A School Of Public Affairs alumna creates a podcast on the workings of the French healthcare system

Laure Descamps studied at Sciences Po's Collège Universitaire (Paris Campus), then at the School of Public Affairs, as part of the Master in Public Policy, in the Health stream, from which she graduated in 2023. Alongside her studies at Sciences Po, she began a second Master's degree at Université Paris-Dauphine, which she completed in 2024. It was during this course that she met Juliette Crétel, with whom she came up with the idea of creating a podcast on the workings of the French healthcare system, a project she had been working on since her gap year at Sciences Po. Meet Juliette. 

You created the "Santéresser" podcast. In what context did this creation take place and how did you come up with the idea ? 

Our Santéresser podcast was born out of a shared desire to pursue a group project that was initially limited to an academic context. Created as part of a 'Project Management' course for the Master 1 in Health Economics and Management (Université Paris-Dauphine PSL), the Santéresser podcast was initially run by five people. At the end of the course in 2022, Juliette and a friend and I decided to take the idea further and actually produce the podcast. So, since January 2024, the first season of Santéresser has finally been available on all listening platforms, and there are now two of us working on the project.

Coming back to the creation of this project, the podcast format as the subject of the project was quickly approved by the whole initial group. As everyone in the group listens to podcasts, this format seemed to be relevant for all the potential it contained for a project talking about Health: its accessibility, a format adaptable to everyone's preferences, and above all, freedom of creation from A to Z. And indeed, after a year and a half's work on this project, the creative freedom of a podcast may seem vertiginous at first. But in the end it's essential if we want to create a project that sticks 100% to the original idea. 

What topics are discussed? 

As its name suggests, Santéresser is a podcast about health, and more specifically how the French healthcare system works. Our aim is to explain the mechanisms and problems of our healthcare system in simple terms, through themed seasons on well-known but often misunderstood topics. To do this, we sometimes have the support of certain experts who come and answer our questions based on their areas of expertise. For this season 1, our episodes lasted an average of 20 minutes and all followed the same structure, i.e. a practical first part, a 2nd part setting out historical milestones and a 3rd part that was more reflective, bringing up one or more issues linked to the theme of the episode.

Our first season is entitled "Playing cards on the table" and focuses on the main cards in our healthcare system. Starting with the carte vitale and ending with the carte mobilité inclusion (CMI), we have tried to question these cards in order to examine some of the issues they may cover. We were lucky enough to have the support of two guests, Eileen Rocard, a former consultant at the OECD, and Anne Revillard, a sociologist at Sciences Po (as well as a member of CRIS and director of LIEPP) for episodes 4 and 6. Having guests is invaluable, as their expertise enables us to be more sharp on the subjects we choose. 

Do you already have plans for a sequel to season 1? 

We certainly do! The end of season 1 marks the start of a new phase for Santéresser, which will first take a short rest before returning at the beginning of June with a new season about medicines. We're still working on this second season, but we already want to change the format in terms of length and the structure of the episodes. We can't wait to get into an area we know less about than the themes chosen for the first season. 

Do the courses you have taken in the health policy stream help you to better understand the issues involved in health and to conduct your interviews? 

Having chosen the Health policy stream of the Master in Public Policy, and more generally having spent my entire academic curriculum at Sciences Po, obviously gives me a better understanding of the issues facing our healthcare system. The richness of the syllabus and the courses I've taken give me an idea of the knowledge I've already acquired of our healthcare system. The interviews and research that we do before we create the episodes help to give us a more technical understanding of health issues. 

What are your career plans? Are you thinking of focusing your career on podcasting or is this a project that you'll be doing alongside your professional life? 

For Juliette, as for me, this podcast is a project that we're currently carrying out alongside our academic career and that we'll be carrying out next year alongside our professional life. Above all, it's a hobby that we'd like to share with people who are curious about the world of healthcare, and which allows us to develop different skills (from sound mixing to setting up a business) while enabling us to learn more and more about a world that we're passionate about!

At the end of this year, which will also mark the end of our respective apprenticeships, Juliette wants to stay in the world of public drug regulation. For my part, I'm quite convinced about working in the world of healthcare, but I haven't yet found the best way to express this desire. 

learn more

• Le podcast Santéresser (in French)
• The Health policy stream (French track) and the Global Health policy stream (English track) at the School of Public Affairs