Jérémy Barande · CC BY-SA 2.0

Alain Finkielkraut has hosted Répliques, a weekly conversation program on France Culture, since 1986, using the format to argue through ideas rather than simply present them — a public-intellectual career built as much on sustained dialogue as on his own essays. He was elected to the Académie Française in 2014, one of France's highest cultural honors.