• About “the Genie in the Bottle”
    Dec 30 2019
    • 1.46 Campari as an elite brand
    • 3.10 The Milanese market
    • 4.17 The world of the factory is the factory of the world
    • 6.22 Pop & glamour
    • 7.29 The dawn of mass advertising
    • 10.47 Depero and Futurism
    • 12.30 Art as autobiography
    • 14.17 The futurist house: now and then
    • 16.24 Depero and Rosetta
    • 19.12 Depero and Mario Soldati
    • 20.18 Depero and Davide Campari

    Today’s speakers are Nicoletta Boschiero and Valerio Varini.

    Show more Show less
    23 mins
  • The Genie in the Bottle
    Dec 27 2019

    There’s a small piece of art in almost every fridge, even in yours. It’s from the Twenties, the time when an avant-garde artist (Fortunato Depero) and an entrepreneur (Davide Campari) proved that ads could be something more than shouted slogans and that even a tiny, mundane object can be the outstanding product of a revolutionary act of creation.

    Today’s guests are Nicoletta Boschiero and Valerio Varini.

    Show more Show less
    54 mins
  • About “When the Pope’s Corpse went on trial”
    Dec 16 2019

    - 2.10 Ripples and bubbles: the Roman factions and a dissolving empire

    - 5.03 The four margraves

    - 6.22 The complexity of the papacy

    - 8.48 Formosus: controversial and pious

    - 10.59 Infallibility, the play

    - 11.58 Power, authority and faith: the Cadaver Synod

    - 13.08 Reflecting (on) the present: Bush, Obama, Trump

    Today’s speakers are Matt Barbot and Roger Collins.

    Show more Show less
    18 mins
  • When the Pope's Corpse went on trial 
    Dec 13 2019

    Here’s one question you didn’t expect to ever ask yourself: can the Pope take a dead Pope to court? The answer is yes, but be ready for another surprising turn, because the reason why the exhumed Pope’s corpse faces trial isn’t as outlandish as you may presume. In this episode of Italian Culture, we investigate the infamous Cadaver Trial, a fine example of how power, violence and subterfuge can taint even the most sacred office.

    Today’s guests are Matt Barbot and Roger Collins.

    Show more Show less
    42 mins
  • About “Let there be Sandwich, and there was Sandwich”
    Dec 2 2019

    - 1.40 The secret recipe
    - 2.27 Inside a Mulassano’s tramezzino
    - 4.53 Mulassano before it was Mulassano
    - 8.09 VIP customers: legend and truth
    - 11.11 Tramezzino: a case study
    - 13.17 The shape, the meaning, the origin of the tramezzino
    - 15.52 What’s an author's neologism?
    - 17.22 Food and cultural identity


    Today’s speakers are Patrizio Abrate, Francesca Dragotto and Cristiano Ruggiero.

    Show more Show less
    19 mins
  • Let there be Sandwich, and there was Sandwich
    Nov 29 2019

    What if I told you that the good, old sandwich has both a birthplace and a birthdate? What if this place was Italy and the year was 1926? In this episode of Italian Culture, we discover how a humble recipe changed the life of its inventor, a young woman who turned the entire restaurant business upside down. This is the story of the Mulassano caffé, the place where the sandwich was invented. Or was it? 

    Today’s guests are Patrizio Abrate, Francesca Dragotto and Cristiano Ruggiero.

    Show more Show less
    28 mins
  • About “Forgotten Voices”
    Nov 18 2019

    - 3.35 Opera and gender construction

    - 5.36 “Tuneful scarecrows”: orchiectomy and its effects

    - 6.35 Masters of the voice: the castrato training

    - 9.20 Voice and femininity

    - 11.25 The ambivalence of the church

    - 13.10 The apex of the castrati era

    - 14.03 The end of the castrati era

    - 17.49 The influence of the Cecilian movement on religious music

    - 20.37 The legacy of the castrati

    Today’s speakers are Noemi André and Nicholas Clapton.

    Show more Show less
    25 mins
  • Forgotten Voices
    Nov 15 2019

    A candid angel, a bratty popstar and a cunning smuggler: what have they in common? They sacrificed their testicles and gained a splendid voice. In this episode of Italian Culture, we investigate the fascinating world of the castrati singers. From the Baroque era to the Twentieth century, we’ll follow the stories of three emblematic castrati, trying to understand how and why such a joyous expression of human talent had his roots in violence and blood.

    Today’s guests are Noemi André and Nicholas Clapton.

    Show more Show less
    54 mins