Milestone: our first public listening event of the podcast

At the beginning of November, Stories from the Beauty Parlor hosted its first public listening event for one of our podcasts, in collaboration with Bard College Berlin, followed by an open Q&A session about the production process. It was a truly special and emotional evening, sharing these stories and this collective labor of love with students interested in politics, intercultural dialogue, and social change.

This was another step in our ongoing collaboration with Bard College Berlin by holding our first live event together. The listening party featured young journalists and BCB students Ina Constantin and Mariia Krychevska, joined by Beauty Parlor’s founder Annamaria Olsson, and moderated by Prof. Agata Lisiak.

Ina and Maria co-hosted our special podcast episode exploring Queer Ukrainian Beauty — what beauty can mean in times of war, and how salons across Ukraine and Romania create spaces of freedom, self-expression, and gender defiance. As they described during the event, these spaces boldly declare: “To hell with you — we’re alive, and we look good.” We explored themes of belonging, safety, and home through the voices of queer Ukrainians navigating war, migration, and identity in Europe’s East.

Thank you to everyone who came, listened, and contributed to the discussion. We are looking forward to continuing to share our podcast stories live in other live formats in 2026.