Podcasts about Southern Italian

In Italian American folk practices, saints are at the heart of everything that we do. It's a fine line between religion and spirituality, as these practices, superstitions, healing methods and traditions are older than the Catholic faith itself. How do we view saints? What is their function and how are they helping guide healers in our community? This isn't anything new.. this has been going on for hundreds of years. book a reading with me (astrology,mediumship, tarot, italian evil eye, italian cures + more):https://tinyurl.com/4c399c9smy store:luca divina | my italian folk magic storehttps://tinyurl.com/3khs3nbmfollow me on instagram for more italian american folksuperstitions, mysticism, healing and more:https://www.instagram.com/highpriestesschelsea/Source referenced:Magliocco, S. (2018). Witchcraft, healing and vernacular magic in Italy. In W. de Blécourt & O. Davies (Eds.), Witchcraft Continued (pp. 151–173). Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137975.00012tags: Italian folk healing, Italian American folk healing, Italian folk magic, Italian folk traditions, Italian superstition, Italian spiritual healing, Italian ancestral practices, Italian folk healer, Italian strega, Strega tradition, Catholic folk healing, Catholic folk magic, saint-based healing, ancestral healing traditions, old world healing practices, vernacular magic, Italian folklore, Mediterranean folk religion, Southern Italian traditions, Italian ethnography, Sabrina Magliocco, folk religion, what is Italian folk healing, Italian folk healing explained, Italian folk healing practices, traditional Italian healing, Italian American culture, ancestral spirituality, folk healing traditions, traditional healing practices, ancestral traditions

Guest, Madonna Santa, behavioural psychologist, an incredible woman, she wants you all to know that your voice matters Breaking the Silence: Madonna Santa on Autonomy and the "What Will They Think Brigade" In this episode of Inspired Radio, host Helen Taylor sits down with behavioral psychologist and author Madonna Santa to explore the journey from childhood trauma to fierce advocacy. The conversation delves into the psychological mechanisms of social control, the importance of breaking ancestral cycles, and the path toward true personal autonomy . Detailed Summary The Transformation from Fear to Fierce Advocacy Madonna Santa describes her childhood as one defined by extreme fear and silence, a stark contrast to her current role as a social justice warrior. Growing up in a tumultuous household with an alcoholic and sadistic father, she learned to "dim her light" and whisper her needs to stay safe. This early environment of domestic terror initially led her to shrink into the background, but eventually became the catalyst for her resilience and her mission to ensure others do not have to diminish themselves to make others comfortable. The "What Will They Think Brigade" A central theme of Madonna's work and her book is the "What Will They Think Brigade," a term she uses to describe the mechanism of social control through shame and reputation. Drawing from her Southern Italian heritage, she explains how cultural and family honor often hinge on the fear of external judgment. This "brigade" uses rumor and the threat of excommunication to maintain strict behavioral standards, often forcing individuals to keep family secrets and skeletons hidden to maintain a facade of propriety. The "What Will They Think Brigade" A psychological and cultural mechanism of control where individual behavior is dictated by the fear of social judgment. Source: Cultural honor, religious fundamentalism, or family facades. Tool: Shame, rumor, and the threat of "excommunication" from the tribe. Effect: Suppression of the "hard truth" in favor of the "soft lie." Institutional Parallels and the Psychology of Control The discussion expands to how these family dynamics mirror broader societal structures. Madonna posits that many people's relationship with government institutions is essentially "trauma-bonded," resembling a narcissistic relationship where fear is used as a tool for compliance. She argues that those who have successfully navigated and "won" their individual battles with personal trauma were better equipped to recognize and question institutional overreach during the last several years, refusing to be "punished" into submission. The Birdcage of the Mind and Personal Responsibility Madonna uses the analogy of a "birdcage" to describe the mental state of those who have been kept in captivity by fear. She emphasizes that true freedom requires not just an open door, but the courage to leave the cage and stop returning to the "captor" for safety. Central to this liberation is taking full responsibility for one's choices. She shares a personal anecdote about losing $200,000 in a cryptocurrency investment, noting that she could "swallow" the loss because it was her own independent decision, free from the influence of the "What Will They Think Brigade". The Path to Autonomy Question Authority Moving past "Because I said so." Gut Instinct Tuning back into the "two-cent piece." Responsibility Owning outcomes, good or bad. Key Data The Book: The What Will They Think Brigade? Personal Loss: Madonna shares a specific example of losing $200,000 in equity through a crypto investment as a lesson in personal responsibility. Timeline: Madonna is currently 48 years old and has spent over two decades working in community development and behavioral psychology. To-Do / Next Steps Reclaim Internal Dialogue: Individuals should focus on "tuning back in" to their gut feelings or instincts rather than listening to the "What Will They Think Brigade". Choose Leaders Wisely: Evaluate leaders (personal or public) based on their integrity, safety, and ability to manage their own lives before granting them influence. Practice Questioning: Encourage the habit of asking "Why?" to move beyond blind obedience to authority. Embrace Discomfort: Recognize that psychological and emotional growth is inherently uncomfortable and requires "exercising a new muscle". Connect with Madonna Santa: Listeners seeking one-on-one sessions or more information can reach out via Facebook (Madonna Santa) or email at madonnasanta@protonmail.com. Conclusion The interview serves as a powerful reminder that while we cannot control the environments we are born into, we have the "infinite potential" to break ancestral cycles of trauma. By identifying the social mechanisms that keep us captive and choosing the "hard truth" over the "soft lie," individuals can move from a state of fear-based compliance to one of empowered autonomy.

SummaryIn this episode, Anthony and Brian explore the rich culture, history, and culinary delights of Southern Italy. They discuss the importance of media in reflecting Italian life, travel tips for experiencing authentic Italy, and the unique characteristics of various regions. The conversation highlights the slower pace of life in the South, the historical influences that shape its culture, and the diverse food traditions that make Southern Italy a unique destination for travelers.TakeawaysSouthern Italy is rich in culture and humor.Media like 'Sicilia Express' reflects Italian life.Traveling to Italy requires careful planning.Naples is often a gateway to the South.Authentic experiences are found off the beaten path.Historical influences shape Southern Italy's culture.Food is a central part of Southern Italian life.Lesser-known regions offer unique experiences.The pace of life in the South is slower and more traditional.Culinary traditions vary greatly across regions.KeywordsSouthern Italy, travel tips, Italian culture, food, history, authentic experiences, regions, Naples, Puglia, SicilyS05E09 Southern Italian Roots: Sun, Stone, and Seahttps://italywithbella.com

City releases proposed speeding camera locations — will they get drivers to slow down? (0:30) Dating ‘Ick’ 101: What minor thing has made someone automatically unattractive to you? (16:21) Gio Cucina Napoletana brings Southern Italian cuisine to the San Fernando Valley (36:33) FilmWeek: ‘Wuthering Heights,’ ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,’ ‘Crime 101,’ and more! (51:50) Feature: How the Train Dreams’ director and cinematographer created its reflective mood (1:21:34) Visit www.preppi.com/LAist to receive a FREE Preppi Emergency Kit (with any purchase over $100) and be prepared for the next wildfire, earthquake or emergency

In this episode, we're inviting you into the world of Pasquale Et Maurice Home, a destination for antiques, artisanal textiles, home décor, and bespoke interior design services. Rooted in Old World craftsmanship and modern sensibility, the shop is paired with a beautifully curated online store showcasing timeless pieces sourced from across Europe and New England.You are introduced to the Co-founders Lino and Gregory.Lino,born and raised in Sicily, was immersed in the world of art, design, and luxury fabrics from an early age. The son of entrepreneurs who spent more than forty years in the textile industry, he developed a deep appreciation for aesthetics in all forms—from interiors and materiality to music and culture.His partner Gregory, raised in Provence, relocated to Sicily at thirty, where he became the creative force behind a series of commercial projects defined by a distinctly Southern Italian, farm-inspired elegance. In 2010, he opened his first concept store and restaurant in Noto, Sicily—a space whose authentic yet refined aesthetic quickly drew international attention from publications including Vogue and Architectural Digest.Today, their Washington, Connecticut location serves as both a design studio and a gathering place—an inspiring hub where antiques, décor, and interiors are grounded in history, patina, and personal meaning. Every vignette invites pause, memory, and interpretation, speaking differently to each discerning visitor.Lino and Gregory's shared philosophy is woven into every detail: warmth, curiosity, and an open invitation to discover what resonates with you. And in this conversation, you'll hear how their journey—from Sicily and Provence to New York and New England—continues to shape a world where beauty is intentional, stories matter, and nothing is chosen by chance.Connect:  PasqualeEtMauriceHome.com and IG:  pasquale_et_muarice_homeConnect with Anne @styledbyark

Madelyn Alfano is CEO and owner of Maria's Italian Kitchen and a lifelong hospitality leader. Raised in her family's grocery and restaurant business, she brings decades of hands-on experience, people-first leadership and a deep belief in food, culture and community.Founded in Los Angeles in 1972, Maria's Italian Kitchen is a family-rooted, Southern Italian restaurant brand known for classic comfort food, consistent quality and warm hospitality. With eight locations, the brand has become a multigenerational neighborhood staple across Southern California.Alfano grew Maria's from a small takeout operation into a multi-unit brand while navigating major challenges, including the Northridge earthquake and rapid industry change. She serves on California and national restaurant boards and is a strong advocate for thoughtful leadership, employee respect and community-centered hospitality.Early lessons from her parents taught her that customers will tell you exactly what they want if you listen closely.True hospitality means treating everyone with the same respect, regardless of status or background.Clear, consistent communication is critical, especially as a business grows.Leadership requires calm focus during crises, even when things are chaotic behind the scenes.Hiring in hospitality should prioritize personality and attitude over technical skills.Strong culture is built by leading by example and meeting people where they are.Long-term employee retention comes from respect, flexibility and genuine care.What keeps guests coming back isn't just food, it's how they feel when they walk through the door.  QUOTES “People will tell you what they want to buy. If you really listen, they'll show you exactly what belongs in your business.” (Madelyn)“You treat everyone the same, from the Getty's to the gardeners. My parents taught me that respect is non-negotiable.” (Madelyn)“Whoever walks through your front door, you need to embrace them and make them feel really good about who they are and where they are.” (Madelyn)“I was the original Instacart girl. We were delivering groceries long before anyone thought to call it that.” (Madelyn)“I had to pretend that someone was coming from Mars and had never worked in a restaurant before. That's how clear your communication has to be.” (Madelyn)“Regardless of the circumstances, if you stay focused and lead with intention, you can get through almost anything.” (Madelyn)“It's like a duck in water. Underneath, you're paddling like crazy, but on top you have to look calm and steady.” (Madelyn)“Don't confuse my kindness for weakness or my casualness for not being serious. I'm very intense about our business.” (Madelyn)“I'm very interested in people. It's better to be interested than interesting.” (Madelyn)“Our first customers are the people we work with. If you don't respect your team, nothing else works.” (Madelyn)

This week we're joined by Josephine Paone, a young Melbourne-based Italian Australian with a strong connection to her heritage. Josephine had so many wonderful insights to share — from her journey as a tarantella dancer, to her time living overseas, to her reflections on what it truly means to be Italian Australian.To find out more about Josephine click the links below:@josephinepaone THE FOUNDERhttps://www.instagram.com/josephinepaone?igsh=Y3hzbXh1dmtxbm00&utm_source=qr@sudculture_ Cultural Marketing Agencyhttps://www.instagram.com/sudculture_?igsh=OHB1bWhpY2Z0NWF3@thebagnarota - Tarantella & Pasta workshops preserving Southern Italian culturehttps://www.instagram.com/thebagnarota?igsh=a2QzN2phZHNoemN0THE COMMUNITY @theitalianrunclub.au - AUSTRALIA's FIRST RUN CLUB - DM to become an Ambassador in your cityhttps://www.instagram.com/theitalianrunclub.au?igsh=NTcwNGtzZWtwOTQ=@radici.au - Italian meet-ups & curated experiences for the next generationhttps://www.instagram.com/radici.au?igsh=MTIzc2Jiem1jYjN1aQ==WHATSAPP CHANNELhttps://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBvSODFnSzF3Dht7j2a

