The Hagiographer is a historical fiction novel about the man who invented the Glagolitic alphabet in the 9th century and his rogue biographer.

Visionary cellist and composer Serena Jost grew up between Switzerland and Michigan, speaking the Swiss German language. She composes songs in wordless or invented tongues. 

The sheer exuberance of Paul Balke's devotion to Italian wine regions bubbles up like a glass of prosecco—which, we learn in this episode, did not originate in Veneto, but rather in the village of Prosek, near Trieste.

Ascolta in Italiano / Listen in Italian

Rose Thomas Bannister's husband, Bob, has a 2100 day Duolingo streak. For a while, he was doing 14 languages a day. But is he "conversational"? Is he fluent? Does that matter?

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Ineza Karalashvili been making wine in the Kakheti region of Georgia for over sixty years, together with her brother Tamaz. Their family has been making and selling wine for generations before that, with forebears among the influential "Merchants of the First Guild" in the nineteenth century.

David Kong loved drinking wine out of expensive handblown glasses but hated the sinking feeling every time one got broken. He wanted a handblown wine glass at a more accessible price, so started his own company to make it exist!

Dr. William Cisilino, a a leading expert and advocate for linguistic diversity, discusses his work promoting the Friulano language and the difference between a language and a dialect.

Ascolta in italiano / Listen in Italian

Avguštin Devetak and his daughter Tatjana tell the story of the restaurant, inn and wine cellar that their family has built on the Karst plateau for six generations.

Ascolta in italiano

Rose Thomas Bannister, who was just honored as one of Wine Enthusiast Magazine's 2025 Future Forty tastemakers, reads part 2 of her Venice travel tale. A pretty but lonely afternoon leads to a seafood adventure and a midnight cruise around the lagoon.