On November 14, the new Governor of New York Kathy Hochul, decided to eliminate the state’s Director of Italian American Affairs position. It just so happens that the director was one Dolores Alfieri Taranto, co-founder of the Italian American Podcast. What began with the Governor’s intention to eliminate the position as a whole has caused an unprecedented — and unexpected — backlash amongst the Italian American community throughout New York State, where it is the state’s largest ethnic group, as well as around the country.

Despite our best efforts to stay out of these kinds of issues, this was one that hit about as close to home as you can get. None of us at the Italian American Podcast expected the level of backlash and, even less, the complex level of response our reaction to it would garner. When the story even made its way into main-stream comedic coverage, the tangled web got even more disheartening.