THE BEAT ZURICH
Helping people who share a city build a shared understanding of it.
One story, one room, one conversation.
Residents who have never met gather around one local story. They hear it together. Then they discuss it, not as experts, but as neighbours.
At The Beat, we believe that communities don't become cohesive simply because people live side by side. They become cohesive when residents understand issues together, hear different perspectives, and feel confident participating in local conversations.
The challenge
Two neighbours can live on the same street for years and still experience Zurich through completely different information worlds. Some grow up understanding the institutions, politics and debates that shape the city. Others arrive later and build successful lives here, but never have the same opportunities to build that civic context. Without a shared understanding of local issues, it becomes harder for residents to discuss the city's biggest issues together. That's a growing challenge for Zusammenleben.
Here, but not part of the conversation.
Many residents have done everything expected of them. They've learned German, found work, raised families and built long-term lives in Zurich. Yet they still feel like observers rather than participants in local civic life. They're not missing interest. They're missing equal access to the conversations shaping the city. Swiss-born residents lose something too. They rarely hear perspectives from neighbours whose experiences could enrich those conversations.
What our research revealed
We assume time closes the gap. It often doesn't. In our research, how long someone had lived in Zürich made no difference to how connected, informed, or civically engaged they felt. Ten years in isn't the finish line people expect it to be. Most residents we surveyed belonged to zero civic or political groups. Almost none had ever spoken up publicly about an issue here. Not because they don't care. Because no one ever showed them the door in. That's the door The Beat opens.
55%
rate their understanding of important political issues facing Switzerland as "not well" or "not well at all"
88%
have never said anything publicly or online about Swiss politics in the past 12 months
91%
have never participated in an online or public political discussion in the past 12 months
Equal access to information is the first step. Shared conversations are what turn understanding into belonging.
The story creates equal footing.
Information alone rarely changes how strangers talk to each other. Stories do. Every Beat event begins with one deeply reported narrative about a local issue. Everyone hears the same story, at the same time, before anyone speaks. That shared starting point changes the conversation. Nobody needs insider knowledge or years of local context. Nobody arrives as the expert. Everyone enters as a resident with something to contribute. The story creates equal footing. The conversation comes afterwards.
We use journalism as civic infrastructure.
We ask our participants what topics to cover
1
We then produce one deeply reported local news story from that topic
2
We perform this story live for a mixed group of Zurich residents during our events
3
After hearing the story, we facilitate conversations between people who wouldn't normally meet
4
Beyond the event, the story is kept publicly accessible in audio and text format, creating an accessible entry point for new participants
5
Impact
41% of the people in our pilot don't regularly follow local news. Here's what happened when they heard just one story.
Understood the issue better.
9/10 said it helped them understand the issue better
Became more curious about their city.
4.2/5 — more interested in local issues
Dared to talk about it with others.
91% felt comfortable sharing their opinion
Did actually talk to others about it.
58% ended up discussing the topic of The Beat story with someone around them within a month
A Ukrainian graphic designer. A retired Swiss civil servant. A Google employee. A former SECO official. They all heard the same story about Palantir before sitting down together. Thirty minutes later, we had to interrupt the conversation because nobody wanted to stop talking.
Our Team
Between them, The Beat's founders have built award-winning narrative audio, led communications for one of Switzerland's fastest-growing climate companies, worked with national and international media organisations, and spent more than a decade designing communities where strangers feel comfortable talking to one another. They created The Beat to bring those experiences together in service of one question: how can journalism strengthen social cohesion in Zurich?
Jeanne Frémin du Sartel
Co-founder the Beat
Originally from France, Jeanne moved to Zurich in 2018 and became a Swiss citizen in 2023. She leads The Beat's launch strategy, community, outreach, and foundations. She edits the newsletter and handles the initiative's commercial partners.
Before co-founding The Beat, she led communications at Climeworks during its highest-growth years, shaping international campaigns around climate innovation, including COP and the World Economic Forum. She has also worked as a freelance journalist for publications including Le Figaro, Les Échos and LCI.
Alongside her work in communications, Jeanne created Brillantes, an interview podcast exploring women's careers and entrepreneurship, building an audience of more than 16,000 listeners through long-form conversation. She brings expertise in audience growth, partnerships, and building communities around meaningful conversations.
Katarina Hagstedt
Originally from Sweden, Katarina has lived in Zurich since 2014. She runs The Beat's product development, audio production, and event design. She also leads impact strategy and institutional partnerships (ETH, Stadt ZH).
After beginning her career in product and growth roles at Klarna, Groupon and EF Education First, she moved into storytelling audio, co-founding My Survival Story, a documentary platform created with Swiss public broadcaster SRF. The project received international recognition, including a Prix Europa nomination and the sonOhr Award, and her audio storytelling work has twice been nominated for a Webby Award.
Katarina has spent the past decade designing communities that bring strangers into meaningful conversations, including founding HER Global Network and Podcast Club Schweiz.
Co-founder the Beat
Our Partners
Editorial collaborators
Research partner
