Podcasts about Italic

Alessio Torino"Il palio delle rane"Mondadori Editorewww.mondadori.itPerché a Luceoli, nel cuore dell'Appennino, si celebri come tutti gli anni il Palio delle Rane, sono necessarie regole, passione, dedizione. E non solo per trasformare la gara in una manifestazione in costume, colorata e insaporita da piatti “degni della festa”. Ci vuole qualcuno che abbia cura dei piccoli anfibi, che li nutra, che li prepari. E allora ecco, come in una fiaba bizzarra, crudele e dolcissima ci viene incontro la giovane Raniera, Gran Custode del Palio. Per lei, cuore semplice, incantata testimone, tutto cambia quando a terremotare le sue certezze arriva Das Lubbert, che di quelle rane è fratello. Nessuno degli abitanti di Luceoli – tutti incollati alle loro consuetudini – ha mai saputo leggere oltre la corsa degli scarriolanti, oltre il teatro della festa, dei banchetti, oltre i soprannomi che ciascuno si porta addosso. E invece. E invece non era tutto così semplice, neanche per il semplice cuore della Raniera. E adesso che fare? La storia si ribalta? La favola si incrina? In questo rito tribale, arcaico, favoloso, si avverte un confronto serrato con la natura umana e animale. La scrittura di Alessio Torino ci vola dentro a ritmi di ballata, e coglie – fra rane, ragni, topi, cicale cinesi, rondini – un sentimento del tempo che straripa come un torrente, e dice di noi.Alessio Torino è nato a Cagli nel 1975. Ha esordito con Undici decimi (Italic, 2010, premio Bagutta Opera Prima). In seguito ha pubblicato Tetano (2011), Urbino, Nebraska (2013) e Tina (2016), editi da minimum fax; Al centro del mondo (2020) e Cuori in piena (2023), editi da Mondadori. Ha vinto, fra gli altri, il premio Lo Straniero, il premio Frontino Montefeltro e il premio Mondello. Tetano e Urbino, Nebraska sono stati ristampati negli Oscar Mondadori (rispettivamente nel 2023 e 2025). Ha scritto Passare il fiume (Orecchio Acerbo, 2024), illustrato da Simone Massi con il quale ha collaborato in sede di sceneggiatura per il film di animazione Invelle (2024).IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarewww.ilpostodelleparole.itDiventa un supporter di questo podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/il-posto-delle-parole--1487855/support.

Cybersecurity in Italy: ITASEC 2025 Recap & Future Outlook with Professor Alessandro ArmandoCybersecurity is no longer a niche topic—it's a fundamental pillar of modern society. And in Italy, ITASEC has become the go-to event for bringing together researchers, government officials, and industry leaders to tackle the biggest security challenges of our time.Although we weren't there in person this year, we're diving into everything that happened at ITASEC 2025 in this special On Location recap with Professor Alessandro Armando. As Deputy Director of the Cybersecurity National Laboratory at CINI and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the SERICS Foundation, Alessandro has a front-row seat to the evolution of cybersecurity in Italy.This year's event, held in Bologna, showcased the growing maturity of Italy's cybersecurity landscape, featuring keynotes, technical sessions, and even hands-on experiences for the next generation of security professionals. From government regulations like DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) to the challenges of AI security, ITASEC 2025 covered a vast range of topics shaping the future of digital defense.One major theme? Cybersecurity as an investment, not just a cost. Italian companies are increasingly recognizing security as a competitive advantage—something that enhances trust and reputation rather than just a compliance checkbox.We also discuss the critical role of education in cybersecurity, from university initiatives to national competitions that are training the next wave of security experts. With programs like Cyber Challenge.IT, Italy is making significant strides in developing a strong cybersecurity workforce, ensuring that organizations are prepared for the evolving threat landscape.And of course, Alessandro shares a big reveal: ITASEC 2026 is heading to Sardinia! A stunning location for what promises to be another exciting edition of the conference.Join us for this insightful discussion as we reflect on where cybersecurity in Italy is today, where it's headed, and why events like ITASEC matter now more than ever.