Content Warning: This episode addresses sensitive and potentially triggering topics within the psychedelic space, including ethical misconduct, facilitator abuse, and sexual abuse. We encourage you to prioritize your well-being and skip this episode if you are feeling sensitive to these topics at this time.This episode explores how unbalanced power dynamics create an environment where abuse patterns, like overriding client autonomy and gaslighting, flourish in caretaker positions like psychedelic facilitation. To counter this, the community must embrace open communication and foster facilitator accountability, recognizing that conflict is generative and vital for ethical healing.Our guest is Mikaela de la Myco, a mother, herbalist, educator, researcher, and facilitator whose work centers on ancestral healing, sacred earth medicine, and trauma-informed care.As the founder of MushWomb, she creates education and containers for birthing people, queer folks, and BIPOC. Based in the occupied Kumeya and Luiseno territory in San Diego, California, Mikaela draws from her indigenous Mexican, Afro-Caribbean, and Southern Italian roots to promote well-being. Professionally, she spearheads organizations like Eco Sensual, the Herbal and Trauma-Informed Advocacy Training, Ma'at, the Matriarchal Alliance for Accountability and Transparency that represents the collective voices of survivors in the psychedelic space, and Mothers of the Mushroom Research and Resources for Psychedelic Families. Known as a maternal caretaker in her community, Mikaela collaborates with individuals, families, and organizations alike in the struggle to rematriate entheogens.More from our Guest:Free Addressing Psychedelic Harm in Community lecture (a part of the full Eco Sensual course, a trauma-informed training for facilitators and community members within altered states of consciousness)  Support the showPsychedelic Passage is your partner in safe, supported, and effective psychedelic journeys. As the first concierge service in the U.S., we connect you with vetted facilitators who value integrity and expertise. We're glad you're here, and we look forward to supporting you on your journey. No mushroom source? No problem.- Download our Free Psilocybin Sourcing Guide. Want guidance tailored to your needs? - Book a free Pathfinding Call for personal support. Curious or seeking connection? - Join our online care community to learn, share, and grow with others.- Join our next Q&A or Facilitator Chat for free. Want to support the show?- Subscribe here.

Chuck and Roxy are back and a bit overwhelmed with (and loved) the response to their last episode. So they start by reading some emails / notes and then do a quick food review!Next it's time to "Meet the Littles" as our hosts welcome Glen Hoggard to the podcast! (13:45) We get to hear all about his "interesting" career beginning with his involvement with President Clinton's election to the governor of Arkansas. EMAIL: glen@glenhoggard.com FACEBOOK: @Glen HoggardThen our host's close out the show with your emails and a few TV reviews including them wanting to know what the heck is happening to the latest season of "Match Game"??? (42:15)SONG: "Something To Hope For" by Jim Gaven. IG and Twitter @keyofawesomemusic OR www.keyofawesomemusic.comJINGLE: "Lawyers are Better Than People" - A parody of a song by Frozen.Recorded by Jerry in Annandale, VARecorded: 11/15/2016  Released: 11/15/2016  First aired: unairedPodcast Website - www.loyallittlespod.com  Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/loyallittlespod/membershipPodcast Email - WTFCPODNET@GMAIL.COMTwitter:@loyallittlespod Instagram: @theloyallittlespodcastPODCAST LOGO DESIGN by Eric Londergan www.redbubble.com Search: ericlondergan or copy and paste this link! https://www.redbubble.com/people/ericlondergan/shop

This week's Monday Mailtime delivers chills from abroad, as Producer Dom dives into two eerie listener stories that take us far from home, but dangerously close to the other side.First, Sophie recounts a terrifying experience in a Southern Italian hospital, where her mother's sudden illness opens the door to something… watching. A silent man at the end of the hallway. A near-death experience. A choice not to follow. But what was waiting in that quiet wing of the hospital?Then, Andy brings us to a rustic restaurant in the South of France—low lights, stone walls, and an inexplicable tapping that begins behind him. What starts as a joke quickly turns into something far more unnerving when the wall… taps back. And the restaurant? Let's just say it didn't stay open much longer after that.Two stories. Two strange encounters. And two more reasons to never travel without sage and a skeptical friend.Tune in, if you dare and don't forget to send your story's in to Producer Dom for a future episode.A Create Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alfonso Peccatiello built a following of 500,000 on LinkedIn by doing something radical – by being a real, authentic human in the fund world.  And that authentic social presence helped him close investment deals for his new hedge fund, Palinuro Capital.  Alfonso's story is proof that it pays to challenge the status quo and to put people (and connections) first – even in a numbers-obsessed industry.  Want the full story? Join Alfonso and Stacy as they discuss: Alfonso's backstory: How a car accident sparked his obsession with creating success on his own terms Why he's never afraid to repel the wrong investor How his willingness to repel, both on social media and in meetings, has helped him attract more of the right investors The lesson he learned as a $20B bond manager that has served him most as an entrepreneur (spoiler alert, it wasn't an investing technique) More About Alfonso PeccatielloAlfonso (Alf) Peccatiello is the CIO of the global macro hedge fund Palinuro Capital. Alf was born in Southern Italy, roughly 1,000 km away from the closest financial center, yet his dream was to run his own hedge fund. To get there, he had an idea: share macro analysis and frameworks with the world through his research firm, The Macro Compass, first, establish relationships, and only after spinning out his macro hedge fund. After scoring the largest asset managers in the world as clients of his research, here we are: his global macro hedge fund, Palinuro Capital, is ready to launch in January 2025. As a proper Southern Italian, Alf stands by three culinary rules: no cappuccino unless it's breakfast, no pineapple on pizza, and never break pasta in pieces!Apply for The StorySales™ Accelerator, an exclusive 6-week program for boutique fund managers who want to craft compelling stories and confidently raise capital | https://www.havenercapital.com/accelerator Want More Help With Storytelling? +  Subscribe to my newsletter to get a weekly email that helps you use your words to power your growth:https://www.stacyhavener.com/subscribe   - - -Make The Boutique Investment Collective part of your Billion Dollar Backstory. Gain access to invaluable resources, expert coaches, and a supportive community of other boutique founders, fund managers, and investment pros.Join Havener Capital's exclusive membership - - -Thinking about expanding your investor base beyond the US? Not sure where to start? Take our quick quiz to find out if your firm is ready to go global and get all the info at billiondollarbackstory.com/gemcap- - -Apply for The StorySales™ Accelerator, an exclusive 6-week program for boutique fund managers who want to craft compelling stories and confidently raise capital | https://www.havenercapital.com/accelerator---Running a fund is hard enough.Ops shouldn't be.Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

This episode will bring you the motivation you need to start speaking Italian. Our guest this week is Melissa Monteleone, a proud Italian Australian from Melbourne. We loved hearing Melissa describe her passion for her culture and we bonded over a shared Southern Italian heritage. We chatted about the way of life in Italy and the relaxed way of life over there. Melissa told us about what she has discovered about the value of studying Italian through the studies she is currently doing. If you have been thinking about improving your Italian language skills we hope this chat will bring you the inspiration you need.

Our guest this week is Josephine, founder of Sydney based travel company Irpinia Escapes. We had a fantastic time chatting about visiting Italy and having an authentic travel experience, one that takes you beyond the usual hot spots. In addition to being a travel company, Irpinia Escapes provides assistance to travelers to reconnect to their relatives in Italy. Irpinia Escapes will take you to the Southern Italian region of Campania, close to Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Irpinia offers a peaceful break from the crowds. Listen to the episode to hear more and you can also click the links below:Irpinia Escapes on Instagram:Irpinia Escapes (@irpiniaescapes) • Instagram photos and videosIrpinia Escapes website:Irpinia Escapes | Discover ancient cultures and new experiences

Join us as we journey through the vibrant world of Italian-American feast traditions, focusing on the rich history and cultural significance of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This episode spotlights the oldest celebration of the feast in the United States, held in Hamilton, New Jersey. Andy Ponzarello shares captivating stories about the Italian immigrant experience and how these traditions endured through hardships like the World Wars. We delve into the origins of the Carmelite Order and the importance of July 16th—the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Southern Italian culture. Explore the evolution of Marian imagery, from Greek Byzantine influences to depictions in the Carmelite habit, and the widespread devotion to the brown scapular. Through historical context and personal anecdotes, we show how these devotions became a powerful unifying force for Southern Italians, both in their homeland and in immigrant communities across America. Discover the unique customs and modern revitalizations that keep these feasts alive—from candlelit processions to innovations like drone shows. We examine how these events continue to draw crowds and maintain cultural vibrancy through strategic outreach and strong community involvement. Through heartfelt stories and historical insight, we celebrate the enduring legacy of Italian American feast traditions and the deep emotional bonds they continue to foster across generations.   HIS SOCIALS Facebook: The Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society, Hammonton, NJ FEAST   WEBSITE: Website: https://www.mountcarmelsociety.org/

The Lawyer Stories Podcast Episode 227 welcomes back Massimo D'Angelo, Partner & Co-Chair of the Real Estate Industry Group at Black Rome LLP in NYC — and a longtime friend from UMass-Amherst. In this powerful return to the show (last featured in Episode 3), Massimo dives into his roots as the son of Southern Italian immigrants and traces his journey to becoming a legal force in high-stakes real estate litigation. He recounts his pivotal role in the Atelier Condo board raid, where his investigation led to a sweeping crackdown on short-term rentals in Manhattan. Massimo also shares how that case opened the door to representing none other than former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Don't miss this gripping conversation with a lawyer making headlines. 

In this video, we explore the sacred tradition of Aqua di San Giovanni, or the Water of Saint John, a midsummer folk ritual rooted in Southern Italian culture. Celebrated on the eve of June 24th, this ritual honors Saint John the Baptist, protector and healer, through the preparation of a spiritual cleansing water made from wild herbs and flowers.You'll learn:Who Saint John the Baptist is in both Catholic and folk traditionWhat is Aqua di San Giovanni and its use in Italian folk magicHow to prepare your own sacred water for protection,purification, and ancestral connection✨ Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share for more Italian folk magic, spiritual practices, and ancestral wisdom.book a reading with me (mediumship, tarot, italian evil eye,italian cures and more)https://tinyurl.com/4c399c9smy store:luca divina | my italian folk magic storehttps://tinyurl.com/3khs3nbmfollow me on socials:https://www.instagram.com/highpriestesschelseahttps://www.tiktok.com/@highpriestesschelseabusiness inquiries:chelseatheghostwhisperer@gmail.com

#237: The Southern Italian with Chef Johnny Morgano by Taylor Berryman

In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Alessandra Belloni, an internationally acclaimed singer, percussionist, teacher, and author, to explore her profound journey as both an artist and a medicine woman. With over 40 years of fieldwork studying Southern Italian folk music and the traditions of the Black Madonna, Alessandra shares how her creative expression is deeply connected to her healing work. We dive into the ancient trance dance of the Tarantella, a practice rooted in healing trauma, particularly in women, and in reconnecting to the body as a sacred vessel of ancestral wisdom. Alessandra speaks about the transformative power of dance and ritual as tools for integration, embodiment, and spiritual awakening. Together, we explore the mystical presence of the Black Madonna across different traditions and how she serves as a powerful archetype of spiritual guidance, resilience, and unconditional love. This conversation is filled with ancient wisdom, black void potency, and the deep holding of the great ancient mother. We also touch on the importance of surrender, the role of community in healing, and how ancient practices can offer insight and strength for the challenges we face today. Alessandra's work is a reminder that through rhythm, movement, and connection to the sacred, we can remember who we truly are and return home to our bodies, our ancestors, and each other. So settle in. This is a deep, beautiful, and potent episode. Discover Alessandra's work ❤️‍

