It's here: The official launch of The Earful Italy

Here's the first episode about Rome plus a look at Paris in the spring.

Hi there!

As you may know, it has been school holidays in Paris. And at the same time, we’ve been between Paris podcast seasons. So, my family and I took off to Italy for a few weeks.

The idea: To make a ten-episode podcast season about Rome and Venice.

(A reminder: This is a side gig. The Paris podcast will continue as usual.)

Anyhow, I’m delighted to say that we just published episode one of the Italian season today, on the new channel I’ve called The Earful Everywhere. The episode is a fun one, it’s my wife Lina and I sharing 23 observations about Rome.

Look: In the pic below (on Via Margutta - you remember it from Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn), you can see Lina is wearing the pizza merch she talked about in the episode. Incidentally, full marks to our three year old, who took that picture.

In the episode, embedded below, we tackle how Romans love children, traditional coffee is king, and how you don’t ever need cash. Some observations are frankly ridiculous (Lina couldn’t get over the paper napkins on the tables - I couldn’t figure out the pronunciation of ciao)… but some are going to be helpful for anyone thinking of visiting Rome (places to seek, transport options to avoid) etc.

You can find the episode on Spotify or iTunes.

The whole season was made possible by the excellent travel company LivTours, which sent us on about ten tours of Rome and Venice (on foot, in cars, in golf carts, on boats…), and whose brilliant tour guides I featured on the show several times.

I also made a one-minute audio trailer for the whole Italian season, please take a listen below.

The last thing I’ll say on it is that I’ll once again urge everyone to follow the channel on Instagram and on your fave podcast platform. It’ll cost you nothing, but it could help me to get future opportunities to explore the world and share it with you.

Let’s keep it simple: Instagram here, Spotify here, iTunes here.

Let’s talk Paris

As I mentioned, we’re between Paris podcast seasons so I don’t have new episodes to share, but some big news: Spring has arrived. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

There’s an amazing energy in the air, everyone is out and about, and the trees along the avenues are in full green. The sun sets late. Life feels good. It’s the perfect time to be in Paris.

My bedside table is full of books from past guests on the show (Musician

Pres Maxson

wrote the new Chinatown Troubadour - I got a mention in it!), my catacomb guide Codex Urbanus wrote a pocket atlas of Paris street art (in French), and I’ve got an appetite for

Lindsey Tramuta

’s new book The Eater Guide to Paris.

Speaking of books, huge shoutout to Le Peloton cafe in the Marais which just took a monster order of our children’s books, officially making them the most likely place in the world to have all four of our books in stock. Added bonus: When you get a book there, you’re in the same spot to get the best coffee in town ;) (Not in Paris? Buy our childrens’ books here.)

Meanwhile, I’m planning the next Paris podcast season, and it’s likely to feature the whole city in a similar way to how we shared it in 2022. Long time listeners might already know what I mean.

Our walking tours are in full bloom too. On my Monday Marais tour this week we bumped into four past guests from the show, including the Marais mayor himself. I’ve got a few spots for this coming Monday, two spots for Amber’s Louvre tour on the morning of May 19th, and a quickly-filling May and June calendar. Book your spot here… come and meet me and/or my team, we’re ready to show you Paris.

That’ll do for now. Get in touch if you’re coming to Paris, buy my PDF guide here, or get the PDF for free when you become the Earful’s newest member on Patreon or Substack (linked below).

Have a lovely weekend

Oliver