WEBVTT - 9 Incredible Sicily Facts to Share over Cannoli! 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.519 You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:15.680 and iHeartRadio. Hey there, Joe, Hello Mango. So I know 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.040 that you like canoli's. You've been making them for all 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.200 the people who come to your book launch parties at 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:24.880 various bookstores across the country for your wonderful book, The 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:28.560 Sicilian Inheritance, which is honestly the greatest thing ever. I mean, 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.600 coming to hear an author talk while they make canoli's 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.000 for you is pretty great. But then I saw this 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.400 fact this week about Canoli's and I had to tell 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.280 you about it. So did you know that a canole 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:41.960 has actually gone into space? 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:46.240 I did not know that, but I'm also not surprised. 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.400 I mean, I can only can really do anything. It's 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:55.000 an intensely versatile dessert. But how did it get there? 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:56.360 Did NASA take it there? 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.200 So the story is a little more low than that. Apparently, 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.760 these three young scientists decide that they wanted to do 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:07.679 something joyful for Sicily, so they started what they called 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.880 the Sicilian Space Program. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.959 Wow, do they have T shirts? Because I want one? 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.880 I know I want a tea shirt too. But these 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.840 three scientists, with no real money, decided to send a 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.920 canoli into space, and because a real canoli would actually disintegrate, 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:28.000 they fabricated this delicious looking canoli or canolo because I 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:33.280 guess one canoli is called canolo, yes, And they made 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.440 it out of lightweight polymers, and then they modeled a 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.560 path and attached it to a little helium balloon craft 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:43.600 which they called the Canolo Transporter, and along with it 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.960 they sent a thermometer, a parachute, a GPS device, and 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.200 a camera, which is so great because the shots of 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:55.160 space from this like Canol helium spacecraft looking down on 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.000 Earth are absolutely amazing. 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.720 Wait, no, no, sorry, Okay, So I am imagining it 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:04.800 with a face to be honest, because I so when 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.040 I sign the Sicilian Inheritance. And I'm now coming up 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:10.960 on my one hundredth event for this book in three months, 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.880 because I've been doing bookstores and I zoom into book 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.040 clubs for it for a while. I've been trying to 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.440 draw canoli in the books, but they never look like canoli. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:20.480 They look like something else. 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:21.960 Okay, I'm not going to say what they look like. 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.480 And then I draw a little happy face on them, 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.919 which makes it even worse. So I'm picturing I'm picturing 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.000 this space cannoli with a little happy face smiling down 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:32.720 on the Earth, which is a really wonderful thing. 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.040 But did they actually get it to space. They did 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.600 get it to space, no smiley face. They got it 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:42.000 to thirty thousand meters into the air, so into the stratosphere, 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:46.520 and I guess the thermometer recorded a temperature of negative 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.240 fifty degrees celsius before it started crashing to Earth, so 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.920 that's pretty amazing. And then the scientists chase it down 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:57.120 through this field of sheep to find their space canolo. 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.560 But what's really sweet about the whole thing is that 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.320 they just want to change the perception of Sicily a little, 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.520 from this land of mafioso and economic struggles to something 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:10.560 really delightful. And according to one of the scientists, this 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.800 is what he said, our Sicilian space program was a 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.600 gift meant for all Sicilians and a way to make 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.960 them smile. For us, this great little gesture is a 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.360 gift to the Cosmos, a technological right, and even just 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.640 a simple gesture to lift up Sicily in our own way, 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:28.400 which I just think is really sweet. 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.440 I love you. That's the first of a whole bunch 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.040 of facts we have about Sicily today, So why don't 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:34.520 we dive in. 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:54.640 Let's do it. 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.400 Welcome to part time genius. I'm youngish articular. My good 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.440 pal Will Pearson is off on a business trip this week. 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:05.920 But that's great because I pulled in author, journalist, podcaster 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.320 and one of the most remarkable people I know, Joe Piazza, 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.240 to sit in his chair. Joe, thank you for being here. 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.600 Oh thanks for having me. I'll fill in for Will anytime. 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.520 And of course leaning back in the studio, feet on 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.159 his desk, cracking open Sicilian pistaches and just tossing them 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.640 on the floor without a care. 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.159 Oh yes, of course that is our wonderful Dylan Fagan, 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.320 just scarfing away on pistachios back there, but just just 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.320 snack and just snack. And you know I should have 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:38.800 made you guys, can only you know? 