Season 3, Episode 16 Riding the Tide in Venice featuring Julia Curtis “I think that there's an etiquette that every tourist that travels the world should have. And I think that there's a conscientiousness that cities like Venice or Florence, that are really unique in the world, need to step back and say, how do we have more sustainable tourism?” Julia Curtis In this special, long episode, recorded via Zoom this past May, Julia Curtis and I converse about her personal and professional journey fro...
Sep 19, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Season 3, Episode 15 Fashioner of the Law: Craftsmanship, Luxury & Made in Italy, Part 2 featuring Claudia Del Re Last week Attorney Claudia Del Re and I touched on how to protect one’s creations, intellectual property, and the world of luxury. In this episode we dig deeper into the above and reflect further upon the future of fashion and fashion beyond Italy. We also discuss cultural property law and the implications that reproductions of great Italian masterpieces, like Botticelli’s Venus ...
Sep 13, 2024•23 min•Season 3Ep. 15
“A lawyer is not just the one who is going to defend you in court but is also a kind of guide that pushes you in the correct way, to enhance and to explore your ideas. That is exactly my role in the context of beauty.” Claudia Del Re In this first part of my conversation with Claudia Del Re, she shares with us why she thinks she’s one of the luckiest lawyers ever, defining herself as the “attorney of beauty”. Claudia brings us into her world and illustrates the work that she does by offering cle...
Sep 06, 2024•29 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Whether you are a first time voter, a seasoned one, or are voting from abroad for the first time, you will not want to miss this special episode of 15 with Fosca, featuring special guests, Leyani Redditi and Jane Zaloga, respectively Chair and Vice Chair of Central Italy for Democrats Abroad . If you are a US citizen living abroad you can vote and this podcast episode gives you a simple, step by step non-partisan guide to what you need to do to make your voice heard by casting your vote by Tuesd...
Sep 02, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 1
“Another way, in addition to Speakeasy, which I really suggest that worked for me is doing an activity that people who are like minded might do. That's the best way to build community because everyone's looking for it. It's one of those ironies of modern life that people feel disconnected and lonely, but we all have the same needs.” Miriam Hurley, on finding community in Florence. In the second part of my conversation with cer Miriam Hurley we go beyond the intricacies of her métier and talk abo...
Aug 30, 2024•23 min•Season 3Ep. 12
“Even if you've done it for 24 years, every translation, almost every sentence, is a challenge, and that's what makes it fun.” Miriam Hurley It was such a treat to sit down with Miriam Hurley to discuss her path to Italy, why she came and stayed, the ins and outs, and challenges and rewards of her more than two decades of experience as an American Translators Association certified Italian to English translator. Join us for the first part of our conversation which traces Miriam’s path from Oregon...
Aug 23, 2024•25 min•Season 3Ep. 11
“From my experience, there's a very different attitude towards careers here; generally speaking, your job doesn't define you. Whenever I speak to Italians, they never ask that as their first question, it’s never ‘what do you do,’ or ‘what's your job’? They're more interested in the life that you live around your job, which is a great thing, it's very commendable, so different from the way we are, so different.” Eleanor Walker Join us this week for part two of my chat with Eleanor Walker, art his...
Aug 16, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 10
“My plan was to stay in Italy until I was due to go back to work on the 1st of November, because that was when the furlough scheme was due to end. So, I thought, ok, fine, I'm going to stay. I don't need to be back in London, I'm going to stay here. I'll take some Italian classes, visit some museums, live a life of leisure in Italy because why not?” Eleanor Walker In the summer of 2020, in the midst of the global pandemic, Eleanor Walker, an art historian originally from the UK, took a leap into...
Aug 09, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Registrato il 12 Marzo 2024 a Musikalmente Firenze “Chi di noi non si è trovato in una situazione di incertezza, sfiducia, incapacità di decidere, non vedere la strada, non riuscire a capire? Quali sono le cose per cui vale la pena impegnarsi? Chi di noi non si è trovato mai in una situazione di questo genere?” Matteo Perchiazzi In questa seconda parte della mia conversazione con Matteo Perchiazzi continuiamo ad affrontare temi legati al ruolo cruciale che il mentoring ha in tutti gli aspetti de...
Aug 02, 2024•29 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Il Mentoring: Ascolto, Riflessione & Fiducia, Part 1 Featuring Matteo Perchiazzi Registrato il 12 Marzo 2024 a Musikalmente Firenze “La metodologia del mentoring da costrutto, proprio come base iniziale, fa sì che il Mentor metta a disposizione la propria esperienza non solo professionale, ma anche di vita.” Matteo Perchiazzi Oggi giorno sentiamo tanto parlare di mentoring ma che cos’è realmente e che importanza ha il mentoring nelle nostre vite professionali, scolastiche e personali? In que...
