Talking Business and Life (formerly Italian Impact Podcast)

This week, Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview the legendary pitcher, Jim Rooker.  Jim had a highly successful career as a professional baseball player, winning 103 games as a pitcher, and following up his playing career as an announcer for both the Pirates and on ESPN.  He is also famous for his line, "If we don't win this one, I don't think I'd want to be on that plane ride home. Matter of fact, if we lose this...

This week, Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview Kim Lengling.  Kim is an author who shares her love of nature, animals, living with PTSD, and her mission of tossing Nuggets of Hope into the world through writing and her podcast, Let Fear Bounce.  She is also the lead author and coordinator of a collaborative 3-book series titled When Grace Found Me and two stand-alone anthologies, When Hope Found Me (released...

This week, Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview Melissa Marinaro.  Melissa is the Director of the Italian American Program at the Senator John Heinz History Center where she oversees the Italian American artifact and archival collection, and manages the program’s community and educational outreach and public programs.  We will discuss a lot of topics related to her work at the Heinz history center and we rec...

This week Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview a wonderful person, Stratton Nash.  Stratton is a very active member of the community but his current passion is a documentary, "Their Story", which chronicles the black history of Sewickley, PA where he grew up.  In this interview, he recounts a tremendous story about how such a diverse community was so cohesive, creating memories he holds dear nearly 60 years later....

This week, Steve Mancini interviews Marta Cappellini from Passione Italiana.  As Marta says, "Italian is in my blood and teaching is in my heart."  This episode shows how you can turn your passion into a business and as a result, be truly successful.  Marta is truly passionate about what she does and as a result, her skills and passion make her one of the most sought after teachers of Italian in the world!  Lear...

Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview former NFL player, Ron Coder.  Ron has a very interesting route into the NFL starting with high school in Japan!  Ron later went onto play at Penn State and then the NFL where he played for 5 seasons.  Ron is a dedicated family man who gives back to his community and in this episode, we are going to discuss the importance of perseverance but just as importantly, humility i...

This week, Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview Steve Vaccariello.  Steve is a world renowned photographer who has photographed some of the biggest names in the film and music industry.  However, Steve is also a very down to earth person who has succeeded not just because of his talent but by the way he treats people.  This is a great episode on learning how to treat people.  Learn more about Steve's wor...

This week, Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview the Kenyon College Hall of Famer, Tim Appleton.  Tim was selected selected by the Detroit Pistons in Round 8 with Pick 12 in the 1977 NBA Draft.  In this episode, Tim not only talks about his basketball career both in the US and overseas, but about how he overcame what should have been a career ending injury.  Tim shows how hard work and resilience can help anyo...

This week Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview former professional football player and business and community leader, John Skorupan,  John played 8 seasons in the National Football League (NFL).  After retiring, John returned to Butler, Pennsylvania.  He settled in Cranberry Township, where he still resides and focuses on community leadership.  John has been a leader both on and off the field for decades...

This week Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview Fran Tunno.  Fran is a writer and essayist with articles published in The Huffington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and The Glendale News Press. The story of her mom’s shining moment as a contestant on the Price is Right was featured on NPR’s Snap Judgment. Her story, “The Power of Pizza,” was selected for Writers Read&rsq...

This week, Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview Doland White.  Doland is a highly sought after speaker and leadership coach whose journey started more than 40 years ago in the trenches — fixing help-desk problems, engineering networks, and leading a boutique technology services firm as its President. From there, he stepped into sales leadership and carried a $200M quota, then into building thriving global service...

This week, Steve Mancini interviews Gianluca Cinelli and Patrizia Piredda.  In this episode we have an absolutely enthralling conversation on the importance of people's stories.  Gianluca and Patrizia are leading an effort to continue capturing the stories of the post-world war generation and the effects of the war on them.  Remember, history has a ripple effect, even to today!  Learn more about their work here:...

This week, Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview one of the greatest basketball players to come out of western Pennsylvania, Baron "B.B." Flenory.  B.B. had an amazing career at Duquesne University in the Pittsburgh area and although his basketball career speaks for itself, it's the work he did after basketball that truly makes him one of the greats!  You're gonna love this episode and in the end, you're going to s...

This week, Steve Mancini and Claudio Reilsono interview Jodi Velazquez.  Jodi is an award winning author and her recent book, Know the Enemy: Preventing Weight Gain, Diabetes and Disease is a collection of 16 years of documenting her journey of helping her young daughter with diabetes management.  This is a powerful episode which shows how small decisions can have very important impacts!  Learn more about Jodi here:&...