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Alain Elkann Interviews podcasts are an unprecedented window into the minds of some of the most well-known and -respected figures of the last twenty-five years. Alain Elkann has mastered the art of the interview, approaching the task as somewhere between snapping a photograph and writing a short story. With a background in novels and journalism, and having published over twenty books translated across ten languages, Alain infuses his interviews with innovation, allowing them to flow freely and organically. A small selection, to which we will gradually add, are presented here as podcasts for the first time.
103 Episodes
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CHAMPION OF ITALIAN OPERA. Alvise Casellati was born in Padua, Italy, from a Venetian musical family with important ties to the top classical music scene in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is currently serving as Artistic Director of the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, one of the most prestigious opera and dance theaters in Italy and in the world. He is the Founder and Music Director of Opera Italiana is in the Air (OIA), created in 2017 to bring superstar singers and the young talents in iconic locations in the air such as Central Park, New York, to give everyone the opportunity to appreciate Italian Opera. "The locals look at Teatro Massimo as a myth, as the centre of cultural gravity in Palermo." "We wanted to give young people and people who could not afford to go to the Met Opera the opportunity to fall in love with Italian opera" "What I adore about this theater is the investment in the young generation." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/alvise-casellati-2/
DEFENDER OF JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS. Bianca Jagger is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation (BJHRF), a UK-based human rights organisation that defends human rights and civil liberties, promotes international justice, campaigns to end violence against women and girls, addresses the threat of climate change, and advocates for the rights of Indigenous peoples and future generations. "Being born in Nicaragua shaped my understanding of repression, injustice and inequality." "I have dedicated my life to the defence of peace, justice and human rights." "At the end of the day, what matters is not fame or public perception. What matters is whether you stood on the side of justice when it was needed." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/bianca-jagger-2/
REVIVIFYING ROME. Thomas Clement Salomon is the director of Rome's Baroque Palazzo Barberini and the Galleria Corsini since January 2024. Palazzo Barberini is home to the National Gallery of Ancient Art, with a collection of paintings by Caravaggio and other Caravaggesque painters that now includes the very recently acquired Caravaggio Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini. Thomas studied art history and archaeological heritage protection law, for many years he helped organize major exhibitions at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome and the Palazzo Reale in Milan, worked at the Galleria Borghese with the Director Francesca Cappelletti, and was Scientific Director of MondoMostre Skira, the world's leading producer of exhibitions. He has travelled extensively between the United States and Europe, managing the loans for dozens of important exhibitions. "No one knew where this Caravaggio was or who the owners were." "Bernini: Now you have to become the new Michelangelo." "Poussin is a great painter of course but Velázquez is enormous." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/thomas-clement-salomon/
PIONEER OF BAROQUE SCULPTURE. Jennifer Montagu LVO CBE is a highly regarded British art historian whose emphasis is in the study of Italian Baroque sculpture. A daughter of Ewen Montagu, a British lawyer, writer and Naval intelligence officer, and granddaughter of painter Solomon J. Solomon RA, she studied under Sir Ernst Gombrich at the Warburg Institute, London where she received her PhD degree. Montagu lectured in History of Art at Reading University 1958–64, then was assistant Curator 1964–71, and Curator 1971–91, of the Photographic Collection at the Warburg Institute. She was Slade Professor of Fine Art and fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge 1980–81, Andrew W. Mellon Lecturer at the National Gallery of Art, Washington in 1991, and Invited Professor at the College de France, Paris in 1994. She was a trustee of the Wallace Collection 1989–2001 and of the British Museum 1994–2001. In 1990 Montagu delivered the annual A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Art. She is an honorary fellow of her alma mater, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and of the Warburg Institute. She has been honoured in France as a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur and a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in Italy as an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. Her books are Bronzes 1963, Alessandro Algardi 1985, Roman Baroque Sculpture – The Industry of Art 1989, The Expression of the Passions 1994, and Gold, Silver and Bronze: Metal Sculpture of the Roman Baroque 1996. Her latest book, on the sculptor Giovanni Battista Maini, was published in 2025. "I was brought up being rather anti-Baroque; and then I got interested in Le Brun and the 17th century." "The basic problem, of course, is who painted it and why and when, but there are all sorts of other more interesting questions you can ask about it." "Sometimes there's a connection, something about the painting which grabs you. The hairs on the back of your neck rise up, as they say, and there isn't any particular explanation." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/jennifer-montagu
DAY TO DAY BRILLIANCE. ANTONIO CITTERIO is an Italian architect, furniture and industrial designer. Today his cross-disciplinary practice for architecture and interior design is known as "ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel". The firm works internationally, developing projects on all scales in collaboration with a network of specialist consultants. In both 1987 and 1994, Antonio Citterio was awarded the Compasso d'Oro ("Golden Compass") prize, the world's oldest and most prestigious industrial design award. In 2008 the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce of London awarded him the title of "Honorary Royal Designer for Industry". "Headquarters is not a speculation building, it's also part of the image." "When you build something now, you really have to think about what will happen in the next 30 years." "Nowadays, the vision is for an office chair that is self-adaptive." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/antonio-citterio