Jul 26, 2024•29 min•Season 3Ep. 7
We are celebrating one year of the podcast with an entire episode dedicated to you, our listeners, and to your questions about Italy, Italians, and Italian culture. Don’t miss this q&a with Mark Scott, a University of Missouri journalism major and Ask Fosca’s very first intern. Mark not only came up with the idea for the podcast, but he also selected your questions, and interviewed me for this very special episode which is really a tribute to my listeners and a sincere thank you for the supp...
Jul 19, 2024•50 min•Season 3Ep. 6
“We call it a retreat because we want people to get away from what they're normally doing and thinking. You don't have to be a foodie to go there, but you'll probably leave as one”. Rebecca Christophersen Gouttenoire on Campo Sasso In part two of my conversation with Rebecca Christophersen Gouttenoire we speak more about leaps of faith, chance encounters, and the fortunate twists of fate that have brought her to where she is today. We also chat in greater detail about Grape Tours, the Tuscan, It...
Jul 12, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Recorded at Formaggioteca Terroir on April 2, 2024 “I really wanted to get into the culture and learn the language, which I did. I wasn't just here to visit and superficially sit and watch what was going on around me. I wanted to immerse myself and become like the locals, live like the locals, to know in my own skin what that is like and that's the only way I could understand how to create a life for myself here.” Rebecca Christophersen Gouttenoire This past April I sat down at Formaggioteca Ter...
Jul 05, 2024•22 min•Season 3Ep. 4
“Italy changed my DNA in a sense. After a career spanning several different things, a year ago, I launched my executive coaching business. I'm working with execs, founders, and rising leaders. Through a coaching perspective I wanted some of the same things that I love about Italy, like slowing down and really connecting and getting to the heart of it with people, and I’m finding that to be a really meaningful way to tap into business and leadership.” Emma Wood This past January, Emma Wood and I ...
Jun 28, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 3
“You have a relationship with the artist. This was a painting in which she put an idealized version of her face, so I am looking at her and working on her and we were communicating on so many different levels.” Elizabeth Wicks on restoring Artemisia Gentileschi’s Allegory of Inclination. This past March, Elizabeth Wicks, renowned fine art conservator, and fellow Florentine by adoption, invited me over to talk about her life and work. Our conversation begins with Liz’s journey to Italy, how and w...
Jun 21, 2024•47 min•Season 3Ep. 2
This past April, I sat down with members of the Mama Florence family to chat with them about their relationship with Italian cuisine, their first and most significant food memories and moments, their favorite dishes, and why they love the work they do. What comes out in our conversations is just how inextricably linked food and the idea of home are, and what Mama Florence does every day to foster that important connection. For so many happy participants, Mama Florence becomes a home away from ho...
Jun 14, 2024•24 min•Season 3Ep. 1
“I really felt like I came alive here. Life felt simultaneously easier and harder, but underneath all of that, more inspiring and enlivening. And it's something that I just couldn't leave.” Alexandria Brown-Hejazi In this special, long episode featuring art historian Alexandria Brown-Hejazi, we begin by speaking about her journey from California to Italy, in the midst of the pandemic, and the challenges she encountered when she first arrived, alone with a small child, trying to move her research...
May 31, 2024•50 min•Season 2Ep. 20
“I think for anyone who lives in Italy or is interested in Italy, it's really valuable and interesting to keep those other connections in mind. The Mediterranean touches us all in some way or other.” Ali Aydin Karamustafa In part two of our conversation, Ali and I continue to discuss Italy’s relationship to its Mediterranean neighbors and to the Islamic world through the ages and take a deeper dive into a wide range of topics touching on Italy’s colonial past, postwar history, contemporary polit...
May 24, 2024•30 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Season 2, Episode 19 Italy, Islam & the Mediterranean featuring Ali Aydin Karamustafa “I'm from Saint Louis, but I'm also originally Turkish and Iranian, so I have a basic experience with the Mediterranean. Coming to Italy there were a lot of things that were immediately recognizable, even just on the visceral level: sights, sounds, colors, smells, facial features. On the other hand, I was surprised by how much I felt that Italian culture and society had its back turned on the rest of the Me...
May 17, 2024•30 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Season 2, Episode 18 From East to West: Art, Aesthetics & Sustainable Fashion, Part 2 featuring Vea Chen In the second half of my chat with Vea Chen we expound further upon fashion and speak about Vea’s approach to her dream of founding a sustainable fashion brand and the concrete steps she has taken and is taking to make that dream a reality. We also grapple with the meaning of fashion, today and throughout history, and the significance, on several levels, of what we choose to wear, what we...