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.200 Joe? I always tell people I don't know anyone who's 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.039 as insanely productive as your. You've got three kids, a 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.160 wonderful marriage, You're always writing at least two books at 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:51.200 any one time, and you also seem to prioritize reading 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.240 and sleep, and you travel. So I am curious, how 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:56.280 do you get it all done. 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.080 I don't actually I don't actually know how I do it. 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.440 I have to say. I think it's I just don't 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.920 f around anymore, like I'm insanely efficient, Like I don't 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.960 have I don't actually scroll Instagram even though I report 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.520 on Instagram. And yeah, I'm an efficient Virgo. 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:12.520 I grew up. 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.600 You'll appreciate this as a person who loves astrology as 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.160 much as I do. I grew up rejecting like all 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:22.000 of the traits of a Virgo, like super organized, super efficient, 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.000 love security, much in the way that I grew up 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.440 reading The Babysitters Club and thinking I was a Stacy 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:29.560 because she was cool and from New York City, and 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.120 you know, as I'm an adult, I'm like, oh, yeah, 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:33.440 I'm a freaking Virgo. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.360 And I'm not Stacey. I'm totally Christy. 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:40.240 So yeah, I asked Ruby what they thought they were 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.400 in terms of the Babysitters Club, because of course, you know, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:46.400 obsessed with it. And Ruby's like, well, I'm organized like 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.600 a Christie, but I like to hide candy all over 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:54.760 my room like like a Claudia. Like a Claudia. 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:55.320 That's fair. 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.240 So I've got your best seller right here. The Sicilian inheritance. 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:01.960 Can you tell me a little bit about how you 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:03.880 came up with the story of this book. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.200 Oh, I sure can, Yeah, I mean it started out 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:10.280 I wanted to write a delicious adventure to Sicily, and 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.040 I loosely based it on the murder of my own 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.400 great great grandmother, Lorenza Marsala. My family's been passing on 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:20.599 this story as like a piece of family lore for 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.320 as long as I can remember, but they don't know 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.320 many details. In fact, most of them don't know any details. 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:29.279 A lot of them didn't even know what her name was. 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.400 It was just, oh, our family matriarch was murdered in Sicily. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:34.960 The men thought she was murdered by the mafia because 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:36.280 they all think they're Tony Soprano. 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:38.159 And the women. 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:41.040 Thought that she was murdered because she was a Sicilian 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.240 witch or a healer, because they all believe they're Sicilian witches, 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.360 and frankly, they probably are. And I took that little 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.560 nugget and I just went with it. I tried to 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:52.839 imagine what it would be like to be a woman 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:57.160 in Sicily one hundred years ago, when your husband leaves 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:00.159 for twelve years at a time and you're left alone. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.400 The women in these Sicilian villages, they took the men's jobs. 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.360 They started lending money and buying land, and they had 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.880 autonomy and agency for the first time in a really 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.000 cool way. And then I had a modern day woman 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:14.800 in the book go back to Sicily and try to 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.720 claim her family inheritance and solve this murder. So it's 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:22.360 just it's a delicious adventure and romp through Sicily with 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:24.680 the right amount of taking down the patriarchy. 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:27.840 So obviously you mentioned this. The story is based on 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.320 this real story in your family of your great great 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:35.120 grandmother Lorenzo, getting murdered, and your dad was obsessed with 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.680 this and spending all this extra time trying to solve 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.440 the story. But to tell me a little bit about 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.760 you know, the podcast and how that came together. 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.680 Yeah, my dad spent so much time and so much 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.960 money actually before before he passed away, trying to figure 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:55.280 this mystery out. And you know, now it's been seven years. 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.200 And when I started writing the book, like I said, 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.720 I wanted it to be fiction, straight up fiction. But 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.840 then and once I finished the book, because I'm an 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:08.440 intensely productive content creator, I decided, oh, now I have 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.880 to solve this mystery in real life, and I started 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.800 making a podcast about it, a true crime podcast also 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.480 called The Sicilian Inheritance to make things very Easy, where 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.400 where I go back to Sicily on a mixture of 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:28.160 fact finding mission and family summer vacation to solve the 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.520 actual mystery, digging through archives, digging through court records, interviewing 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:36.840 people in the town where Lorenzo Marsala is from. And 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.839 it's become this wonderful podcast. When I describe it to 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.040 people on tour, sometimes I call it white Lotus meets 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:46.760 only murders in the building because it is me, in 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:51.280 many ways, bumbling my way through Sicily trying to solve 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.400 this murder. But from the very start last summer when 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.880 we were there, we did discover some really crazy bombshells 0:08:58.880 --> 0:08:59.920 that come. 