What role does the UN play in the Occupied Palestinian territories? What is the responsibility of Western media when it comes to covering issues surrounding Israel and Palestine? How did Francesca Albanese's Southern Italian heritage inform her passion for fighting injustice?  Rory and Alastair are joined by Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, to discuss all this and more.  TRIP Plus: Become a member of The Rest Is Politics Plus to support the podcast, receive our exclusive newsletter, enjoy ad-free listening to both TRIP and Leading, benefit from discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, join our Discord chatroom, and receive early access to live show tickets and Question Time episodes. Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestispolitics. Instagram: @restispolitics  Twitter: @RestIsPolitics  Email: restispolitics@gmail.com Video Editor: Josh Smith  Assistant Producer: Alice Horrell Social Producer: Jess Kidson Producer: Nicole Maslen Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Head of Content: Tom Whiter Exec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mikaela de la Myco's groundbreaking research on psilocybin and motherhood reveals its potential benefits for mothers, challenging societal stigma around psychedelics in motherhood. By focusing on the rematriation of psychedelics, her work seeks to empower women and restore indigenous wisdom in the conversation about mental health and maternal care.Today, we take a compelling journey with co-founder Jimmy Nguyen as he engages in a powerful conversation with Mikaela de la Myco to learn about her groundbreaking research initiative, "Mothers of the Mushroom," which investigates the experiences of mothers who have engaged with psilocybin mushrooms during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or postpartum.Mikaela de la Myco is a mother, herbalist, educator, researcher, and facilitator whose work centers on ancestral healing, sacred earth medicine, and trauma-informed care.As the founder of MushWomb, she creates education and containers for birthing people, queer folks, and BIPOC. Based in the occupied Kumeya and Luiseno territory in San Diego, California, Mikaela draws from her indigenous Mexican, Afro-Caribbean, and Southern Italian roots to promote well-being. Professionally, she spearheads organizations like EcoSensual, the Herbal and Trauma-Informed Advocacy Training, Ma'at, the Matriarchal Alliance for Accountability and Transparency, and Mothers of the Mushroom Research and Resources for Psychedelic Families. Known as a maternal caretaker in her community, Mikaela collaborates with individuals, families, and organizations alike in the struggle to rematriate entheogens.No mushroom source? No problem. Download our Free Psilocybin Sourcing Guide.More Psychedelic Passage:Official WebsiteBook a ConsultationBlog PageYoutubeInstagram: @psychedelicpassage  Reddit: u/psychedelicpassageHave a burning topic in mind? Share your thoughts: Feedback & Topic Suggestions BoxAbout Us:Psychedelic Passage is the first psychedelic concierge service in the U.S., connecting clients with a vetted network of local, independent facilitators. As an independent body, we ensure no conflict of interest, advocating solely for you. Our rigorous vetting guarantees faci Join a supportive weekly microdosing community led by two expert psychedelic facilitators. Every Tuesday, you'll optimize your microdosing practice while connecting with like-minded club members. Your first month is only $19. That's four 1.5-hour meetings for only $19. Sign up now.

What an absolute honour it was for us to have a long chat in person with Vince Garreffa. Vince is an icon in the Perth Italian Community, he is most well known for launching Mondo Butchers in 1979 but there is so much more to his story than the business. Born in Calabria in 1951, Vince and his mother and brothers immigrated to Australia in 1956 to join his father who was waiting for them in Perth. Vince told us about the experience of his family in their new country. We heard about family life and the mindset of Southern Italian immigrants during this time period with the priorities being family and hard work. Like many others in his generation, Vince began working early in life and left school to pursue a career as a butcher. We loved hearing some of Vince's memories and his story, especially as we have a shared Calabrese heritage.With so much to talk about this chat became a two part episode, be sure to tune in next week to Part 2 where Vince tells us how he came to start Mondo Butchers, becoming a husband and father and also about the incredible autobiography 'The Flesh In My Life,'

Join Deborah Goodrich Royce and a panel of fantastic thriller fiction novelists for a talk about their books, their writing process, and the thriller genre. About the Authors:  Sara DiVello is a mystery writer and the creator/host of Mystery and Thriller Mavens, a popular author series. Sara loves connecting with fellow mystery-lovers on her social media platforms. She also serves as the director of social media strategy for the International Thriller Writers association. Sara's first book, “Where in the OM Am I?” was the NIEA-winner, selected by SHAPE Magazine as a best book, and named a must-read for anyone considering a career change by Working Mother. Her articles have been published in Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Woman's Day, among others. In her spare time, she loves to teach yoga, cook (and eat!), garden, and go for leisurely walks with her husband and their beloved rescue mutt, Pelu. Jean Kwok is the international bestselling author of Girl in Translation, Mambo in Chinatown, and Searching for Sylvie Lee, which was a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club pick and an instant New York Times bestseller. Her work has been published in twenty countries and is taught in schools across the world. She has been selected for numerous honors, including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award and the Sunday Times Short Story Award international shortlist. She immigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood. She received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and earned an MFA from Columbia University. She currently lives in the Netherlands. Liv Constantine is the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine. Lynne and Valerie are national and international bestselling authors with over one and a half million copies sold worldwide. Their books have been translated into 29 languages, are available in 34 countries, and are in development for both television and film. Their novels have been praised by The Washington Post, USA Today, The Sunday Times, People Magazine, and Good Morning America, among many others. Their debut novel, THE LAST MRS. PARRISH, is a Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection. Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of 35 novels including Last Day, Dream Country, Beach Girls, Pretend She's Here and others, Rice often writes about love, family, nature, and the sea. She received the 2014 Connecticut Governor's Arts Award for excellence and lifetime achievement in the Literary Arts category. Several of Rice's novels have been adapted for television, including Crazy in Love for TNT, Blue Moon for CBS, Follow the Stars Home and Silver Bells for the Hallmark Hall of Fame, and Beach Girls for Lifetime. Juliet Grames was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history from Columbia College. For the last twenty years she has worked in book publishing and is currently Editorial Director at Soho Press in New York. She is the recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Ellery Queen Award and Italy's Premio Cetraro for contributions to Southern Italian literature. She is the author of two novels, THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA and THE LOST BOY OF SANTA CHIONIA. Elise Hart Kipness is a television sports reporter turned crime fiction writer. The KATE GREEN series is based on Elise's experience in the high-pressure, adrenaline-pumping world of live TV. Like her main character, Elise chased marquee athletes through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and stood before glaring lights reporting to national audiences. She is currently Co-President of Sisters in Crime Connecticut. For more information about the authors on this panel, visit oceanhouseevents.com/events. For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com

NEW: send me a text message! (I'd love to hear your thoughts - texts get to me anonymously, without charge or signup) I've said something like this before: I believe the means of global soccer production should be controlled by fans, players and the community the club is in, collectively or cooperatively, and not by firms and companies based half a world away from the clubs in question. So, this podcast is not a natural avenue for an American multi-club owner of European clubs to share his story. In an exception to that pattern, here is a conversation with Matt Rizzetta, an owner of - precisely - a company (named North Sixth Group, in New York) that controls clubs half a world away. Most of our conversation looks behind the scenes of his involvement in Campobasso FC, in Italy's 3rd league, from questions over how investors find clubs in the first place to whether he could rename the club. While I believe I went in with a level of empathy, I also asked perhaps the most critical questions I've asked a guest yet, and what resulted was an interesting and respectful conversation.And: you can WIN a copy of David Kilpatrick's lovely short book 95 Theses on the reformation of Football. I'll tell you how a few minutes into the episode. HELPFUL LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE: Campobasso FC official websiteBrooklyn FC and Project Underdog's websiteMatt Rizzetta on InstagramForbes Magazine on Campobasso's Hollywood investors and on Campobasso's promotionPlease leave a quick voicemail with any feedback, corrections, suggestions - or just greetings - HERE. Or comment via Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. If you enjoy this podcast and think that what I do fills a gap in soccer coverage that others would be interested in as well, please Recommend The Assistant Professor of Football. Spreading the word, through word of mouth, truly does help. Leave some rating stars at the podcast platform of your choice. There are so many sports podcasts out there, and only ratings make this project visible; only then can people who look for a different kind of take on European soccer actually find me. Artwork for The Assistant Professor of Football is by Saige LindInstrumental music for this podcast, including the introduction track, is by the artist Ketsa and used under a Creative Commons license through Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/

Alfonso Peccatiello built a following of 500,000 on LinkedIn by doing something radical – by being a real, authentic human in the fund world. And that authentic social presence helped him close investment deals for his new hedge fund, Palinuro Capital. Alfonso's story is proof that it pays to challenge the status quo and to put people (and connections) first – even in a numbers-obsessed industry. Want the full story? Join Alfonso and Stacy as they discuss:Alfonso's backstory: How a car accident sparked his obsession with creating success on his own terms Why he's never afraid to repel the wrong investor How his willingness to repel, both on social media and in meetings, has helped him attract more of the right investors The lesson he learned as a $20B bond manager that has served him most as an entrepreneur (spoiler alert, it wasn't an investing technique) More About Alfonso PeccatielloAlfonso (Alf) Peccatiello is the CIO of the global macro hedge fund Palinuro Capital. Alf was born in Southern Italy, roughly 1,000 km away from the closest financial center, yet his dream was to run his own hedge fund. To get there, he had an idea: share macro analysis and frameworks with the world through his research firm, The Macro Compass, first, establish relationships, and only after spinning out his macro hedge fund. After scoring the largest asset managers in the world as clients of his research, here we are: his global macro hedge fund, Palinuro Capital, is ready to launch in January 2025. As a proper Southern Italian, Alf stands by three culinary rules: no cappuccino unless it's breakfast, no pineapple on pizza, and never break pasta in pieces!Want More Help With Storytelling?  +  Subscribe to my newsletter to get a weekly email that helps you use your words to power your growth: https://www.stacyhavener.com/subscribe  - - -Make The Boutique Investment Collective part of your Billion Dollar Backstory. Gain access to invaluable resources, expert coaches, and a supportive community of other boutique founders, fund managers, and investment pros. Join Havener Capital's exclusive membership - - -Make The Boutique Investment Collective part of your Billion Dollar Backstory. Gain access to invaluable resources, expert coaches, and a supportive community of other boutique founders, fund managers, and investment pros. Join Havener Capital's exclusive membership

This week, Megan Colombo joins us for The Amazing Spider-Man. It's like the other movies, but with a lizard man. Is Andrew Garfeild biblically hot? Which base is under-the-shirt-Tobey-Maguire-boob-touch? Do hot girls like mezcal? “Wow. I have a lot to say.”  - Megan Colombo Megan would like to give a shout out to the folks at The Divine Lorraine Hotel at 699 N. Broad St. in Philadelphia, home to the Southern Italian restaurant called Cicala, a new casual bar and pizzeria called Sorellina and underground concepts, a curated intersection of food, music, and culture. Be sure to follow Megan's improv teams Remain Dog @remaindog and Don't I Know You? @dontiknowyouimprov on Instagram  Go to linktr.ee/rottentreasure to listen, like, follow, rate and review. It really helps the show! You can also support the podcast to gain early access to episodes, promotional opportunities and even get extra franchise rank and review episodes. Who knows?! The tier system. That's who. Visit patreon.com/rottentreasure to learn more!

Repaso libre a la Transglobal World Music Chart de este mes, confeccionada a través de la votación de un panel de divulgadores de las músicas del mundo de todos los continentes, del que los hacedores de Mundofonías somos cocreadores y coimpulsores. En este mes de septiembre del 2024, suenan aires y conexiones euronorteamericanas, tártaras, suditalianas, kurdoflamencas, caribeñocolombianas, polacoucranianas, psicochirpriotas y clásicas de Oriente y Occidente. El número 1 es para los malienses Bassekou Kouyate & Amy Sacko. A loose review of this month’s Transglobal World Music Chart, determined by a panel of world music specialists from all the continents, of which the Mundofonías‘ presenters are co-creators and co-promoters. In this month of September 2024, we hear Euro-North American, Tatar, Southern Italian, Kurdish-Flamenco, Caribbean-Colombian, Polish-Ukrainian, Psycho-Cypriot, and Western and Eastern classical sounds and connections. The number 1 spot goes to the Malian artists Bassekou Kouyate & Amy Sacko. - Moira Smiley - Go dig my grave - The rhizome project - Kadim Almet - Kara burek - Gayar Janay - Assurd - 'O diavolo s'arrecreia - 'O 'mbruoglio - Lemon Bucket Orkestra - Frank’s freylekh - Cuckoo - Martina Camargo - Tutumbú (tambora) - Canto y río - Wowakin - Kolomyjka - Latem - Driss El Maloumi Trio & Watar Quintet - Details - Details - Ruşan Filiztek - Zyryab - Exils - Buzz’ Ayaz - Zali - Buzz’ Ayaz - Bassekou Kouyate & Amy Sacko - Batou - Djudjon, l’oiseau de Garana - (Bassekou Kouyate & Amy Sacko - Djama - Djudjon, l’oiseau de Garana) 📸 Bassekou Kouyate & Amy Sacko

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis.   On today's show:   ·        Russ Smith and Cecy Linzey, founders of the Mr. & Mrs. Bourbon Co., are in. Theirs is one of only a few Black- and female-owned bourbon companies in the U.S., and they have quite a story to tell -- and a few bourbons to pour;                                                                                                                                                                                        ·        Our old buddy, Chef Matt Adler, late of Caruso's and now the executive chef at D.C.'s Cucina Morini, serving up Southern Italian and Sicilian delights;                                                                                                                  ·        Aynae Simmons and Leticia Engel-Cobian with Visit Montgomery are with us. You will definitely want to visit the Tastemakers Trail in Montgomery County. It features two dozen craft beverage producers, including wineries, breweries, cideries -- and a meadery;                                                                                                                     ·        Paul Taylor and Sherra Kurtz are co-owners of Your Only Friend, an out-of-the-ordinary cocktail and sandwich concept in Shaw;   ·        Originally from Berkeley, Leo and Oliver Kremer are the founders of the Dos Toros Taqueria chain. When they moved to the East Coast, they realized San Francisco Mission-style burritos were tough to find. Enter the first Dos Toros location in New York City's Union Square in 2009. Cut to now: there are 15 Dos Toros spots in NYC, and (drum roll, please) two here in DC. The Kremer Brothers join us with all the details.