This episode we are taking a trip down the Silk Road--or perhaps even the Spice Road--as we investigate references in this reign to individuals from "Tukara" who seem to have arrived in Yamato and stayed for a while. For photos and more, see our podcast webpage:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-119 Rough Transcript   Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  This is episode 119: The Question of “Tukara”   Traveling upon the ocean was never exactly safe.  Squalls and storms could arise at any time, and there was always a chance that high winds and high waves could capsize a vessel.  Most people who found themselves at the mercy of the ocean could do little but hold on and hope that they could ride out whatever adverse conditions they met with.  Many ships were lost without any explanation or understanding of what happened to them.  They simply left the port and never came back home. And so when the people saw the boat pulling up on the shores of Himuka, on the island of Tsukushi, they no doubt empathized with the voyagers' plight.  The crew looked bedraggled, and their clothing was unfamiliar.  There were both men and women, and this didn't look like your average fishing party.  If anything was clear it was this:  These folk weren't from around here. The locals brought out water and food.  Meanwhile, runners were sent with a message:  foreigners had arrived from a distant place.  They then waited to see what the government was going to do.     We are still in the second reign of Takara Hime, aka Saimei Tenno.  Last episode we talked about the palaces constructed in Asuka, as well as some of the stone works that have been found from the period, and which appear to be referenced in the Nihon Shoki—at least tangentially.   The episodes before that, we looked at the expeditions the court sent to the far north of Honshu and even past Honshu to Hokkaido. This episode we'll again be looking past the main islands of the archipelago to lands beyond.  Specifically, we are going to focus on particularly intriguing references to people from a place called “Tukara”.  We'll talk about some of the ideas about where that might be, even if they're a bit  far-fetched. That's because Tukara touches on the state of the larger world that Yamato was a part of, given its situation on the far eastern edge of what we know today as the Silk Road.  And is this just an excuse for me to take a detour into some of the more interesting things going on outside the archipelago?  No comment. The first mention of a man from Tukara actually comes at the end of the reign of Karu, aka Koutoku Tennou.  We are told that in the fourth month of 654 two men and two women of “Tukara” and one woman of “Sha'e” were driven by a storm to Hiuga.  Then, three years later, the story apparently picks up again, though possibly referring to a different group of people.  On the 3rd day of the 7th month of 657, so during the second reign of Takara Hime, we now hear about two men and four women of the Land of Tukara—no mention of Sha'e—who drifted to Tsukushi, aka Kyushu.  The Chronicles mention that these wayfarers first drifted to the island of Amami, and we'll talk about that in a bit, but let's get these puzzle pieces on the table, first.  After those six people show up, the court sent for them by post-horse.  They must have arrived by the 15th of that same month, because we are told that a model of Mt. Sumi was erected and they—the people from Tukara—were entertained, although there is another account that says they were from “Tora”. The next mention is the 10th day of the 3rd month of 659, when a Man of Tukara and his wife, again woman of Sha'e, arrived.  Then, on the 16th day of the 7th month of 660, we are told that the man of Tukara, Kenzuhashi Tatsuna, desired to return home and asked for an escort.  He planned to pay his respects at the Great Country, i.e. the Tang court, and so he left his wife behind, taking tens of men with him. All of these entries might refer to people regularly reaching Yamato from the south, from a place called “Tukara”.  Alternately, this is a single event whose story has gotten distributed over several years, as we've seen happen before with the Chronicles.  .  One of the oddities of these entries is that the terms used are not consistent.  “Tukara” is spelled at least two different ways, suggesting that it wasn't a common placename like Silla or Baekje, or even the Mishihase.  That does seem to suggest that the Chronicles were phonetically trying to find kanji, or the Sinitic characters, to match with the name they were hearing.   I would also note that “Tukara” is given the status of a “kuni”—a land, country, or state—while “sha'e”, where some of the women are said to come from, is just that, “Sha'e”. As for the name of at least one person from Tokara, Kenzuhashi Tatsuna, that certainly sounds like someone trying to fit a non-Japanese name into the orthography of the time.  “Tatsuna” seems plausibly Japanese, but “Kenzuhashi” doesn't fit quite as well into the naming structures we've seen to this point. The location of “Tukara” and “Sha'e” are not clear in any way, and as such there has been a lot of speculation about them.  While today there are placenames that fit those characters, whether or not these were the places being referenced at the time is hard to say. I'll actually start with “Sha'e”, which Aston translates as Shravasti, the capital of the ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala, in modern Uttar Pradesh.  It is also where the Buddha, Siddartha Gautama, is said to have lived most of his life after his enlightenment.  In Japanese this is “Sha'e-jou”, and like many Buddhist terms it likely comes through Sanskrit to Middle Chinese to Japanese.  One—or possibly two—women from Shravasti making the journey to Yamato in the company of a man (or men) from Tukara seems quite the feat.  But then, where is “Tukara”? Well, we have at least three possible locations that I've seen bandied about.  I'll address them from the most distant to the closest option.  These three options were Tokharistan, Dvaravati, and the Tokara islands. We'll start with Tokharistan on the far end of the Silk Road.  And to start, let's define what that “Silk Road” means.  We've talked in past episodes about the “Western Regions”, past the Han-controlled territories of the Yellow River.   The ancient Tang capital of Chang'an was built near to the home of the Qin dynasty, and even today you can go and see both the Tang tombs and the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi and his terracotta warriors, all within a short distance of Xi'an, the modern city built on the site of Chang'an.  That city sits on a tributary of the Yellow River, but the main branch turns north around the border of modern Henan and the similarly sounding provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi.  Following it upstream, the river heads north into modern Mongolia, turns west, and then heads south again, creating what is known as the Ordos loop.  Inside is the Ordos plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin.  Continuing to follow the Yellow river south, on the western edge of the Ordos, you travel through Ningxia and Gansu—home of the Hexi, or Gansu, Corridor.  That route eventually takes to Yumenguan, the Jade Gate, and Dunhuang.  From there roads head north or south along the edge of the Taklamakan desert in the Tarim basin.  The southern route travels along the edge of the Tibetan plateau, while the northern route traversed various oasis cities through Turpan, Kucha, to the city of Kashgar.  Both routes made their way across the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush into South Asia. We've brought up the Tarim Basin and the Silk Road a few times.  This is the path that Buddhism appears to have taken to get to the Yellow River Basin and eventually to the Korean Peninsula and eastward to the Japanese archipelago.  But I want to go a bit more into detail on things here, as there is an interesting side note about “Tukara” that I personally find rather fascinating, and thought this would be a fun time to share. Back in Episode 79 we talked about how the Tarim basin used to be the home to a vast inland sea, which was fed by the meltwater from the Tianshan and Kunlun mountains.  This sea eventually dwindled, though it was still large enough to be known to the Tang as the Puchang Sea.  Today it has largely dried up, and it is mostly just the salt marshes of Lop Nur that remain.  Evidence for this larger sea, however, can be observed in some of the burials found around the Tarim basin.  These burials include the use of boat-shaped structures—a rather curious feature to be found out in the middle of the desert. And it is the desert that was left behind as the waters receded that is key to much of what we know about life in the Tarim basin, as it has proven to be quite excellent at preserving organic material.  This includes bodies, which dried out and naturally turned into mummies, including not only the wool clothing they were wearing, but also features such as hair and even decoration. These “Tarim mummies”, as they have been collectively called, date from as early as 2100 BCE all the way up through the period of time we're currently talking about, and have been found in several desert sites: Xiaohe, the earliest yet discovered; Loulan, near Lop Nur on the east of the Tarim Basin, dating from around 1800 BCE; Cherchen, on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, dating from roughly 1000 BCE; and too many others to go into in huge detail. The intriguing thing about these burials is that  many of them don't have features typically associated with people of ethnic Han—which is to say traditional Chinese—ancestry, nor do they necessarily have the features associated with the Xiongnu and other steppe nomads.  In addition they have colorful clothing  made from wool and leather, with vivid designs.  Some bodies near Hami, just east of the basin, were reported to have blonde to light brown hair, and their cloth showed radically different patterns from that found at Cherchen and Loulan, with patterns that could reasonably be compared with the plaids now common in places like Scotland and Ireland, and previously found in the Hallstadt salt mine in Central Europe from around 3500 BCE, from which it is thought the Celtic people may have originated. At the same time that people—largely Westerners— were studying these mummies, another discovery in the Tarim basin was also making waves.  This was the discovery of a brand new language.  Actually, it was two languages—or possibly two dialects of a language—in many manuscripts, preserved in Kucha and Turpan.  Once again, the dry desert conditions proved invaluable to maintain these manuscripts, which date from between the late 4th or early 5th century to the 8th century.  They are written with a Brahmic script, similar to that used for Sanskrit, which appears in the Tarim Basin l by about the 2nd century, and we were able to translate them because many of the texts were copies of Buddhist scripture, which greatly helped scholars in deciphering the languages.  These two languages were fascinating because they represented an as-yet undiscovered branch of the Indo-European language family.  Furthermore, when compared to other Indo-European languages, they did not show nearly as much similarity with their neighbors as with languages on the far western end of the Indo-European language family.  That is to say they were thought to be closer to Celtic and Italic languages than something like Indo-Iranian.  And now for a quick diversion within the diversion:  “Centum” and “Satem” are general divisions of the Indo-European language families that was once thought to indicate a geographic divide in the languages.  At its most basic, as Indo-European words changed over time, a labiovelar sound, something like “kw”,  tended to evolve in one of two ways.  In the Celtic and Italic languages, the “kw” went to a hard “k” sound, as represented in the classical pronunciation of the Latin word for 100:  Centum.  That same word, in the Avestan language—of the Indo-Iranian tree—is pronounced as “Satem”, with an “S” sound.  So, you can look at Indo-European languages and divide them generally into “centum” languages, which preserve the hard “k”, or “Satem” languages that preserve the S. With me so far? Getting back to these two newly-found languages in the Tarim Basin, the weird thing is that they were “Centum” languages. Most Centum languages are from pretty far away, though: they are generally found in western Europe or around the Mediterranean, as opposed to the Satem languages, such as Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Armernian, or even Baltic Slavic languages, which are much closer to the Tarim Basin.  So if the theory were true that the “Centum” family of Indo-European languages developed in the West and “Satem” languages developed in the East, then that would seem to indicate that a group of a “Centum” speaking people must have migrated eastward, through the various Satem speaking people, and settled in the Tarim Basin many thousands of years ago. And what evidence do we have of people who look very different from the modern population, living in the Tarim Basin area long before, and wearing clothing similar to what we associated with the progenitors of the Celts?  For many, it seemed to be somewhat obvious, if still incredible, that the speakers of this language were likely the descendants of the mummies who, in the terminology of the time, had been identified as being of Caucasoid ancestry.  A theory developed that these people were an offshoot of a group called the Yamnaya culture, which may have arisen around modern Ukraine as an admixture between the European Hunter Gatherers and the Caucasian Hunter Gatherers, around 3300-2600 BCE.  This was challenged in 2021 when a genetic study was performed on some of the mummies in the Tarim basin, as well as several from the Dzungarian basin, to the northeast.  That study suggested that the people of the Dzungarian basin had genetic ties to the people of the Afanasievo people, from Southern Siberia.  The Afanasievo people are connected to the Yamnayan culture. It should be noted that there has long been a fascination in Western anthropology and related sciences with racial identification—and often not in a healthy way.  As you may recall, the Ainu were identified as “Caucasoid” by some people largely because of things like the men's beards and lighter colored hair, which differ greatly from a large part of the Japanese population.  However, that claim has been repeatedly refuted and debunked. And similarly, the truth is, none of these Tarim mummy burials were in a period of written anything, so we can't conclusively associated them with these fascinating Indo-European languages.  There are thousands of years between the various burials and the manuscripts. These people  left no notes stashed in pockets that give us their life story.   And Language is not Genetics is not Culture.  Any group may adopt a given language for a variety of reasons.  .  Still, given what we know, it is possible that the ancient people of the Tarim basin spoke some form of “Proto-Kuchean”, but it is just as likely that this language was brought in by people from Dzungaria at some point. So why does all this matter to us?  Well, remember how we were talking about someone from Tukara?  The Kuchean language, at least, is referred to in an ancient Turkic source as belonging to “Twgry”, which led several scholars to draw a link between this and the kingdom and people called Tukara and the Tokharoi.  This leads us on another bit of a chase through history. Now if you recall, back in Episode 79, we talked about Zhang Qian.  In 128 BCE, he attempted to cross the Silk Road through the territory of the Xiongnu on a mission for the Han court.  Some fifty years earlier, the Xiongnu had defeated the Yuezhi.  They held territory in the oasis towns along the north of the Taklamakan dessert, from about the Turpan basin west to the Pamirs. The Xiongnu were causing problems for the Han, who thought that if they could contact the remaining Yuezhi they could make common cause with them and harass the Xiongnu from both sides.  Zhang Qian's story is quite remarkable: he started out with an escort of some 99 men and a translator.  Unfortunately, he was captured and enslaved by the Xiongnu during his journey, and he is even said to have had a wife and fathered a child.  He remained a captive for thirteen years, but nonetheless, he was able to escape with his family and he made it to the Great Yuezhi on the far side of the Pamirs, but apparently the Yuezhi weren't interested in a treaty against the Xiongnu.  The Pamirs were apparently enough of a barrier and they were thriving in their new land.  And so Zhang Qian crossed back again through Xiongnu territory, this time taking the southern route around the Tarim basin.  He was still captured by the Xiongnu, who spared his life.  He escaped, again, two years later, returning to the Han court.  Of the original 100 explorers, only two returned: Zhang Qian and his translator.  While he hadn't obtained an alliance, he was able to detail the cultures of the area of the Yuezhi. Many feel that the Kushan Empire, which is generally said to have existed from about 30 to 375 CE,was formed from the Kushana people who were part of the Yuezhi who fled the Xiongnu. In other words, they were originally from further north, around the Tarim Basin, and had been chased out and settled down in regions that included Bactria (as in the Bactrian camel).  Zhang Qian describes reaching the Dayuan Kingdom in the Ferghana valley, then traveling south to an area that was the home of the Great Yuezhi or Da Yuezhi.  And after the Kushan empire fell, we know there was a state in the upper regions of the Oxus river, centered on the city of Balkh, in the former territory of the Kushan empire. known as “Tokara”.  Geographically, this matches up how Zhang Qian described the home of the Da Yuezhi.  Furthermore, some scholars reconstruct the reading of the Sinic characters used for “Yuezhi” as originally having an optional reading of something like “Togwar”, but that is certainly not the most common reconstructed reading of those characters.  Greek sources describe this area as the home of the Tokharoi, or the Tokaran People.  The term “Tukhara” is also found in Sanskrit, and this kingdom  was also said to have sent ambassadors to the Southern Liang and Tang dynasties. We aren't exactly certain of where these Tokharan people came from, but as we've just described, there's a prevailing theory that they were the remnants of the Yuezhi and Kushana people originally from the Tarim Basin.  We know that in the 6th century they came under the rule of the Gokturk Khaganate, which once spanned from the Liao river basin to the Black Sea.  In the 7th and 8th centuries they came under the rule of the Tang Empire, where they were known by very similar characters as those used to write “Tukara” in the Nihon Shoki.  On top of this, we see Tokharans traveling the Silk Road, all the way to the Tang court.  Furthermore, Tokharans that settled in Chang'an took the surname “Zhi” from the ethnonym “Yuezhi”, seemingly laying claim to and giving validation to the identity used back in the Han dynasty.   So, we have a Turkic record describing the Kuchean people (as in, from Kucha in the Tarim Basin) as “Twgry”, and we have a kingdom in Bactria called Tokara and populated (according to the Greeks) by people called Tokharoi.  You can see how this one term has been a fascinating rabbit hole in the study of the Silk Roads and their history.  And some scholars understandably suggested that perhaps the Indo-European languags found in Kucha and Turpan  were actually related to this “Tokhara” – and therefore  should be called “Tocharian”, specifically Tocharian A (Kuchean) or Tocharian B (Turfanian). The problem is that if the Tokharans were speaking “Tocharian” then you wouldn't expect to just see it at Kucha and Turpan, which are about the middle of the road between Tokhara and the Tang dynasty, and which had long been under Gokturk rule.  You would also expect to see it in the areas of Bactria associated with Tokhara.  However, that isn't what we see.  Instead, we see that Bactria was the home of local Bactrian language—an Eastern Iranian language, which, though it is part of the Indo European language family, it is not closely related to Tocharian as far as we can tell. It is possible that the people of Kucha referred to themselves as something similar to “Twgry”, or “Tochari”, but we should also remember that comes from a Turkic source, and it could have been an exonym not related to what they called themselves.  I should also note that language is not people.  It is also possible that a particular ethnonym was maintained separately by two groups that may have been connected politically but which came to speak different languages for whatever reason.   There could be a connection between the names, or it could even be that the same or similar exonym was used for different groups. So, that was a lot and a bit of a ramble, but a lot of things that I find interesting—even if they aren't as connected as they may appear.  We have the Tarim mummies, which are, today, held at a museum in modern Urumqi.  Whether they had any connection with Europe or not, they remain a fascinating study for the wealth of material items found in and around the Tarim basin and similar locations.  And then there is the saga of the Tocharian languages—or perhaps more appropriately the Kuchean-Turfanian languages: Indo-European languages that seem to be well outside of where we would expect to find them. Finally, just past the Pamirs, we get to the land of Tokhara or Tokharistan.  Even without anything else, we know that they had contact with the court.  Perhaps our castaways were from this land?  The name is certainly similar to what we see in the Nihon Shoki, using some of the same characters. All in all, art and other information suggest that the area of the Tarim basin and the Silk Road in general were quite cosmopolitan, with many different people from different regions of the world.  Bactria retained Hellenic influences ever since the conquests of Alexander of Macedonia, aka Alexander the Great, and Sogdian and Persian traders regularly brought their caravans through the region to trade.  And once the Tang dynasty controlled all of the routes, that just made travel that much easier, and many people traveled back and forth. So from that perspective, it is possible that one or more people from Tukhara may have made the crossing from their home all the way to the Tang court, but if they did so, the question still remains: why would they be in a boat? Utilizing overland routes, they would have hit Chang'an or Louyang, the dual capitals of the Tang empire, well before they hit the ocean.  However, the Nihon Shoki says that these voyagers first came ashore at Amami and then later says that they were trying to get to the Tang court. Now there was another “Silk Road” that isn't as often mentioned: the sea route, following the coast of south Asia, around through the Malacca strait and north along the Asian coast.  This route is sometimes viewed more in terms of the “spice” road If these voyagers set out to get to the Tang court by boat, they would have to have traveled south to the Indian Ocean—possibly traveling through Shravasti or Sha'e, depending on the route they chose to take—and then around the Malacca strait—unless they made it on foot all the way to Southeast Asia.  And then they would have taken a boat up the coast. Why do that instead of taking the overland route?  They could likely have traveled directly to the Tang court over the overland silk road.  Even the from Southeast Asia could have traveled up through Yunnan and made their way to the Tang court that way.  In fact, Zhang Qian had wondered something similar when he made it to the site of the new home of the Yuezhi, in Bactria.  Even then, in the 2nd century, he saw products in the marketplace that he identified as coming from around Szechuan.  That would mean south of the Han dynasty, and he couldn't figure out how those trade routes might exist and they weren't already known to the court.  Merchants would have had to traverse the dangerous mountains if they wanted to avoid being caught by the Xiongnu, who controlled the entire region. After returning to the Han court, Zhang Qian actually went out on another expedition to the south, trying to find the southern trade routes, but apparently was not able to do so.  That said, we do see, in later centuries, the trade routes open up between the area of the Sichuan basin and South Asia.  We also see the migrations of people further south, and there may have even been some Roman merchants who traveled up this route to find their way to the Han court, though those accounts are not without their own controversy. In either case, whether by land or sea, these trade routes were not always open.  In some cases, seasonal weather, such as monsoons, might dictate movement back and forth, while political realities were also a factor.  Still, it is worth remembering that even though most people were largely concerned with affairs in their own backyard, the world was still more connected than people give it credit for.  Tang dynasty pottery made its way to the east coast of Africa, and ostriches were brought all the way to Chang'an. As for the travelers from Tukhara and why they would take this long and very round-about method of travel, it is possible that they were just explorers, seeking new routes, or even on some kind of pilgrimage.  Either way, they would have been way off course. But if they did pass through Southeast Asia, that would match up with another theory about what “Tukara” meant: that it actually refers to the Dvaravati kingdom in what is now modern Thailand.  The Dvaravati Kingdom was a Mon political entity that rose up around the 6th century.  It even sent embassies to the Sui and Tang courts.  This is even before the temple complexes in Siem Reap, such as Preah Ko and the more famous Angkor Wat.  And it was during this time that the ethnic Tai people are thought to have started migrating south from Yunnan, possibly due to pressures from the expanding Sui and Tang empires.  Today, most of what remains of the Dvaravati kingdom are the ruins of ancient stone temples, showing a heavy Indic influence, and even early Buddhist practices as well.  “Dvaravati” may not actually be the name of the kingdom but it comes from an inscription on a coin found from about that time.  The Chinese refer to it as  “To-lo-po-ti” in contemporary records.  It may not even have been a kingdom, but  more of a confederation of city-states—it is hard to piece everything together.  That it was well connected, though, is clear from the archaeological record.  In Dvaravati sites, we see coins from as far as Rome, and we even have a lamp found in modern Pong Tuk that appears to match similar examples from the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century.  Note that this doesn't mean it arrived in the 6th century—similarly with the coins—but the Dvaravati state lasted until the 12th century. If that was the case, perhaps there were some women from a place called “Shravasti” or similar, especially given the Indic influence in the region. Now, given the location of the Dvaravati, it wouldn't be so farfetched to think that someone might sail up from the Gulf of Thailand and end up off-course, though it does mean sailing up the entire Ryukyuan chain or really running off course and finding yourself adrift on the East China sea.  And if they were headed to the Tang court, perhaps they did have translators or knew Chinese, since Yamato was unlikely to know the Mon language of Dvaravati and people from Dvaravati probably wouldn't know the Japonic language.  Unless, perhaps, they were communicating through Buddhist priests via Sanskrit. We've now heard two possibilities for Tukara, both pretty far afield: the region of Tokara in Bactria, and the Dvaravati kingdom in Southeast Asia.  That said, the third and simplest explanation—and the one favored by Aston in his translation of the Nihon Shoki—is that Tukara is actually referring to a place in the Ryukyu island chain.  Specifically, there is a “Tokara” archipelago, which spans between Yakushima and Amami-Oshima.  This is part of the Nansei islands, and the closest part of the Ryukyuan island chain to the main Japanese archipelago.  This is the most likely theory, and could account for the entry talking about Amami.  It is easy to see how sailors could end up adrift, too far north, and come to shore in Hyuga, aka Himuka, on the east side of Kyushu.  It certainly would make more sense for them to be from this area of the Ryukyuan archipelago than from anywhere else.  From Yakushima to Amami-Oshima is the closest part of the island chain to Kyushu, and as we see in the entry from the Shoku Nihongi, those three places seem to have been connected as being near to Japan.  So what was going on down there, anyway? Well, first off, let's remember that the Ryukyuan archipelago is not just the island of Okinawa, but a series of islands that go from Kyushu all the way to the island of Taiwan.  Geographically speaking, they are all part of the same volcanic ridge extending southward.  The size of the islands and their distance from each other does vary, however, creating some natural barriers in the form of large stretches of open water, which have shaped how various groups developed on the islands. Humans came to the islands around the same time they were reaching the Japanese mainland.  In fact, some of our only early skeletal remains for early humans in Japan actually come from either the Ryukyuan peninsula in the south or around Hokkaido to the north, and that has to do with the acidity of the soil in much of mainland Japan. Based on genetic studies, we know that at least two groups appear to have inhabited the islands from early times.  One group appears to be related to the Jomon people of Japan, while the other appears to be more related to the indigenous people of Taiwan, who, themselves, appear to have been the ancestors of many Austronesian people.  Just as some groups followed islands to the south of Taiwan, some appear to have headed north.  However, they only made it so far.  As far as I know there is no evidence they made it past Miyakoshima, the northernmost island in the Sakishima islands.  Miyako island is separated from the next large island, Okinawa, by a large strait, known as the Miyako Strait, though sometimes called the Kerama gap in English.  It is a 250km wide stretch of open ocean, which is quite the distance for anyone to travel, even for Austronesian people of Taiwan, who had likely not developed the extraordinary navigational technologies that the people who would become the Pacific Islanders would discover. People on the Ryukyu island chain appear to have been in contact with the people of the Japanese archipelago since at least the Jomon period, and some of the material artifacts demonstrate a cultural connection.  That was likely impacted by the Akahoya eruption, about 3500 years ago, and then re-established at a later date.  We certainly see sea shells and corals trade to the people of the Japanese islands from fairly early on. Unlike the people on the Japanese archipelago, the people of the Ryukyuan archipelago did not really adopt the Yayoi and later Kofun culture.  They weren't building large, mounded tombs, and they retained the character of a hunter-gatherer society, rather than transitioning to a largely agricultural way of life.  The pottery does change in parts of Okinawa, which makes sense given the connections between the regions.  Unfortunately, there is a lot we don't know about life in the islands around this time.  We don't exactly have written records, other than things like the entries in the Nihon Shoki, and those are hardly the most detailed of accounts.  In the reign of Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tennou, we see people from Yakushima, which is, along with Tanegashima, one of the largest islands at the northern end of the Ryukyu chain, just before you hit Kagoshima and the Osumi peninsula on the southern tip of Kyushu.  The islands past that would be the Tokara islands, until you hit the large island of Amami. So you can see how it would make sense that the people from “Tokara” would make sense to be from the area between Yakushima and Amami, and in many ways this explanation seems too good to be true.  There are a only a few things that make this a bit peculiar. First, this doesn't really explain the woman from “Sha'e” in any compelling way that I can see.  Second, the name, Kenzuhashi Tatsuna doesn't seem to fit with what we generally know about early Japonic names, and the modern Ryukyuan language certainly is a Japonic language, but there are still plenty of possible explanations.  There is also the connection of Tokara with “Tokan”, which is mentioned in an entry in 699 in the Shoku Nihongi, the Chronicle that follows on, quite literally to the Nihon Shoki.  Why would they call it “Tokan” instead of “Tokara” so soon after?  Also, why would these voyagers go back to their country by way of the Tang court?  Unless, of course, that is where they were headed in the first place.  In which case, did the Man from Tukara intentionally leave his wife in Yamato, or was she something of a hostage while they continued on their mission?   And so those are the theories.  The man from “Tukara” could be from Tokhara, or Tokharistan, at the far end of the Silk Road.  Or it could have been referring to the Dvaravati Kingdom, in modern Thailand.  Still, in the end, Occam's razor suggests that the simplest answer is that these were actually individuals from the Tokara islands in the Ryukyuan archipelago.  It is possible that they were from Amami, not that they drifted there.  More likely, a group from Amami drifted ashore in Kyushu as they were trying to find a route to the Tang court, as they claimed.  Instead they found themselves taking a detour to the court of Yamato, instead. And we could have stuck with that story, but I thought that maybe, just maybe, this would be a good time to reflect once again on how connected everything was.  Because even if they weren't from Dvaravati, that Kingdom was still trading with Rome and with the Tang.  And the Tang controlled the majority of the overland silk road through the Tarim basin.  We even know that someone from Tukhara made it to Chang'an, because they were mentioned on a stele that talked about an Asian sect of Christianity, the “Shining Religion”, that was praised and allowed to set up shop in the Tang capital, along with Persian Manicheans and Zoroastrians.  Regardless of where these specific people may have been from, the world was clearly growing only more connected, and prospering, as well. Next episode we'll continue to look at how things were faring between the archipelago and the continent. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by Sam Sax, author of Yr Dead, which is published by our friends at McSweeney's.  Topics of conversation include ITALIC lecturers, trigger warnings, queer planets, a myth buried in blood, Apple stores, books as objects, text message conversations in literature, laser discs, the human ritual, belonging, and much more.  Copies of Yr Dead can be purchased here from Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, NC.  

