Freek Braeckman is staying overnight at BV's for his new podcast: “I don't come there as a journalist, but just as a curious person”

showbizFreek Braeckman (42) surprised with a brand new podcast. In ‘Freek Stays Sleeping’ the VTM news anchor visits BVs with a small microphone and, as the name suggests, also stays overnight with them: “I want to stay with them so that I can get a good picture of them by morning. have,” it sounds. And he’s not just talking about their character. “Niels Destadsbader is a better entertainer than a cook.”

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Lise Collin

15 dec. 2021

Latest update:
10:44

‘Freek Stays Sleeping’, Freek Braeckman’s new podcast, can be heard from 15 December on hln.be, Spotify and Apple. Listen to the first episode below.

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“Of course I don’t want any cameras in my house either,” says Freek Braeckman. “But that’s the fun part when I drop by: I just ring the doorbell — without a camera crew. I only bring a microphone and my toothbrush. This way the listener can go inside, but my host or hostess is not hurt in his or her privacy.” The decision to go for a podcast was an obvious choice, he says. “I once started on radio and I have always found that a very nice medium. It also feels much more natural. When I have to do an interview for the news, there’s camera crews, a drone, a makeup team — and you even have to sit in a certain way. That is not necessary here.”

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The pasta sauce from Helmut Lotti

“In the meantime I have already recorded a number of episodes and they have been fantastic so far”, Freek continues. “My hosts don’t have to do anything special either, because I stay in the background when they cook or have to walk their dogs. Can I already tell who can cook well? Let’s say Niels Destadsbader is a better entertainer than a cook. (laughs) But he cooked for me, and we had a great laugh about that. Nora Gharib didn’t feel like cooking, so we ordered pizza so we could chat longer. Helmut Lotti, on the other hand, had prepared a very extensive three-course menu — he had even prepared a pasta sauce in advance, which was really delicious.” Does Freek always expect an extensive menu as a guest? “No, it is not. If someone just wants to give me a sandwich, that’s fine too. I am just present, live your life.”

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I don’t come here as a journalist. I’m just going to sleep as a curious human being. And so I don’t ask questions in advance

Freek Braeckman

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Sleeping in people’s homes: it’s something he’s used to from his teenage years. “I used to do fencing”, says Freek, “a relatively small sport, with the result that there was little extra budget for it. When I went on an internship in Belarus, for example, there was simply no money to spend two weeks in a hotel there. So I stayed there sleeping with people I only knew a little bit about fencing. I didn’t speak the language and you don’t really know those people very well, but by staying with them you develop a very intimate bond. You have to. That’s one of those specific intimacy you’d never have with a stranger on the bus. If someone sits next to you there, you would rather stick a plastic bag in between,” he laughs.

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Take prejudices with you

The focus of Braeckman’s podcast is on a natural, unforced conversation, so he doesn’t ask questions beforehand. “In my daily work as a news anchor at ‘VTM Nieuws’ I am prepared in journalism for every interview. I know exactly how to handle that, because sometimes I only have 4 to 5 minutes to ask questions. While I do know the people here, but I’m not going to look up all the articles about that person in advance. Precisely because I don’t really want to arrive there as a journalist. In this case I am a person who stays the night and thinks: ‘I am very curious about you and I would like to get to know you.’” This is how he puts himself in the place of his listeners. “I come and bring along the ‘prejudice’ that the listener also has. For example, everyone thinks that Niels, the star of the moment, has to live in a huge villa somewhere and that he has a cook who makes food for him. But he just lives in a house next to his parents and drops his dog there when he goes jogging to be fit for the Sportpaleis. That’s just a boy like everyone else.” The journalist in Freek nicely summarizes his attitude towards his guests: “Uninhibited, naturally biased and curious. So I am a guest.”

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Extra for himself

All well and good, staying the night, but what happens the morning after? “I stop recording when I crawl into my bed. Purely practically, I stay the night, because otherwise you have to pretend to get into bed — only to get up again to clean up all your recordings. Then you’re acting and I just didn’t want to do that. But I’m also just curious. That conversation at breakfast is actually the most fun of all, but I don’t have to broadcast it. That is the luxury of a journalist, the extra for yourself.”

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