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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A lively account of the series of errors committed by king François 1er that led to him being captured at the battle of Pavia. Always listen to your mother, guys. Short #frenchpodcast with dramatic music. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/l...

podcasts.apple.com

1525 : François Ier perd la bataille de Pavie

Podcast Episode · Les grands dossiers de l'Histoire par Franck Ferrand · 4 October · 23min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

After his death Balzac was claimed on the Left and Right, and notably reinvented as a proto-fascist antisemite. Really interesting #frenchpodcast on the post-Balzac Balzac, and what 'balzacien' has meant at different times. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

radiofrance.fr

Balzac à tous les vents de la mémoire

Celui que Baudelaire qualifiait de "plus grand homme du siècle" a laissé 91 œuvres et quelque 2 500 personnages : un univers foisonnant que les camps les plus opposés ont cherché à s’approprier après ...

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I like the side-eye from the cow…

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If the revolutionaries of 1793 are 'terrorists', we should recognise it as State terrorism, @theresthistory.bsky.social ? (Interesting that Robespierre believed in shocking things like universal male suffrage and progressive taxation.) Episode 2 in series. podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

The Terror: The Reign of Robespierre (Part 2)

Podcast Episode · The Rest Is History · 23 September · 1hr 25min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

First in a series on the Terror from @theresthistory.bsky.social : the assassination of the decidedly unpleasant Marat by the young Charlotte Corday, and how everyone had read too much Rousseau. 1793, what a year. podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

The Terror: How The French Revolution Collapsed Into Chaos (Part 1)

Podcast Episode · The Rest Is History · 20 September · 1hr 22min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Napoleon was really serious about invading Britain, with a giant encampment at Boulogne; he tried to plan a nautical strategy the way he planned a land strategy. Short #frenchpodcast www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pebt...

youtube.com

Franck Ferrand raconte : Quand Napoléon voulait envahir la Grande Bretagne

YouTube video by Radio Classique

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

In 1830 there was more than one French revolution. The 'Bataille d'Hernani' was actually more like a war: for several performances the new young 'Romantiques' confronted the aristocratic 'Classiques' over Victor Hugo's play. Dynamic #frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

radiofrance.fr

La bataille d’Hernani, au théâtre comme à la guerre - L'intégrale

Aujourd’hui dans Affaires Sensibles, on remonte le temps, au XIXème siècle, avec Victor Hugo et la bataille d’Hernani.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Did the radical feminist/banlieusard movement 'Ni Putes ni Soumises' fail because its leader accepted a role in Sarkozy's government? Its feminism seems oddly dated now, with the primacy of identitarian politics. Interesting #Frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

radiofrance.fr

Le collectif “Ni Putes ni Soumises” - L'intégrale

Aujourd’hui dans Affaires sensibles, le collectif "Ni Putes ni soumises »

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Anatole France, who made his way from a humble background to be a literary celebrity and member of the Académie française, later a ataunch dreyfusard, is now unfashionable because of the clarity of his style… #frenchpodcast podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/l...

podcasts.apple.com

Anatole France, le grand écrivain qui a disparu des bibliothèques

Podcast Episode · Les grands dossiers de l'Histoire par Franck Ferrand · 18 September · 23min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Also from the Bodleian pets exhibition : a Persian court lady and her cat; Adam naming some animals (mostly very attentive, though the cat has its back turned).

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

From the Bodleian exhibition on pets, I note that this ancient Egyptian papyrus is a receipt for a congestion charge for a camel. The choice of wording is, I suspect, a very Oxford joke.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

We remember the 1816 shipwreck of the Medusa for the raft, the cannibalism, and Géricault's painting, but a 16-year old girl was one of those evacuated in a lifeboat and nearly abandoned by soldiers in the desert. She lived to write her story. Short #frenchpodcast podcasts.apple.com/ch/podcast/u...

podcasts.apple.com

Une autre histoire du Radeau de la Méduse

Épisode de l’émission · Les grands dossiers de l'Histoire par Franck Ferrand · 16 août · 22 min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Some look down on Elisabeth Vigée le Brun because she painted flattering portraits, but she was an impressive businesswoman and innovative artist. And was clever enough to survive her patron Marie-Antoinette. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...

podcasts.apple.com

Vigée Le Brun

Podcast Episode · In Our Time · 23 July · 56min

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Reposted by Jennifer Yee

World Bollard Association™️ @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

⚠️BREAKING NEWS IN AUSTRALIA - BOLLARDS FLIP A TESLA⚠️ #WorldBollardAssociation

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Did Napoleon III accidentally found modern art by creating the Salon des refusés, just because he was worried about an imminent election? Interesting #FrHistory podcast podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/v...

podcasts.apple.com

The Salon des Refusés: How Napoleon III Accidentally Opened the Door to Modern Art

Podcast Episode · Verso: An Art History Podcast · 13 July · 51min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Reading private diaries from the French Revolution gives a sense of the emotions - from joy to trauma - of ordinary people. Interesting podcast about a forthcoming book. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/n...

podcasts.apple.com

Witnesses to the French Revolution

Podcast Episode · Not Just the Tudors · 3 August · 52min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

From the Richard Dadd exhibition at the Royal Academy. What was the fairy painter of Bedlam telling us with his map of the Great Plains of Complaint and Great Panic Bay?

