Pack One Bag

Documentarian David Modigliani discusses his Tribeca-winning podcast series  Pack One Bag with Guardian columnist  Richard Wolffe.

How do we understand the past? How do we read letters our grandparents wrote? How do we understand truth in our exploration of the life of people who are close to us and yet far removed in time and space? Film maker David Modigliani ventured on a journey sparked by his grandparents’ correspondence during Fascism and World War II. The result is a multi-installment history podcast open to all. Listen to the story  https://www.packonebagshow.com/ 

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This Tribeca-winning podcast series tells the epic true story of an Italian family, split apart by love, fascism and war. Through shocking discoveries – and Stanley Tucci’s artistry – an enthralling personal history comes to life.

When documentarian David Modigliani was a kid, his grandfather, Franco, won the Nobel
Prize. But, David’s always been more fascinated by the love story that made it possible — his grandparents’ romance on the run from Fascist Italy. When he digs into their story, he uncovers a darker side to their fairytale escape: a brother left behind to face the Nazi occupation – and startling personal connections between his family and Benito Mussolini.

In PACK ONE BAG, he returns to Italy to investigate his family’s past, carrying a pressing question: if Fascism takes over your country, do you stay or do you try to flee? And what happens if you can’t?

On the ground, David discovers his family’s war experience through the voices of cousins who survived the Nazi occupation of Rome as young children, and reconciles surprising truths about his grandparents’ story through conversations with those who knew them best, including former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Along the way, he discovers troves of secret Fascist spy documents, personal diaries, blocked bank accounts — and a love story of his own. Now, he brings it all to life with the help of Signore Stanley Tucci.

The podcast’s first episode won the Jury Award for Nonfiction Audio at the Tribeca
Festival in 2023, where the Jury cited its “unexpectedly moving narrative that blends the personal, political and comical” as it takes listeners “on a journey across generations and continents.”

A production of Live Action Projects in association with Gilded Audio, with sales and
distribution by Lemonada Media.

ABOUT

David Modigliani is an award-winning documentarian with a unique knack for capturing the intimate human experience of politics. His 2019 film Running with Beto, a behind-the-scenes portrait of then-U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at SXSW before premiering on HBO. His feature documentaries for Hulu, Netflix and PBS include Crawford, 61 Bullets and Ready or Not. David holds a BA from Harvard College and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. He’s a founding member of the Texas Playboys Baseball Club, leaders of the #sandlotrevolution.

Richard Wolffe is a best-selling author and Emmy Award-winning executive producer. He has worked closely with chef and humanitarian José Andrés for two decades: creating, managing and executing his media and communications, from op-eds and speeches to books, podcasts and streaming shows.
He also writes a regular column for The Guardian, focusing on U.S. politics. 

An MSNBC political analyst for a decade, Wolffe was previously Vice-President and Executive Editor of MSNBC.com. His journalism in the United States began as a senior journalist at the Financial Times, before joining Newsweek magazine as its diplomatic correspondent and later its senior White House correspondent. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign for the magazine and his book about that election, Renegade: The Making Of A President, became an instant New York Times bestseller.
Wolffe’s latest book is Relentless: My Story Of The Latino Spirit That Is Transforming America, a collaboration with Luis Miranda, published by Hachette in May 2024.

In the Financial Times:
https://www.ft.com/content/6b56dee6-6426-4d9c-9931-a3b36ec2e1c3