While our immigrant forebears sat by giant radio consoles to absorb the news, music and culture of Italy, today’s Italian Americans have podcasts and, among them, one has remarkable traction. How much? Try roughly 20,000 listens per episode. Not bad for a program that’s less than four years old and the product of programmers learning the ropes as they go.

The driving force behind “The Italian American Experience” (italianamericanexperience.com) and its every-other-week companion, “The Italian American Power Hour,” is John Viola. If that name sounds familiar, it’s no wonder: Viola served as president and chief operating officer of the National Italian American Foundation for close to five years. Now he’s taking to a role that naturally extends his lifelong passion for all things Italian: a highly visible man building community in audible, laudable ways.