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:01.120 Out in episode two. 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.960 And yeah, I mean, people are binging this podcast like crazy. 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.319 So many people are telling me that Sicilian Inheritance is 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.959 their new favorite true crime podcast, and it's been. 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:11.960 It's been a lot of fun. 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.760 It's a it's a really sweet tone, and it's you know, 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:17.319 I got to work on it a little bit, but 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.760 to me, it just feels like this lovely driving to 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:25.840 the Beach Summer podcast that you know is delightful and 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.200 not gory, but still a true crime. You know, there's 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:31.560 something really wonderful about the tone totally. But you know, 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:35.120 I was looking into this and one of the things 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.280 that's amazing to me is that, like how many Italian 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.720 Americans are Sicilian, you know, Scorsese, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:47.720 Alicia Keys, Ariana Grande, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra, Steve Shechemi. 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:49.880 I mean, the list just goes on and on, and 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.440 I had no idea that, like Sicily was that big 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.079 a part of the US. But then you talk a 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:59.319 little bit about the immigration experience in the podcast. Can 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:01.120 you talk a little bit about what it meant to 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:03.080 go to Ellis Island to do research? Yeah? 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:07.240 Absolutely, I mean there are so many Italian Americans who 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:12.080 are Sicilian, because you know, Sicily was very impoverished one 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.320 hundred and fifty one hundred years ago, and so it 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.440 was mainly Southern Italians and Sicilians who were immigrating to 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.719 the US to make a better life for themselves and 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.720 for their family. And one of my first stops for 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.360 research was to work with Ellis Island and their researchers 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:34.240 and historians are incredible. They don't just pullship manifests for you. 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.560 They help you research all different kinds of government records. 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.560 But what they were able to find for me is 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:45.880 the immigration documents for all of Lorenza's children and her 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:49.440 husband who came to the United States, which listed just 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:54.280 so much personal information and also information about Lorenzo because 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.320 they had to write about who they left behind. And 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.520 some of these children that immigrated were kids, they were teenagers, 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.559 they were, you know, thirteen, fourteen years old, and they 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.920 wrote on their document, I left my mom behind, and 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.760 that just got under my skin. And that one child, 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:13.400 that one son, he was almost sent back because they 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:17.000 were worried that he wouldn't have enough support here in 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.240 America without his without his mother here, even though you know, 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.760 other family members were here at the time. The government 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:26.560 was very very nervous about having anyone here that they 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.679 would have to take care of, and so he nearly 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:31.440 got sent back, and he did and he made it 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:35.199 to Scratton with his other brothers. But yeah, I mean, 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:39.600 it's a really intense emotional journey to hear these stories 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.040 and learn more about the people who came before you. 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:44.840 And the kinds of things that they went through and 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.120 what they achieved, and you know, it just it puts 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.120 so much in perspective today that we can do hard things, 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.520 we can do difficult things, and that we have this 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:54.960 actually in our blood and in our DNA. 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:59.400 Yeah, that really is remarkable and obviously so meaningful for 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.760 your family to discover all this stuff through you. But 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.640 I think what I love so much about the podcast is, 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.559 you know, I have no envy for all the struggles 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.680 with bureaucracy and the digging through records in Italy and 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.240 all that, but you know, like those bits about you 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.319 traveling around Sicily and Calta Balota and these like fields 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.679 of lemon trees and olive trees and old world towns 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:28.280 and gorgeous beaches and you do that beautiful, beautiful food 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:30.760 scene there. It all just makes me want to go 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.520 to Sicily so badly. Yeah, And that's why I thought 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:36.600 it'd be really fun to do at nine Things episode 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:38.400 with you to learn a little bit more about like 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.640 the surprising things people don't know about Sicily. So why 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:42.520 don't we get to some facts. 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.680 Let's do some facts. I love a fact, you know that. 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:47.920 So actually, if you don't mind. One of the things 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.400 that really stunned me about the podcast was like some 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.280 of Greece's influence on Sicily, and you talk about it 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.120 in terms of the Virgin Mary kind of being bigger 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.000 than Jesus and Sicily. Would you do that as your 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:02.880 first fact on the show. 