Living in Truro with her one-eyed chihuahua, Michelle McCann has embraced small town living like a champ.Owner of Bold and Italic, Michelle is a marketing and social media entrepreneur. Because of the similarities in our careers, the three of us had a fabulous chat about working in this digital landscape including social media frustrations and the imposter syndrome that goes along with it.We chatted about the community that social media provides us and the friendships we've gained from those on-line connections. A community we've all relied on during tough times in our lives. We talked about being hard on ourselves, car tears, twitter karaoke, grief, therapy, perfectionism, and one-eyed dogs. ********As a special treat from Alix… we suggest you listen allllllll the way to the very end!!! **********Welcome to the sisterhood Michelle!**********The Imposter Sisters podcast is hosted by two self-proclaimed "fake it 'til you make it" experts, Colleen O'Dea and Alix Robinson, as they discuss and analyze the ups and downs of feeling like frauds while navigating through their professional and personal lives!Please enjoy and be sure to share with the imposters in your life!**********LINKS:As the social media manager for Halifax Comedy Fest, Michelle is deep into ticket promoting mode and if you've never been to the festival, tickets for various shows are available from May 8th to May 13th!  https://www.halifaxcomedyfest.ca/ Give Michelle a follow on Instagram @boldnitalic.You can find Alix Robinson and Colleen O'Dea on Instagram at @ImposterSisters and also at @everydayimbranding (Alix) and @queenofcurtains (Colleen)… or, often in person @themellowmug.MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES:Nova Scotia Mental Health Crisis Line: 1-888-429-8167 [toll-free]Nova Scotia Mental Health Mobile Crisis Team: 1-902-429-8167Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 | Text CONNECT to 686868Talk Suicide Canada | Text 45645 | Call 1.833.456.4566WHAT KIND OF IMPOSTER ARE YOU?Here are a few quizzes to try!https://www.everywoman.com/my-development/quiz-there-are-5-kinds-imposter-syndrome-which-one-yours/https://www.grammarly.com/blog/imposter-syndrome-quiz/MUSIC CREDITS:Drawbridge Creative Ad Spot - Stock Music provided by tunestogo, from Pond5Every Day I'm Branding Ad Spot - Stock Music provided by wolfgangwoehrle, from Pond5The Mellow Mug Ad Spot - Stock Music provided by AleXZavesa, from Pond5Follow us on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/impostersisters/You can watch this episode on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/@impostersisterspodcastFollow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/impostersisters/ You can watch this episode on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/@impostersisterspodcast