LEADING AN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY. Francesco Billari is Professor of Demography at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He became Rector in November 2022 after having held the role of Dean of the Faculty. He has worked at the University of Oxford Department of Sociology, at Nuffield College, and at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. His recent book Domani è Oggi offers a demographic lens to shed light on the potential futures shaped by today's choices. "The important thing is that all young people should think that going to university is a wise and desirable idea. "We want to change the world by research." "We still have to learn how to deal with this diversity that comes with demographic change. It is completely new for humanity." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/francesco-billari/
CHANGING THE QUALITY OF TRAUMA IN CHILDREN AND FAMILIES. David Trickey is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has specialised in working with traumatised children, young people, and their families since 2000. He is Co-Director of the UK Trauma Council, chartered by the British Psychological Society and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. Across all of his roles, he draws heavily on the published research literature, to which he has made his own contribution. "An important part of getting through traumatic events is being able to make sense of them, to think them through, and as social beings we will often do that with others." "It can be incredibly powerful for people to hear an apology even decades later." "As a therapist, my work is regaining enough trust for them to be able to share the details of what happened." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/david-trickey/
PROMOTING ITALIAN CULTURE AND BRIDGING CULTURAL DIVIDES. Claudio Pagliara is a journalist who became the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Avenue in New York in September 2025, soon after he completed his term as head of the RAI Radiotelevisione italiana correspondence office in the United States. With enormous international experience that includes living in Jerusalem for almost 10 years, he was foreign desk chief at Tg2 — Italy's second state channel — for seven years. His recent book L'imperatore is a journey through America's transformation and the challenge it poses to the world. Pagliara holds a degree in linguistic philosophy from Rome's La Sapienza University. "My first mission is to enlarge the love for Italian culture among Americans." "We want to build a big family together with Italians and the American lovers of Italy." "Maybe not everybody knows that Italy is the most important contributor to peacekeepers around the world." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/claudio-pagliara
ANTHROPOLOGY REGENERATES CULTURE. Simone Verde is a museologist and art historian who was appointed Director of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy, in December 2023, replacing Eike Schmidt who moved to Capodimonte. From 2014 to 2016 Simone Verde was head of scientific research at the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, and from 2016 to 2023 he directed the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta in Parma, Italy, whose total restoration and refurbishment he completed. Verde studied Theoretical Philosophy in Rome and Paris, has a doctorate in Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, and a degree in Museology and Art History at the École du Louvre. "The strength of art, of heritage, is its capacity to regenerate itself through centuries and time and cultures." "The icons of the museum are promoted by social media, and this is both an opportunity and a problem." "We have to be a universal museum in terms of audiences. That makes the work we do much more complicated."
THE REGENERATION OF THE FRICK. Axel Rüger is a German art historian, curator and museum director. Director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from 2006 to 2019, he previously worked as a curator of Dutch art at the National Gallery in London. He led the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 2019 through 2024, and in March 2025 assumed the directorship of The Frick Collection in New York City. "You get a sense of how the Fricks lived at the time, even though we do not really talk much about their daily life." "For the first time, the Frick now also has a café and a dedicated space for education activities." "The library has always been a vital part of the museum." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/axel-ruger/
REALISING WONDERFUL IDEAS. Colin Bailey is a British art historian and Director of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. He is a scholar of eighteenth and nineteenth century French art, with a specific interest in the artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. For the first time ever in America, Caravaggio's Boy With A Basket Of Fruit is on show at The Morgan. "Renoir Drawings is a survey of Renoir working on paper, drawings, pastels; and then how some of those drawings relate to paintings and even sculpture. "We also are a teaching institution, so we want to put a light on Caravaggio in a slightly different way. "My first job is just keep telling everyone how interesting and lively and rewarding The Morgan is and making sure that it is." https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/colin-bailey-2/
HISTORIAN OF THE ARABS. Professor Eugene Rogan is Director of the Middle East Centre at St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He has a B.A. in economics from Columbia, and an M.A. and PhD in Middle Eastern history from Harvard. Among many other titles, he is author of The Arabs: A History which has been translated into 18 languages and was named one of the best books of 2009 by The Economist, The Financial Times, and The Atlantic Monthly. "The Arab peoples were never reconciled to being colonised by the British and French." "The idea of united Arabs has been enormously appealing to Arab peoples right through the 20th century." "Almost all the governments right through the Middle East are nation states governed by constitutions. The opposition is Islamist, but not the form of government."
VISIONARY IN DESIGN. Clémence and Didier Krzentowski founded Galerie kreo in 1999. Today Galerie kreo is located in a very beautiful building in 31 rue Dauphine in the centre of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. It is a gallery of 20th and 21st century design and they are preparing a very important exhibition that will take place at Christie's in Paris from January 14 to January 28, 2026, when they will present the masterpieces of their collection, 65 iconic pieces from the gallery. "We call ourselves a research laboratory, because the idea is not to produce just another chair or table, but to give the designers a possibility to produce a complete collection and exhibition." "That's what interests us most of all: not seeing the object first, but having designers share with us what they are thinking." "We are lucky we're working with people who are so talented and who surprise us each time."
