History and heritage of Normandy and Great Britain

I am a french journalist specializing in history and heritage, passionate about Norman and British civilizations, and relations that unite the two cultures. My career spans more than forty years in France and England, with a majority in the field of architecture, constructive techniques, and historical research. Founder and former editor-in-chief, for fourteen years, of a famous architecture magazine, I have also written numerous historical articles and essays in leading national and international publications, contributed to historians' books, lectured and led institutional debates in the heritage sector. I am laureate of the 2015 Journalist Prize awarded by the Demeure Historique group. The HASTINGS ! podcast is a series of original audio shows targeting all those passionate about British and Norman history : Discovery of unknown characters, reports, historical stories, interesting meetings, reflections on art and architecture, proposed in a lively and dynamic broadcasting...
 

In addition to my usual publications, I quickly became interested in the world of the podcast: it is an extremely flexible media, complementary to other means of information and dissemination, and which allows to address a public freely , worldwide.... Well, as long as you understand french, of course !! But a lot of people understand French all over the place, in many countries, students, for example. In fact, I want to share my passion for History as much as possible. I created HASTINGS! at the start of 2020.
 

Right now, I'm producing about one episode a month, but I'm going to increase that production rate very soon, as I see more and more listeners wanting more. Time is not a problem: my podcast is just a new aspect of my job as a journalist. It usually only takes a day or two to produce and complete an episode ... but on the other hand, the research necessary to deal with the subject has sometimes taken several weeks, and sometimes several months. And yes, I finance everything myself.
 

What I gain from podcasting ? Well, the friendship and loyalty of my listeners, I hope !! I didn't create the podcast to make money, everything is open access. But that does not mean that the work I am offering is not professional. And then, if that can make listeners want to take an interest in my career, so much the better.
 

During my (long) career, I have also done a lot of radio, so I know how to produce and direct. A podcast requires relatively little material, but it should be of good quality. Personally, I have equipped myself with a small studio with computers, microphone, recorders, etc. Audacity is an essential software, of course. Each episode is prepared in advance, the text written, the voice recorded separately. The music and sound effects are then selected (licenses must be bought if necessary), then mixed. Everything is then prepared as a final mix, then compressed to obtain good regularity in the listening dynamics.
 

I am present on almost all platforms and apps available, as well as on my personal website, of course. I'm also starting to promote the podcast through my "traditional" publications in magazines.
 

The most important piece of advice I can give is to make quality episodes, technically speaking. We sometimes hear podcasters who tell very interesting things, but whose production is so amateurish that it ruins all their work. On the other hand, we must ... have something to say! I have listened to podcasters who seemed very happy to speak into a microphone, but who ended up annoying the listener with endless chatter of little interest.
 

To know more about me, you can go to my personal website : www.anglonormanhistory.fr
Some parts are in English, and to contact me, there is the "contact" page, it's very simple. Oh, and then, of course, I speak / write English (more or less, as you can see) !!