Pierre Rosanvallon and Emmanuelle Saada engage in a conversation around Pierre Rosanvallon’s project Raconter la vie (loosely translated as “telling life”), a collection of books and a participatory website, which tell the stories of ordinary people. The collection uses multiple approaches – testimonials, sociological analysis, journalistic investigation and ethnographic literature. In Raconter la vie all hierarchies between “genres” and “styles” are abolished; crude words are considered as legitimate as scholarly writings. This virtual space welcomes all life stories equally and under the same conditions. Pierre Rosanvallon is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Political History at the College de France. Emmanuelle Saada is Associate Professor at Columbia University’s Department of French and Romance Philology and Director of the Center for French and Francophone Studies.