A new bilingual Belgian podcast has launched with an ambitious aim: unifying Belgians through shared culture.
The De Groot podcast, launched by host Charles De Groot, is rowing against the political tide in Belgium, which feels split as ever, with Flemish nationalism dominating politics in the north of the country.
Fresh from forming the only pan-Belgian party called L’Unie, De Groot wants to continue this work with a new bilingual podcast about Belgian culture.
He was born in a bilingual family and is a native speaker of both languages. With the podcast, he wants to change the notion of "little Belgium", hence the name of the podcast: De Groot translates in (old) Dutch to "the Great".
Moreover, he wants to share unique Belgian stories to contribute to the overall national motto that unity is strength.
"When people talk about Belgium on TV, it is mostly to talk about budgets, bureaucracy," De Groot told The Brussels Times.
"To put Belgians in a better light, this podcast will explore 50 Belgian artists, athletes, entrepreneurs or experts in 2026, Dutch and French speakers alike."
De Groot Podcast with guests DAAN (episode 2) and Nicolas Dardenne aka Obelgix (episode 1)
Every episode is broadcast in either French or Dutch via social media. Luckily, YouTube’s auto-translation feature can plug the language gaps, so all linguistic communities can enjoy the shows, including non-French and Dutch-speakers.
In every episode, each guest is asked the same question: "What is Belgium for you?" From there, De Groot develops the conversation and the guest’s unique story about Belgium.
So far, two episodes have been released, with Belgian musician and icon DAAN in Dutch, as well as entrepreneur Nicolas Dardenne (aka Obelgix) in French.
The former is a well-established rock music musician from Leuven, who replies to the question by saying, "Belgium is a playground".
Obelgix is known for being a Red Devils super-fan who dresses up like the character from the Belgian comic, Asterix & Obelix.
During the episode, he shares his experiences of Belgium’s historic third place in the Russian World Cup in 2018, a unique moment in Belgium’s recent history that brought the country together.
For De Groot, the project aims to make Belgians proud by giving space to their stories, their doubts, their successes, and what makes them unique, as a way of inspiring the population.
De Groot Podcast's Episode II with Daan
The podcast has notched up 700,000 views on social media, according to De Groot, who says the reaction so far has been "overwhelmingly positive".
"Both in person and online, there have been good reactions. Someone commented on the episode with DAAN in Dutch by saying a sentence I found quite beautiful:
'He is right! We’re not 'proud' to be Belgians (as we hear from most other nations), we’re ‘happy’ to be Belgians."
The De Groot podcast is available in French and Dutch on YouTube, as well as on other mainstream social media platforms.
