The Socratic Pub, or Pub Socratique as it’s called in Montreal, started as a weekly gathering where attendees can watch and participate in a debate, conversation, or presentation. Jeremy Favreau and staff from P2C-Étudiants (P2C-Students’ French team) find speakers to lead the sessions or debate one another.

“In Quebec, more young people are leaving the faith than ever because the faith is too irrelevant to their lives,” Jeremy said. “At the Pub, we’re trying to connect faith and spirituality with the rest of life.”

When the pandemic happened, the team needed to pivot. After taking time to pause and consider the strengths of the Socratic Pub, they identified the most valuable elements and turned it into a podcast. They planned a series of four episodes, interviewed their experts, and posted the first episode online at the normal Socratic Pub time. The number of live attendees was discouragingly low. Later in the week, however, Jeremy discovered that over 4,000 people had clicked on the video and several hundred had watched all the way through!

“It reached way more people than usual. People who had never come to the Pub beforehand discovered it and loved it online. There aren’t many great podcasts in French, so we’re filling a space here where there’s a clear need.”