Best Basic Italian Podcasts (2025)

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Sven Beckert, "Capitalism: A Global History" (Allen Lane, 2025) 1:00:59

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2h ago1:00:59

1:00:59

No other phenomenon has shaped human history as decisively as capitalism. It structures how we live and work, how we think about ourselves and others, how we organize our politics. Sven Beckert, author of the Bancroft Prize–winning Empire of Cotton, places the story of capitalism within the largest conceivable geographical and historical framework,…

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Matthew Scobie and Anna Sturman, "The Economic Possibilities of Decolonisation" (Bridget Williams Books, 2024) 55:59

3d ago55:59

55:59

What do the economics of decolonisation mean for the future of Aotearoa? This question drives the work of Dr. Matthew Scobie and Dr. Anna Sturman as they explore the complex relationship between tangata whenua and capitalism in The Economic Possibilities of Decolonisation (Bridget Williams Books, 2024). By weaving together historical insights and c…

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Why AI Can't Replace the Human Genealogist: 41 Years of Lessons 8:31

5d ago8:31

8:31

In this episode I share why AI is an amazing helper but still can't replace the human genealogist: from reading sloppy 19th‑century cursive to spotting phonetic name tricks, legal nuances, and the emotional connections that make family history matter. Check out the companion blog post for this podast on my genealogy website! You can view it HERE.…

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'Pandoro o panettone': the all Italian festive dilemma | A Coffee Break with Francesca 5:45

9d ago5:45

5:45

In today's mini-lesson, Francesca from the Coffee Break Italian team is here with a delicious espresso lesson all about Italy’s favourite festive sweet treats! 🎄🍰 She introduces you to two iconic holiday cakes: ➡️ il panettone, the classic Milanese Christmas staple ➡️ il pandoro, the soft, buttery favourite from Verona Francesca shares a bit of his…

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Discover how the holiday season begins in Italy | A Coffee Break with Francesca 4:56

16d ago4:56

4:56

We're back with a new episode, bringing you a festive espresso lesson to enjoy in between the main seasons of Coffee Break Italian! 🎄✨ In this mini lesson, you’ll discover that December in Italy is much more than Christmas itself. From regional customs to useful seasonal vocabulary, this episode is the perfect way to immerse yourself in Italy’s mag…

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Non solo cinepanettone: Italian festive films | A Coffee Break with Francesca 6:31

23d ago6:31

6:31

Join Francesca from the Coffee Break Italian team for a festive coffee break as she explores three very different Italian films that are traditionally enjoyed during the holiday season! 🎄🍿 In this little espresso lesson, you’ll discover: 🎬 Natale in casa Cupiello 🎬 Parenti Serpenti 🎬 Il cinepanettone Whether you're looking for something heartwarmin…

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Isabelle Guérin et. al., "The Indebted Woman: Kinship, Sexuality, and Capitalism" (Stanford UP, 2023) 55:21

1M ago55:21

55:21

In The Indebted Woman: Kinship, Sexuality, and Capitalism (Stanford UP, 2023), the authors Isabelle Guérin, Santosh Kumar and G. Venkatasubramanian conceptualise how gender, debt, and capitalism are related. For over ten years, the researchers have been working in the Indian countryside of east-central Tamil Nadu, observing a credit market that spe…

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Verena Halsmayer on Managing Growth in Miniature: Solow’s Model as an Artifact 1:22:06

1M ago1:22:06

1:22:06

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, chats with Verena Halsmeyer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vienna, about her recent, award-winning book, Managing Growth in Miniature: Solow’s Model as an Artifact. The book explores the history of the way economists think about growth, including the role of technological change in it. It focuses on t…

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Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff, "HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company" (HBR Press, 2017) 55:16

1M ago55:16

55:16

Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: You can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards--as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can …

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Ivan Franceschini et al., "Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds" (Verso Books, 2025) 50:32

1M ago50:32

50:32

“If I had been enslaved for a year or two, I might not be able to believe in humanity any more.” “I am a victim of modern slavery.” These chilling words come from a Taiwanese female lured by a fake job offer, only to be sold into a scam compound in Cambodia. She is not alone. She is one of thousands deceived into this industry—people who left home …

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Carl Benedikt Frey, "How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations" (Princeton UP, 2025) 54:29

1M ago54:29

54:29

In How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations (Princeton University Press, 2025), Carl Benedikt Frey challenges the conventional belief that economic and technological progress is inevitable. For most of human history, stagnation was the norm, and even today progress and prosperity in the world's largest, most advanced econo…

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Christina Jerne, "Opposition by Imitation: The Economics of Italian Anti-Mafia Activism" (U Minnesota Press, 2025) 56:40

1M ago56:40

56:40

For more than 150 years, Italy has been home to a resilient and evolving resistance against the pervasive influence of mafias. While these criminal organizations are renowned for their vast international business enterprises, the collective actions taken to oppose them are less known. In Opposition by Imitation: The Economics of Italian Anti-Mafia …

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Vanessa S. Williamson, "The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History" (Basic Books, 2025) 53:49

1M ago53:49

53:49

Americans have always fought over the meaning of freedom and equality. What is not commonly recognized is that the battles most pivotal in defining our democracy, from the framing of the Constitution to the decades-long backlash to the civil rights movement, hinged on one issue—taxes. In The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation i…

