To see the full show notes, including a full list of sources and music used for this episode, visit the podcast webpage at Paris Unlocked.

Josephine Baker is best known as the African-American performer and dancer who took Paris by storm in the 1920s with her own takes on the Charleston and the Black Bottom, performed in an iconic banana skirt. But Baker, who became a French citizen, shouldn't be reduced to this stereotypical image. She starred in numerous films, opened her own clubs, and as a member of France's counterintelligence agency Deuxième Bureau during World War II, proved a talented spy and resistance fighter, using her performer status as her only cloak and dagger.

In later life, she was a civil rights activist and humanitarian who spoke at the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963, taking the podium right before Martin Luther King, Jr. And her later shows, performed amid chronic health problems, only cemented her fame by showing Baker was as charismatic and original as ever. Baker was, in short, a complex and remarkable woman: one who deserves to be remembered for the many facets of her career and legacy, rather than for one iconic moment in the 1920s.

Show Credits & Notes

• Production: This episode was conceived, written, narrated, and edited by Courtney Traub. The Producer was Brendan Whalen, who also contributed additional research and script editing.
• Audio Editing: Additional editing and sound design was by Engin Hassan of Edit Fade Warp.
• Artwork: Mateeya
• Translations: All original French quotes translated by Courtney Traub unless specified.

Support the Show

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast, and share it as widely as you can. You can really help the French Culture Podcast grow and thrive by:

• Buying us a coffee (give whatever you can)-- via Ko-Fi
• Becoming a "Donor Subscriber" on Substack for unlimited access to our archive of Paris and France-related news, travel tips, essays, and personalized travel advice, plus access to bonus episodes and early releases from this podcast.

To see the full show notes, including a full list of sources and music used for this episode, visit the podcast webpage at Paris Unlocked.

In this episode, Part II of our look at France's most-beloved diva, we’ll be focusing on a few key phases and turning points in Piaf’s life, especially pivotal moments in her musical artistry and the collaborations that made those pivots possible. You’ll also learn a bit about her appearances in theatre and films. Piaf was a talented theatrical performer, but this aspect of her career hasn’t typically received that much attention. Yet she moved with remarkable ease between concert halls, stages and film sets– and I think she could have had a formidable career as an actor, had she wanted one.

Credits & Notes

• Production: This episode was conceived, written, narrated, and edited by Courtney Traub.
• Producer: Brendan Whalen (who also contributed additional research, script editing, and voiceovers).
• Audio Engineering: Additional audio editing and sound design was by Engin Hassan of Edit Fade Warp.
• Artwork: Mateeya
• Translations: French quotes and song translations by Courtney Traub, unless specified.

You can also lend your precious support to both the French Culture Podcast and to our sister website and newsletter, Paris Unlocked, by buying us a coffee– or even better, becoming a “Donor Subscriber” on Substack.

The problem of fair use and music clips: As I discuss in the episode, I was unable to secure the rights to Piaf’s music, in order to play short excerpts of the songs I reference in this episode.There is no “safe” amount of a piece of copyrighted music that one can play under fair use laws, so I preferred to be cautious.

Spotify playlist: Please listen to the songs referred to in this episode by going to the Spotify playlist I’ve put together. It’s less ideal than playing clips from the songs in the episode, but it’s (at the least) a way to listen .

To see the full show notes, including a full list of sources and music used for this episode, visit the podcast webpage at Paris Unlocked.

More than a mere diva, Piaf was something of a force of nature. She had an uncanny ability to reach a wide public with her soaring, guttural voice, but also with her odd physical presence. She captivated audiences around the world with her repertoire of French working-class dance hall hits, love songs and portraits of marginalized women, from prostitutes to penniless, unmarried mademoiselles embarking on ill-fated affairs with military men.

In this first of two episodes on Piaf, we'll address some of the holes at the heart of the Piaf myth, in order to, I hope, get at the immensely complex and fascinating woman that she was. So often painted as a tragic figure, she was a survivor. She was an acerbic wit with mad street smarts, an eternal vagabond with an instinct for survival and a conjoined, paradoxical instinct for self-destruction.

Show Credits & Notes

• Production: This episode was conceived, written, narrated, and edited by Courtney Traub. The Producer was Brendan Whalen, who also contributed additional research and script editing.
• Audio Editing: Additional editing and sound design was by Engin Hassan of Edit Fade Warp.
• Artwork: Mateeya
• Translations: All original French quotes translated by Courtney Traub unless specified.

Support the Show

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast, and share it as widely as you can. You can really help the French Culture Podcast grow and thrive by:

• Buying us a coffee (give whatever you can)-- via Ko-Fi
• Becoming a "Donor Subscriber" on Substack for unlimited access to our archive of Paris and France-related news, travel tips, essays, and personalized travel advice, plus access to bonus episodes and early releases from this podcast.

A Note on Music Clips & Fair Use (& my Spotify playlist)

As discussed in the episode, copyright restrictions prevented securing the rights to play excerpts of Piaf’s music. Please listen to the songs referred to in this episode by going to the Spotify playlist I’ve put together. It’s less ideal than playing clips from the songs in the episode, but it’s (at the least) a way to listen .