Yasaburo Hachiya and a Love Beyond Time
Life is a writer without equal, able to dream up plots beyond the reach of even the most gifted pen. Such is the odyssey of Yasaburo Hachiya, one of the most beautiful and powerful love stories I have ever heard. For 37 years the Russian Klavdia Novikova and the Japanese Yasaburo Hachiya lived together in a little village with the cheerful name of Progress on the banks of the Amur, dreaming of dying on the same day, on the same pillow. The samurai had even made two coffins of oak boards, lacquered, dried and assembled in the attic… But the story was not fated to unfold according to plan.
42MrBeast: What If… I Gave You $1 Million?
You’re sitting at work when suddenly… an unremarkable young man with a scruffy little beard walks up and asks: “Would you quit your job if I gave you $100,000 for it right now?” How would you react? Would you say yes? Would you like an island of your own? Or your very own Lamborghini? Just like that, as a gift, no strings attached? Nothing is impossible online, and sometimes meaning is born on the edge of provocation. Mr. Beast—MrBeast—is a fascinating influencer who has gathered more than a hundred million subscribers by simply… giving the money away! He stages a surreal candid camera that isn’t even hidden. He piles up advertising money only to hand it out spectacularly, sometimes with a provocative challenge, sometimes… just because. Is this madness?!
43Christopher Buxton: All Is Love
His first memory is of boundless darkness; the morning greets him with the smell of roasting peppers. Before long he will fall in love with the country he has landed in, and then truly and forever with the woman of his life, and a magical story will be born between cultures and eras. He taught Petya Dubarova, was the first to translate many Bulgarian classics into English, and dared to take on even the maddeningly untranslatable novel Summit—and he still translates Bulgarian poetry, votes in our elections and gets worked up by our passions, because reason ends where true love begins…
44Santa Claus on the Kaval
What does it mean to be an eccentric today? Can fate smile on you when you swim against the current and the stereotypes? This digital story is about two people separated by several generations and united by their love of Bulgaria and its folklore: one eccentric who left a corporate career to devote himself to his beloved art tells us about the last years of another, a man who held dozens of characters inside him—musician, instrument maker, sage, priest and… even Santa Claus. Bogdan Darev directed the film Kaval Park, where for almost two hours he presents the surreal figure of Alexander Eppler, an American of Russian descent and a Bulgarian at heart.
45Fly, Tanya, Fly!
Think the internet can't launch you into space? It can, though it still depends mostly on you. Have you heard of Tatyana Ivanova, who dreams of becoming (and, I'm sure, will become) the first Bulgarian woman cosmonaut? If not, it's time to meet this radiant, charismatic girl reaching for the stars, and even if you know her, stay a while to talk about the next big step on the road to her dream…
46Stefan: Finding the Way Back to Life in a Škoda
It is 2005, and Stefan Ivanov is just 18, bursting with energy, a national track-and-field champion. He finishes his training for the day, climbs onto the back of a friend's motorcycle for a ride… and wakes up 17 days later in intensive care. The days have simply vanished; what's more, the hard fight is only just beginning. One of those fights no one would ever imagine having to wage, or wish to. The kind where you have to face yourself even more than the pain. Yes, we humans are weak and we need help, especially when we find ourselves before an unknown enemy, and without being sure even of ourselves. Sometimes that helper turns out to be the act of making something: creativity, art…
47“Is There Such a Thing as Useless Knowledge? I Don’t Think So”
Is there such a thing as useless knowledge, what good can it do us to know the capital of CHAD, and can general culture become a value again? Atanas Atanasov made a long and unforgettable stay in the homes of the people who watch The Last One Wins, the quiz show hosted by Orlin Goranov on BNT 1, where he equaled the record of 18 consecutive wins and left an impressive mark with his knowledge in countless fields, his quick mind and his friendly manner. We talk about the facts worth knowing and the challenges worth throwing at our brains now and then to protect them from the bombardment of information amid a deficit of knowledge and the devaluation of general culture—and at the end, a prize question awaits you that will make you think hard…
48Voyager, Delyo the Outlaw and an Immortal Humanity
If you met an alien, how would you introduce today's humanity? The story of the Voyager project is incredible. It is the first and last large-scale attempt by our civilization to introduce itself: to gather everything most important that defines it and present it in a form that other species could decipher. And to do it with technology that today, almost half a century later, seems primitive to us. We all know about Valya Balkanska's song in space, but what else have you heard about Voyager, the space traveler drifting among the stars that may be the last witness to humanity's existence? And how exactly are aliens supposed to understand what we have to tell them? Liftoff!
