visitors will be able to talk about how literature — not only fantasy — tells stories about the contemporary world, about fear of otherness, and about the human condition, which in the darkest stories turns into the most universal question.

Alongside Piekara, visitors will meet Dariusz Jaroń, a journalist and reporter, author of books about Polish Himalayan climbers and ski jumpers, and Andrzej Kucybała, a conductor and educator who has shaped the musical sensitivity of successive generations for years. The Authors’ Zone will also feature Holistic Talk in Bielsko-Biała.

Each of these meetings offers a different kind of journey — into the mountains, into sound, into literature, into the depths of the human psyche. Each of these journeys begins with a conversation. The organizers will expand the list of authors and announce further names soon.

Why do we need this kind of gathering today?

In the age of podcasts, newsletters, and live streams, one might ask why anyone should pack a bag and travel to Bielsko-Biała. The answer is simple: the internet cannot transmit some things. Face-to-face conversations, the shared silence after a difficult question, a nod from someone who happens to understand you without words — these experiences do not belong to streaming.

There are plenty of ideas today, but fewer and fewer spaces in which people can think them through together, question them, and make them their own. Holistic Talk 2026 exists for those who no longer want merely to consume content, but want to experience it in the company of other people. It is enough to come to Bielsko-Biała, sit down in Cavatina Hall, and allow yourself to be surprised by what others have to say. This Cavatina Hall event gathers people who stop in order to think together — and those who listen in order to understand.

Read this article in Polish: Holistic Talk 2026. Zaproszenie do wspólnoty myślenia