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis.  On today's show: ·        Russ Smith and Cecy Linzey, founders of the Mr. & Mrs. Bourbon Co., are in. Theirs is one of only a few Black- and female-owned bourbon companies in the U.S., and they have quite a story to tell -- and a few bourbons to pour;                                                                                                                                                                                        ·        Our old buddy, Chef Matt Adler, late of Caruso's and now the executive chef at D.C.'s Cucina Morini, serving up Southern Italian and Sicilian delights;                                                                                                                 ·        Aynae Simmons and Leticia Engel-Cobian with Visit Montgomery are with us. You will definitely want to visit the Tastemakers Trail in Montgomery County. It features two dozen craft beverage producers, including wineries, breweries, cideries -- and a meadery;                                                                                                                    ·        Paul Taylor and Sherra Kurtz are co-owners of Your Only Friend, an out-of-the-ordinary cocktail and sandwich concept in Shaw; ·        Originally from Berkeley, Leo and Oliver Kremer are the founders of the Dos Toros Taqueria chain. When they moved to the East Coast, they realized San Francisco Mission-style burritos were tough to find. Enter the first Dos Toros location in New York City's Union Square in 2009. Cut to now: there are 15 Dos Toros spots in NYC, and (drum roll, please) two here in DC. The Kremer Brothers join us with all the details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode is sponsored by House of Macadamias -- ⁠⁠Click Here⁠⁠ to get our specially curated box that also comes with the free snack bars and 15% offer for CURVA MUNDIAL listeners! In this hilarious episode, artist and professional s*** talker Art Morelli joins CURVA MUNDIAL to talk about his love of Napoli, what being from Southern Italian heritage means and analyzing the football world while taking trolls to task on social media. He also dives into his fine art of busting chops as well. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/curva-mundial/support

The legendary shred maestro—best known for his work as a solo artist and as a member of Return to Forever and other high-profile, hot-shot collabs—drops by to chat with Cory about his new epic full-length, Twentyfour. It features “sixteen brand-new compositions and they're all very involved. I hope I don't have to do this again.”One of Di Meola's biggest projects is, of course, the guitar trio he shared with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía and their thrilling 1981 record, Friday Night in San Francisco, which elevated the acoustic guitar ensemble to the level of high art. Di Meola shares the behind-the-scenes stories of that tour and the 2022 archival release from the next night's concert, Saturday Night in San Francisco. He calls the ensemble's dynamic a “real healthy competition” and explains, “I knew I was up against two guys who were relentless in their delivery of phenomenal ideas. When they finished a solo, it was like, 'Oh my god, what am I gonna come up with.”No chat with Di Meola, who famously opened up his kitchen in the post-lockdown part of the pandemic, would be complete without a survey of Southern Italian food. Why is sfogliatelle the maestro's favorite pastry, and where does he get his? If he's on tour and there's nowhere to eat but an Olive Garden, what's his order? And much, much more.Listen to the full episode here: https://bit.ly/WongNotesGet 30% off your first year of DistroKid by going here: http://distrokid.com/vip/corywongVisit Al Di Meola: https://www.aldimeola.com/Hit us up: wongnotes@premierguitar.comVisit Cory: https://www.corywongmusic.comVisit Premier Guitar: http://premierguitar.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/wongnotespodIG:

As distant cousins intertwined by Puerto Rican roots, Valerie Evans joins us to unravel the vibrant story of her dual Italian and Puerto Rican lineage. Our conversation traverses the multicultural neighborhoods of East Harlem, brushes through the historical cobblestones of Sannicandro di Bari and Salerno, and touches on the personal transformations ignited by a family accident and the consequential search for identity. Valerie's account of her mother's life and her quest to reveal her mysterious Southern Italian father's past sheds light on the intimate struggles many face in piecing together their family mosaic.The allure of ancestry pulls us deeper as Valerie shares her foray into DNA testing and genetic genealogy. Together, we navigate the complex web of DNA matches and the painstaking detective work of groups like DNA Detectives. Valerie's narrative is a testament to the persistence of those seeking to connect with their heritage, as she recounts the emotional journey that comes with sifting through the shadows of history to find oneself. Our guest's tenacity and the surprising connections she uncovers emphasize the shared human desire to know where we come from and the bonds that form through these discoveries.Rounding out our exploration, we reflect on the ways in which digital platforms and travel serve as conduits to cultural preservation and self-discovery. Valerie discusses the role of her website and BariAncestors.com in safeguarding Italian-American stories and the power of stepping onto ancestral soil. We also venture into the heart of Puerto Rico, examining its nuanced relationship with the U.S. and the island's transformation from a land of emigration to a tourist haven. Join us for this heartfelt episode as we celebrate the resilience and diversity of our family legacies while encouraging others to embrace the journey into their own past.https://www.valeriemevans.comhttps://www.instagram.com/italianataglancehttps://about.me/literanistaItalian Marketplace LLCOnline tee shirts, hoodies and more for ItaliansFarmers and NoblesRead about my research story and how to begin your family research.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.

The Pizza Pioneer's Journey: From New Jersey Roots to Global AcclaimIn this episode of CHEF AF, we take you on a flavorful journey with the pizza pioneer himself, Anthony Mangieri. Born and raised in New Jersey, Anthony's love affair with pizza began at a tender age. This passion blossomed into a career that has placed him on the global pizza map. From opening a bakery in his early twenties to the inception of Una Pizza Napoletana, Anthony's path has been nothing short of remarkable.The Meticulous Art of Pizza Making: A Day in the Life of Anthony MangieriAnthony's approach to pizza making is a blend of art, discipline, and relentless pursuit of perfection. Every day at Una Pizza Napoletana is a testament to his dedication. Anthony crafts each dough ball by hand, ensuring that each pizza served is a piece of culinary art. His belief that a restaurant is not just a business, but a life's work, resonates in every slice of pizza he serves.A Leap into Retail: The Birth of Genio Della PizzaExpanding beyond the walls of Una Pizza Napoletana, Anthony embarked on a new venture - Genio Della Pizza. This foray into the retail world with a frozen pizza line was a meticulous decision. Anthony's commitment to authenticity and quality led him to Italy, where he oversees every aspect of production. His involvement ensures that Genio Della Pizza lives up to the high standards he set at his restaurant.Challenges and Triumphs: Anthony's Frozen Pizza JourneyTransitioning from a restaurant to the retail space brought its own set of challenges. Anthony navigated these with the same passion and precision that he applies to his pizza-making. From grappling with the emotional aspect of maintaining his reputation to tackling the complex logistics of retail, his journey is a tale of resilience and adaptation.Anthony Mangieri's Advice to Aspiring Chefs: Stay True to Your CraftFor Anthony, the key to success in the culinary world is authenticity. He encourages young chefs to build a strong skill set and follow their hearts. Anthony's advice underscores the importance of passion and dedication in creating a culinary experience that resonates with customers.Sustainability and Ingredients: The Heart of Genio Della PizzaSustainability plays a crucial role in Anthony's vision for Genio Della Pizza. He ensures that all ingredients are sourced locally, contributing to a minimal environmental footprint. His commitment to sustainability extends to every aspect of production, from the wood used in ovens to the way leftover pizzas are handled.Embracing Culinary Trends with AuthenticityWhile Anthony recognizes the ever-changing landscape of the pizza industry, he remains true to his roots. He appreciates trends that focus on specialization and authenticity. For him, the future of pizza lies in embracing regional nuances and continuing the journey of culinary exploration.Closing Thoughts: The Rhythmic Art of Pizza MakingAs our conversation winds down, Anthony reflects on the rhythm and movement integral to pizza making. He likens it to a dance, where being in the zone can transform a good pizza into an extraordinary one. It's this magical interplay of skill and passion that makes Anthony Mangieri a true pizza pioneer.Chef Anthony Mangieri's Bucatini RecipeAnthony's Bucatini Recipe:1 lb Bucatini 1 head escarole, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces1 cup Southern Italian black olives, pitted1/4 cup golden raisins1/4 cup pine nuts (preferable real Italian)1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes1 clove garlic, minced1 freselle (Italian biscuit), or coarse homemade bread crumbsPecorino Romano cheeseCoarse Sicilian sea saltExtra virgin olive oilHeat a few tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a pan on medium heat and add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Once it starts to sizzle, add the olives to the pan and use the back of a fork to break them up a bit in the oil. After a minute, add the escarole, stir and cover. Check on it every few minutes, and once it's cooked down, remove the cover, stir in the pine nuts and golden raisins and turn off the heat. In the meantime boil a large pot of water. After boiling, add a few tbsp of sea salt and once it comes back to a rolling boil add the bucatini and stir. Once the bucatini is al dente, drain and toss in with the escarole. Add more olive oil (at least another few tbsp. and toss to coat and mix everything together. Then top with bread crumbs (or grate the freselle on top of the bowl so you get some fine and coarse pieces that fall off) and grate plenty of Pecorino Romano cheese on top. Add sea salt to taste.

In Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Ian MacAllen traces the evolution of traditional Italian-American cuisine, often referred to as “red sauce Italian,” from its origins in Italy to its transformation in America into a new, distinct cuisine. It is a fascinating social and culinary history exploring the integration of red sauce food into mainstream America alongside the blending of Italian immigrant otherness into a national American identity. The story follows the small parlor restaurants immigrants launched from their homes to large, popular destinations, and eventually to commodified fast food and casual dining restaurants. Some dishes like fettuccine Alfredo and spaghetti alla Caruso owe their success to celebrities, and Italian-American cuisine generally has benefited from a rich history in popular culture. Drawing on inspiration from Southern Italian cuisine, early Italian immigrants to America developed new recipes and modified old ones. Ethnic Italians invented dishes like lobster fra Diavolo, spaghetti and meatballs, and veal parmigiana, and popularized foods like pizza and baked lasagna that had once been seen as overly foreign. Eventually, the classic red-checkered-table-cloth Italian restaurant would be replaced by a new idea of what it means for food to be Italian, even as ‘red sauce' became entrenched in American culture. This booklooks at how and why these foods became part of the national American diet, and focuses on the stories, myths, and facts behind classic (and some not so classic) dishes within Italian-American cuisine. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Ian MacAllen traces the evolution of traditional Italian-American cuisine, often referred to as “red sauce Italian,” from its origins in Italy to its transformation in America into a new, distinct cuisine. It is a fascinating social and culinary history exploring the integration of red sauce food into mainstream America alongside the blending of Italian immigrant otherness into a national American identity. The story follows the small parlor restaurants immigrants launched from their homes to large, popular destinations, and eventually to commodified fast food and casual dining restaurants. Some dishes like fettuccine Alfredo and spaghetti alla Caruso owe their success to celebrities, and Italian-American cuisine generally has benefited from a rich history in popular culture. Drawing on inspiration from Southern Italian cuisine, early Italian immigrants to America developed new recipes and modified old ones. Ethnic Italians invented dishes like lobster fra Diavolo, spaghetti and meatballs, and veal parmigiana, and popularized foods like pizza and baked lasagna that had once been seen as overly foreign. Eventually, the classic red-checkered-table-cloth Italian restaurant would be replaced by a new idea of what it means for food to be Italian, even as ‘red sauce' became entrenched in American culture. This booklooks at how and why these foods became part of the national American diet, and focuses on the stories, myths, and facts behind classic (and some not so classic) dishes within Italian-American cuisine. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Ian MacAllen traces the evolution of traditional Italian-American cuisine, often referred to as “red sauce Italian,” from its origins in Italy to its transformation in America into a new, distinct cuisine. It is a fascinating social and culinary history exploring the integration of red sauce food into mainstream America alongside the blending of Italian immigrant otherness into a national American identity. The story follows the small parlor restaurants immigrants launched from their homes to large, popular destinations, and eventually to commodified fast food and casual dining restaurants. Some dishes like fettuccine Alfredo and spaghetti alla Caruso owe their success to celebrities, and Italian-American cuisine generally has benefited from a rich history in popular culture. Drawing on inspiration from Southern Italian cuisine, early Italian immigrants to America developed new recipes and modified old ones. Ethnic Italians invented dishes like lobster fra Diavolo, spaghetti and meatballs, and veal parmigiana, and popularized foods like pizza and baked lasagna that had once been seen as overly foreign. Eventually, the classic red-checkered-table-cloth Italian restaurant would be replaced by a new idea of what it means for food to be Italian, even as ‘red sauce' became entrenched in American culture. This booklooks at how and why these foods became part of the national American diet, and focuses on the stories, myths, and facts behind classic (and some not so classic) dishes within Italian-American cuisine. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/food

In Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Ian MacAllen traces the evolution of traditional Italian-American cuisine, often referred to as “red sauce Italian,” from its origins in Italy to its transformation in America into a new, distinct cuisine. It is a fascinating social and culinary history exploring the integration of red sauce food into mainstream America alongside the blending of Italian immigrant otherness into a national American identity. The story follows the small parlor restaurants immigrants launched from their homes to large, popular destinations, and eventually to commodified fast food and casual dining restaurants. Some dishes like fettuccine Alfredo and spaghetti alla Caruso owe their success to celebrities, and Italian-American cuisine generally has benefited from a rich history in popular culture. Drawing on inspiration from Southern Italian cuisine, early Italian immigrants to America developed new recipes and modified old ones. Ethnic Italians invented dishes like lobster fra Diavolo, spaghetti and meatballs, and veal parmigiana, and popularized foods like pizza and baked lasagna that had once been seen as overly foreign. Eventually, the classic red-checkered-table-cloth Italian restaurant would be replaced by a new idea of what it means for food to be Italian, even as ‘red sauce' became entrenched in American culture. This booklooks at how and why these foods became part of the national American diet, and focuses on the stories, myths, and facts behind classic (and some not so classic) dishes within Italian-American cuisine. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

This is a conversation with former mobster now mafia historian Louis Ferrante about his intriguing new book BORGATA: RISE OF EMPIRE. The former “chop shop” small time thug now erudite Ferrante is like a cross between Sonny Corleone & Niall Ferguson. Essential viewing/listening. Transcript below.AK (00:18): Hello everybody. It is Tuesday, January the second, 2024. We're in a new year, but old themes. Last year we did several shows on the Mafia, one with the historian Paul Moses on the what he calls, at least the true story of the immigrant cops who fought the rise of the Mafiaa. He had a new book out called Appropriately Enough, the Italian Squad, another with an interesting writer, Matt Beck, the Life We Choose about a series of conversations he had with a Mafiaa member called William Big Belly Delia. He talked about not just Donald Trump and Michael Jackson, but also Jimmy Hoffer, and we're going one better in 2024 rather than writing or talking to people who have spoken to people in the Mafiaa. We have a man, Louis Ferrante, who once upon a time was a member of the Mafia. And since become a very successful writer, the author of many books, bestselling books, including particular Mob Rules, what the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman. It was a huge hit. And he has a new book out. It's a history of the Mafia, the Borgata Trilogy, volume one, rise of Empire. It came out in November of last year in the uk, and it's out this week in the US. Louis Ferrante is joining us from his home in Sarasota on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Louis, before we went live, you told me it's very nice in Florida.Louis Ferrante (02:01): Florida's beautiful, the Sunshine State, a lot of sun. I need sun. I grew up in New York, and the winters are dark and dreary, and London's a beautiful place too. I like the people in London, but once again, the weather's not the best part.AK (02:17): Dreary. Yeah, I'm talking to actually from California. So Louis, when you fly out and you get on a plane, you happen to sit next to someone and you get into conversation and they ask you what career you have or had, what would you say?Louis Ferrante (02:31): I'd tell 'em a hijacker if I'm on a plane.AK (02:36): And what do they do?Louis Ferrante (02:38): They look for the attendant or they go to the bathroom? No, I mean, I was a truck hijacker, a little different from a plain hijacker, but I tell them I'm a writer and a television host, which is the truth. I'm a bestselling author. My books have been translated into 2020 languages, and I hosted a show for Discovery Channel.AK (03:04): It's a good trade being a writer. But did you always intend to be one, or how did you go from being, as you say, a truck hijacker, someone who knows the Mafia, the American Mafia to actually writing about it.Louis Ferrante (03:21): I faced the rest of my life in prison, and I was lucky to get out of it with a 13 year sentence. I was represented at the time by the civil rights attorney, William Kunstler, who was very instrumental in, yeah, he helped Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. He went in to negotiate with the convicts during the Attica riots, and he defended me, and I was able to get a plea of 13 years without cooperating against anyone, and I didn't have to go to trial and possibly get the rest of my life sentenced to rest of my life in prison. And while I was there, I started to think through my life and eventually I picked up my first book, fell in Love with books, became an avid reader, and at some point or another I was reading a book a day, and that's what made my time go. And I started to teach myself how to write by reading all the great authors and taking notes as to how Leo Tolstoy begins and ends a chapter, how Dostoevsky Begins and Ends a plot, how Charlotte Bronte introduces a character, et cetera, et cetera. And that's how I taught myself how to write. And by the time I came home from prison, I was ready to be a writer. And my last book, Mob Rules was an international bestseller in 20 languages. And my current book will hopefully get picked up in a lot of languages as well. And it's a trilogy.AK (04:42): Yeah, it's already been picked up by the Germans. You imply that in prison, you were a meticulous reader. Is meticulousness something that's prized within the mafia? Was that one of your skills?Louis Ferrante (05:00): Skills? Yeah, I mean, I was a heist guy. I ran a crew of heist guys, heist and hijackings, and you need to know what you're doing and everything's, you got to cross your T's and dot your i's make sure that everybody knows their role. Make sure that you need a well-oiled machine when you're going to do a heist or a hijack in one mistake. And everybody's lives are at stake, including innocent people. Something I might regret now, but something that was just a fact then. But we wanted to get away with it. We wanted the money. I wasn't thinking about people's lives back then. I was thinking about money and we wanted to get away with it, and you need to know what you're doing and everybody needs to know what they're doing. And I was a big planner. I would make drawings, I would go over everything with everyone. I would do mock runs to the highway to make sure we had an escape route, a backup escape route. I made sure we had backup guys in place. I never just pulled the trigger too fast. At one point, I was picked up by the feds in California where you are. We were in San Francisco and we were looking to hit an armored car, and the feds swooped in on us and grabbed us the day before we were going to hit that armored car. And it was a crucial thing. I was one guy short, and the reason why we waited was I was waiting for an extra guy to come from New York so that he could make sure we had enough guys on the heist. But yeah, so I guess I was meticulous in that sense. I was ignorant and naive in a million other ways, but I was meticulous in that sense.AK (06:27): Yeah, you should come back, Louis. It's much easier to do your heist these days. I don't know if there are any police left in South Africa. Yeah,Louis Ferrante (06:34): I don't know if anyone would care anymore.AK (06:36): Yeah, you'd probably be encouraged. Lots of films and books about how young kids get into the mafia. There's The Godfather, of course, & the Irishmen. How did you get into it?Louis Ferrante (06:48):  If you start committing big enough crimes, they'll find you. And that's what happens. Once I started hijacking trucks, I ran an auto crime, a chop shop. I supplied car parts to auto collision shops for a long time when I was a kid, stole cars, chopped them up and sold them to a shop. That little operation started out with just a few car thieves, me and my friends, and eventually grew into, as I said, a chop shop. And then at some point, once we started hijacking,AK (07:18): What is a chop shop?Louis Ferrante (07:22): Chop shop is you have a shop where you steal a car, you get an order from a collision shop. So a collision shop, for example, has, let's say they got a Mercedes and they got to spend $30,000 in parts because it's a hundred thousand dollars car and the car's wrecked, so they need 30,000 in parts. They might tell us, look, we'll give you five grand, can you get us all the parts? And then they'll put the stolen parts on the customer's car and sell them back the repaired car. So we would get paid then to go out, steal the car, try to get the same color so they wouldn't even have to paint it, but if you had to, you paint it. It's not always easy to match colors, but we would steal the car, chop it up, give them the parts they needed, and then dump the skeleton somewhere in the beginning we dumped it in the woods. And then at some point or another, we started renting. Back then you could lease a building under a phony name and then just abandon the building when you were done with it. I don't think you could get away with that. Nowadays there's too many identifications and stuff required, and people are hip at things like that, but back then you could even fly. When I told you I went to California to knock off an armor car, we flew under different names. Pre 9/11, you just booked an airline ticket under any name. I just picked the name out of the phone book. Just get on a plane.AK (08:35): Those were the days. You mentioned your bestselling book, Mob Rules, what the Mafia can Teach the Legitimate Businessman. There's a sort of cliche, Louis, I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times, that had you been born into the New York or Boston upper classes, you would've ended up at Harvard Business School and made a million dollars that way, is what you were doing. Is that a form of innovation and in some ways equivalent to what kids are taught at Stanford or Harvard Business School these days to think and be meticulous and accomplish what they set out to do?Louis Ferrante (09:19): Yeah, I don't know if they're taught any more to think. I don't know what an Ivy League upbringing is like, so it would be unimaginable for me to even,AK (09:33): But you've met those types.Louis Ferrante (09:36): Oh, all day long. Yeah, all day long. Some of them can't tie their shoes. I mean, just can't fix a flat. I was with a doctor once who got a flat and didn't know what to do, had no idea where the jack was, where to even begin. If I wasn't with him, he would've sat on the side of the road probably for the rest of his life until he died of starvation. So yeah, I would rather grow up and have to learn how to do things yourself.AK (10:01): Where did you grow up? What town?Louis Ferrante (10:03): In Queens? Yeah. I grew up in Queens and one of the five boroughs in New York, lower New York. The lower borough.AK (10:08): Yeah. My son lives there now.Louis Ferrante (10:10): Does he really? What part?AK (10:13): On the border with Brooklyn.Louis Ferrante (10:17): Oh, okay. They're building it up. It's probably up.AK (10:20): Yeah. It's much more fashionable now than it, I'm sure it used to be.Louis Ferrante (10:23): Yeah. I mean, I was in a lower income section of Queens, middle to lower income, so it wasn't all that, but a lot of people now, they've bought up a lot of big real estate in Brooklyn, and I guess they're moving to Queens now too.AK (10:37): Did your family know what you were doing? How old were you when you started your chop shop?Louis Ferrante (10:42): I was in high school when I was running the chop shop, so I kept it from them as best I can. I remember the first time I came home with a tagged car. A tagged car would be if, let's say I bought a wrecked vehicle, let's say a wrecked Cadillac, and I bought the completely, it was totaled out. So you pick up the wreck for a couple hundred bucks. Nobody wants it, but it's got a clean title. If you have a clean title, you don't have to go to motor vehicle and go through an inspection at that time. I don't know if things have changed. Now, this is many years ago. So if you bought a wrecked car, you had a clean title, you could then go out and steal a car, pop a couple of the tags off, for example, the VIN number in the dashboard, pop that tag off, put it on your stolen car, and then drive that as if it's yours. If you get pulled over by a cop, usually the cops just checked the dashboard tag. They never went through the rest of the car unless it was auto crime, which was something different. They'd have to be looking for you. So I came home with a beautiful brand new El Dorado, and I remember my mother was heartbroken. She came out on the porch and looked at it and said, you're killing me. You're breaking my heart.AK (11:48): Right, because she knew what you were doing.Louis Ferrante (11:50): Yeah, of course. How would I afford that car? I didn't have a job. So I tried to tell her that my friend who I work at the Body shop for part-time, he gave me the car and he's going to let me pay it off, but she wasn't buying it. She came from a family who was crooked, although she was law abiding. She was hip to the streets in a way, and she knew something was wrong. And she said, you're breaking my heart. And I never forgot that I did break her heart. She eventually died in my arms. And when I was young, she died at 47. I was 19, turning 20, and I went off the deep end after that. But to this day, I regret that she had to go through that and no, did I admit it to her? No. Did I tell her? But she, no, she knew she was hip.AK (12:33): Louis, talk to me about why you've written this history. Is it bound up with your own history? I mean, much of this history, this first volume is set in the 19th, late 19th, early 20th century when of course you weren't around. But is this a very personal narrative or have you tried to step back and write about the history of the mafia as an objective historian?Louis Ferrante (13:18): Both. And so first answer, I'll answer that question and tell you how the book came about. I do try to be as objective as possible. I don't want anybody to believe that I'm inserting myself where I don't belong. I want to tell a real history. And Publishers Weekly gave me a rave review saying that I did not rest on my own experiences alone.AK (13:40): You didn't threaten them, did you?Louis Ferrante (13:42): No, I did not. No, I didn't hang anybody out of a window or anything. No. And then handed them a pen and said, you know what to do? No, I didn't. Basically, they just said it was Well-researched all my notes. My source notes are in the back years, years reading articles, books. But what I was able to bring to the table from my own insights was I have an extra sense that most people wouldn't have. Being I was a criminal when I read something, I know if it was true or if it wasn't. I know if the writer has been, they don't, usually a writer wouldn't intentionally mislead the reader, but sometimes writers themselves are misled and they may get information, and because they don't know the world or the culture, the subculture, they write the wrong story. And a lot of times I'd be in jail when I was reading history, biographies, science philosophy. I would hear other guys, mob guys reading mob books, and you would