really exciting for me he comes back uh every time we meet up he has great stories from just getting back from Hungary uh to going to a Columbia football game and meeting Ryan Fitzpatrick and so I'm really excited toshare some of those stories with you all uh and I'd like everybody to Welcome to the stage speed cuber and journalist Ian
Where are you from? Hungary . Hungary . I still think there's a lot of things that you can explain and go back to you have your childhoodmemories. I mean, magazines?
Just going to mention a few of them. Hungary . Hungary has a huge brilliant mathematical tradition.And per capita, I think that more Hungarians entered the survey than any other nation, so they were really fascinated by it.
We didn't know-- the whole world-- 75% of the Jewish people were not alive already when in Hungary , it began. And we didn't know.
And so if you look at what's happening in Hungary , for instance-- and history makes a big difference. And Hungary is an interesting place. By the way, this is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. And the countries in Central and Eastern Europe came into existence
by one of his inner circle folks that back in the ' 80s he literally could have bought half the the entire country of Hungary because he had so much more foreign cash than anybody else um you know just factories and giant fields and everything else but he's a very modest man and that was not why he invented this he invented this because you know
Well, I won't go too much into it, but suffice to say Hungary has a rising far right, which is dangerous. And Hungary was once a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. And Hungarians have a very strong sense of ethnicity and ethnic pride.
second story line I call it 1514. And it really refers to an event that started in Rome in 1513 at the Papal election and then it went into a big crusades that started, that started from Hungary and spread to Transylvania and, of course, one of the reasons this was somewhat interesting for me--and I knew a bit more about it because I happened to be born in Transylvania so I'm somewhat more familiar with, with the events over there--but why is this interesting? The reason why this event is interesting, from the perspective of the
that they will alter the system in order to make sure that they can stay in forever. The pioneer of this idea was Victor Orban in Hungary . He was elected legitimately with a big margin and then what he did was slowly seek to capture the state. So what a democracy needs in order to survive, in order to maintain
And what I'd like to do first, as I say, is begin with you, Lily, and your birth. You were born in Hungary in 1923. And unfortunately, after the German invasion of Hungary in March 1944, you and your family were transported to Auschwitz concentration camp,
That I get from my mother when I was a very young girl. When the Germans invaded Hungary , I don't know why, my brother took this pendant-- because in Germany, when you came with any gold, even golden teeth, the gold was taken out.
I was already signing doctor when I was with Danny. We were in Hungary , and I was writing postcards to my sister, writing Doctor Felipe Lopez Sustaita. And I was barely trying to get through my bachelor's degree, but I was already envisioning that I was going to get there.
I love Pete Gogolak's Pete Gogolak was a football player. They came over from Hungary . And he changed the world twice, actually, because he and his brother couldn't figure out how to kick a football.
And we see exactly where that leads in countries where authoritarian populists actually manage to put through their program in a disciplined way. Take the case of Hungary , a country which political scientists, five years ago, considered a consolidated, a safe democracy. Scholars of Central Europe praised Hungary , along with Poland-- which is now going through similar troubles-- the most successful case of transition from communism
So what do we do about all of that? So though Poland and Hungary have done very well economically over the last 30 years, people thought they were going to have living
with an image of the entire Globe like turning towards you see Hungary and then it morphs into an enormous Rubik's Cube and you know Hungary has produced some of the world's greatest inventors the the ball Point pen was invented by Hungarian llo Biro that's where you know buo the the pen brand comes from um the greatest female chess player in history udit Polgar is Hungarian George Soros the investor Hungarian there's a lot of
It does have to taste good. No offense to Hungary .
Mr. Freedman's childhood was shaped directly by international conflict. He was born in Hungary to Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust. His family fled Hungary when he was a child to escape the communist regime, settling first in a camp for displaced persons in Austria,
He was born in Hungary to Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust. His family fled Hungary when he was a child to escape the communist regime, settling first in a camp for displaced persons in Austria, and then emigrating to the United States.
worry about these things. When you come from Hungary in the middle of the 20th century, you don't have to. My father said something else to me.
First of all, everybody had about the same. Then they closed Hungary .
