David Sedaris––one of the best-known American humor writers and radio personalities––has written extensively about his time in France.&nbsp;No one skewers the French like he does. He's written about our language, especially our weird gendered words, living in a village at Normandy, and shopping at unusual Parisian boutiques. He came to my apartment one afternoon and we talked about his French teacher, the different types of humor on each side of the Atlantic, his love for certain French words, our health care system, and his dislike for the French habit of kissing.&nbsp;

David Sedaris

Katherine Fleming, provost of NYU, is living proof of the merits of international exchange. She’s one of the leaders of the academic world in the United States, and her humor, which is as sharp as her intelligence, defies all stereotypes about academia. She feels equally at home in Greece and in France, and she has supported many of the French Embassy’s initiatives to encourage exchange between American and French universities.  We spoke about the big payoffs that studying abroad can have, despite the risks; about how being a waitress in Greece had a direct influence on her professional trajectory; the cost of tuition in American and France; and her childhood experience on a farm in France.

Katherine Fleming

One steaming hot July morning, our team piled into a car to the Hamptons, in Long Island. No, we weren’t going to the beach, or to someone’s luxurious mansion––even better––we were headed to The Watermill Center, an arts Mecca created by legendary theater director Bob Wilson. The Center is a buzzing, symbiotic hive where artists not only harness the tools to reach creative bliss but pitch in with natural cooking and upkeep of the verdant grounds. Our tour brought us to Bob’s apartment, decorated with unique sculptures from all over the world, past his extra large bed with pristine white sheets, and into a gorgeous veranda, where we recorded this episode.  We spoke about André Malraux, experimental theater, and France’s cultural policy.

Bob Wilson

We need to understand the particular gravity of this moment in time. What does it feel like to live amid both despair and hope, and what are the keys to implementing change? With Naomi Klein,&nbsp;Alexandria Villaseñor, and Joëlle Zask. Moderated by Bill McKibben.&nbsp; &nbsp; This conversation was part of&nbsp;, which took place at  in New York City and was curated by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben. For three days, leading thinkers, politicians, activists, artists, and authors will come together to take on climate change and discuss the urgency to act, environmental justice, local policy, the food we eat and produce, and how to motivate people to change their ways.

Festival Albertine 2019: The Climate Moment

We first collaborated with Darren&nbsp;Walker, the passionate and articulate President of the Ford Foundation, on a groundbreaking exhibition entitled&nbsp;Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today at Colombia University's Wallach Art Gallery in New York. It shed new light on black models in the arts throughout history and was so successful that it was exported to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. With characteristic rigor and enthusiasm, Darren made sure to assemble the best team possible to work on this project, and like a true Francophile, even travelled to Paris for the opening. We talked about the role of art in creating an empathetic society (10:42), philanthropy as a catalyst for social change (15:02), controversial funding sources (20:55), the Notre Dame Cathedral fire (18:19), his favorite Francophone artists (24:10), the African diaspora (28:08), and more.

Darren Walker

The amazing thing about Adam Gopnik, staff writer for The New Yorker,&nbsp;is that he knows more about France than many French people. It’s as if this podcast was made for him. You can ask him a question about anything, from the Statue of Liberty to French pop music, and he will give you an eloquent, informative and captivating answer.&nbsp; When he arrived at the French Embassy’s building on Fifth&nbsp;Avenue for this interview, we had just begun major renovations. We basically met in a storage room, between two cabinets and a sofa propped on its side. Let’s say, this is what added to the informal nature of the conversation. We talked about the intellectual exchange between France and America (2:10), the role of the president in both countries (24:30), Montaigne (3:34), Romain Gary (12:40), and Bastille Day. (31:50).&nbsp;

Adam Gopnik

Thomas Chatterton Williams, the extraordinary expat writer, cultural critic, and James Baldwin scholar, has lived in Paris for a decade. Thomas grew up in the U.S. surrounded by books and liberal ideals — but in the 90s, he turned his focus to expressing his identity through hip-hop, and rejected erudition as inauthentic. In his 2010 book, Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture, he explains that it wasn’t until he started studying at Georgetown that he began looking for a broader definition of an authentic life.  I spoke to Thomas in June, and we talked about his new book, Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race; and about Heidegger, Hegel, and the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted this summer in New York, Paris, London, and across the world, after the police killing of George Floyd. Lately, Thomas has been doing Baldwin duty –– writing essays from his desk in France for the New York Times, the Guardian and Harpers, on the pandemic, the protests, philosophy and identity. I asked him to tell me more…