hear a lot of guys blurting out b******t never happened, who wrote this crap? And when I finally started to do my own research, I realized that I came across a lot of things that were untrue, and I was able to decipher that stuff for the reader, which I think is interesting. I debunked a lot of old mafia myths that have been around for decades about leading Mafia figures. And I would explain to the reader, this is why it could have never happened. I don't want the reader to just take my word. I want the reader to have confidence in me as a writer to know that this is why this could never have happened. So time and again, I do that. To go back to your original question is where the book came from, how it came about. It wasn't something I really thought about. I was invited to Mob Rules, as we mentioned, was an international bestseller. And I was invited to Sicily by the German media conglomerate at Axel Springer, and it was a retreat for editors in Argento, Sicily. And I was seated next to an older man who happened to be there, and his name was George. And him and I hit it off. He was in his nineties, but a very young nineties, sharp as nails. And we talked all evening, and at the end of the evening, he said, I would like to publish the next book. And it turned out to be Lord George Denfeld, one of the biggest of the 20th century. And the next day we had lunch in Argento overlooking the ruins with Lord George and his charming wife, lady Annabelle. And Lady Annabelle had some priceless input as well, which persuaded me to write the book, what turned down to morphed into a trilogy. Originally, I was contracted to write a book, but I said, you can't squeeze all this into a book. There's too much here. It has to be stretched out. And I probably could have wrote 10 volumes, but I ended up writing a trilogy, and that's how the book came about. Lord George, as I understand it, he had a reputation of connecting writers with subjects, and I was the last one he had personally did that with before he unfortunately passed away.AK (16:39): Louis, if you were to write a history of the Mafia itself, would that begin in Sicily? There's a very strong Sicilian quality, but the mafia existed throughout Italy, of course. Is there something about the Sicilian Mafiaa and the history of the American mafia that are inseparable?Louis Ferrante (18:23): There is, as I pointed out in the early chapters of the book, I dug deep into how the mafia was formed inside the Sicilian womb, and it did indeed start in Sicily and then spread throughout the peninsula up and down the peninsula of Italy. But it was born in Sicily, and it had a lot to do with socioeconomic reasons, culture, family tradition, as I point out all these things in the book. And there was also, I point out a strong Arab influence in Western Sicily, which is interesting because Sicily was invaded by so many different people's over the course of centuries, whether it be the Spanish, the French, the Austrians, and the Arabs at some point. So the Arabs had a strong, I believe, where it developed in Western Sicily for the most part, in places like Palermo and Argento and Casa Lama del Gulfo, there was a strong Arab influence there, which is still present, still prevalent in a lot of places in the architecture and stuff, in words, in people's names, et cetera. So I was able to trace the history deep into Sicily and how it started in America was during the Southern Italian mass exodus wave into the United States after slavery was abolished in the United States in the 1860s. That came on around the same time when the unification of Italy occurred in Europe. And Sicilians were not happy with the unification of Italy being sort of absorbed by Italy proper. And they felt like a lot of Sicilians felt like it was just the newest conqueror, the newest ruler, no different from the bans in France or whoever else was there. So they were like, Hey, you know what? We're not happy with this. And there was a lot of poverty. And when America abolished slavery, we needed labor. We needed cheap labor quick because we no longer had slave labor in the United States. And at that point, we started looking around and there were plenty of poor people in Europe, and we invited them, and they came here in droves, and the mafia rode in on those boats. A lot of them, and I go to detail, I go very, very close detail throughout the early chapters of how exactly that happened. And I'm also very, very careful to point out that most Italian-Americans came here to work hard and to make a new life for themselves and their children and grandchildren, and had nothing to do with the mafia and never committed crimes. But the unfortunate circumstance, the unfortunate byproduct of that mass immigrant wave was the Italian criminals that came with them. A lot of them were fugitives from justice in Sicily, and they planted new flags here in American cities throughout the country, in metropolitan areas. At one point or another. There were just as many Mafia families as there were metropolitan areas across the United States. There was one in every metropolitan area, and then the strongest one survived and went on sort of like Arnold Toby's Darwinian theory of how empires are built, the strong survive. It was the same thing with a lot of these.AK (21:27): Why was it that the Mafia, that the Sicilian Mafia became so dominant, and there were many immigrants from Naples and other parts of mainland southern Italy. What is it about the Southern Sicilian, and is it different in its principles organization, morality or lack of morality from the Neapolitan Mafia, for example?Louis Ferrante (21:51): Yeah. Well, the Neapolitan Mafia was the Kimora. I had done a documentary for the History Channel about them very different from the Italian Sicilian, the Sicilian Mafia in Sicily. A lot of these other mafias from Calabria, from Naples, and even there were a few in northern Italy, very weak. None of them had that sort of Sicilian, the Sicilians. They had something very special on that island. It was an island different throughout up and down the peninsula of Italy. You had city states throughout the Renaissance and stuff. So they were all very, I'm still asked, her father was from Naples, and her mother was from Sicily. So I have two grandparents on my mother's side from Naples and Sicily. And my father's, both parents were from Bari, all from southern Italy. But I'm still asked by people who are Italian American, where are you from? And they sort of connect with you a lot faster if you're from the same place they were from. So you can only imagine back then how territorial Italy was and how people really responded to people like themselves. So at that time, Sicily was an island away from even all those city states, and they were really, really isolated, and they really, really relied on themselves. And throughout history, there were always weak central governments in Sicily, no matter who ruled Sicily, they really never cared about the Sicilian people and implementing any positive changes, whether social changes or institutional changes. They just wanted to pretty much rape Sicily of whatever agrarian products they could get off the island. So most of the time, the Sicilian people relied on themselves, and that went a lot into it as well. And it was a patriarchal society, which in some cases comes from the Arab influence in Sicily.AK (23:33): Are you presenting then the Sicilian Mafia as a resistance, organizational resistance to colonialism of one kind?Louis Ferrante (23:41): Believe it or not, at one point they were. Now, I know that they evolved or devolved extremely quickly into something much more treacherous and less upstanding than that. But I do make the argument that in the very beginning, they were indeed just that in my book, even the word I trace, for the first time, people were, historians were sort of in agreement that it came from an Arabic word, but they threw out a half a dozen different Arabic words that it might've come from one meaning a cave dweller, another one meaning a proud horse, and all kinds of different words from the Arabic language, I was able to trace the word mafia. Those of us in the West who are familiar with the siege of Khartoum, where the Victorian general Gordo, the British General Gordo,, was sent to sort of hold off against the Muslim guy who sort took control and launched this rebellion and said, I am the sort of the prophet. I am the prophet incarnate. And he was sort of like a rebellious character against the status quo all throughout the world, throughout the east and the Middle East. And in this particular case, when the Arabs were pushed into the western region of Sicily, after the unification of Italy, the modest regime was known as the Media, which was one letter away from Mafia. So I left it, look, I'm not an etymologist, but I left it to future historians to debate this. And I make a cogent argument that this is where it came from, my quote, encyclopedia Britannica. I quote people who were on the scene at the time, I quote history books, et cetera, to make this argument. And I do believe it came from that particular word.AK (25:29): As I said, Louis, we've done lots of shows on the mafia infiltration, the response of the police, but is the reason why the Mafia became so powerful and perhaps remained so powerful in the United States because it's a country with a tradition of weak central government, of federal government, of government that isn't for the most part, very effective or efficient. So in other words, was there something, and you have to be careful using this word as a historian, but was there a degree of inevitability about the mafia's rise to power in late 19th century America?Louis Ferrante (26:12): It's a great question, and the answer is yes. There was a Sicilian mobster, and I don't recall his name, but he said, why in the world can anybody think why? When Sicilians left Sicily for New life in America, and a lot of them landed in South America, central America, a lot of them landed in North Africa. They went everywhere. Sicilians were scattered everywhere. But why only in America did the American Mafia, did the Mafia really take root as it did? And that goes to our system, which is we have always had a very corrupt system. And I traced that it was very easily manipulated by mobsters who really learned how to bribe politicians and law enforcement officials during prohibition. And that was a prime time because during prohibition, which took place the roaring twenties into 1930, we had people in America who wanted to drink and were told by their government, you're not allowed. And so the people as a whole didn't agree with this. So they were really, really suddenly the mafiaa who wanted to provide them with liquor, with alcohol and supplying the demand for alcohol weren't seen as these animals anymore. These killers, these beat bad guys, they were all of a sudden these romantic sexy figures who were giving the United States, the people of the country, alcohol when they desperately wanted it. And that's when the mafia began to corrupt a lot of politicians and political machines. And the influence ran throughout law enforcement agencies and that deep influence they had during prohibition, basically, once prohibition was repealed and Americans could drink again, the mafia kept a lot of those deep corrupt alliances that they had made, and they moved on to use them for gambling and stuff, to open up casinos, to have a casino, to have a casino. So a lot of why the mafia was able to prosper here in America had a lot to do with the easily corruptible local governments. And at that point, there wasn't an overarching federal government who could come in and say, Hey, you've been all corrupted. We'll take over from here. We know you're all bought and paid for by the Mafiaa here in your local town. So here the federal government's going to move in with j Edgar Hoover's, FBI, et cetera, et cetera. That didn't happen.AK (28:44): Yeah. And of course, j Edgar Hoover's, FBI began in some ways as a response, not always a particularly effective one to prohibition. To what extent the book covers legendary figures and legendary mafia figures like Lucky Luciano & many others. To what extent do these kind of guys capture the spirit of a violent independent 19th century America?Louis Ferrante (29:16): They do and don't. By the time we get to Luciano and Genovese and Costello, they're sort of this newer generation of American mobsters. So the first generation with these sort of old mustache, peats, grease balls, all the derogatory names that they were called in this country, they were sort of like off the boat, Italians. That was the first generation. Then there was the second generation that were more American, and they weren't as clannish as the Sicilians were. They understood that if they were going to prosper in America, they needed to form these diverse relationships with Jews, with blacks, with Irish. They needed to really, if they were going to get somewhere, they basically came up with the plan that they were going to, Hey, we're going to keep this thing of ours, this thing of ours, this our thing, La Cosa Nostra. We're going to keep that to ourselves.Nobody's allowed entry into this secret organization that we have, but let's deal with everyone. We're not going to get anywhere if we stay to ourselves. And they made alliances with everyone across the country. And that was the key. And that was sort of like that second generation, even though Costello and Luciano came to the country when they were eight or nine years old, they may as well have been born here. They were just as good as Americans, just as good as American born citizens. They were a second generation of this. And they did away with the old ones, the old clannish Mafiosos, who felt like, no, we have to defend ourselves. We have to stick with ourselves. We have to continue to live amongst ourselves, and we can't trust the Irish. We can't trust the blacks or the Jews. This second generation of Italian-Americans said, no, we can trust them and we're going to, and we're going to deal with them.And for example, Frank Costello not only partnered with a million Jews in business, but he married a Jew. So he had a Jewish family. And at one point or another, Al Capone in Chicago, his guy Jake, greasy Thumb Gik was his best friend. He was a Jew. And when somebody had bragged that he made this little Jew greasy thumbs wine, Capone was beside himself, and he went looking for the guy, and he unloaded a revolver in his face and murdered him because Capone wasn't going to allow that to happen. He says, Jew or Italian, it doesn't matter if you're my friend, I protect you, I defend you. So these relationships really started by that sort of next generation of Italian American mobsters. And by my generation, I mean, I had a hijacking heist crew. The two of the toughest guys in my crew were Jews, and they were treated the same as any other Italian. We were all from the same neighborhood. We all grew.AK (31:50): It extend to race as well? I mean, in The Godfather, we all remember the explicit racism of many of the fictional figures were black Americans, African-Americans, were they as welcome as Jewish Americans?Louis Ferrante (32:08): Yes. Now, even in my time you had at one time, I said, for example, mobsters weren't going to go, oh, that African American owes me money. Let's go over there and pay him a visit. Obviously, the lingo would be that N owes me money. Let's go over there and pay him a visit. And the N would refer to us as a grease ball or whop a Guinea. So the words that we used back then would be considered racist today. But were we racist? And what were the Italians or the blacks racist against