Siqi Chen is co-founder and CEO of Runway, the finance platform you don't hate. He was also the president, chief product officer and CEO of Sandbox VR, the VP of Growth at Postmates and he sold his first company to Zynga in 2010. He is an angel investor who has invested in companies like Touch of Modern, Amplitude, Italic, and Clubhouse. He is a husband and the father of two daughters. In today's conversation we discussed:* His life moving back-and-forth to China as a kid* The realities and myth of work-life balance* Sharing the load with your spouse* How his parenting and leadership has evolved over time* How to exercise with your kids and incorporate them into your day* Teaching kids how to use technology as a tool for leverage* A fascinating story of how his daughter uses ChatGPTListen now on Apple, Spotify, Overcast and YouTube.—Where to find Siqi ChenLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siqic/Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/bladerRunway: https://runway.com/Where to find Adam Fishman- FishmanAF Newsletter: www.FishmanAFNewsletter.com- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjfishman/- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupdadpod/—In this episode, we cover[1:34] Welcome[2:27] Work/life balance[6:49] His childhood[10:52] All about his kids[11:30] How did you meet your wife?[13:37] Decision to start a family[15:33] Load balancing parenting[18:50] Earliest memory of being a dad[21:04] Most surprising thing about becoming a dad[23:13] Giving younger self advice[25:52] Advice to ignore[27:45] Favorite book to read to his kids[29:10] Frameworks[32:35] Any parenting evolutions?[35:11] Kids' dynamic[35:42] Where do you and your partner not align?[37:47] Kid's relationship with tech[40:45] Most interesting way kids used ChatGPT[43:11] What did you give up to be a dad?[45:30] How do you recharge your batteries?[46:10] What is a mistake you made as a dad?[49:16] Rapid fire round[53:31] Thank you—Show references:The Matrix: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/Transformers: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/Talktastic: https://talktastic.com/Amazing Panda Adventure: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112342/Stanford: https://www.stanford.edu/Bye Bye Baby: https://buybuybaby.com/Dalian, China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DalianPeter Thiell, Thiel Scholarship: https://thielfellowship.org/Unity: https://unity.com/Gundam: https://en.gundam.info/Postmates: https://postmates.com/Sandbox VR: https://sandboxvr.com/ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/"Blub Blub Fish" Book: https://www.amazon.com/Pout-Pout-Fish-Deborah-Diesen/dp/0374360979Work-life Balance is Overrated: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/siqic_work-life-balance-is-overrated-implicitly-activity-7161735570757550081-8Yd4Second Time Founders Podcast reference: www.youtube.com/watch?v=257w17EkYn4&t=1s—For sponsorship inquiries email: podcast@fishmana.com.For Startup Dad Merch: www.startupdadshop.com Production support for Startup Dad is provided by Tommy Harron athttp://www.armaziproductions.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit startupdadpod.substack.com

Siqi Chen is co-founder and CEO of Runway, the finance platform you don't hate. He was also the president, chief product officer and CEO of Sandbox VR, the VP of Growth at Postmates and he sold his first company to Zynga in 2010. He is an angel investor who has invested in companies like Touch of Modern, Amplitude, Italic, and Clubhouse. He is a husband and the father of two daughters. In today's conversation we discussed: His life moving back-and-forth to China as a kid The realities and myth of work-life balance Sharing the load with your spouse How his parenting and leadership has evolved over time How to exercise with your kids and incorporate them into your day Teaching kids how to use technology as a tool for leverage A fascinating story of how his daughter uses ChatGPT  — Where to find Siqi Chen Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siqic/ Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/blader Runway: https://runway.com/   Where to find Adam Fishman - FishmanAF Newsletter: https://www.fishmanafnewsletter.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjfishman/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupdadpod/ — In this episode, we cover [1:34] Welcome [2:27] Work/life balance [6:49] His childhood [10:52] All about his kids [11:30] How did you meet your wife? [13:37] Decision to start a family [15:33] Load balancing parenting [18:50] Earliest memory of being a dad [21:04] Most surprising thing about becoming a dad [23:13] Giving younger self advice [25:52] Advice to ignore [27:45] Favorite book to read to his kids [29:10] Frameworks [32:35] Any parenting evolutions? [35:11] Kids' dynamic [35:42] Where do you and your partner not align? [37:47] Kid's relationship with tech [40:45] Most interesting way kids used ChatGPT [43:11] What did you give up to be a dad? [45:30] How do you recharge your batteries? [46:10] What is a mistake you made as a dad? [49:16] Rapid fire round [53:31] Thank you — Show references: The Matrix: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/ Transformers: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/ Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/ Talktastic: https://talktastic.com/ Amazing Panda Adventure: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112342/ Stanford: https://www.stanford.edu/ Bye Bye Baby: https://buybuybaby.com/ Dalian, China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalian Peter Thiell, Thiel Scholarship: https://thielfellowship.org/ Unity: https://unity.com/ Gundam: https://en.gundam.info/ Postmates: https://postmates.com/ Sandbox VR: https://sandboxvr.com/ ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/ "Blub Blub Fish" Book: https://www.amazon.com/Pout-Pout-Fish-Deborah-Diesen/dp/0374360979 Work-life Balance is Overrated: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/siqic_work-life-balance-is-overrated-implicitly-activity-7161735570757550081-8Yd4 Second Time Founders Podcast reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=257w17EkYn4&t=1s — For sponsorship inquiries email: podcast@fishmana.com. For Startup Dad Merch: www.startupdadshop.com  Production support for Startup Dad is provided by Tommy Harron at http://www.armaziproductions.com/

In this episode, we dive deep into the process of overcoming dysregulation in the nervous system through awareness and positive thinking. My guest, Kristina Italic, shares powerful insights and personal experiences, emphasizing the importance of surrender, curiosity, and resilience in navigating life's challenges. From acknowledging trauma responses to breaking generational patterns, she offers valuable advice on finding joy, rewriting your story, and defying expectations. Join us as we explore the power of stillness, introspection, and the holistic approach to reclaiming control of our nervous systems and rewriting our life narratives.In this episode we discuss:Overcoming dysregulation in nervous systemImpact of meditation on nervous systemThe power of stillness and slowing downRewriting life storiesFinding joy in unexpected situationsThe importance of being brave enough to change pathsVisit the Show Notes:43. Rewriting Your Story: Navigating Life's Changes with Kristina ItalicResources:Brain TapFree Webinar: 5 Steps to Mastering Chronic PainGet your copy of Anatomy of Abundance HERE & scroll down to claim some free bonus gifts from the authorsConnect with Kristina:Instagram - @KristinaItalicWebsite - Kristinaitalic.comConnect with Dr. Sabrina Nichole:Follow on Instagram @drsabrinanichole & @f_ckbeingstuck.podcastWebsite - drsabrinanichole.comFollow on Facebook - Sabrina CrouchLearn more about the F**k Being Stuck MasterclassFree Webinar: 5 Steps to Mastering Chronic PainCustom Music by Takenya BattleFollow on Instagram @kenyakeysMentioned in this episode:Anatomy of Abundance BookGet your copy of Anatomy of Abundance using the link below & scroll down to claim some free bonus gifts from the authors! https://go.patrinawisdom.com/abundance

Subscribe to The Stanza, a newsletter at the intersection of investing, hospitality, & fashion. Today's guest is Alek Koenig, founder and CEO of Settle. Settle is a cash flow management platform for CPG start ups. Brands you love, like Ghia, Soft Services, Ceremonia, Lalo, Italic, and Starface, are users of Settle, and it's easy to see why. From streamlining your AP, managing bills and vendor payments, to getting working capital loans with transparent terms, Settle provides solutions to problems specific to CPG brands, all within a modern and simple interface.   Settle is also backed by institutional venture investors such as Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital. And even if this episode isn't a typical consumer brand founder story, I asked Alek to come on as a guest to share insights from transitioning from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, fundraising advice, and managing a company in uncertain times.   I've also partnered with Settle to give you guys $250 in transaction fee credits if you use the code (THESTANZA) to sign up for free - that means transaction-fee payments for you. Click here Settle's Working Capital calculator so you can see how much financing power your business is eligible for. Episode highlights The consumerization of business software Transitioning from corporate to entrepreneurship Preparing financially for that transition Managing a company in times of economic uncertainty Fundraising from institutional investors How to understand your customers' pain points Advice for networking with investors as an introvert *Thank you Settle for partnering with The Stanza*

As Antonio D'Alfonso and I, Bob Sorrentino, traverse the intricate landscapes of Italian-Canadian identity, we invite you to join our heartfelt conversation. We share our own family stories of immigration, illuminating the unique cultural experiences that shape Italian Canadians. We journey through Montreal and Toronto, exploring the representation of different Italian regions, and delve into the often complex relationship between language and identity. Embarking on a deeper exploration, we question the very nature of Italian identity, a complex tapestry woven with threads of history, war, and contemporary perceptions of beauty. We discuss the challenges of a nation without a common language or religion, and share personal stories of self-discovery and cultural understanding. Join us as we challenge the traditional views of identity, and embrace the fluidity of Italian-Canadian and Italian-American experiences. In the final leg of our journey, we delve into the fascinating concept of an "Italic" identity, a cross-border cultural phenomenon that challenges traditional concepts of nationality and heritage. Despite the harsh realities of racism and intolerance, we remain hopeful for a future where these will be mere echoes of the past. Highlighting Antonio D'Alfonso's autobiographical writing, we uncover a lesser-known aspect of Canadian history and emphasize the importance of preserving diverse cultural identities. Settle in for a thought-provoking exploration of identity and culture in the modern world.Poet, novelist, essayist, translator, Antonio D'Alfonso has published more than 40 titles and has made three feature films. He is the founder of Guernica Editions which he managed for thirty-three years before passing it on to new owners in 2010. For his writings, he won the Trillium Award, the Bressani Award, and the New York Independent Film Award for his film, Bruco.He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. In 2016, he received a Honorary Doctorate from Athabasca University. https://antoniodalfonso.com/Antigone An adaptation of Sophocles' masterpiece Antigone by Antonio D'Alfonso's Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showPurchase my book "Farmers and Nobles" here or at Amazon.

