The history of podcasts at the Collège de France is part of a tradition that goes back almost five hundred years. Founded in 1530 by François Ist , the institution has always sought to disseminate new knowledge without condition or restriction, to the point of offering free lectures open to all. For centuries, this dissemination of knowledge related to the sciences, arts and letters took place exclusively in the heart of the Latin Quarter.
Twenty years ago, taking advantage of the rise of the Internet and under the impetus of its Chairman, Professor Pierre Corvol, the Collège de France set itself a new goal : to extend the audience of its professors beyond the amphitheatres of 11 place Marcelin-Berthelot. The institution gradually put audio recordings of lectures and seminars on its website, followed by video recordings.
It was also during this period that the Collège de France developed its offering on podcast platforms.
The success was rapid, and has been confirmed ever since : millions of downloads have been counted. The Collège de France became one of the first institutions in the world to offer all its lectures as free digital access.
Twenty years later, the Collège de France has thirteen thousand lectures, conferences and seminars freely available on the institution's official website, as well as on YouTube, the Radio France app and major platforms (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer...). Numerous partners have supported him in this adventure, from the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, which helped amplify this effort from 2011 onwards, to Radio France and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which today contribute to the widespread distribution of these lectures and the preservation of these audiovisual archives.
François Ist 's project has thus expanded in time and space, bringing the voice of teachers closer to millions of listeners, weekdays and weekends, day and night... and all over the world.