each other? Absolutely not. The only color we all saw was green. And that was it. And I point out in my book, they made a strong alliance, Lucky Luciano Luciano did with Bumpy Johnson. Bumpy Johnson, when they took over the policy racket in Harlem, they needed to smooth things over with the blacks because the black was a huge population in Harlem blacks. So Luciano struck a deal with Bumpy Johnson, where Bumpy Johnson was going to pretty much handle any black problems in Harlem and deal directly with Luciano. And bumpy Johnson's wife wrote a memoir years later that praised Luciano and said that him and my husband were best friends. And it was a real legitimate friendship. It wasn't just business. They had a real friendship. So all that racism they try to make, that's all television now because it sells. But for the most part, yeah, the talk, you told jokes about each other. You called each other what would be considered horrible names now, but were we really racist toward each other? Absolutely not. People will say Italians. And the Mafia hated gays. The Genovese family ran all the gay clubs in Greenwich Village. They controlled all the gay clubs.AK (33:53): How about women? We did a show last year on female drug gang leaders in Latin America. There aren't that many women in your narrative, are there?Louis Ferrante (34:03): No. I mean, if you want to say misogynistic, then I have to agree. Yeah. Not racist, but misogynistic. The Italian, theAK (34:09):Women in all the movies, the women are at home cooking the past, and the men are out killing each otherLouis Ferrante (34:14): Yeah, go home and cook. No Italian man wants his wife buttoned into his business. So I have to concede that point. I won't give in on racism because it wasn't there. But I will give in on misogynistic outlook toward women.AK (34:27): And I don't necessarily mean that critically. One way. The other narrative, Louis, which of course is most clearly articulated in the Godfather, the movies, the Godfather, maybe even Godfather three, is that the mafia began in a sort of communal way, reasonably decently, even if there was a great deal of violence, and it went really badly wrong with drugs. And of course, that was the foundation of the narrative in The Godfather, the cause of all the bloodshed. Is there any truth in that? There is tell you that veto Corleone in the Godfather wasn't a bad guy, and then it all went wrong when his family got in the drug business.Louis Ferrante (35:07): Yes, there definitely is a direct correlation between the movie and real life and the movie, whether Putto, I believe Mario Puzo, who was the author that they based the movie on, but either Puzo or Francis Ford Coppola adopted it from a real life story, which was Frank Costello. Frank Costello was the acting boss when Lucky Luciano went to jail and then was deported. And when Costello was boss, he was dead set against drugs. He did not want his Borgata dealing drugs because he felt that he had all these big political leaders in Tammany Hall who did everything that they could do for the mob to keep them out of jail, to help them with things. They had judges, they put judges in. They chose the head of Tammany, who in turn helped choose the mayor of New York slash the governor. And then obviously through the governor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt started out in New York and ended up being the president. So it's no telling how high you could go. Well, Costello said, if we continue to deal drugs, these political alliances are going to run away from us. They're not going to, this is something the American people do not like. They're fine with alcohol. They wanted alcohol. We gave it to them. They're fine with gambling. If the United States prohibits gambling and we allow them to gamble, that's fine. The people have no problem with that. They feel like we're providing them with a desire that they have. Even Luciano ran a chain of bordellos. That's an ointment for the hard up. That's fine. But obviously it's human slavery.AK (36:40): can I quote you on that ointment for the hard up?Louis Ferrante (36:44): Well, that's what, yeah, it basically was. It was like an outlet for social frustration maybe. Obviously. Obviously it's woman trafficking. It's disgusting. However, however, Luciano really didn't have a direct connection to it, but it was taking place, but it wasn't thought of by the American people, I should say, as the worst thing in the world.AK (37:10): I mean, the way the Godfather presents it is that this was the argument I think Sonny Cordone made with his father is that if we don't do it, someone else will. There's going to be other groups who do it. Was there any truth to that?Louis Ferrante (37:24): Yes. Yes. And everyone uses that argument today. There are still mobsters who sell drugs and say, if I don't do it, somebody else will. Somebody's got to do it. And me, myself, I never went near drugs. I had an uncle who was a drug addict. He was a heroin addict. And my mother from when me and my sister were little kids, she would beg us, please don't ever do drugs. Please don't ever do drugs. Don't put us through this hell that your uncle put us through. And we never did. I never did it, and I wouldn't sell it. I wouldn't call that curse down upon another person's family. I was dead set against it, but some people did. I knew people who sold drugs. I was in jail with a million different people who sold drugs. I don't think a lot of them sat down and really, really thought deeply about the consequences that could have with regard to mothers crying for the rest of their lives. And some kid dropped dead on his bed because he OD'ed or some, yeah, IAK: Excuse the Dimwittedness of this one. Louis, you've mentioned the word “Borgata” a couple of times. You might define it. Why did you title your book “Borgata”?Louis Ferrante (38:37): Borgata is what we called a crime family is the Borgata or the Broga, we would say, and it's a slang for a crime family. We wouldn't say we belong to a crime family. We wouldn't say we belong to the Mafiaa. We would say, I'm in so-and-So's Borgata or Borgata, and a Borgata. In the Italian definition of the word, it stems from the Latin burial. It's sort of like a poorer neighborhood of Italians would be a Borgata. A poorer community of Italians would be considered a Borgata. And that became, somehow, it became the name of a crime family, which is a little bit of a community. And obviously they don't start off super well off, or they wouldn't be committing crimes. People typically aren't born into wealth and commit crimes. So whoever the name came to mean, a crime family, that's what it means. And nobody had ever used it for a book before. So I figured, what the hell? It's perfect. So I went with the Borgata trilogy.AK (39:32): Well, I hope in this trilogy we're going to get to have you on at least two more shows for volume two and three. You end in the sixties, of course, in The Godfather, there were a wonderful moment in Godfather two, filmed in Cuba. Cuba was central. You make Cuba an important place in this narrative. Why'd you end in the sixties? Did something happen? Did something profoundly change?Louis Ferrante (39:58): Yes. There's a major shift that occurs in 1960 from the beginning of Borgata volume one until the end of Borgata volume one, there really isn't any concerted effort to destroy the Mafia. Thomas Dewey, who went on to become the Governor of New York and eventually ran as the Republican candidate for President against FDR, he did take a shot at locking up some gangsters in New York, but there was never really a concerted effort by the institutions of law enforcement to go after the mob. When Bobby Kennedy, when John f Kennedy's elected president in 1960, or begins his term in 1960, he appoints Bobby Kennedy, his younger brother, the Attorney General of the United States. And Bobby always had a thing against the mafia. He had started out in the McClellan Committee where he went after Jimmy Hoffa, and he went after other gangsters and called them to testify. And he was incensed that they took the Fifth Amendment all the time, and he didn't like that they would hide behind the Fifth, how dare them. And he swore he would go after them one day. And when John F. Kennedy becomes president, and Bobby is appointed Attorney General of the United States, he now suddenly has all of the Justice Department's, 30,000 employees under his control, treasury, I-R-S-I-N-S-F-B-I, et cetera, et cetera.AK (41:18): Although Bobby Kennedy used to call j Edgar Hoover, j Edna Hoover. He never seemed to listen very much to what Bobby Kennedy said.Louis Ferrante (41:27): No, he demeaned Hoover to, I mean, beyond what we would even consider. I mean, our standards today, forget it. They'd cancel Bobby Kennedy in a minute. But he was horrible to Hoover. And Hoover hated him. But Hoover did not. Hoover was dragged into the fight kicking and screaming. Hoover knew that if you made a concerted effort to destroy the mob, a lot of those mobsters, their backgrounds led to Congress led to congressmen, politicians, senator,AK (42:00): And of course, Hoover wonderful new biography, Al Prize winning biography. I'm sure you've read it. He was more interested, I think, in racial divisions in America. He might've been slightly sympathetic to the Mafia because they were white.Louis Ferrante (42:15): Yeah, I mean, he probably was at some point or another, he used the Mafiaa to uncover, I don't know if you're familiar with when those three civil rights workers were killed down in Mississippi.  Johnson put tremendous pressure on Hoover to crack the case, and Hoover probably got dragged into the fray kicking and screaming. I'm sure he didn't want to go after that. He was not deferential to blacks at all, Hoover. But he knew that that's what Johnson wanted. And the public wanted to know who these people were that killed these three civil rights workers, two whites and one black. And Hoover called one of his FBI informants down south and told them, here's the KK guy. The agents told, not Hoover himself, but Hoover's agents told this mob guy, here's the KKK guy. We believe the KKK guy we believe had something to do with it. You could beat it out of him if you want. Go for it. And this guy did. And then they dug up the bodies and they cracked the case. But Hoover, Hoover didn't like Italians, but he didn't go after them. And of course he didn't like blacks. Hoover was old school, very conservative in his views. Yeah. I mean, he was a man of his own time, but he was only concerned with groups trying to advocate the destruction of the United States. He was big on communists. He did not like communists Obviously, blacks and Italians weren't trying to overthrow the United States, but groups for the most part, like communist groups…AK (43:50): Right. His obsession with anti-Communist. And finally, Louis ending in the sixties, of course, in the sixties, America descended into a great deal of political violence, and particularly the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, of Bobby Kennedy, of Martin Luther King, many others. Lots of stories. And I'm sure you covered this in the book about Mafia involvement in one kind of assassination or another in the sixties, is in an odd ironic way at the end of this first volume, did America and the mafia kind of come together? Are they increasingly inseparable in the 1960s in the public use of violence of one kind or another?Louis Ferrante (44:31): That's a great question. I guess they've always remained, there's some sort of inseparability between them. But yeah, America became a very violent place.AK (44:44): Always was, but politically much more violent in the sixties.Louis Ferrante (44:48): Correct. I mean, we didn't have assassinations like we did. There's still a song. I heard it the other day. Where's my old friend, Johnny Martin, Luther King, John and Bobby, they died. Where are they? I forget the lyrics of the song, but it was made on the heels of that violence, and it still plays on the radio today. Where's my old friend Johnny? I think it is. But yeah, I mean, America became a violent place. I do believe that the mafia had something to do directly with John f Kennedy's. I present tremendous evidence in volume two of the Borgata Trilogy, trilogy. They had something to, andAK (45:24): That book's not out yet, right? Louis?Louis Ferrante (45:25): It's not out yet. But they did have something to do with his murder. And I also believe at some point or another, I intend to write a book about the Mafia's involvement with Martin Luther King's murder as well. I do believe there was a mafia informant who had something to do with Martin Luther King's murder as well. And I think if Hoover's hands aren't dirty in each of those cases, he definitely had his head in the sand and he heard things that he chose to ignore. And I think that that was the type of person, Hoover was where if I want a certain outcome and I just didn't see it or didn't hear it, it's like if you have a neighbor whose dog's been crapping on your lawn for the last 10 years, and then somebody beats up the neighbor, maybe you didn't see it. Maybe you looked the other way when it happened. I don't know. Maybe you get the outcome you wanted. So that could be what happened with Hoover.AK (46:19): Final question. I got to ask you this. We will get more next time you come on the show with volume two, talking about JFK and all that. What about you grew up in Queens? What about, you know who, I'm not sure if you've ever met him or come across him, but there's a mafia quality in the way, maybe a wannabe mafiaa quality to your fellow queens in New Yorker?Louis Ferrante (46:43): I never met him. I will say a lot of people have accused him of his construction business and the buildings that went up in New York having some type of mafia involvement. But I will say this, I know for a fact all of the buildings that went up in New York had some sort of mafia involvement. So you couldn't operate as a building developer in New York, especially back then, without having to deal with the mafia controlled unions without having to deal with the mafia controlled construction companies without having to deal with the mafia controlled concrete companies. There was something the mafia had, which was called the Concrete Club. And any bid over a million dollars, which would be any bid for a skyscraper, was controlled by the mafia. They let any bids under a million, they let them go, but anything over a million, they wanted to control. My friend, my former friend, I haven't seen him in years, I did time with him also. Tommy Rizzo supplied the rebar for the Trade Center. He was a Colombo gangster, Colombo family mobster. The guy who was supposed to fireproof the supports in the trade center was a Gambino family mobster. And the Port Authority cleared him of any wrongdoing when the towers fell. But I mean, these are mobsters who have all these contracts in New York and all these building developers to some extent have to deal with them. Now, usually there's a GC on the job, a general contractor, and at some point or another way below, someone like him or someone like somebody, his associates in that industry, somewhere down there, there's someone dealing with the cash envelopes under the table and stuff. But I don't think it ever rises to the height of himself or people like him in the developing industry. I think they're much bigger. They go to the parties. If he has a flamboyant nature, that's a completely different thing. But I mean, as far as incriminating something that he may have done incriminating, I don't believe so. I believe it was done lower, much lower than him. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