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Coffee Break Italian - All You Need To Know 39:21

1M ago39:21

39:21

Join Mark and Francesca for this special episode of Coffee Break Italian where we're talking about something a bit different. We receive emails and messages all the time asking us "where should I start?", so we thought we'd answer that in this episode. We share details about how Coffee Break Italian first started and all of the resources we have re…

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Thomas Piketty, "A Brief History of Equality" (Harvard UP, 2022) 28:56

1M ago28:56

28:56

It's easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased dramatically in many parts of the world over the past two generations. No one has done more to reveal the problem than Thomas Piketty. Now, in this surprising and powerful new work, Piketty reminds us that the grand sweep of history gives us reasons to be optimistic. Over the ce…

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Joe Allen, "The Package King: A Rank and File History of UPS" (Haymarket Books, 2020) 1:01:15

1M ago1:01:15

1:01:15

If the 20th Century was the American Century, it was also UPS's Century. Joe Allen's The Package King: A Rank and File History of UPS (‎Haymarket Books, 2020), tears down the Brown Wall surrounding one of America's most admired companies—the United Parcel Service (UPS). The company that we see everyday but know so little about. How did a company th…

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Richard H. Thaler and Alex Imas, "The Winner's Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now" (Simon and Schuster, 2025) 54:22

1M ago54:22

54:22

Alex Imas is the Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Professor of Behavioral Science, Economics and Applied AI and a Vasilou Faculty Scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he has taught Negotiations and Behavioral Economics. He is a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Applied AI and the Human Capital & Economic Opportunity, a…

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Pierre-Yves Donzé & Maki Umemura, "Pierre-Yves Donzé & Maki Umemura, Japan and the Great Divergence in Business History" (JESB, 2025) 32:37

2M ago32:37

32:37

For much of the late 20th century, Japanese business historians were core contributors to the global field. They published, collaborated, and shaped debates. But something shifted after 2000. Their international visibility - and participation in emerging theoretical conversations - declined. In Japan and the Great Divergence in Business History (Do…

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All the words you need for a card game in Italian | A Coffee Break with Francesca 5:30

2M ago5:30

5:30

Join Francesca from the Coffee Break Italian team for a coffee break and get ready to improve your Italian over just 10 minutes. In this little espresso lesson, Francesca explores one of Italy’s favourite pastimes: giocare a carte, playing cards! You’ll also pick up useful phrases like fare le carte (to shuffle the cards), un mazzo (a deck), and ev…

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Lars Cornelissen, "Neoliberalism and Race" (Stanford UP, 2025) 1:17:23

2M ago1:17:23

1:17:23

In Neoliberalism and Race (Stanford UP, 2025) Lars Cornelissen argues that the category of race constitutes an organizing principle of neoliberal ideology. Using the methods of intellectual history and drawing on insights from critical race studies, Cornelissen explores the various racial constructs that structure neoliberal ideology, some of which…

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How Government Made the U.S. into a Manufacturing Powerhouse 1:10:28

2M ago1:10:28

1:10:28

Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel, talks with Colleen Dunlavy, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Wisconsin-Madison, about her recent book, Small, Medium, Large: How Government Made the U.S. Into a Manufacturing Powerhouse. Small, Medium, Large examines the crucial role that the U.S. federal government played in rationalizing and diffus…

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Joseph Stiglitz, "The Origins of Inequality" (Oxford UP, 2025) 39:47

2M ago39:47

39:47

Joseph E. Stiglitz has had a remarkable career. He is a brilliant academic, capped by sharing the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and the Nobel Peace Prize, and honorary degrees from Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and more than fifty other universities, and elected not only to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Lett…

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Bonus Episode: Clues Explained - La fantastica Caccia al Tresoro 10:05

2M ago10:05

10:05

We're back with a special bonus episode of the Great Coffee Break Treasure Hunt! Join us for a detailed explanation of this year's Treasure Hunt clues. Sit back, relax and enjoy listening to this episode on your next coffee break. ☕️ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Loic De Canniere, "The Future of Employment in Africa: Demography, Labour Markets and Welfare" (Anthem, 2025) 1:07:47

2M ago1:07:47

1:07:47

The Future of Employment in Africa: Demography, Labor Markets and Welfare explores the major trends that will define the face of the sub-Saharan continent in the next three decades. The near doubling of Africa’s population by 2050 will lead to more than twenty million new job seekers entering the African labor market every year until then. Right no…

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Roots and Recollections: Interviewing Family Members 13:36

2M ago13:36

13:36

Before those irreplaceable memories fade, join me as I delve into the profound importance of interviewing your elderly relatives. These conversations are not just about collecting dates and names; they capture the vivid personal stories, family folklore, and emotional context that bring your dry genealogy charts to life. Learn practical tips and es…

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Maxim Sytch, "The Influence Economy: Decoding Supplier-Induced Demand" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:06:59

2M ago1:06:59

1:06:59

In The Influence Economy: Decoding Supplier-Induced Demand (Oxford UP, 2025), Maxim Sytch reveals how professional services--consulting, marketing, banking, and legal firms--create demand for unnecessary and potentially harmful products and services. Such supplier-induced demand can take many forms, including superfluous reorganizations, frivolous …