The Pride and Passion of The Italian American Podcast

Listening to podcasts has been part of my regular daily routine for a number of years now. Whether I’m plugged in at work or listening to a playlist in the car, my personal favorites – which range from comedy and music to social and current events – offer endless hours of entertainment and education. As of late, I often find myself gravitating toward podcasts that focus on either culinary tips or Italian American culture, as a bit of resource and inspiration for potential future blog post ideas. One podcast that I recently discovered and immediately fell in love with is The Italian American Podcast.

Co-hosted by Anthony Fasano & Dolores Alfieri, The Italian American Podcast offers a wide range of episode topics, such as family history and traditions, recipes, tips on how to trace your genealogy, and special interviews with famous Italian American chefs, musicians, athletes and authors. However, the episodes that really pulled me in as a fan are the ones where Anthony and Dolores invite their audience to not only learn about their own family history and traditions, but to also listen in as they record their family during one of their many special traditional gatherings.

The Italian American Podcast hosts, Anthony Fasano and Dolores Alfieri.

For those of you who have had the wonderful and unique opportunity to celebrate a Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes Dinner with your extended family, or to spend a day preparing a special annual family recipe with your cousins, aunts and uncles, you will no doubt enjoy the episodes that are focused on such family events. Both Anthony and Dolores have been gracious enough on more than one occasion to actually set up a mic during one of their family gatherings to record and share the event with their listeners. The events aren’t scripted, they are just recorded as is…capturing every wonderful and loving sound and conversation that is going on in the background. The laughter, the stories, the memories…they are all captured and preserved for all of us to enjoy. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t almost moved to tears a number of times while listening to these special recordings. And for those of you who have not been fortunate enough to personally experience one of these events, you will quickly develop an understanding and appreciation of these treasured Italian American family moments just by listening to these episodes.

The interview episodes are also done very well, as the guests are asked well-structured and inquisitive questions. The listeners will no doubt learn and absorb from these fantastic interviews. Over the course of the podcast’s history, Anthony and Dolores have interviewed a number of intriguing guests of Italian American heritage, such as celebrity chefs Lidia Bastianich and Mary Ann Esposito, sports celebrities Franco Harris, Mike Piazza and Tony Reali, singers Vanessa Racci and Lena Prima, and authors Domenica Marchetti, Tom Santopietro and Adriana Trigiani…just to name a few.

Earlier this month, I also had the pleasure to be interviewed by Anthony about my Cucina Domenico food blog and my book, A Little of This and Some of That, for their podcast episode #63: The Conversations That Help Us Keep Our Italian American Traditions Alive. I’ve had the opportunity to do a number of interviews over the years, and my conversation with Anthony was one of my favorites. Anthony expressed a lot of appreciation for my efforts in keeping the Italian American traditions alive, and my feelings towards the amazing job that he and Dolores are doing with their podcast is mutual. And who knows…maybe some day we’ll even find an avenue to collaborate with each other!

I highly recommend and encourage you to check out The Italian American Podcast. As their website tagline says, it will inspire you to deepen your Italian American Heritage.

Links

Be sure to visit The Italian American Podcast website at italianamericanexperience.com to check out all of their podcast episodes, blog entries, videos and community page.

You can also listen to The Italian American Podcast on iTunes or on Stitcher.com.

And please be sure to give a listen to Anthony’s interview with myself and Messina Reale, of the website Ovunque Siamo.
Episode #63: The Conversations That Help Us Keep Our Italian American Traditions Alive

Thank you, Anthony and Dolores, for your encouragement and inspiration, and for keeping the passion of the Italian American culture alive and well!