"Always notice whatever is happening in the background." The acclaimed producer and composer discusses the art of meaningful listening and his latest LP, Silencio. Moritz von Oswald's legacy as one of the trailblazers of contemporary techno precedes him. The artist's initial claim to fame was his involvement in the duo Basic Channel with Mark Ernestus, a project that formed the dub techno canon in the '90s and is still a primary reference point for many, if not most, modern producers. He was also at the helm of the famous cutting and pressing plant Dubplates and Mastering in Berlin, which has become a home for countless artists over the years. But on this occasion, Oswald sat down to discuss a more recent project: his LP Silencio on Tresor Records, which came out in November. He talked with RA's senior producer, Chloe Lula, about his lifelong love of jazz, tapestry, French film, Southern Italian opera and music from Central Asia. He also reflects on his production process—an endless exploration of drama and dynamics. Oswald is fascinated with reducing sound to its most basic elements and broadening the capacity of what the ear can perceive. Most importantly, he's a critical listener, and in the final moments of the episode, he imparts wisdom on how he's learned to keep a conscious ear open to the world around him. Check out the episode in full.

Downtown Napa, southern Italian cooking, farm to table, a cow town, love the chaos and interview with Madison Crosby, GM & wine director at Oenotri in Napa. ON THE ROAD with MR CA WINE is about California's cool, aspirational lifestyle and awesome wines hosted by Chuck Cramer, a California native, living in London and is the Director of European sales & marketing, Terlato Wines. This is a wine journey covering the hottest topics in the world of California wine, chatting along the way with the key influencers in the industry who make it all happen. This week's episode includes an interview with Madison Crosby, GM & wine director, Oenotri in downtown Napa.

Whether you're a chef or a retailer, self-care can be a difficult concept to grasp at times amid the endless 16 hour work days that are at times your reality. Michelle and Chef Amber sit down to talk about how they've learned to care for themselves while still being bad*sses in their respective careers.Chef Amber believes in the transformative power of food, both for physical health and emotional well-being. Her culinary journey began after earning a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Auburn University. She honed her skills in Southern Italian cuisine and later became the executive chef at Mediterraneo in Hermosa Beach, California, where she worked for almost a decade.During her time at Mediterraneo, Chef Amber discovered the healing potential of food, leading her to a personal transformation. This newfound insight drove her to pursue education in food therapy, with a mission to help others change their lives through nourishing meals.Chef Amber also shares her own journey of overcoming an unhealthy relationship with food, aiming to inspire others with her story. Her focus is on helping women heal their relationships with food and body image through private coaching, bodywork, and cooking classes. She recently released her cookbook, "Sexy Nourishing Food," available online and at her restaurant, The Source Cafe in Hermosa Beach.Chef Amber's WebsiteChef Amber's InstagramChef Amber's Facebook

Brandon Ficara thinks we Italian Americans have a special relationship with humor. Born in Philadelphia, and raised in Ocean City, NJ, this proud Italian American used humor to combat the tribulations of life at an early age. Born with Sprangles Deformity, a condition that required major back surgery when he was three years old, Brandon turned to humor to combat pain and ostracism. With his humorous approach and strong Italian Famiglia, Brandon would turn his "unique look" into the cornerstone of his career in stand-up comedy, television, writing, and public speaking.  We're jumping back into Part 2 of this 2-Part exploration of Italian American humor and the varied portrayals that have shared our sense of humor with the world We share how “Dominick the Donkey” brought Brandon into the Italian American Podcast Famiglia, and why looking at the “serious vs silly” approach to telling our story could change the way we look at how we are portrayed by ourselves and others. And speaking of portrayals, we are discussing some of the most famous Italian American characters to grace the small screen in the past 40 years, on shows like “All in the Family”, Who's the Boss” and “The Golden Girls”.  And, we are soliciting YOUR help in seeking out a hidden gem of Italian American TV history, a long-lost 1972 sitcom called “The Super”. Are we genuinely funny people? And does our Southern Italian history make us more comfortable with comedy and tragedy than other communities?   We'll discuss all this and more in this final half of a 2-Part “Live and Uncut” episode, that we hope leaves you with lots of laughs! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/italianamerican/support

Emilia Aiello joins the guys in the studio for this episode! Emilia is the owner of Cittavino & Co. The California based, online wine shop focusing on Southern Italian wines. Emilia is also co-founder of Juice for Justice, the Nonprofit that was created during Covid to raise awareness of Social Justice through wine. The guys dive into their experience being part of Juice for Justice during 2020 & hear from Emilia why her & Summer started it. Emilia dives into more of her background working in wine, being a Somm in NYC, dancing, starting Cittavino & Co. & more! Listen to the full episode now! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/musicinthebottle/support

The thrilling conclusion of all-things-emoji! Eggplants, peaches, jumping ska dudes, gray hearts, family emojis, what NOT to text your Southern Italian friends, yellow hands, red hair, the birth of the smiley face and how to celebrate World Emoji Day on July 17 with Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge, designer Jennifer Daniel, and the world's first emoji translator (and current Emojipedia editor-in-chief) Keith Broni. Listen to Part 1 first, of course. 

Sometimes we have conversations that veer off into so many wonderful topics that they seem to make a concise introduction nearly impossible.  When this week's guest, author and “recovering lawyer,” Leigh Esposito, joined us to discuss her debut novel, the conversation quickly turned into one you won't want to miss! Her new book, “The Godmother," was recently released to excellent reviews and has been especially lauded for its portrayal of the experience of Sicilian womanhood. We'll discuss the author's interesting take on the evolving role of women in Sicily and throughout Italy, how our community might be changing how it tells its own stories, and how the craft of the writer is ever-evolving as new voices enter the field.  We'll also explore the light and dark of Italy's South, where sadness and joy create a unique interplay in the Southern Italian experience, engender certain learned behaviors, and perpetuate oppressive institutions like the Mafia. And we'll examine Sicily's place as the melting pot of the Mediterranean, where so many distinct cultures meet and merge to form a distinct and wondrous civilization. Join us as we discover one of our community's brightest new literary voices! This week's episode is sponsored by Mediaset Italia. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/italianamerican/support

This episode features Sommelier Jason Wilfore, the recent champion of our "Unusual Suspects" Blind Tasting Competition here in Atlanta, GA. He was born and raised in Schenectady, NY and got his start working in the restaurant business as a server and singer at Romano's Macaroni Grill. He later worked at Provence in Guilderland, NY which focused more on traditional French and Mediterranean cuisine that also sparked his interested in wine and beverage followed by working at Grappa '72, another local upscale family-owned restaurant that focused on Northern and Southern Italian cuisine. He moved to Atlanta in 2016 and started working at South City Kitchen in Vinings as a server and bartender. He says that as his curiosity for beverage grew, his beverage manager suggested looking into the Introductory and Certified Courses and Exams with the Court of Master Sommeliers, and the Certified Specialist of Wine certification with the Society of Wine Educators. He passed both the CSW and Certified exams in 2019, and he transferred to Ecco in Midtown where he was able to merge his French/Italian/Mediterranean experiences and start building some knowledge in Spanish cuisine and beverage. After eventually getting promoted to Beverage Manager, he started learning the business/logistical aspects of a beverage program. We talk about his move to Marcel, which meant a shift from a management position to be able to work at a fine dining restaurant with an extensive wine program and continue his development while working with and learning from the sommelier. Currently, Jason is working as a sommelier at Mujo, and we talk about the unique setting in which he is now applying his wine knowledge and creativity. The second half of the episode is devoted to debriefing about the blind tasting competition - Jason walks us through his thought process and strategy for each of his calls, and the dialogue is both entertaining and educational. You can follow @wilforejay on Instagram and find him on Twitch at SommJay. Recorded June 9, 2023 ------------------------------------------- This episode is generously sponsored by Diane Carpenter and Ross Knoll Vineyard: https://www.dianecarpenter.org/wines TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE HERE --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/acorkintheroad/support

In today's third hour, Dom welcomes in Giuseppe, the tour guide of Dom Giordano's upcoming Grand Event, as he and listeners tour through the Country of Italy. Giuseppe tells what to expect on the upcoming trip, and tells listeners what they need to experience in Italy even if not joining the Grand Event. Then, Dom and Giuseppe delve into Italian cuisine, with Giuseppe telling of the differences between Northern and Southern cuisine, with the guide pointing to the usage of tomatoes by Southern Italian. Then, Producer Dan quizzes Giuseppe on some Italian terminology, looking for corrections on oft-mispronounced terms by South Philly Italians, such as ‘gabagool' and ‘muhzarel'. (Photo by Getty Images)

Full Hour | In today's third hour, Dom welcomes in Giuseppe, the tour guide of Dom Giordano's upcoming Grand Event, as he and listeners tour through the Country of Italy. Giuseppe tells what to expect on the upcoming trip, and tells listeners what they need to experience in Italy even if not joining the Grand Event. Then, Dom and Giuseppe delve into Italian cuisine, with Giuseppe telling of the differences between Northern and Southern cuisine, with the guide pointing to the usage of tomatoes by Southern Italian. Then, Producer Dan quizzes Giuseppe on some Italian terminology, looking for corrections on oft-mispronounced terms by South Philly Italians, such as ‘gabagool' and ‘muhzarel'. After that, Dom continues on with the show, returning to the topic of the judge decision on the FOP challenge to Philadelphia's driving equality law, discussing the negative implications on public safety from such a bill. This leads Dom to call out the Bike Coalition, a political powerhouse in Philadelphia, asking why they haven't prioritized the safety of their riders in an unsafe environment. (Photo by Getty Images)

Many of us have that “one” cookbook that we reach for whenever we want to make something special for our friends and famiglia… and for one of our hosts (and perhaps for many of you out there) that special book was written by this week's incredible guest. Award-winning author Arthur Schwartz (LINK) is a legend in the world of Italian cuisine, thanks to his definitive work “Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania,” as well as “The Southern Italian Table: Authentic Tastes from Traditional Kitchens,” among his countless other highly praised works. (LINKS) For 26 years, he was the food editor of Newsday and then the New York Daily News, where he was also a columnist and first-string restaurant critic, and for 13 years he was the host of the country's only daily food radio program. The Brooklyn-born Italophile also put his passion for Southern Italy to work running a cooking school in Paestum for nearly 12 years. Known for putting food in its cultural context, Arthur tells us about the origins of Southern Italian cuisine and how that cuisine translated to Italians living abroad. He also shares his own stories about how he discovered Italian cuisine and why he considers it his “second soul food.” We'll also dissect the stories of popular Italian dishes, and explore the plethora of products imported out of that region to tables around the world. Its a conversation so great, whittling it down to an hour was a herculean task Join us as we learn from the master, and sit down with a true culinary legend in this week's fun-filled episode!

Shelley Lindgren's passion for Southern Italian wines has been the invisible hand that has shaped the way we drink wine today. Her restaurant A16 is a culinary destination that's like a big hug from a long lost friend.