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

We may be in a period of decadence, but people of periods that called themselves 'decadent' in the past (Weimar Germany, fin-de-siècle France...) seemed to have a much more entertaining time. Another great podcast from @ppfideas.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

The History of Bad Ideas: Decadence

Podcast Episode · Past Present Future · 5 August · 57min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

This account of Tintin au Congo doesn't so much ask the simple question 'was it racist?' (answer: yes) as situate that racism in the more general context of Hergé's Nazi sympathies. #Frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

radiofrance.fr

"Tintin au Congo" : histoire d’un vestige

Aujourd’hui dans Affaires Sensibles, Tintin au Congo : histoire d’un vestige.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

On Annie Ernaux's book Les Années (The Years) as a political fiction - not how I had thought of it before, but perhaps an approach that might reconcile me to l'écriture plate. www.ppfideas.com/episodes/the...

ppfideas.com

The Great Political Fictions: The Years

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Interesting analysis of Laurent Binet's novel HHhH as an exploration of evil and resistance only possible in fiction. I thought that was meant as a criticism at first. www.ppfideas.com/episodes/the...

ppfideas.com

The Great Political Fictions: HHhH

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

This is a fun discussion of the context of The Picture of Dorian Gray, its style ('lush') and dangerously obvious gay content. podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/o...

podcasts.apple.com

Oscar Wilde's Downfall: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Podcast Episode · The Book Club · 8 June · 1hr 22min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

The plague struck Paris in... 1920. A dramatic #frenchpodcast with rag-and-bone pickers, rodents, state cover-ups and, inevitably, antisemitism 1920s-style. #FrHistory www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

radiofrance.fr

1920, la dernière peste de Paris

Aujourd'hui dans Affaires sensibles, 1920, la dernière peste de Paris

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Really interesting exhibition on Hawaii at the British Museum. Many extraordinary things - gods, capes, crested helmets - made with feathers and plant fibre, an art that is still alive and evolving today.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

A selection of ‘livres d’artiste’ from a temporary exhibition at the Taylorian.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Maybe, but when I'm having a crap time I don't set fire to things.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

A discussion of French attitudes to travel in the 19thC that begins with Baudelaire and ends with Rimbaud, but covers a great deal of mileage in between, with the always excellent Sylvain Venayre. #frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

radiofrance.fr

XIXe siècle : le voyage et les rêves

Au XIXᵉ siècle, le voyage nourrit un imaginaire puissant, porté par le romantisme et par une littérature qui accompagne la naissance du tourisme et éclaire encore nos façons de voyager. Sylvain Venayr...

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

‘Kneel’, by Dorothy Cross, from the marvelous sculpture trail in Worcester College gardens.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

18thC Paris was fascinated by two sisters, exoticised as 'Lappons', who were actually members of the Finnish Protestant bourgeoisie. Comment peut-on être lapon? In Voltaire's hands they became a running joke aimed at Maupertuis. #Frenchpodcast www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

radiofrance.fr

Kristina et Élisabeth Planström, sœurs

AUDIO La Voix des invisibles, épisode : Kristina et Élisabeth Planström, sœurs

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

On Michel Houellebecq's most recent volume of poetry, sub-Baudelairean depression put in jingoistic rhymes and full of ambiguously-worded references to the end times and the need to massacre 'apes', a short #frenchpodcast 😱. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

radiofrance.fr

Critique poésie :

Quatre ans après son volumineux roman

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Podcast (in English!) on Christine de Pizan, perhaps the first female writer to make a living from her pen, and her active participation in contemporary debates on whether women were to blame for everything and needed to be kept safely in their places. #FrHistory podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

podcasts.apple.com

Christine de Pizan: Pioneering French Feminist

Podcast Episode · Gone Medieval · 1 May · 56min

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Was the legal concept of 'pure blood' invented in 1449 in Toledo, taking religious identity one step (or possibly several generations) further? #frenchpodcast in a series on the history of racism. www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

radiofrance.fr

Comment le monde ibérique a-t-il inventé la

AUDIO Racisme, une histoire, épisode : Comment le monde ibérique a-t-il inventé la

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

Zoonation performing a hip-hop Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at Oxford’s new Centre for the Humanities.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

I think this is more performative exoticism than any true cultural transformation, but I agree that it doesn’t precisely map over France’s colonial goals.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

It’s an interesting question ! Loti often has his character perform a version of the local culture in his travel writing. He also loved exotic fancy dress in his real life.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Is it possible to simplify French spelling, which sometimes appears mainly designed to create problems? On some (failed) attempts to do so, an interesting if frustrating #frenchpodcast, broadcast most appropriately on April Fool's day. www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

radiofrance.fr

Simplifier l’orthographe ? Mission impossible !

Aujourd'hui dans Affaires Sensibles, simplifier l’orthographe ? Mission impossible !

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

I read two of these Wikipedia AI detection test articles and guessed both correctly, somewhat to my amazement - but it is a very disconcerting exercise. In the current climate I must say I cherish Wikipedia.

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

On the Commune de Paris as a civil war reflecting France's (ongoing?) social, economic and geographical fault lines: Michel Winock discusses the topic of his latest book in this #frenchpodcast. shows.acast.com/storiavoce/e...

shows.acast.com

La Commune de Paris : la guerre civile des Français, avec Michel Winock | Storiavoce

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

I'm delighted that my latest article, on French colonial novels, is published open access. First-cousin marriage, anxiety about racial purity, femmes fatales, unhappy endings... and Propp-inspired analysis of character and function. @tandfresearch.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

The endings of empire: reading for the (colonial) plot

What can the analysis of plot patterns in colonial fiction written in the expansionist period of modern French imperialism (1880–1920) tell us about the relationship between culture and empire? Fre...

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Jennifer Yee @jenwhy.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Is this really the oldest bookshop in the world ? The Livraria Bertrand in Lisbon.

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