May 10, 2024•30 min•Season 2Ep. 2
“In the museums, when you go there, you feel like you're taking a bath, it's like a bath in art. And then you just feel a whole refresh, your eyes are brighter, and you see things in different colors. I feel like art influences a person subconsciously a lot, much more than what you can think with your logic. After I go to the Uffizi, even after three days, the effects start to emerge in me.” Vea Chen Imagine a dream, a recurring dream, that leads you to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Tha...
May 04, 2024•26 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Season 2, Episode 16 Languages, Literature, and Living Abroad: Cultivating One’s Garden in our Global World Featuring Chloe Summers Edmondson Recorded via Zoom, January 2024 “The tools that you gain through studying the humanities are going to serve you in any career that you have…the ability to write and express clearly, to communicate clearly, to solve problems that have no clear answers, to collaborate with others and to think critically. And I think that studying abroad… the skills that it t...
Apr 26, 2024•52 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Season 2, Episode 15 Beautiful Deep: A Journey of Faith, Part 2 Featuring Sherrita Duran “I think the world right now is so dark, darker than ever, you know, and I think about what I can do and in whatever capacity I can, I want to be the opposite of that. I want to bring light. I want to bring faith.” Sherrita Duran In the second half of my conversation with Sherrita Duran, brilliant and delightful singer, songwriter, and fellow US expat in Italy, we take a deeper dive into her life, art, faith...
Apr 19, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Beautiful Deep: A Journey of Faith, Part 1 Featuring Sherrita Duran “I fell in love with opera, I fell in love with Puccini and Verdi, and I went to USC (University of Southern California), to the music school there, because that was my passion. I'm going to be an opera singer. That's all I want to do, be an opera singer. So, I just put all my energy into that and obviously life, you know, it surprises and changes.” Sherrita Duran Join me this week for the first part of my conversation with the ...
Apr 12, 2024•27 min•Season 2Ep. 14
“Going back to Sarah Parker Remond, this city has a long history of what nowadays we call inclusion. At the time it was cosmopolitanism, right? This city is very, very open and welcoming and, you know, it has its challenges, but I would like to quote a student of mine who last week told me that, Florence is too big to be such a small city.” Lucia Ducci In this second part of my conversation with Lucia Ducci, Director of the College of the Holy Cross’s Florence Program, we continue to speak about...
Apr 05, 2024•20 min•Season 2Ep. 13
The Power of Leaving & Returning, Part 1 featuring Lucia Ducci “So, all these practical or academic challenges that we might encounter or have encountered are really important steps that helped me, that help anybody, who's on this path to grow and to progress, personally and academically; and this is the most important thing, progress, to progress, that you are progressing.” Lucia Ducci This first part of my chat with Lucia Ducci, Director of the Holy Cross College Program in Florence, cente...
Mar 29, 2024•24 min•Season 2Ep. 12
La Giustizia & Il Futuro, Part 2 featuring Sara Celati In questa seconda parte della mia chiacchierata con Sara Celati entriamo di più nella sua storia personale, parlando dei suoi prossimi obiettivi, le sue passioni e com’è stato partecipare come concorrente e vincere uno dei game show più amati dagli italiani, l’Eredità. Continuiamo a riflettere sul lavoro e lo studio, sulle ingiustizie e la giustizia e sul futuro del paese, non solo per i giovani, ma per tutti gli italiani. Questo episodi...
Mar 22, 2024•24 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Season 2, Episode 10 featuring Sara Celati Ovviamente, avendo vissuto sempre in Italia per 25 anni ormai noto più forse gli aspetti negativi di questo paese, li noto molto di più. Magari andando all'estero riesco a rinnamorare del mio paese. Sara Celati In questa prima parte della mia conversazione con Sara Celati, studentessa di giurisprudenza all’Università di Pisa, iniziamo ad affrontare dei temi fondamentali per i giovani in Italia oggi: com’è studiare a un’università pubblica italiana? Qual...
Mar 15, 2024•21 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Season 2, Episode 9 Accessible Study Abroad: Verto Education’s Winning Model, Part 2 Cristiana Gallai, Florence Center Director, Verto Education In the second part of our two-part conversation, Cristiana Gallai and I dig deeper into the experience of Verto Education’s first year students in Florence, discuss the ins and outs of study abroad, and ask what Florence and Italy still have to offer to our future leaders. We also reflect upon our role as educators, the importance of building community ...
Mar 08, 2024•25 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Accessible Study Abroad: Verto Education’s Winning Model, Part 1 Cristiana Gallai, Florence Center Director, Verto Education “With Verto, students have the opportunity, regardless of their financial background, to study abroad, to study somewhere which is not their home country and learn about different cultures. And that becomes the path for them to access a college education and allows us to host a very diverse student population.” Cristiana Gallai Join me and my special guest, Cristiana Galla...
Mar 01, 2024•22 min•Season 2Ep. 8