In season 3 episode 2 I sit down with translator (the Hermetic Physician: The Magical Teachings of Giuliano Kremmerz and the Fraternity of Myriam, 2022) author (The Magic Door - A Study on the Italic Hermetic Tradition: Myth, Magic, and Metamorphosis in the Western Inner Traditions, 2019) and scholar David Pantano. We had an excellent and fascinating discussion on Hesperia, the healing practices of Giuliano Kremmerz, the work of Renaissance Magic Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and Giordano Bruno, the Italic Hermetic Traditions, and more! This is one of the most interesting and significant areas of Western esotericism and history in general for me and no one knows it like David. David Pantano: https://www.innertraditions.com/author/david-pantano https://www.facebook.com/david.pantano.5 Ike Baker: http://ikebaker.com Support Arcanvm for $5/mo.: http://patreon.com/arcanvm Follow Ike & the Arcanvm Channel: @a.r.c.a.n.v.m (IG) http://facebook.com/Arcanvvm Contact Ike: arcanvvm@gmail.com #hermeticism #hesperia #esotericism --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/arcanvm/support

Alessandro Moscé"Sulla riva dei corpi e delle anime"Gabriele GalloniCrocetti Editorehttps://crocettieditore.itIl poeta, nella sua affilata percezione, affronta a viso aperto il dualismo vita/morte. Quest'ultima pulsa nelle vene in un continuo epilogo, in un verso caustico, graffiante, tetragono. Gabriele Galloni ha dimestichezza con la finitudine umana, ma non entra mai in una dimensione sociale di condanna, in una posizione ideologica. Ogni poesia è calibrata, limpida, nell'imprevedibilità dei contrasti di un tempo irreprensibile che si riproduce nei particolari. Il tema della mortalità ha sullo sfondo il luogo istantaneo che si tramuta in uno spazio assoluto sulla riva dei corpi e delle anime. Sia perché il dolore è tradotto in scrittura, sia perché l'assenza intravede un amore ancora avvertito nella sacertà. Questa poesia emette luce che circola nel mistero della creazione. È una sorgente che avvicina e allontana: dai bagliori emergono le cicatrici e spunta il profilo di un orizzonte, di un'avventura nel realismo dantesco. Gabriele Galloni sfida la precarietà umana e cerca un mantra attraverso il suo prezioso recinto poetico. (Alessandro Moscè)Gabriele Galloni è nato nel 1995 a Roma, dove ha vissuto e dove è morto il 7 settembre 2020.Ha pubblicato raccolte di versi (Slittamenti, con una nota introduttiva di Antonio Veneziani, Augh Edizioni 2017; In che luce cadranno, RP Libri 2018; Creatura breve, Ensemble 2018; L'estate del mondo, Marco Saya 2019) e di racconti (Sonno giapponese, Italic 2019). Ha curato per la rivista “Pangea” la rubrica Cronache dalla Fine – dodici conversazioni con altrettanti malati terminali. Nel 2018 ha fondato la rivista online “Inverso”. Le sue poesie sono apparse su svariate riviste italiane, e sono state tradotte in spagnolo e in romeno.Alessandro Moscè è nato ad Ancona nel 1969 e vive a Fabriano. Si occupa di letteratura italiana. È presente in varie antologie e riviste italiane e straniere. I suoi libri di poesia sono tradotti in Francia, Spagna, Romania, Venezuela, Stati Uniti, Argentina e Messico. Ha pubblicato saggi, curato antologie poetiche e romanzi. Si occupa di critica letteraria su vari giornali. Ha ideato il periodico di arte e letteratura Prospettiva e dirige il Premio Nazionale di Narrativa e Poesia “Città di Fabriano”IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.itQuesto show fa parte del network Spreaker Prime. Se sei interessato a fare pubblicità in questo podcast, contattaci su https://www.spreaker.com/show/1487855/advertisement

Welcome to Season 10 of the Thoth-Hermes Podcast, dedicated to scholarly exploration of the Western Mystery Tradition. In this opening episode, Rudolf re-engages with Italian-American author David Pantano. David provides a dizzying timeline of occult development in the landscape that has become modern Italy. In the spirit of the Golden Bough (Fraser), David's book “The Magic Door” (2019) provides the canopy for honoring a history beginning with the European Wild West of Hesperia, embracing the varying definitions and forms of The Sacred through a culture's dynamic development. This Italic mythological history has repeatedly and deeply connected into international occulture. The conversation ranges from the importance of authentic linguistic diversity in both exoteric and esoteric reading to the appearance of Roman-era tripartite alchemical initiatory cosmology. Ovid, Virgil and the later Dante all receive citation, in addition Compano, and Ficino. The conversation explores Giordano Bruno's complex contributions not only to esotericism but larger practices such as the Art of Memory (in recent resurgence). We learn of the recent restoration of The Magic Door itself, with its multi-faith, multi-linguistic alchemical script… illustrating the tripartite. The repeated interaction, collusion and co-opting between Church and State are clearly acknowledged, as well as the pre-Rennaisance use of Magical Realism to influence the collective imagination towards the ideal of State. David and Rudolf take time to examine the influence of the UR Group, its writings, and ethical questions surrounding the figure of Julius Evola. David expresses his analysis that Evola, while holding controversial views, did repeatedly publicly and privately reject fascism David and Rudolph emphasize the rejection of hero worship toward any thinker, writer, or historical figure and the responsibility for sustained personal inner work as a bulwark against extremism. Pantano also invites the audience to contact him personally to further discuss or question any aspect of his writing or this interview. If you have questions for David or want to get in touch with him, go on his Faecbook page by clicking here and post him a message.  In the interview, David and I mentioned a few times the new edition of the collected publications of the UR-Group. Below you find a picture of this edition. By clicking on one of the images you will be brought to the corresponding page of the publishers - Inner Tradition. Music played in this episode And once again I am happy to present the music by one of our listeners! Joshua Kirch has sent me his beautiful work already more than a year ago, but now finally after the break I can happily present it to you: Josh Kirch is a musician and composer who started with guitar, and he soon moved to classical guitar and performing in a guitar trio - really enjoying the range of repertoire and especially the Renaissance pieces available. This eventually led him to start learning the lute and cello.His compositions often mix electronic elements with classical and early music instrumentation and themes, as well as more standard rock and folk moments. And as he says himself, his training in magic and the occult has also opened new horizons in regards to his musical work. You can find him here on Soundcloud 1) EAST GATE and SOUTH GATE, FROM GATE QUARTETS (2023) (Track starts at 9:51)

https://www.patreon.com/GnosticInformant Thank you existing Patrons. The Etruscans, who lived primarily in the region now known as Tuscany, emerged around the 8th century BCE. They had a significant impact on the early Roman civilization and were eventually absorbed by the Romans. There were also various Italic tribes, including the Latins, Sabines, and Samnites, who lived in the Italian peninsula from around the 2nd millennium BCE. The Latins were the tribe from which the Romans emerged. Starting from the 8th century BCE, the Greeks established colonies in southern Italy and Sicily, an area that was often referred to as Magna Graecia. Aeneas, a legendary figure of both Trojan and Roman mythology, is renowned as the son of the divine Aphrodite and mortal Anchises. A part of Troy's royal lineage and a kin of Hector, Aeneas was a distinguished defender of his city during the Trojan War, demonstrating martial prowess second only to Hector himself. Homer's work subtly hints at Aeneas' discontent with his secondary role, thereby giving rise to a later narrative that posits Aeneas as a conspirator in Troy's betrayal to the Greeks. However, a more prevalent version of his story portrays Aeneas as the helm of the Trojan survivors following the Greek conquest of Troy. Regardless of these divergent accounts, the common thread in all the narratives is the survival of Aeneas, enabling him to be woven into the fabric of Roman mythology. The connection of Homeric heroes to Italy and Sicily can be traced back to the 8th century BCE, coinciding with the era when Homer's epics are believed to have transitioned into written form. Greek colonies, established in Italy and Sicily during this period and the ensuing century, often claimed lineage from figures central to the Trojan War. Aeneas, in particular, was associated with various locales and dynasties, notably within the region of Latium. As the Roman Empire expanded throughout Italy and across the Mediterranean, Roman authors imbued with a sense of patriotism sought to craft a mythological tradition that would simultaneously infuse their land with historical grandeur and subdue an underlying resentment towards Greek cultural hegemony. Aeneas, in his role as a Trojan adversary of the Greeks, and with a post-war narrative open to interpretation, was uniquely suited to embody the mythical precursor to the inception of Roman supremacy. Composed circa 29-19 BCE, Virgil's Aeneid narrates across 12 books the mythic establishment of Lavinium, the precursor to Alba Longa and Rome, by the Trojan hero Aeneas. As Virgil recounts, when the Greeks seized Troy, a resilient Aeneas was instructed by the apparition of Hector to escape and initiate a significant city abroad. Mustering his family and followers, Aeneas secured the penates— household deities—of Troy. However, amidst the chaos of evacuation from the burning city, his wife vanished. Her spirit later appeared to him, revealing his destiny to venture to a land in the west where the Tiber River coursed. Thus began Aeneas's epic journey, with stops in Thrace, Crete, and Sicily, and fraught with a plethora of trials culminating in a shipwreck near Carthage on the African coast. Here, he was hospitably received by Dido, the bereaved queen. As he narrated his tale, they fell in love and he delayed his journey until a stern reminder from the god Mercury refocused him on his ultimate objective: Rome. Wracked with guilt, he immediately deserted Dido, who subsequently ended her own life. Resuming his voyage, Aeneas eventually reached the mouth of the Tiber. #gnosticinformant #ancientrome #documentary #4k #rome #religion --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gnosticinformant/message

Poco più di tre anni dopo quel 20 gennaio 2020 in cui pubblicammo su Instagram il primissimo contenuto, Alessandro Tommasi ha comunicato la scelta di lasciare Will.Ale intraprenderà ora un nuovo percorso e si dedicherà a tempo pieno allo studio e alla raccolta di proposte per dare risposte ai temi più urgenti per le giovani generazioni.Per rimanere aggiornato sul suo nuovo percorso, puoi lasciare i tuoi contatti qui

Episode brought to you by Trend & Finaloop.On this episode of DTC POD, Blaine and Ramon discuss the latest trends in commerce, including issues with leakage, coupon codes, and overpaying on affiliate commissions. They also talk about the success of DTC brands and how consumers prioritize products. The conversation also touches on the challenges of product manufacturing stages in China and the bankruptcy of Instant Brands. Finally, the discussion turns to fashion and streetwear brands like Supreme and Fear of God, and the difficulties of staying relevant in a constantly evolving market.We cover:1. Affiliate marketing and leakage tracking2. Mom and baby-related products3. Consumer culture and health trends4. DTC brands vs vertically integrated sellers5. China's impact on US consumer market6. Fashion industry and brand relevance7. Streetwear and cultural relevance[00:02:36] China's marketing and customer acquisition strategy[00:04:20] Value reigns supreme in America[00:09:13] Shein's vertical integration[00:13:44] Supreme / VF corp[00:15:48] Fashion trends swing with culture pendulum.[00:19:37] Instant Brands bankruptcy due to excessive inventory[00:25:24] Consumer culture creates and solves problems[00:26:36] Tracking affiliate links and strategy[00:31:33] Baby & Parenting Niche[00:33:18] Lalo & Fundraising News[00:37:05] Specific content targeting for customer segmentsShownotes powered by CastmagicP.S. Get our pod highlights delivered directly to your inbox with the DTC Pod Newsletter! Episode brought to you by Finaloop, the real-time accounting service trusted by hundreds of DTC Brands. Try Finaloop free - no credit card required. Visit finaloop.com/dtcpod and get 14 days free and a 2-month P&L within 24 hours. Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more. Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands-----Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you.Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

In questo episodio speciale di Italic, Alessandro parla dell'impatto che Berluscini ha avuto sulla vita politica e sociale italiana e di cosa resta ora dopo la sua morte.