49Anna Around the World
The idea of digital nomadism isn't new, but it has never been as accessible as it is today. This inspiring story proves it. Anna is a traveler by spirit and by calling: she has set out to visit every country on the planet, has already been to more than a third of them, and travels not only for the meaning of it but for the stories of entrepreneurs she gathers along the way, so that they might help someone else.
50Will the Robot Believe in Fairies?
Every person needs miracles. A little superstition, dreams, and living contact with other people. How do we cope today with the shortage of all these things? Can we teach them to artificial intelligence? Does folklore hold the magic key? Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vihra Baeva of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is a scholar of wide-ranging experience with many fascinating answers on these subjects.
51From the Microphone at Bulgarian National Radio to the Blackboard in Fakulteta
One day you are an established host on national radio, interviewing politicians, the powerful of the day and any guest you like, and the next… you choose a new path and become a first-grade teacher in Fakulteta, a Roma neighborhood in Sofia. For years Tanya Velichkova's voice was familiar to every listener of Bulgarian National Radio, where she hosted shows like Predi vsichki (Before Everyone) and Nedelya 150 (Sunday 150), until she decided it was time for something different and went back to learning so she could teach children. What is it like to find yourself in that role in such an unusual setting, and what does a seasoned journalist turned teacher dream about?
52Raya's Forest
What would you buy if you had some savings? A home, a car, or… a plot of land on which to grow a forest? What does paradise look like for Raya Ubenova? Probably like a forest. After years of caring about the environment and looking for a way to help, she decided it was time for something more serious. Today she is the creator of 20 decares of… baby forest!
53The World's Most Intelligent Woman and the Miracles in Her Life
The most intelligent woman in the world is Bulgarian. Daniela Simidchieva achieved her record IQ score of 192 while she was unemployed and raising her three daughters alone in a 12-square-meter apartment. What remarkable twists (and miracles!) has her path taken? Is there room for intelligent people at the head of the state? How heavy is the title “the smartest woman”? Does it open more doors than it closes?
54“Today, Heroism Means Keeping Our Humanity Online”
We are supposedly celebrating heroism today, but what does it mean here and now, is there courage on social media, and is it worth honoring people who lived centuries ago? Mihail Kunchev founded Adopt a Hero to care for the graves of great Bulgarians of the past, and as he searches for their final resting places, he gathers their stories. We talk about heroism, why it matters to preserve the memory of the past, and how our future depends on it.
55Trifon and the Engineering Revolution
Trifon Stefanov will soon finish a master's degree at the university where Xi Jinping also studied. Before that, he learned engineering in Japan. And this young man of the exact sciences dreams of changing the world through an economic model that has been in development in Bulgaria for years. What might this engineering revolution in the economy, the one Trifon believes in, look like?
56Vu, the Laptop Called “Grandma,” and the Bet That Made Him a Programmer
The digital story of Vu(nyo) Nguyen barely fits on one planet. Born in Vietnam, he landed in Sofia as a child and later left for the United States, where a short but dizzying career at outlets like The New York Times and MSNBC followed. His older son Adi had never seen his relatives in person when… one day he called the laptop “Grandma.” In that moment Vu and his wife decided they had had enough of America and came back to Bulgaria with no plans at all. So what happened next?
57Kris Grigorov: “Life Isn’t a Struggle for Happiness. It Brings Happiness”
Kris Grigorov is the strongest person I know. His story, his presence and his musical talent made him a star 15 years ago. He is blind and cannot manage without a wheelchair. A wise, self-assured young man with endlessly meaningful things to say, he graduated in Bulgarian philology and is determined to become a teacher. Should we ever stop chasing our dreams? What does light look like to someone who has never seen it?
58Uncle Dan and the Ugandan Children Who Dance the Horo
You have seen them online or on television, and they are unbelievably moving: focused, serious and artistic, whether they are singing “My Country, My Bulgaria” or dancing the Danube horo, and looking nothing like the usual performers of these songs, just smiling, talented… Ugandan kids. The bridge between cultures is thrilling, and so is the uplifting story of Uncle Dan and his 100 children.
59“They Just Have to Live…”
Photographer Sandro Arabyan shows the first seconds of life of 70 newborns. “I have photographed the end before, but photographing the beginning was a deeply philosophical question for me. And the two actually turned out to be very close…,” the photographer says.
60A Message in a Bottle, Emailed Across the Generations
“Do your best to make your dreams come true, so that you will have a happy old age!” Moving emails in a bottle sent across the generations exactly a year ago, carrying a message that truly matters…
