Italian culture, served loud and local.
GrowingUpItalian turns conversations with deli people, pizza makers, comedians, musicians, and family personalities into lively oral history. The show is messy in the best way: food, Bronx streets, Brooklyn lines, Cleveland stories, old-school manners, and affectionate arguing all share the same table.
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GrowingUpItalian is a rapid, interview-centered show about Italian and Italian-American life as it is remembered, cooked, argued over, and passed around. It does not treat culture as a museum piece. It treats it as a deli counter, a pizzeria line, a Sunday house, a neighborhood block, a family habit, or a plate made before someone even asks. Episodes often begin loose and jokey, then find their weight in practical details. A guest from G & R Deli talks Bronx family history, hard childhoods, Arthur Avenue shopping, siblings, football, espresso, and meatball talk. Mark Iacono brings Lucali, old Brooklyn, restaurant fame, phone calls, good food, and frustration with attention-chasing food culture into the same conversation. Carmen Ciricillo folds Cleveland's Little Italy, construction comedy, Iowa, family memory, parties, and old Sunday gatherings into one long memory of trying to get a life back. Sandy Blue Eyes turns suits, tie tacks, respect, and style into a whole code of living. Laura Vitale brings recipes, chicken cutlets, Napoletana identity, and the playful business of being recognized. Kevin D and Noce bring Italian rap, immigration, street performance, New York ambition, film work, and the strange power of being understood through energy even when the words are not. The show can be chaotic. That is part of its shape. People interrupt, repeat, tease, translate, correct, and double back until a point feels earned. Food is rarely just food here; it is proof of care, proof of place, proof that somebody remembers where they came from. The result is a lively archive of family manners, neighborhood loyalty, comedy, labor, and appetite, with enough disorder to feel genuinely lived-in.
Made for: For listeners drawn to Italian-American foodways, neighborhood memory, family storytelling, and personality-heavy interviews. It especially fits anyone who likes cultural conversation with jokes, overlap, and lived-in detail.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by grounding identity in concrete scenes: Arthur Avenue shopping, Lucali's line, Cleveland Sundays, laundry routines, suits, espresso, Italian rap in the street, and meatballs. Its looseness is not a flaw; the interruptions and corrections make the stories feel communal.
For 10 years, Growing Up Italian is proud to be one of the biggest voices in Italian and Italian-American culture.Hosted by cousins Rocco and Sabino, the podcast has been running for 8 years, sharing food, comedy, family stories, and conversations with influential Italian guests from around the world.We're proud to support our community, uplift our culture, and unite Italians and Italian-culture lovers around the world.Each Sunday, we're dropping a brand new episode packed with fresh takes on the Italian lifestyle, featuring hilarious stories, real talk, and special guests from all corners of the Italian world. Whether you're sipping espresso or stuck in traffic, you're officially invited to…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
GrowingUpItalian preserves Italian and Italian-American identity through candid guest stories about family, neighborhoods, food, work, humor, and memory.
GrowingUpItalian turns guest conversations into lively records of family habits, neighborhood identity, work, food, and humor. Rocco and Sabino ask direct, informal questions that let stories develop through specific memories, from Cleveland homecomings and Bronx shopping…
A pizza maker finishes building his shop, then has to figure out the pizza; you get the confession.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Cooking, laundry, and small domestic habits become a warm language of care.
The episode frames care as something built through small, repeated gestures: a steak cooked fresh, chocolate pudding finished with whipped cream, and glasses retrieved from the bedroom after they are forgotten. Its warmth comes from that kind of detail.
A lively Bronx deli conversation where food, family pressure, and Arthur Avenue become living memory.
Caroline DiFuccia's conversation sketches a tight portrait of family toughness, Arthur Avenue memory, and the work required to keep both alive.
A Cleveland homecoming shaped by Sunday rituals, winter parties, and the work that kept calling Carmen back.
Cleveland sits at the center of this episode, with Carmen Ciricillo tracing the years he spent in Iowa from 1979 to 1985, the returns he made whenever he could, and the pull that eventually brought him back for good.
Italian rap meets New York hustle in a relaxed conversation about language, work, and respect.
Italian rap opens into a broader conversation about language, respect, and the everyday work of making New York feel usable. The host and Noce begin with his name and its connection to the Italian word for walnut, then move into how he balances music with film set work.
Boxing memories lead into a warm, funny story about finding comedy and missing Italy.
The episode starts with teenage boxing, old-school training, and the cost of taking too many shots, then eases into the first time comedy seemed like a real possibility.
An Italian conversation uses a Lamborghini SUV photo to weigh ambition, criticism, and the point where display becomes too much.
The episode turns public criticism into a compact study of how success is judged, especially when success is made visible. The conversation centers on the proprietor of Antico Vinaio, admired in Italy, after he posted a photo of the Lamborghini SUV he had bought and drew a wave…
Bourbon talk, barrel stories, messy good pours.
Bourbon reviews with memory, candor, and community.
Everyday life, thought through together.
Hosts Rocco and Sabino are joined by guest Vito Shade for Day 4 of their 'Only Speaking Italian' series.
Comedian Dominic Leonelli joins hosts Rocco and Sabino to discuss his Italian-American upbringing in Cleveland and Youngstown.
Mario Bosco and Big Joe Gambino discuss Holy Friday and the Stations of the Cross while speaking only Italian.
Mario Bosco and Big Joe Gambino banter about pineapple on pizza and Italian soccer while setting up a live Italian-only show.
Gianpiero D'Alessandro discusses his summer trip to New York with his wife, sharing his impressions of Times Square and his connection to Napoli.
Vincent Pastore hosts a live show from Arthur Avenue at Mike's Deli, chatting with guests about New Orleans and a memorable picture.
GU Idol 2 brings Italian-American creators and community members on camera to present talents and regional traditions.
Maddalena and Mauro Castano discuss their trip to Sicily, Italian lifestyle, and a negative experience at a luxury hotel in Bernalda.
Caroline DiFuccia, owner of G & R Deli in the Bronx, discusses her deli, good meatballs, and growing up Italian on the Growing Up Italian Podcast.
Carmen Ciricillo discusses his podcasting journey, Cleveland's Little Italy, and the challenges of balancing comedy, construction, and Italian traditions.
Sandy Blue Eyes discusses stickball, respect, and the rules of a gentleman on the Growing Up Italian Podcast.
Laura Vitale discusses recipes, chicken cutlets, and her Italian upbringing on the Growing Up Italian Podcast.
Mark Iacono describes Growing Up Italian around Lucali, Court Street, and the old Red Hook neighborhood that later became Carroll Gardens.
Kevin D and Noce explain why they rap in Italian on Harlem streets while building a New York audience.
A comedic podcast episode where hosts attempt to speak only Italian, interspersed with a casino advertisement and chaotic banter.