"What smoker are you?

This is the traditional phrase that Camille Diao and Christophe Payet put to the guests of Banana Kush, their podcast on cannabis cultivation.

Clever, very rhythmic, searched and thought of as a pop object, it is full of illustrations from films or music sticking to the theme of the podcast thanks to the creative sound production of Charlène Nouyoux.

In short, this podcast is a great treat.

It's been three seasons since the two journalists, who released their first episode at Radio Nova, where they worked before leaving, chose to talk about this so-called soft drug.

In Banana Kush, we hear personalities, anonymous and a strong desire to inform and rise to the top.

Attention, highly flammable subject.

“With 5 million annual consumers, France is the biggest market in Europe but also the most repressive.

It is an undeniable fact of society, but when we talk about it, it is often under the judicial aspect.

It remains a taboo and we wanted to chronicle its uses, from a cultural and societal angle, ”the duo explains to us.

Everyone - or almost - does it, so few talk about it

A law prohibits the presentation of drugs in a favorable light; they pride themselves on doing journalism, constructing with high standards, a lot of interviews and research, the episodes. "We do not want to be in the apology, nor in the incitement, but in the analysis and the opening of the word", specifies Camille Diao. The main challenge of the podcast is finding guests. Indeed, how do you know who is familiar, or even a user of cannabis? Various personalities such as Lio, Matthieu Kassovitz, Frédéric Begbeider and others have agreed to participate.

“But not all of our guests smoke!

They always have a look and a discourse on drug consumption, points out Camille Diao, who also officiates every evening in

C tonight

, on France 5. We throw out invitations by chance, sometimes we ask a lot of people around us .

We wanted to respect parity, but it's difficult to have women.

That's what encouraged us to do our weed and chicks episode.

Many of them told us that they smoked but did not want to talk about it publicly.

"

A book on fire

Smoking or showing interest in the substance - illicit, let us remember - remains stigmatizing and penalizing in particular for women. If they concede that the general discourse has changed a little in the media, the clichés remain stubborn. "It's important for us to give voice to people who consume it and to break stereotypes like that of the guy from the suburbs at the bottom of the towers," explains Christophe Payet. Lots of diverse people smoke. We dream of hosting a business manager, for example… ”

Since season 2, launched thanks to a crowdfunding in spring 2020, Christophe Payet has created Nique, a label that produces and distributes Banana Kush, - broadcast for a time by Binge Audio - and is also developing an activity ... as a publishing house.

In January 2022, Camille Diao and Christophe Payet released a book of interviews adapted from the podcast published by Nique les éditions, in the same vein as the show: pedago, full of sourced information.

His title ?

Me, myself and high.

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Liliane Rovère, one of the co-stars of the Ten percent series, confided in her youth in the cellars of Saint-Germain at the microphone of Camille Diao and Christophe Payet.

It is this episode that earned the Banana Kush team the opportunity to compete in the conversation category - awarded by the jury - and audience prize at the Paris podcast festival.

The 4th edition of this event with conferences, networking and preview listening to new podcasts will be held from October 14 to 17 at the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris.

  • Hashish

  • Drug

  • Culture

  • Cannabis

  • Podcast

  • Media