episode 8 - World peace is possible, now! Interview with Nenad Bach at the WPC2023 (17.09.2023)

Welcome to my podcast “Jetzt erst recht – Positiv leben mit Parkinson”. My name is Kathrin Wersing, I am 44 years old and I live in Germany. 4 years ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s myself. One year later I started this podcast which is about life-affirming positive inspirations from people living with Parkinson’s disease. II am convinced that – no matter if we live with Parkinson’s or not – WE are in control of our own lives and that the way we look into the future has a huge impact on our own quality of life. A few weeks ago in July, I visited the World Parkinson’s Congress in Barcelona. Those 4 days in Barcelona were not only hot in terms of temperature, but also hot in terms of topics. But what was most important for me during these days: to absorb the spirit of this event. There were so many interesting, committed and absolutely impressive people related to Parkinson’s gathered in one place, as I have never experienced before. More than 2600 people from 73 countries, including over 900 doctors and therapists, 450 people from the caring and therapeutic professions, 685 people with Parkinson’s and 260 relatives. During those days in Barcelona, I had many conversations, I took a lot of photos and audio recordings. Finally, I was faced with the overwhelming task of how to pack all this into just ONE podcast episode. So I decided to publish several short episodes with people and topics that touched ME the most at this World Parkinson’s Congress. Today I’ll start with an interview with a unique man whom I had the pleasure of meeting again at the World Parkinson’s Congress: Nenad Bach is not only a wonderful musician and composer but also the founder of the worldwide movement PingPongParkinson, which has spread like wildfire from NewYork all over the world since 2017. The idea of PingPongParkinson is quite simple: People with Parkinson’s play table tennis together in regional sports clubs in their hometown. The sport helps those affected to stay active in social life and to delay the progression of the Parkinson‘s. I experienced it myself: PingPongParkinson helps a lot of people to improve their quality of life. Nenad Bach is a man of many talents – but above all he is a visionary and an inspiring peace activist. In this interview, he tells us what keeps him moving regarding PingPongParkinson and what table tennis and peace have in common. Links to this episode: Link to Nenad Bachs artice “World peace in 1 hour” in the united Nations Chronicle https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/world-peace-one-hour Link to PingPingParkinson worldwide: https://www.pingpongparkinson.org/ Link to PingPongParkinson Germany: https://www.pingpongparkinson.de/ I appreciate your feedback on this podcast episode. Feel free to send me an email: [email protected]