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.920 Oh yeah, no, absolutely absolutely, And you know it makes sense, 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:11.760 like Sicily was indeed part of ancient Greece, part of 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.240 that ancient world. And one of the things I discovered 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:17.040 is that Sicilian women have just carried on so many 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:22.000 traditions of different goddesses from Greek mythology, from Roman mythology, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.160 from Northern African mythology, and you know, put a lot 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.000 of those attributes onto Mary. You know, Mary is a 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.480 real presence in Sicily. She's she's not a meek woman 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.200 at all. She's not just the mother of the Savior. 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.200 In Sicily. The statues of her present like a powerful goddess. 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.760 I mean, they just radiate strength. They're big, she's big, 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.160 she takes up space, and they treat her kind of 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:50.080 like a Greek superhero. She's often in a massive white 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.280 and gold cape that flares out around her body like 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:57.120 a mountain. She doesn't have a tiny halo. Instead, she's 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.600 wearing something that feels and looks a lot more like 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.120 a craft. I mean, almost like the moon, because it 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:07.400 resembles the goddess Diana, the moon goddess, and it is because, 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.800 like I said, Mary is just a bit of a 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.199 collection of different goddesses. The Sicilians took all of these 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:17.640 old Greek myths and the myths from the Carthaginians, like 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.480 Diana and Aphrodite, and they combined all of those into 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.640 the Virgin Mary. It made it a lot easier to 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.080 accept Christianity, and like they're fine, They're fine with Jesus, Okay, 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.720 But Sicily is a place where magic definitely still exists, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.400 and so you can believe in the Virgin Mary but 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.320 also in the Evil Eye. And Mary can be a 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.520 mashup of all of these strong, capable women. She's a 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.240 little bit Greek myth, she's a little bit of Christian belief, 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.440 and in Sicily she's a healer and a mother, but 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:48.680 also kind of this wonderful, witchy goddess. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.880 I really love that so much. But I also love 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.400 that you talk about her kind of like a witch, 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.240 Like could you talk about like Sicilian culture and witches 0:14:58.280 --> 0:14:58.960 and strength as. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.400 Straight I guess, yeah, I mean, as there was this 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:06.360 idea that Lorenzo Marsala, my great great grandmother, was possibly 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:08.840 a witch and a healer, and it's one of the 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.600 things that we're trying to prove in the Sicilian Inheritance podcast. 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.160 But of course, you know, there's no legal you know, 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:17.680 tax documents to be like, oh yeah, I'm just writing 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:23.280 off my expenses from being a peasant witch, sadly, sadly. 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:25.800 But there's ways, there's other ways that we try to 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.480 go about it. And you know, the idea of the 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:33.160 witch and the healer, it just has such deep roots 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:37.680 in Sicily for so long, and in fact, the straga 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.720 the witches were often known as the dona ayetane the 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:45.400 women who help, because they did help. They took on 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:52.080 all the attributes of doctors, healers, also social connectors in 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:54.840 a way, you know, they did a lot of the matchmaking. Yes, 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.640 they had the evil eye, but the evil eye was 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.040 to you know, not to vex your neighbor necessarily, but 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:05.760 to keep away dark forces from other towns, I mean, 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:09.480 from other islands. Things like that. They were really they 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:13.680 were the protectors and caregivers of Sicilian society for a 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.920 long time. And I do believe that that that is 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:19.600 part of what Lorenza did. And you know, we have 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.520 we have a very big witchy thread in the Sicilian 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.520 Inheritance novel as well. 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.040 And there were midwives and ob GYNs too, kind of. 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:32.560 Absolutely, yes, there are midwives obgyns. They deliver babies, they 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:37.520 help women prevent pregnancy, you know, which was was a 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:39.400 was a very big deal. I mean, so many of 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:43.840 these women were constantly pregnant or constantly breastfeeding, and it's 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.360 an exhausting life and so these were these were the 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.440 women that really kind of held the fabric of society 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:53.240 together by by caring for everyone. 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.200 So I mean, I love that bit. There's there's like 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.480 so much of this that like I either kind of 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:02.160 knew little bit about or like had no idea about. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.080 And I think just learning about the land and the 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.879 feeling of really how transportive. I know I used that 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:11.240 word before, but like how transport of the podcast is 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.520 like can't be underscored. But one of the things I 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.439 wanted to do was talk about like a few things 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.360 that people might not know about from Sicily. And I'm 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.800 guessing you know all about Sicilian ice creams. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:24.640 Right, I know a lot. I know a lot about 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.440 Sicilian ice cream. So I took the kids there and 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:31.359 you will hear them on the podcast, and they're little. 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.159 I took three children under the age of six to 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:37.120 solve a Sicilian murder mystery, which is what they get 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.880 to talk about in therapy in about twenty years and 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.280 so we had Sicilian ice cream about twice a day. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.520 One of the things I really love is that Sicily 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:53.120 apparently is the first place where brain freeze is documented. 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.920 Freeze shut your mouth. I didn't know that. I didn't know. 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:01.440 It's from this book called Frostbite, How ref Changed Our Food, 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:05.320 our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilly, and it has 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.200 all these great documented examples, because eating something that cold 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.560 was unusual in the eighteen hundred and seventeen hundreds. But 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.960 she talks about this description of brain freeze from the 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.720 seventeen seventies, and it's an account of a British naval 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.760 officer taking his first bite of ice cream at this 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.080 formal dinner and this is what it says after he 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.560 took his first bite. Quote, at first, he only looked 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.240 grave and blew up his cheeks to give it more room, 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.399 but then quote the violence of the cold. Soon getting 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.560 the better of his patients, he began to tumble it 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.320 about from side to side in his mouth, his eyes 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.679 rushing out water. Shortly thereafter, he spat it out with 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.000 a horrid oath meaning I guess he was swearing, and 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:53.080 in his outrage, had to be restrained from beating the 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:59.400 nearest servant. Wow, that description is so insane. 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:01.919 Wow. Oh wow, that's great. Yeah, I love that. 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:03.919 Well, you know, I've heard I've heard a lot of 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:09.119 descriptions about cold things in Sicily, you know, Mount Etna, 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.240 because the grenita is the other big dessert in Sicily, 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:14.800 which is shaved ice. Okay, and you walk through the 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.600 streets of Palermo and literally men make you a greanita 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.399 by hacking away at ice with a machete. It's so 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.840 violent and so delightful. But grenda originated from the snow 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.080 and ice on the top of Mount Etna. They're volcano. 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.320 That's very cool, Pretty cool, right, yeah, So well, fact 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.360 you have next Well, you know. 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.280 Since Dylan got his hands on those special Sicilian pistachios, 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.040 I do think it's worth talking about them a little. 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:43.080 Sicilians use pistachios in everything, and I mean, this is 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:45.159 a good time to point out we talk about this 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.280 in the podcast and in the book. Sicilian food is 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:53.000 very different from Italian food. Okay, there's no heavy red sauces. 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:57.160 It's a lot of influences from North Africa, from other 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.480 parts of the Mediterranean, and from the French, you know, 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.960 because the were indeed conquerors of Sicily for quite some times. 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.760 So you do see pistachios and crushed pistachios in lots 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.080 and lots of dishes, I mean almost every dish, and 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.600 so Sicilian pistachios or bronte pistachios are often referred to 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:18.840 as green gold because of their delicious and intense flavor. Now, 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.800 pistachios obviously grow in Iran, California, lots of other places, 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.919 but the reason that the nuts taste so intensely sweet 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:30.800 and meaty is because, of course, the soil from Mount 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:35.199 Etna is just so so nutritious and delicious, and that 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.560 soil gives a lot of Sicilian foods their distinct flavor, 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.159 from Sicilian wines and liquors to the local honey and 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.840 the strawberries the rich volcanic soil is not only super fertile, 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:50.760 but it also imbused foods with a complex earthy goodness. 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.560 And actually, just as an aside, I gotta say, Mount 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.520 Etna also plays a role in Greek mythology. 0:20:57.640 --> 0:20:58.159 Did you know this? 0:20:58.520 --> 0:20:58.960 I did not. 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.720 The green thought that it was where Hephestus, the god 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:07.280 of blacksmiths, had his workshop and his forges, which is 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.080 why you can almost always see the smoke billowing out 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:15.880 of it like a chimney. But back to the pistachios. 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.600 The Romans originally brought pistachios back from the Middle East, 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.080 but they were mostly forgotten. And then when the Arabs 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.639 came to Sicily in the ninth century, they could not 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.000 help but notice the incredible flavor of the nuts, and 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:33.240 they kicked the cultivation up into high gear. And today 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:39.200 the Sicilian pistachios are still harvested entirely by hand, which 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.840 you know, oh wow, which sounds beautiful, right, I mean, 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:44.320 we love thinking about things that are done with our 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:49.640 actual hands and not machines. But it is intensely labor heavy, 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:52.840 intensely labor heavy. And then they spread out these big 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.320 cloth canopies when they collect them and shell and chop 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:59.480 them by hand, or sometimes they send them to the 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:01.400 factories to be turned into paste. 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:03.480 But because it does take. 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:06.159 So much labor, and because it's intense on the land, 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:10.800 it only happens every two years to protect the trees 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.199 and improve the flavors. And this is why Sicilian pistachios 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:15.280