La pancia del paese: geografie simboliche del cibo nella radio italiana contemporanea, tra popular geopolitics, media e umorismo

The belly of the country: symbolic geographies of food in contemporary Italian radio, between popular geopolitics, media, and humour. This paper explores food representations in Italian radio programs, analysing radio as a media space where symbolic, political, and cultural geographies intersect. Through the analysis of three shows – Indovina chi viene a cena?, Decanter? and La Zanzara – it highlights different narrative approaches to food: from identity and migration storytelling, to humorous takes on gastronomy, to ideological and provocative clashes. Radio, including its podcast form, proves to be a timely and rich medium for interpreting spatial dynamics and understanding social and cultural transitions related to food.