Community meals for students in France, who are increasingly facing hardship. Kids react to France's proposed social media ban for the under-15s. And the French explorer who became the first Western woman to travel to deepest Tibet.

Recent data shows one in two university students in France are skipping a meal each day and relying on food handouts. In response, the government is extending a 1-euro meal scheme – introduced during Covid for those on bursaries – to all university students as of May. Student union rep Marian Bloquet outlines why the problems go far beyond food. We also report from the Cop1ne community kitchen in Paris. Run by students for students, it provides cheap, home-cooked food, but also company and solidarity. (Listen @3'20'')

As France prepares to ban children from social media, kids weigh in on their use of the platforms and how they would like to see them regulated. Cybersecurity expert Olivier Blazy considers the technical challenges and privacy issues raised by such a ban. (Listen @20'20'')

The adventurous life of the French explorer Alexandra David-Néel, who in the winter of 1924 became the first European woman to reach Lhasa, Tibet's "forbidden city". (Listen @14'10'')

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

How France negotiates drug prices and the impact of US President Donald Trump's pressure to raise them. The Paris bar celebrating sobriety as more people embrace Dry January. And the radioactive legacy of nuclear testing in French Polynesia.

Saying he wants to lower the price of medication in the United States, President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron to raise the cost of an unspecified pill in France. But it's the French public health system, not Macron, that negotiates with drug companies – keeping prices for patients in check. Sociologist Theo Bourgeron believes that Trump's demand is not about improving access to care, but pressuring countries to weaken price controls and boost US pharmaceutical profits. (Listen @0')

More than a third of the French claim they're not drinking this month to mark Dry January. It's part of a wider trend of falling alcohol consumption in France, particularly among young adults. But in a country famed for its wine and apéro culture, sobriety can be seen as irritating and "un-French". We visit Le Social Bar in Paris, which has gone alcohol-free for January to show you don't need to be tipsy to have a good time. Author Claire Touzard talks about her journey towards sobriety and why alcohol, far from encouraging conviviality, can end up excluding people. And journalist Vincent Edin argues that while France is becoming slightly more tolerant of non-drinkers, successive governments still struggle to recognise that alcoholism is a problem. (Listen @20'15'')

France conducted its final nuclear test on 27 January 1996, ending a programme that has left a lasting legacy of health problems in French Polynesia, the archipelago in the South Pacific that for 30 years was France's nuclear testing ground. Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, a member of the French Polynesian parliament, says the consequences of the testing have been "really traumatic for our people". (Listen @13'50'')

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

An alternative to a retirement home in a mansion near Toulouse, where residents have invented a new way of living together and contributing to society. The David-and-Goliath story of an independent Parisian cinema that's reopening after years of fighting eviction. And the story behind France's annual census.

Scandals over abuse of the elderly in French care homes, combined with growing loneliness among pensioners, are forcing reflection on how – and where – people spend their later years. Three decades after founding the Utopia network of independent cinemas, Anne-Marie Faucon and Michel Malacarnet have turned their energy and experience towards imagining an alternative to traditional retirement homes. Their project, La Ménardiere, is an 18th-century mansion in the small town of Bérat, in south-west France. It operates as a shared-living collective, where residents, known as coopérateurs, are also shareholders. By taking control of their own destinies, they have created a model that also provides services and cultural activities for the surrounding community. Residents describe the approach as ageing together in a house that is “on the offensive”. (Listen @4')

La Clef, an historic arthouse cinema in Paris, has reopened its doors after a group of residents, cinephiles and activists spent years protesting its closure. Ollia Horton met some of those who took part in a years-long occupation of the theatre that resulted in the activists raising enough money to buy the building from owners who wanted to sell the prime piece of real estate in the centre of the city. (Listen @21'48'')

As census-takers fan out around France to begin the annual counting of the population, we look at a process that started in the 14th century. During World War II the census was co-opted by Nazi occupiers to identify Jews, and while it has since stripped out questions relating to race and religion, it recently added controversial ones about parental origins. (Listen @17'10'')

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).