    In this episode we talk with independent scholar, author, translator.....Mr David Pantano, about his new release "The Hermetic Physician". This fascinating discussion focuses on the Italian hermetic tradition, specifically its later expression as taught by such luminaries as Giuliano M. Kremmerz (1861–1930) . We will discuss the Fratellanza Terapeutica Magica di Miriam and the metaphysics which define how it operates, the role of faith and the personal numan.   https://www.innertraditions.com/author/david-pantano       outro by lolomis  

HELLO MY BOOKISH LOVERS AND FRIENDS! IT IS SO AMAZING TO BE BACK IN ACTION! Oh, how I've missed you all so dearly!This guest is Emily Alcher, the Co-founder and CEO of Italic Type; an online platform for cultivating authentic, real-deal book communities, setting goals, and enhancing the reader experience. VISIT ITALICTYPE.COMFOLLOW ITALIC TYPE ON INSTAGRAMIn this episode, we discuss: What is Italic Type and why does it matter?What's different about Italic Type?Why we need to care about readersWhy reading mattersHow Emily fell into her love of booksSharing the ups and downs of creating an online book club/companyThe importance of underground/backlist readsUplifting minority subjects and voicesEmily's favorite books of all time What books Emily would give to someone to show them she loves them --- FOLLOW DOGEARED BOOK CLUB ON INSTAGRAM

In questo nuovo episodio di Italic analizziamo le tre interviste comparse ieri sui quotidiani: quella di Giorgia Meloni, nella quale ha delineato le priorità del Governo, quella di Ignazio La Russa, presidente del Senato, e Sergio Mattarella.Ascolta gli altri podcast di Will su Spotify o Apple Podcast(00:00) Intro(00:31) L'intervista a Giorgia Meloni(09:32) L'intervista a Ignazio La Russa(12:27) La Corte di giustizia EU sulle concessioni balneari(16:07) L'intervista a Sergio Mattarella

Con l'approvazione del DEF, il documento di economia e finanza, da parte del Governo, si è tornati a parlare, per l'ennesima volta, del ponte sullo stretto. Nel frattempo, Giuseppina Di Foggia nelle prossime settimane prenderà l'incarico di amministratrice delegata di Terna: l'unica donna alla guida di una azienda a partecipazione pubblica. Infine, un aggiornamento rispetto all'episodio di Italic di ieri sulla relazione tra Giletti e Baiardo.Leggi l'approfondimento di Will sul "ponte sullo stretto"

CY: IG @tokyostationpens TikTok: tokyostationpens https://tokyostationpens.com/ Esther: IG @esthermolinart IG @wanderlustbytsl https://wanderlustbytsl.com/ Japanese for stationery lovers: 文房具 bunbougu : stationery ブングボックス Bungubox : The Stationery Box https://bungubox.shop/en 文具女子博 Bungujoshihaku : Stationery Women's Expo https://bungujoshi.com/ 文具店 Bunguten : Stationery shop 文房具屋 Bunbouguya : Stationery shop Shops, brands & products: Nap Village : https://goo.gl/maps/CyCVUotKwjRoCitMA The Superior Labor : @the_superiorlabor T.S.L Kurashiki : @t.s.l_store Aun Glass Studio : @auneda California Pen Show : https://capenshow.com/ Comicon : https://www.comic-con.org/ Sailor : https://sailor.co.jp/ The Superior Labor Mission case : https://wanderlustbytsl.com/products/mission-case Clear files for stickers : https://www.cutethingsfromjapan.com/collections/storage-1/products/light-blue-sticker-sheets-folder Hobonichi : https://www.1101.com/store/techo/en/ Traveler's Notebook : https://www.travelers-company.com/ A bit about fountain pens : Nib : A nib is the part of a quill, dip pen, fountain pen, ball point or stylus which comes into contact with the writing surface in order to deposit ink. Tipping : Nib tipping is the surface area or actual portion of the fountain pen nib that makes contact with paper. It is also the portion of the nib used for writing. Italic nib : Very good for broad edge calligraphy   Mentions: Ame: @ameruu Makoto Kawai: @nap_village Yoshimi Kawai: @beechhoverpinard Taku: @taku_writerdream.4810 Khuê: @miraikat April: @penguinscreative Akane: @akanenoplan CY's fountain pen podcast: @tokyoinklings   Others: “kanpoyaku”: natural medicine, herbs medicine, Chinese medicine “Ojisan”: old man, uncle

È iniziata la seconda stagione di Italic. Ogni giorno in questo podcast raccontiamo come media e politica ci raccontano il mondo che cambia, con un focus sul ciclo di vita delle notizie: da come vengono raccontate dai media tradizionali alle reazioni che scatenano all'interno delle piattaforme social.Ascolta ChatBox, l'episodio speciale di Actually su Spotify e Apple Music

hortly after becoming duke, Francesco Sforza has to deal with a war against Venice, but then the peace of Lodi and the Italic league allow him some time to consolidate his power and start building projects in Milan, as well as chase after women, ending his life with a total of 35 children, only 8 of which were legitimate.His son Galeazzo Maria takes over and the only tings he seems good at are spending money and satisfying his desires.

Exodus in depth; "The way out"; "shem-mem" = "names"; Authorship of Exodus; Origins of Hebrew language; Covers a lot of history; "name"; Seeing yourself as you really are; Moses as Pharaoh; Skill of Freedom; Setting the captive free; Bondage of Egypt; Child labor; Income tax; "Persons"; Choosing to be taxed - bondage; Inflation; Removing preconceived notions; Hardening heart of Pharaoh; Honor? (kabed); "increase"; Days upon your land; Removing dominion; Legal title; Landed Americans; Ex 7:14; Translating Hebrew; Seeing through deception; Humility to see all things new; Italic words in bible; Monotheism; Cities of Blood; Children imitating parents; Finding the way out; Raising the debt ceiling; Ex 8:1; Letting Holy Spirit into your heart; Frogs?; Wanting to let your neighbor go; Ex 8:4; Armies of Moses; No bondage for priests; Grain as wealth; Levites; Arts of the Temple; Servant aleph-biet-dalet+yod+kuf; Why frogs?; Magicians and enchantments; Messages to Pharaoh; Frog clog; Dying frogs?; v16 lice; Biting gnats?; No-see-ums; Magicians converting; Next, flies; God's/Moses' way; v21 warning of flies; Desert balance; Law of Nature; Sparing Goshen?; Genius Moses; Meditation; "Yahweh"; Rameses?; Moses' timing; Swarming flies; Winning the hearts of Egyptians; Grievous (kabed - increase); Sacrificing outside Pharaoh's jurisdiction; Pharaoh's deceit; Letting God harass your enemy; Flies to light; Tura Limia; "Admonitions of Epur"; Evidence/witness; Written Hebrew; Moses' mission; Forgiveness to all; Filling your heart with God's love; Leave vengeance to God.

Giacomo Sartori"Fisica delle separazioni"Exòrma Edizionihttp://www.exormaedizioni.com/Un legame profondo si trasforma in siderale indifferenza, i corpi non si parlano più, l'iniziale complicità diventa reciproco rancore. Parole che danzano e infuriano, quelle dette e quelle non dette, quelle che erodono la passione fino a farla finire nella polvere.Una lettura al contempo analitica e poetica, personale e universale, in cui ciascuno può ritrovare parte della propria esperienza e della propria vita di relazione, sociale, familiare, sentimentale.Otto movimenti, come un'opera musicale, ognuno con la sua tonalità e il suo tempo, dalla felice intimità di coppia al tormento dell'incomunicabilità, per indagare la rottura di una relazione, le precise circostanze di una separazione o di un abbandono. La voce narrante maschile, lontana dagli stereotipi che vogliono l'uomo seduttore, conquistatore o, peggio ancora, prevaricatore, mette a nudo la propria fragilità, esplora le reciproche responsabilità, le difficoltà e i timori che accompagnano il fallimento di un rapporto.Fisica delle separazioni porta la lettrice e il lettore a riflettere sulla genesi, sulle dinamiche e le conseguenze di una separazione e a imparare, infine, in otto “lezioni” l'arte di voltare pagina per accogliere la ricchezza dell'altro.La relazione è, secondo Sartori, in questo tempo di individualismo esasperato e di atomizzazione, l'unico baluardo di verità.Giacomo Sartori (Trento, 1958) è agronomo, e vive a Parigi. Autore di racconti e poesie, ha pubblicato i romanzi Tritolo (il Saggiatore, 1999), Anatomia della battaglia (Sironi, 2005), Sacrificio (Pequod, 2008; Italic, 2013), Cielo nero (Gaffi, 2011), Rogo (CartaCanta, 2015) e Sono Dio (NN Editore, 2016).Per Exòrma ha pubblicato nel 2019 Animali non addomesticabili (con Paolo Morelli e Marino Magliani).Alcuni suoi romanzi e racconti sono tradotti in francese, inglese e tedesco. È membro del blog collettivo Nazione Indiana.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEAscoltare fa Pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.it/

Il riassunto di tutto quello che è successo in questa settimana.Inoltre, da oggi Italic diventa un appuntamento settimanale: ogni weekend Alessandro Tommasi farà un riassunto delle ultime notizie con un particolare focus su come media e politica ci raccontano il mondo che cambia.