Thomas Chatterton Williams

I first met Lauren Collins about fifteen years ago, when we were both working at The New Yorker. I noticed her immediately—The New Yorker can be a quiet place, but she was friendly and effervescent—she even asked me out for drinks! But she was also very focused. She radiated energy––like a blonde, Tasmanian devil, but much more charming and polite. (She grew up in the south, in Wilmington, North Carolina—that may explain it.)&nbsp; In 2010, The New Yorker sent Lauren––who was by then a staff writer––to live and write in London. She met a Frenchman there, Olivier, who would become her husband. She moved to Geneva for him—and then she made an even bigger sacrifice: she started to learn French. Her book about that, When in French: Love in a Second Language, was named one of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2016. Soon, she moved to Paris, where she still lives today with her husband and her two little children, writing about current events and the enigmas of language, culture and identity that she runs into every day across the Atlantic. I talked with Lauren in May, over Zoom, about life in Paris under “le confinement,” which is what the French call lockdown—and about the mysteries of Frenchness that she's still decoding.

Lauren Collins

I knew about&nbsp;William&nbsp;Middleton&nbsp;from the biography—or double biography, rather—he wrote of the great French-Texan art collectors, Dominique and John de Menil. When we got to talking, I realized that we have more in common than I thought: turns out we are both from the American southwest and ended up working for publications in New York and Paris. William&nbsp;first moved to Paris in 1990 as a writer for an American design magazine. Throughout his decade in France, he moved from design to fashion and from le Marais to Pigalle,&nbsp;throwing decadent parties for the likes of Karl Lagerfeld.&nbsp;William&nbsp;found his way back to France in May 2019,&nbsp;moving into an apartment in the 7th arrondissement on the same street where his muse, Dominique de Menil, grew up. I spoke to&nbsp;William&nbsp;over Zoom about his experience of&nbsp;battling COVID-19 while in France; the power of&nbsp;connection; and aesthetics in&nbsp;both&nbsp;Paris and New York.

William Middleton

Hearing from Graydon reminded me of the good old days of New York publishing and magazine life—his decadent parties at the Puck building were absolutely unforgettable, equipped with mountains of pâté, all-girl swing bands, and filled with women in Madonna-style bubble dresses.&nbsp; Once co-founder of the satirical Spy Magazine and editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, Graydon has escaped New York for the Cote d’Azur, where he has been staying with his family and surrounded by an international crowd of friends and acquaintances. Currently writing a memoir that he anticipates will be both “illuminating” and “slightly mortifying,” the editor is also working on his weekly digital publication, “Airmail”, and loves seeing his team on Zoom every Friday evening for the office’s Happy Hour tradition.&nbsp; I spoke to Graydon over Zoom about why he loves newsstands, how he imagines Cannes becoming a drive-in film festival, and why he stays off of social media altogether.&nbsp;

Graydon Carter

Eight years ago, an American writer named Pamela Druckerman emerged on the national and international scene wearing a beret –– somewhat ironically –– and wielding a radical theory of child-rearing. Radical, that is, to Americans, it was completely normal to the French. She’d written a best-selling book that you’ve probably heard of, called Bringing Up Bébé. In it, she revealed the French method of raising well-behaved, sociable children. French babies, she explained, slept soundly through the night, even when they were only a few months old. French kids ate Camembert without complaint; and when French adults were having conversations, their kids didn’t interrupt. She thought this might be one reason why French parents seem so much less stressed out than American parents. She discovered these mysterious differences at first hand, in Paris, while raising her own kids. Before she moved to Paris in 2002, Pamela was a globetrotter, living and working in Miami, Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo. While many know Pamela from her best-seller, her writing career has spanned subjects including infidelity around the world, Latin American politics, and the experience of being a 40-something in Paris.&nbsp; I spoke to Pamela over Zoom about life around the world, how she found love in Brazil, and translating French parenting secrets for an American audience.

The Thing About France

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