Satire and Terror: A Conversation with the Editor-in-Chief of Charlie Hebdo

War on the Rocks

News, Politics

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2017

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ryan spent a week in France earlier this year and was fortunate to meet with Gérard Biard, the editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo, the ever-irreverent French satirical magazine that made international headlines almost three years ago when jihadist terrorists attacked their office in Paris. Gérard spoke with Ryan about everything from the impact of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, how the ideal of French secularism contrasts with its American counterpart, the nature of the satire they do better than anyone, and why some people still don't get it. They discussed why satirizing Islam and other religions when they the political arena is not just fair game, but even important. And they close with Charlie Hebdo's origins (Did you know the name in part comes from the fact that its predecessor magazine was the first to publish Charlie Brown in France?) and the challenges of satirizing Trump ("What could we write that would be funnier than a tweet from Donald Trump?").

Special thanks to Iskander Rehman, for doing the translation and voiceover, and Jamie McGuire, the sound engineer who worked with him on it.

If you're a French speaker and want a version without an English voiceover, then click here, where you can download that as an mp3.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the War on the Rocks podcast on Strategy, Defense, and Foreign Affairs.
0:13.0	My name's Ryan Evans, I'm the Editor-in-The- Rocks.
0:16.1	In the fall, I was lucky to be in Paris for a week.
0:18.8	And while I was there, I was privileged to meet with Gerard Beard, the editor of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebedo.
0:25.0	For Americans, Charlie Hebedo is most famous for being targeted by Giardis Terrace.
0:29.0	In that attack, 12 people were killed, including many members of the magazine staff, and another 11 were wounded.
0:36.0	Gerard was kind enough to sit down with me and chat without free speech, religion, and politics,
0:40.3	satire, to include satirizing sensitive topics, the history of the magazine,
0:45.0	Satire in the age of Donald Trump, and how the attacks changed Charlie Hebdo or didn't.
0:50.0	It is really one of the most interesting conversations I've had in years of doing the War on the
0:57.0	next podcast. Before we get into it, a very special thanks to Iskander Remen, my friend in one of our writers,
1:00.3	who served as our interpreter, and Jamie McGuire, the sound engineer who worked with
1:04.3	a scounder up at Salve Regina University.
1:07.0	They both worked very hard on this and we appreciate it. So it's been two years, eight months since the attack on Charlie Hebdo, which already a very famous publication here in France,
1:27.2	but made it a very famous publication all around the world.
1:30.5	How is your publication different today than it was the day before that attack?
1:36.0	Dijah, we're not passed it to the latter. First of all we went from a small French, quintessentially French really,
1:50.3	press publication that was struggling financially like a lot of newspapers to a
1:57.8	paper that was at the heart of the news. That is to say we crossed over to the other side.
2:05.0	We crossed over to the other side.
2:09.0	Not of the mirror, but of the mic,
2:12.0	as we can see with your interview of me today in some ways. And so that changed a lot of things for us and for the paper. We became aware of the fact that we didn't just have a message but that we were
	...

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