Thinks week I speak with Emily Achler, founder of Italic Type. She recommends books, speaks with us about her online book community and talks bout how she selects her next read. Books Recommended: Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih GhaliOne's Company by Ashley HutsonErotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur JaswalOur Crooked Hearts by Melissa AlbertThe Power by Naomi AldermanPaperbacks:Assembly Natasha BrownHao: Stories by Ye ChunLandslide by Susan ConleySill Life by Sarah Winman Other Books Mentioned: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor TowlesLady in the Lake by Laura LippmanDark matter by Blake CrouchRecursion by Blake CrouchUp Next for Us:Woman: An intimate Geography by Natalie AngierWildcat by Amelia MorrisGet a free ticket to Bookie Con! Find out more about Emily Achler and Italic Type on social media:Twitter @italictype                 @Ea_sportz Instagram @italictype                       @emilylaurelWebsite: italictype.comwww.athleticgreens/emerging Support the show

Chi è Liz Truss: da dove viene e dove spera di andare; le reazioni internazionali al suo arrivo Ascolta qui Italic il podcast di Will sulle elezioni Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Le rapidi indagini sulla morte di Daria Dugina e il giorno dell'indipendenza ucraina; in Brasile è aperta la campagna elettorale Ascolta qui Italic: https://open.spotify.com/episode/25Pswue75kTNXBaBdWZjNM?si=05b804b5ab864fdb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vi consiglio tre podcast e tre serie da tenere d'occhio in quest'estate 2022 per capire l'evoluzione del mondo dell'informazione e delle serie TV.I podcast che ho consigliatoElezioni: conto alla rovescia - https://www.lastampa.it/rubriche/elezioni-conto-alla-rovescia/2022/08/01/playlist/elezioni_conto_alla_rovescia-5484116/Italic - https://www.spreaker.com/show/italicTaiwan: perché - https://choramedia.com/podcast/taiwan-perche/Se volete i consigli VERI ascoltate + (aggiungi alla lista): https://linktr.ee/piupod

Nuove tensioni tra israeliani e palestinesi. Alex Jones a processo  Ascolta qui Italic, il nuovo podcast di Will Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

La nave cargo in viaggio dal porto di Odessa al Libano come nuova speranza per il commercio del grano ucraino; in Kosovo scoppia la violenza per una vicenda legata alle targhe di automobili. Ascolta qui il primo episodio di Italic, il nuovo podcast quotidiano di Will Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ogni giorno siamo travolti da articoli di giornale, tweet, commenti che infiammano il dibattito pubblico. Italic è il nuovo podcast di Will con Alessandro Tommasi che tutte le settimane analizza come media e politica ci raccontano il mondo che cambia, con un focus sul ciclo di vita delle notizie: da come vengono raccontate dai media tradizionali alle reazioni che scatenano all'interno delle piattaforme social

In questo primo episodio di Italic parliamo dei cambi di casacca dei politici, le indecisioni di Carlo Calenda, ancora non sicuro se allearsi con il PD o correre da solo alle prossime elezioni, e la controversa proposta di Letta di dare una dote a tutti i 18enni finanziandola attraverso una tassa sulla successione dei patrimoni superiori ai 5 milioni.Ascolta gli altri podcast di Will: https://shor.by/wPh6

On This episode Skoota & Snax start with Martin Reunion. Omarion vs Mario Ray/Bobby V vs Pleasure P/Sammie Verzuz. Petty reasons that would make you not talk to a girl. Parents say they won't help their teenage daughter if she gets pregnant. Drake album. & more. Notable Links/Pages Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-included/id1459395439 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Zsc0i0q0m4P7ekaJZHRlQ?si=trtTzIvqQp26UQrIShqI9g Anchor & more: https://anchor.fm/not-includedpod YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEoV6W2iEt_QW3i82Qf9cGQ Follow us on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook: @NotIncludedPod Email: notincludedpc@gmail.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/not-includedpod/message

It seems like any retailer can open a marketplace today...and many are. As the space becomes more crowded, these platforms need to work harder to stand out.   That's why Italic is leaning into a very specific value proposition: A vertically integrated model that gives consumers access to luxury-grade products at a fraction of the price. During this week's Retail Remix, Jeremy Cai, Founder and CEO of Italic, gives the scoop on:   How his roots in manufacturing inspired him to start the Italic business;   Why curation has helped the company provide more value to the customer experience; and   How Italic has iterated and evolved its membership program and marketing mix to maximize acquisition and value.    This week's episode is brought to you by Emarsys. Are you a marketer looking to hit it out of the park with better one-to-one interactions with consumers? Then look no further! Customer engagement platform, Emarsys, is holding a series of Omnichannel Strategy Workshops across the U.S. this summer to help those with a goal of creating a consistent brand experience. To find out how Emarsys can help you, visit www.emarsys.com.   RELATED LINKS  Learn more about Italic.  Read Retail TouchPoints' latest coverage on marketplaces.  Watch our on-demand webinar to get your keys to marketplace success. 

Italic is trying to become a luxury brand in its own right. The company has been around since 2018 and has gone through many iterations. At the same time, the underlying model has remained consistent: Italic forges partnerships with the manufacturers of well-known brands like Staub and Samsonite and sells unbranded products directly from the facilities at a fraction of the price. While the company has seen growth over the last few years, it's changed some of its business mechanics. Most recently, for example, it decided to halt its membership-only model. This change, said founder and CEO Jeremy Cai, has positioned Italic for more success. Cai joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the company's latest approach. "Our strength really is in the business side," Cai said. "We've built a pretty strong supply chain orchestration platform... We basically had to build our own version of Shopify, our own version of a returns platform, our own fulfillment network and so on and so forth." But by building such a strong back-end comes the problem of how to define a company like Italic. In some ways, it's a marketplace that directly matches manufacturers with customers. That's, in fact, how Italic first marketed itself. Now, Cai has realized that customers simply don't see it this way. "For all intents and purposes, we are a brand," he said. "Because they don't really see or need to see what goes on underneath the hood." Going away from its membership-only model isn't the only big change Italic has made of late. A few years ago, Cai had big plans to expand to multiple categories -- he saw Italic as partnering with numerous manufacturers that manufactured many diverse products. Now, he's realized that curation is more important. "We can't simply expand rapidly for the sake of expanding supply," Cai said. If the products don't sell through, that leaves the manufacturers Italic is working with in a lurch. "We do have a tremendous amount of responsibility in terms of our agreements with our manufacturing partners," he said. That has made Italic think smaller and with a more curation-focused lens. "We started the year thinking we were going to launch 1,000 products," said Cai. "We'll probably launch 100." Another big change for Italic is its focus on organic growth and less reliance on digital platforms like Facebook. So far, things seem to be working. "We cut our growth spend by 5x from March to April this year, and our revenue grew -- and it's continuing," Cai said. "So it's kind of like, what were we spending money on in the first place?" With that is the larger goal of making Italic a prestige brand that isn't wholly reliant on one-off customer acquisition techniques. It's a focus that nearly every DTC brand faces right now. Over the next year, Cai said, he's dead set on "figuring out a path of growth into the future where we can continue to sizably grow the business without needing to solely rely on paid [advertising]."

You're Either Alive or DeadJeremy Cai is the founder of Italic, a leading marketplace that offers the highest quality products at the lowest prices by connecting consumers straight to top manufacturers.People are continuing to buy more online than ever before, and Jeremy thinks it will only continue to grow. With the heightened demand for Amazon, brands will continue to seek out online consumers “If you look at a brand and take away the fluff, they're taking the same exact product or assortment they have in every season, applying a new coat of paint on it, and a new story on it, and selling the same thing 365 days per year for ten years in a row.” -JeremyItalic no longer seeks consumers like H.EN.R.Y, the consumer they now aim to sell to is Julia, a customer in their late 20s-early 30s, familiar with shopping online and is looking to graduate and take a step up from the everyday DTC brands to a more premium product“It's not just about growth. It's about knowing who your buyer is.” -Brian“The only two things that are constant in start-ups are you're either alive or you're dead. And as long as you're alive, you're still kicking.”In our newest report coming out soon, Visions, one of the emerging themes is Profitability of Distraction, and we may be entering an era where folks are becoming less distracted. But for brands, their direct focus is zoning in on one thing: what is the most profitable? Could brands begin to widen their focus on multiple areas?Associated Links:Learn more about Jeremy Cai and Italic!Alex Geifeld's LinkedIn PostStay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes! Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

In This Episode You'll Hear About:What it was like growing up with immigrant parents chasing the American dream, and moving to America to become founders themselvesHow he was given the nickname AP Cai in high school, for taking the most AP classes, although he wasn't thrilled with schoolHis early signs of being an entrepreneur in high school, by starting two companies Why he chose to take a leave of absence in college, to focus on his first startup, FountainWhat he's learned from being a first-time founder, that finding what you're excited about and having a team you're motivated to be with, is the most importantThe failures he's learned from and that being focused on one thing and building that first will make the overall vision strongerWhere the idea for Italic came from, and why he believes the strategic moves they make are what helps Italic stand outWhy Italic chose to begin with a membership, and how they've recently changed the prerequisitesThe decision to use price analysis for each individual product and include the top competitors The reasoning behind the name Italic, how he chose it, and the six-figure price of buying italic.com The journey to fundraising over $50 million from investors, and what tips he has for raisingThe three universal points he has for aspiring entrepreneursExclusive Deals from Our Sponsors:Get a 30 day free trial with Rewind HEREUse the promo code STAIRWAY200 for $200 off Outer furniture by shopping HERE‍Get 2 months FREE with Gorgias by clicking HERE and mentioning the podcastTo Find Out More:https://italic.com/Quotes:“My sister and I were kind of pressured to go in and do something great from a pretty early age. So for me, I  tried to manifest that in many ways.”“I've always appreciated the idea of selling a physical product to someone and delivering a kind of value.”“The most important thing you can possibly do is either find an idea that you're personally excited about or build a team that you're personally really motivated to be with. Ideally, it's the combination of both.”“Focusing inherently means you are choosing to do one thing and you're choosing not to do another”“Where the founder spends his time is where the gravity of the business is pulled towards.”“Italic really came from that pool of the time to find the financing environment and I think most importantly, the idea of being exciting.”“We really think of Italic as a flywheel, the more customers we have, the more leverage we have to bring on new manufacturers, the more manufacturers and the more leverage we have with them, the more products we can offer.”“We want to offer the same quality and same kind of level design as these great brands, but at a much more value-driven price point.”“If you're sharing an accurate picture of the company, it's up to the investor whether they decide to invest or not and do their diligence, it wasn't because you sold them a false narrative.”“Playing the game in retail means you have to find some angle that uniquely differentiates yourself from the others.”“When you're talking to investors they trust that you'll build a good company for them.”“Whoever you bring into the organization is what the organization is going to become. When you're small, it's more important than ever that you're bringing in people who fit the cultural kind of value you set.”“Make sure you are working on what is important because that doesn't really change, the heart of the business rarely changes. Of course, you'll hear an occasional success story, like slack or what have you, but more often than not, that doesn't change and it's important that you set the right north star.”“Execution makes the strategy successful, not the strategy itself.”

