LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The only U.S. podcast spoken fully in French is hosted in Louisville. Two professors have joined forces to speak the language. The pair has done numerous episodes since 2021.
The Récits Francophones au Coeur de Amériques podcast was born when James Natsis called up his friend Patrick Litanga.
“So I knew that I’m not going to do this by myself so I got a hold of Patrick and said, ‘Patrick lets go have a cup of coffee I need to talk to you about something, it’s nothing bad it’s something good,’” said James Natsis one podcast host and an emeritus professor at West Virginia State University.
Natsis proposed the podcast to his good friend at Heine Brothers’.
“As he began to say that ‘I’m thinking about having a podcast in French’, I didn’t finish his sentence when I say ‘I’m in’. I know it was crazy,” said Patrick Litanga, host and Assistant Professor at Eastern Kentucky University.
Litanga is originally from the Congo and grew up speaking French— along with other languages.
“I lived in South Africa for three years. I learned to speak English in South Africa. So I came here in 2003 and then went to school and yeah, now I’m teaching,” said Litanga.
Natsis only picked up French after a visit to France in 1982.
“There’s something about French, it just caught my fancy and I thought, man, I need to go back and learn some French, and from that point on I went to community college, I took some courses,” said Natsis.
The first episode was recorded in Natsis’ basement on a ping-pong table. Fast forward to today: the pair has done over 70 episodes. Their golden rule—no English. The duo discusses an array of topics from bourbon to movies.
“We do not have a specific agenda or a specific set of people to speak to, but we are trying to basically surround and express what is happening in the Francophonie here in the U.S.,” said Litanga.
According to Natsis, about 20% of their listeners are from Kentucky and another 30% come from around the globe.
“By doing it only in French you limit yourself for sure, but you also have possibilities to open up elsewhere, but it also distinguishes you because we do it because we want to do it,” said Natsis.
They said they are the only ones doing a fully French podcast consistently in the U.S.
“So what we trying to encourage people is this, if you all already have some linguistic ability with you, try to maintain it, try to build it and try to connect with other people. We speak the same language because that’s how it enriches life,” said Litanga.
New episodes drop every two weeks.
There is a third person who makes the podcast possible. Natsis’ brother-in-law edits the show together for the duo speaking no French.