And a woman came up to me afterward and she said, I liked your talk very much. I am from Hungary . I do not know this proverb.
Italy uh Vienna Hungary France Scandinavia Belgium Holland Germany and
Go to Hungary . In Hungary , they had a much more fluid view of things that the cycle of every project went up and down and that their work hours
I'll note that in Hungary right now, the government has enacted radical anti-transparency measures during the course of the pandemic-- classifying information about investments.
and her parents are also immigrants from Hungary .
Leo Szilard was a physicist from Hungary , who, in a burst of inspiration, eventually came up with the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
And they're imported from Hungary and Austria.
And the Czechoslovak constitution is based on the American Constitution with one difference-- it had equal rights language in it in 1918. But the thing that is interesting-- Hungary was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But all of a sudden, there was this country-- Hungary .
Take the case of Hungary , a country which political scientists, five years ago, considered a consolidated, a safe democracy. Scholars of Central Europe praised Hungary , along with Poland-- which is now going through similar troubles-- the most successful case of transition from communism to democracy. Well, once Viktor Orbán took control as prime minister there, he reformed the judiciary in order to be able to nominate
and therefore never fined. So we have elections coming up in Hungary which are neither free nor fair, in the heart of the European Union. Now, I think it's important to actually understand what kind of political system has been erected in Hungary .
just to back up for a second when he invented this he was 29 years old he was living at home with his mother behind the Iron Curtain in communist Hungary which is perhaps the least auspicious place in history to develop a successful commercial product um and he didn't even know that he was inventing a puzzle I mean initially he created just a 2X two Rubik's Cube I
AR rubic um they actually used to have Rubik's Cube on the stamps like it's a very big part of national pride you can walk down shopping streets in Hungary and there will be little chachis which are probably not licensed to be honest but little chachis in the same way that we have Empire State Building keychains and underwear there is Rubik's Cube Underwear by the way um and there's just all this sort of stuff that it's just
as children we escaped from Hungary in 1956 the year of the Hungarian Revolution and came to the United States
She succeeded her father, and made the party far more respectable. Now let's look at Hungary . Well, I won't go too much into it, but suffice to say Hungary has a rising far right, which is dangerous.
And then for a year or so, he was able to live. The Germans had not yet occupied Hungary . And then the Germans decided they had to occupy Hungary because Horthy, the leader of Hungary , was making a deal with the Russians.
They survived, they came back. And the Soviet army occupied Hungary . And my uncle, who was a member of the Communist Party, and part of the Secret Police, let my father know shortly
I think I was in Hungary when you called me.
Harder to do now that Viktor Orbán is gone in Hungary , but still a useful strategy if you're Putin. I expect he'll
we don't care what the courts think." Um, and that's the big difference here. I'll tell you a real story that happened in Hungary when Hungary was going down the road in the direction of a one party state. You can be the CEO of a company and people can come and knock on your door and they can say, "We would like
There was horrendous uh impact on her and her family in Hungary .
And he said to me-- I think he was from Hungary -- he said in this country, always follow the money.
What else do you think we could be doing? You're happily living your lovely existence in Hungary before the war, and what have you, and everyone's getting on nicely.
He was created centuries and centuries ago in Hungary , where all of this started.
Now most of the paprika is imported from Hungary .
in Russia, Hungary and Venezuela.
And now it is the immigrants. And so if you look at what's happening in Hungary , for instance-- and history makes a big difference. And Hungary is an interesting place.
And Hitler got so enraged he ordered the army to invade Hungary and deal with the Jewish problem.
set the scene we were in a restaurant in Budapest and and also in Hungary most people think he's dead um because he's so like if you go to the the castle District in Hungary which is the sort of oldest historic Center of of Budapest you can go into a museum underground and it's advertised outside with these posters of you know warriors on Horseback it's like learn about the
and talking about it although he has been more recently he keeps up to date with you know not only what's happening with the latest records I mean when I was in Hungary the world record for a speed solve of the 3X3 was broken and set lower to 5.25 seconds and he knew about that he was keeping on top of everything and he's just an enormously