Around here, we’ve become pretty adept at recognizing the symptoms of an Italian American obsession… and this week’s guest can easily be diagnosed within a few moments of first meeting him! Ray Guarini is the founder and driving force behind Italian Enclaves, an immensely popular Italian American social media platform on which Ray has set out to identify and catalogue the countless Italian American enclaves that add so much incredible Italian culture to the American mosaic.

Since his last visit to the show in its earliest days, Ray and a team of equally-obsessed volunteers have grown the Italian Enclaves brand to include its first published book, New York City’s Italian Neighborhoods, in-person meet-ups, and a 501(c)3 non-profit organization known as the Italian Enclaves Historical Society, a charitable network dedicated to expanding Ray’s mission and bringing his work to the next generation.