INTIMATE DIALOGUES WITH ANTONELLO DA MESSINA. Marco Delogu is an acclaimed Italian photographer, publisher, and cultural director whose work focuses on portraits of groups sharing common languages and experiences. He served a successful four year term as the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in London from 2015 to 2019, noted for his innovative approach as the first photographer leading such an institute. Since 2022 Delogu is President of the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, an instrumental body of the city of Rome that manages an integrated system of cultural spaces and events, capable of reaching a large and attentive audience. "Antonello was in my mind, so I photographed four Antonello paintings, starting with L'Annunciata di Palermo." "If you want to get into these two pictures, you have to enter and then to get away from these eyes." "I want to finish my work with Antonello da Messina and then I just want to go on and be open."
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE VOYAGE. Simone Fattal is a Lebanese-American artist. Born in 1942 in Damascus, she was educated in Beirut and Paris, studying philosophy at the École des Lettres and the Sorbonne, as well as archaeology at the École du Louvre. Simone Fattal and Etel Adnan (1925–2021) were life partners for 49 years, artists who shared a profound creative, political, and personal connection. Their multidisciplinary work spans painting, sculpture, poetry, and publishing. "We have to ask the women prisoners to write the poems. Which they did, and I transcribed them on the surfaces of the lava." "My inspiration doesn't come from artists. When I'm working, poetic verses come to my mind." "I'm not displaced, but a traveler."
COMMITTED TO DIALOGUE. Riccardo Di Segni is the Chief Rabbi of Rome and director of the Italian Rabbinical School since 2001. He is a retired medical doctor specializing in radiology, and as Vice President of the National Committee for Bioethics (Comitanto Nazionale per la Bioetica) in Italy combines his rabbinical duties with his background in medicine. Di Segni is an author whose work focuses on religious, historical, and cultural aspects of Jewish life. "Despite everything, Judaism endures." "It is the world that is changing, not just Israel." "My mother always told me, 'It's difficult to be Jewish.' It is a very demanding religion that regulates every moment of existence."
THE GOLDEN FLEECE OF ZEGNA. Ermenegildo "Gildo" Zegna is Chairman and CEO of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, founded in 1910 as a textile company by his grandfather and namesake in Trivero, Italy. Under his leadership, the Group has strengthened its position in high-end menswear and has grown into one of the leading global companies in the luxury sector. In 2011, Zegna was awarded the title of Cavaliere del Lavoro (Knight of Labour) by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. In 2021, the Ermenegildo Zegna Group was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. "Our vertically integrated "sheep-to-shop" model is unique in luxury. Next year, over 60% of our products will be made in-house." "Personalization is increasingly important: people want something unique and delivered fast." "We are not a conglomerate, but a strong group of luxury brands led by a team that protects our authenticity and unique approach."
José Tolentino de Mendonça is a theologian, university professor, and one of the most original voices in modern Portuguese. Born in the island of Madeira in 1965, today he is Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, an administrative unit of the Roman Curia. He is Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Institute for Christian Archaeology and a Bishop since 2018. From 2018 to 2022 he was Librarian of the Holy Roman Church. He was made a Cardinal in October 2019. "The common thread running through my story is the importance of attention to culture, dialogue, and the power of knowledge and science." "This is a time when the desire for peace, the stubborn search for a path of peace, should be the primary concern of contemporary culture and society." "My vision as a man of the church, as a believer, as a Christian, is ultimately a poetic vision and ends up being my way of inhabiting reality."
MPERIAL PLAY. Giuliano da Empoli was born in 1973. He is an Italian and Swiss writer and political scientist living in France. He was a senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. His debut novel The Wizard of the Kremlin became an international bestseller and was translated into 35 languages. A 2025 film version stars Jude Law as Vladimir Putin. His latest book The Hour of the Predator is currently France's best-selling non-fiction title. "These characters could originate from a Machiavelli book or a Roman history book." "The predator's political miracle is bypassing rules and laws, transgressing and wiping out the system as we know it to impact the problem that nobody could solve." "I'm a very strong pro-European and I want a European Federation. I want Europe to be politically united."
A JOURNEY THROUGH JOURNALISM. Mishal Husain is a celebrated British journalist who joined Bloomberg from the BBC, where she presented its leading news programme Today on BBC Radio 4 for over a decade. Before joining Today in 2013, she was an anchor on the international news channel BBC World News. In 2024 she was awarded the Charles Wheeler Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism by the British Journalism Review. Mishal has written a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller family memoir, Broken Threads: A Family From Empire to Independence, and The Skills: How to Win at Work. "The Elon Musk interview is amongst the most difficult that I've done." "I've realised that we are now, perhaps increasingly, again in an age of division." "I hope that in one way or another we still have people who are going to search for the forgotten, overlooked stories."
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