One of the most popular podcasts in the neighboring country is “Face à l’histoire”, which is now devoting a season to the anti-Semitic propagandist Céline. Where does the interest in history lessons with cliffhangers come from?
The French find few things as fascinating as their own past. That’s why one of the most popular podcasts in the country is also a history podcast – and producer Philippe Collin is a famous man with a huge audience. The series has been sold more than 19 million times “Face à l’histoire”, in German “In the face of history”, accessed digitally. The podcast is produced by the public radio station France Inter and also broadcast there. “We didn’t expect this success, it’s crazy,” says Philippe Collin. The series each consist of around ten episodes of one hour each and portrayed, among others, the first Jewish Prime Minister Léon Blum, the Front National founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and the writer Simone de Beauvoir. In his new documentary starting at the end of March Collin now devotes himself to Louis-Ferdinand Céline – doctor, revolutionary writer and most important Nazi propagandist in the French literary scene.