Francesca Scotti"Il tempo delle tartarughe"Hacca Edizionihttps://hacca.it/Questo libro è la porta di accesso a un mondo sospeso che in apparenza somiglia molto al mondo a cui siamo abituati, ma in realtà – ce ne accorgiamo da una dissonanza lieve, da un piccolo tuffo al cuore – è diverso quel tanto che basta a farci rendere conto di dettagli a cui l'abitudine ci ha resi insensibili. Ognuno di questi racconti, bozzetti in apparenza quieti e composti, è come un sasso lanciato sull'acqua: rimbalza, la increspa, affonda con un piccolo tonfo la cui eco riverbera nel cuore di chi legge. Al centro sono geometrie sghembe di coppie, di innamorati, di madri e figlie, di amiche, che si rivelano triangoli imperfetti: il terzo vertice rompe l'equilibrio, e così svela qualcosa di vero. Capita che sia una tartaruga ferita, o una bambina che odora di ombra, o un violoncello.Intorno, cittadine di provincia stinte dal sole, aiuole in cui sotto la neve crescono fiori, l'Italia e il Giappone in un'inaspettata affinità, dentro i cerchi di un tempo che intanto corre in circolo, nei circoli sempre più vasti che un sasso anche piccolo sa disegnare sulla superficie dell'acqua. – Ilaria GaspariFrancesca Scotti è nata a Milano nel 1981. Diplomata al Conservatorio e laureata in giurisprudenza, nel 2011 ha esordito con la raccolta di racconti Qualcosa di simile (Italic), selezione Scritture Giovani al Festivaletteratura, vincitrice del premio Fucini e finalista al premio Joyce Lussu. Ha pubblicato tra gli altri Il cuore inesperto (Elliot 2015), Ellissi (Bompiani 2017), Capacità vitale (Bompiani 2019). Collabora con Palazzo Marino in Musica e Mediterranean Ambassadors Music Experience. Suoi racconti e reportage sono stati pubblicati su diverse riviste italiane e straniere, tra le quali «La Lettura», «Nuovi Argomenti», «Granta», «RVM», «Quanto»,«Bezoar». Dal 2011 divide il suo tempo tra l'Italia e il Giappone.IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarehttps://ilpostodelleparole.it/

At just 23-years-old, Jeremy Cai founded Italic, a revolutionary marketplace that offer consumers atelier-grade essentials from the same manufacturers as top brands with zero markups and logos. Named one of Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Retail Companies of 2021, Italic is quickly becoming a social media star and favorite among millennial consumers as it disrupts the premium and luxury retail sectors one label-free product at a time. In this episode guest host Nicole Leinbach and Italic Founder and CEO Jeremy Cai discuss his journey to founding Italic, his experience as a young entrepreneur and his vision for the future of the company. If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know by subscribing to our channel and giving us a 5 star rating us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. - - - - - - Hosted by Nicole Leinbach Produced by Gabriella Bock Edited by Chase Atherton

This week on the Daily Brew, we are introducing Professor Spotlight: a special showcasing the experiences that form our faculty's perspectives. What we can learn from their life stories? In this episode we sit down with Dr. Kim Beil, beloved Associate Director of ITALIC, an interdisciplinary arts program for first-year students at Stanford University. Learn more about how she got started in photography, her current research on standards of "good" photography through the years, and the future of ITALIC and Stanford students with interest in the arts. Stick around until the end of the episode for Kim's challenge to make you, the listeners, appreciate the beauty of the world more intimately. For more podcasts by The Stanford Daily, visit stanforddaily.com/category/podcasts Producers: Bhumikorn Kongtaveelert, Lorenzo Del Rosario, and Chloe Mendoza Managing Editor: Chloe Mendoza

“Creativity allows us to stretch our minds, do new and exciting things, and engage ourselves in a way that takes us one step closer to reaching our full potential.” Welcome to Episode 52:Unlocking Your Hidden Creativity ...I honestly do not know one creative person who isn't doing multiple things or aspiring to do yet another. This is the true path to being a creative individual. Our minds never stop, even when we're sleeping (or trying to fall asleep). As a creative individual I find I have a great deal of energy, both mental and physical. I can spend hours working on a single project, whether it be designing, painting, or DIYing. Doing these things holds my attention at a very deep level that nothing else truly does, while remaining enthusiastic about the next step, next brush stroke, and of course … next big idea! So, I guess you can call it what it is … I am a realistic daydreamer!I like to daydream and imagine all the possibilities and wonders of the world around me. I tend to immerse myself in imagination and fantasy, yet due to my design background, remain grounded in that which is real. And that's how I found my style! And those around me tend to agree. I tend to be BOLD or ITALIC but never regular (haha, bit of graphic design humor). Here's what we will be untangling in this episode ...Understanding me, your host, as a creativeWhy you don't have to choose one path over anotherWhy -- as a creative -- you need a business planHow to write a business plan for a creative service businessWhat steps you'll need to go from plan to action Are you ready?Pop in your awesome earbuds and let's dive in!

It's been over 8 years since we wrapped the series finale of 90210 yet here we are, making this podcast together and chatting with another one of our former castmates, Matt Lanter. We'd all done TV shows before 90210 and we've all done TV show since it ended but we hold a special place in our hearts for each other and our time spent on that show. There's just some moments of time that we'll always be nostalgic for. Take a walk down memory lane with us on this week's episode with Matt Lanter!    Italic.com connects you with the manufacturers behind the world's biggest brands and delivers the most in-demand products straight to your door. Get $10 off your first product order of $50 or more on italic.com with code UNZIPPED.   Give those you love most a thoughtful, personal gift from the heart and preserving their memories and stories from years to come. Go to storyworth.com/unzipped to save $10 on your first purchase.   Produced by Dear Media

Everyone wants quality goods at fair prices, right?The problem is that brands don't sell the products they source for the same prices they pay for them. To make a profit they mark their prices way up, meaning ... (Read more). 

Emily Achler is the CEO and Co-Founder at Italic Type. She believes in using our time and skills to make the world a better place. She is a creative entrepreneur on a mission to develop human-centered technology and help more people read more books through the power of decentralized, virtual book clubs. She is also a seasoned freelance writer and content strategist. In writing for clients, she specializes in data-focused, short and long form content that crisply and clearly informs readers on the important information they want to know. I've worked in a number of different B2B and technology industries and can synthesize layered, complex topics into simple, accessible core concepts. Oh Hey, and I'm Marina. I am a technologist, mom, podcast host, leadership coach, cruciverbalist and aquarian ;) UNBOSSED IS… “Paths To Success of Amazing Women in Chicago” I welcome you to ask questions, participate, and join me as we explore these topics by emailing me at info@unbossed.io or visiting www.unbossed.io. Available on- Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDTz6_FepG04QTs1BjFLBjw/ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eUhfH8E Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/e7cWtBv Google Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/enjChPt And others.. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marina-malaguti/support

Jeremy Cai is the Founder & CEO of Italic.Italic is positioned to disrupt the traditional retail value chain by giving consumers access to high-end products at cost. That means you only pay what it costs the manufacturer to make and deliver it to you – no markups for branding or retail middlemen. Imagine getting access to products from Burberry, Prada, Alexander Wang, Tumi and All Clad for 80% off the traditional retail price! [Italic has officially entered the chat]How do they do it? Italic built relationships with the same manufacturers that make the raw goods for your favorite luxury brands. Instead of pushing manufacturers to drive prices down, Italic realigns incentives by paying manufacturers more and passing the traditional brand mark-up margin onto customers as savings. Instead of making a large profit on each item, Italic charges an annual membership fee of $120 for members to access all of their products. It's the members only shopping club you've always dreamed of.And because Italic's founder Jeremy is a friend, he's offering 30% off your first year of the membership to join the club. Visit italic.com/founder to take advantage of the offer!Tune in to hear Jeremy's story!Watch this episode on YouTube – here Italic – italic.comFollow Italic on Instagram // TwitterFollow Jeremy Cai on Twitter // InstagramJeremy's content and learning recommendations  The Founder - www.thefounderpod.com Follow The Founder (@founderpodcast) on Twitter // Instagram // NewsletterDon't have time to listen to the full episode? Read the 5-minute version here 

When building enterprise software for HR departments didn't satisfy young programmer Jeremy Cai's ambition, he returned to the decades old family manufacturing business, but with a new twist to ignite his passion. Now just 25 years old, Cai is the founder and CEO of the international online retailer Italic, bringing high end luxury consumer goods straight from the manufacturer to the customer at a fraction of the cost, while still retaining high quality products and services. With a subscription-based membership style, asking $10 a month or $120 a year, Italic provides consumers with access to exclusive deals and low-cost products, that will save them countless dollars in the end. The high middle ground For Cai and Italic, the secret to success is tapping into the consumers that the other big online retailers miss. There are numerous stores that sell direct-to-consumer goods at a cut rate from in-store brands, such as Ali Baba and Wish, but with little to no quality control or assurance, making every purchase a gamble for the consumer. Likewise, on the other side are name-brands, known for their quality and service, who carry an enormous markup by the time the product hits the shelves. That middle ground, where the consumer gets the quality they pay for without breaking the bank on brand names, is where Italic excels. Bypass the brand, build it yourself To a manufacturer, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day who they are selling their products to, only that there is a satisfied client and a completed sale, high or low end. They have their manufacturing costs to build an item, and a relatively low markup that they pass along to whatever company is next down the line, who pass that cost on to their clients, and so on until you reach the frontline consumer, who pays a ridiculous mark up. Remove the brand name from the product they make, be it athletic wear, kitchen accessories, or tech, and it's still the same highend, high selling goods, but now at a dramatic fraction of the cost. Mutually beneficial business Selling high-quality products to a consumer is the easy part of online retail. The real challenge is selling services like Italic to retailers, and for Cai that means empowering those manufacturers to become merchants themselves, to make the factory itself the brand. While these companies have been around for years, few if any own the product they manufacture, building a set number of products for a contract, and shipping them out. By choosing a selection of products they could manufacture for their own inventory, they can sell directly to customers, with all profit flowing directly back to that manufacturer. Seize the means of consumption With no brand names to interfere with direct sales, the manufacturer themselves become the brand, and Italic capitalizes on this by selling the factories themselves to the consumer as businesses they want to buy from. With details of ISO certifications, environmental profiles, product or labour histories, consumers feel more engaged in the mercantile process on a personal level, choosing to buy from manufacturers who meet their own personal standards. Passing costs, savings and information onto the consumer The key to that level of involvement, explains Cai, is honest transparency with savvy, well educated customers about the products. While price comparisons are old hate for any market, Italic provides not only the price a consumer would pay at another retailer, fully marked up, but also the actual factory cost to build the product, along side the asking price. This empowers consumer to make an informed choice of who to support, and gives them a more realistic idea of the entire factory economy. Italic is likewise upfront with members that the subscriber fee covers their operating costs, allowing them to interact with the manufacturer on behalf of the consumer, and vise verse, for maximum ease of transaction and assured high quality products. SponsorsRolled Up is...

Hear from a range of Stanford teachers and departments about how they've been dealing with the effects of COVID-19. This episode features professors from ITALIC, the East Asian Language and Culture Department, and the Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) Department. Visit stanforddaily.com/category/podcasts to hear from other podcasts like "Really, Bro?" and "Founders' Couch." Full interview transcript with Kim Beil: https://bit.ly/3aL9j05. Full interview transcript with Dafna Zur: https://bit.ly/2V3MEp9. Full interview transcript with Alex Ketley: https://bit.ly/39Kofu1. Managing Editor: Ellie Wong Producers: Ellie Wong, Won-Gi Jung