This summer, we’re replacing playlists with stories. Culture, cinema, adolescence, photography, chosen families or intimate narratives, here are nine podcasts that will accompany both your train journeys and your afternoons at the beach or in the shade of a park.
There are the books we take on vacation, the series we keep for evenings, and the podcasts we listen to everywhere: on the train, while walking, by the water, or while cooking. To accompany your summer, têtu· has selected nine podcasts that tell the world differently, blending teenage confidences, family investigations, cinema, literature, and queer stories.
The Heart on the Table: The Other Side of My Body
At 16, Mihena leaves Tunisia alone to escape the life that was planned for her. In this documentary series from the Heart on the Table, the social worker and author recounts her journey as a transgender woman, her exile in France, and the conquest of a freedom long denied. Directed by Pauline Lagache from a narrative carried by Mihena Alsharif and Naomi Titti, the podcast blends memories, daily scenes, and reflections on loves, breakups and the gaze of others. A deeply intimate narrative of remarkable accuracy.
Confidences on Double Copies : Teenage Confessions
ARTE Radio revisits the double copies that Aude and her friends filled during adolescence, long before social networks. Crushes, fantasies, lies, rebellion, grand declarations and small dramas: Confidences on Double Copies tenderly returns to this age when everything seems enormous. As personalities assert themselves, the first mismatches emerge, the secrets, a coming-out scribbled at the corner of a page, or an impossible love. A beautiful capsule of nostalgia.
Parents Like Others : Building a Family Among Friends
Margot and Naïm are close friends. Each in a relationship, and yet, they decide to have a child together. In this documentary by Bertille Sindou-Faurie for ARTE Radio, coparenting becomes a very concrete way to question the model of the family. It asks a question: what if friendship could form a family bedrock as solid as a romantic couple? For queers who have long known that family doesn’t fall from the sky but is crafted with love, humor and shared planning, the listening will be all the warmer.
Bookmakers: In the Minds of Writers
How does a book come to be? Where do a writer’s obsessions come from? Why one sentence rather than another? In Bookmakers, Richard Gaitet takes the time to let authors speak about their work, their influences, and their relationship to writing. Paul B. Preciado, Abdellah Taïa, Virginie Despentes or Wendy Delorme lend themselves to the game, in interviews as captivating as they are generous. Special mention to the three episodes devoted to Laura Vazquez.
My Heroine : An Investigation into the Mother Behind the Myth
In My Heroine, Audrey Bissonnier Chazal investigates her mother, her story, her lives, her flaws. At the birth of her daughter, Audrey begins to view the history of her own mother differently, a mother who was a drug addict and who died of AIDS when she was 11. Long idealized, this maternal figure becomes the subject of an intimate investigation: who was this woman beyond the familial myth? Tracing the life, choices, secrets and contradictions, the podcast interrogates what we inherit from our parents and what we pass on in turn. A sensitive reflection on family memory, dependencies, unspoken truths, and the difficulty of seeing loved ones as complex beings rather than as heroes.
Made Without Tricks : The Cinephile Rendezvous
Behind Made Without Tricks is a band of critics who love debating weekly releases as much as recontextualizing the history of cinema. The episodes mix analyses, disagreements and infectious enthusiasm, without unnecessary jargon. Queer cinema naturally finds its place here, from Luca Guadagnino’s Queer to the Queer Palm. A show that makes you want to return to the cinema.
Dating Culture : Find Your Next Cultural Crush
What if cultural works presented themselves like a dating app? That’s the idea behind Dating Culture, conceived by Florian Ques, a journalist at têtu·. Films, albums, comics or series: each episode invites you to discover a new crush with dating-app codes. An idea as simple as it is effective, perfect for enriching your list of recommendations.
In the Bath : For Photography Enthusiasts
In the Bath isn’t about scented foam but about analog photography. Through the stories of photographers such as Anthony Saklaoui or Pablo Freda, Roxane Moreau Elkaim explores a slow, artisanal and deeply sensory practice. In an era of images consumed at full speed, this ode to the film reminds us that a photograph can also be the fruit of time and patience.
Twenty-Something or Almost : The Pitfalls of Almost-Adult Life
Your twenties are often presented as the age when everything should finally click into place. In reality, everyone moves at their own pace. While some buy an apartment, others go back to study or change paths. In Twenty-Something or Almost, journalist Lou Momège recounts this suspended moment where one negotiates the pressure to succeed, social fatigue and the vertigo of becoming an adult. A listening experience that many will recognize.
