by Laura Jones
Published on February 20, 2025
9 best French podcasts for all levels
Are you looking for a fun and effective way to improve your French? Podcasts are an excellent tool for learners of all levels.
Are you looking for a fun and effective way to improve your French? Podcasts are an excellent tool for learners of all levels.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or nearly fluent, the right podcast can boost your listening comprehension, expand your vocabulary, and help you hear French as it’s actually spoken. In this guide, we’ll highlight the best French podcasts for every level, from beginner-friendly storytelling to advanced discussions on philosophy and global news.
Podcasts are a powerful way to improve your French. They expose you to natural speech patterns, idioms, and real-world topics, boosting your listening comprehension skills but also allowing you to encounter tons of new vocabulary and hear grammatical structures used in context.
One of the biggest advantages of podcasts is their flexibility — busy learners can listen anytime, anywhere. Whether you have five minutes on your commute or a longer stretch while the rest of your house is sleeping, you can pop in your headphones and immediately be transported to the French-speaking world. This is immersion without travel, as the sounds of la francophonie come to you (and hopefully help prepare you for a future trip!).
To make real progress in French, you need to actively use the language. Lingoda’s small-group classes are led by native-level teachers, who will help you to speak with confidence from day one. Podcasts are a great addition to more structured courses like ours.
This podcast offers bite-sized lessons for five different levels, starting with absolute beginners. Coffee Break French is perfect for those starting from scratch, and the beginner’s series is designed to help you use French confidently while traveling, like when ordering food and navigating public transport. It’s available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
With Duolingo’s French podcast, you can listen to stories with dialogue from the main character or characters in French. The great thing for beginners is that the storyline is narrated in English, so listeners have lots of context to aid understanding. These podcasts are a great introduction to real-life French and follow diverse subjects, from the person who reads French train announcements to an undercover clown.
If you’re looking for short but very sweet episodes, check out French Today’s Easy French Poetry Podcast. In each episode, you’ll hear a classic French poem, giving you a chance to learn poetic expressions and simple language structures. Some episodes feature an analysis of the text and information about the author for those of you who want to go deeper.
This is one of the best French language podcasts for B1 and B2-level learners. InnerFrench covers French culture and current affairs in clear French, with topics ranging from ecology to literature to sport. The podcast has a vibrant community that often comments on episodes, allowing you to interact and use the language you’re learning.
LanguaTalk’s Slow French podcast allows you to learn about the culture of the Francophone world in an accessible way. It’s perfect for learners who are ready to transition into native-level content but still feel they need some guidance. Each Slow French episode comes with an interactive transcript, meaning you can click on any word in the transcript to hear it again. The episodes also come with a list of key vocabulary.
Culture G (culture générale) is a great podcast for learning on the go. Most of the episodes are short — seven minutes or less — and allow you to learn quick facts and trivia in French. With titles like “What is Peter Pan syndrome” and “Who chooses the names of storms?” there’s something for everyone.
For those ready to listen to extended speech in native-level French, the podcast Grand Reportage from RFI presents global news in journalistic French. The episodes are generally around 19 minutes long and go deep into world events, covering topics such as Argentina’s last jaguars and women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Transfert is one of the best French-language podcasts out there. It gives you a fascinating glimpse into the hidden corners of people’s lives. Gripping stories are published every week, giving you a chance to learn complex vocabulary in context. Start with Transfert’s ten best episodes, in which you can follow the story of Hugo, whose friendship with neighbors turned into an obsession, or Victoria, who gets over a breakup in Italy.
If you think all the podcasts mentioned so far are too easy for you, let us introduce Les Chemins de la philosophie. With philosophical discussions that challenge even native speakers, this podcast is only for truly advanced French speakers.
For learners, one of the greatest tools that comes with a podcast is the transcript. You might want to read along while you listen or go back to the transcript later to check something you missed or highlight key vocabulary and new structures. You can even…
Remember that you can adjust the playback speed of podcasts based on your comfort level. If you find an episode on a really interesting topic but can’t keep up with the flow of rapid speech, slow it down.
As useful as they are, podcasts alone won’t make you fluent in French. You’ll need to use a range of resources, like grammar books and vocabulary learning apps. You can also consider taking a French course with Lingoda for structured learning and a chance to actively practice speaking the language with native-level teachers.
The best podcast to learn French depends on your level. Coffee Break French is excellent for beginners, InnerFrench is great for intermediate learners with an interest in French culture, and Grand Reportage is perfect for advanced speakers who want to discover world news through a French lens.
Transfert was the most downloaded podcast in France in 2024.
Yes, listening to podcasts is one of the best ways to learn French, as they can improve your listening skills and introduce you to new vocabulary and structures.
No matter your level, podcasts are one of the best resources to learn French. Beginners can ease in with guided storytelling, intermediate learners can explore current events, and advanced speakers can challenge themselves with native-level philosophical discussions. Combining listening to podcasts with a French course from Lingoda can give you the best of both worlds: a huge boost to your listening skills and a chance to really use the language you’ve learned.
