I don’t want this on my phone. I cannot see how to delete it and all of Wonderly. I did not order this and I don’t want it.

Loved this. Love the host and loved the story. So interesting and entertaining.

Interesting story. Annoying narration. I’d rather draw my own conclusions about a subject than be told how or what to think of one. Just tell the story in an entertaining way - we’re smart enough to form our own opinions and conclusions.

I found this to be interesting, but was sometimes difficult to follow the various persons involved—sometimes the names were so similar. Also, I found SO MANY similarities between between Silvio and the top American leader (2016-2020). It also shows that the human nature of people (males in this story) are the same, no matter when, and where, they live in this world. Change must come from the inside—in a person’s heart— only God can change a person’s heart. Change is so hard!

Loved this podcast. Not many things make me laugh out loud, between Whitney’s quips and the story I was blown away. The namesake joke reminds me of something I would have heard as a bartender in the 80’s!

The assumption of the narrator is that we all understand that Silvio is bad, so when he’s succeeding it’s bad and when he’s seeing setbacks it’s his rightful comeuppance. Yes, we understand from the description that he’s supposed to be the bad guy, but you take way too long to explain why he’s bad and not just an aggressive politician (most are power hungry, obv). You can’t just tell the audience what to think about characters. You have to show them and let them come to the obvious conclusions. That’s basic storytelling. Eventually they get to it, but it’s way too much “oh, no, the bad guy’s winning” before you’ve demonstrated why the audience is supposed care.

Very thorough and sound journalism, but the writing and presentation is fairly tasteless. The titular phrase is openly a reference to a racist rape joke, and they made it the TITLE. If you can find a better Berlusconi exposé, choose that instead.

When people ask me for podcast recommendations, this is #1 on my list. Fantastic!

Excellent podcast in every aspect. Loved WC voice. It’s a disgusting story. Did The Loser just copied Berlusconi? I do hope his end is different!!

New Review: I know that until there is a massive backlash of some sort, the likelihood of Wondery changing anything about this is slim to none, but I have found that I am going to stop listening to any of the material. As good as the storylines may be (in some of their shows, this one is an exception) the vast majority of the show - all of their shows - seem to be one giant commercial with a great story interlaced into it. I have tried the free version, it is nice, but I don’t think that as many people are willing to pay as much as everyone seems to be requesting now to listen to each podcast in the form of a story versus a commercial. If you happen to see this review duplicated comments because I’m going to paste it on every one of their podcasts that I have listen to. I would be curious as to how many people actually buy the products that are shoved down our throat‘s. One can’t help but wonder if the juice is going to be worth the squeeze as listeners gradually drop off in this day of thousands upon thousands of available podcasts. I truly pity those who are telling the stories, doing the research, and have put together such a well done storyline as long as they work for this company. Original Review: Wondery podcasts are getting worse with each episode. They used to be outstanding, but now may as well be one long running advertisement interspersed with a story line; in this case one that was uninteresting with a strained attempt at humor.

Wow. As nasty as American politics are, we’ve found something nastier. Love to hear the stories about Silvio. Reminds me of a former governor of Louisiana who said, allegedly, yes, I’m a crook but at least I’m im being honest with you. He was voted in several times (might be a good podcast). Anyway, I digress, great podcast. Love the narrators. Just the proper blend of humor and facts. Well, Bunga Bunga!!

Love Whitney & her silly quips - made this terrifying story a little more lighthearted. Well done! A great work time binge.

A lot of tongue-in-cheek humor so it wasn’t boring. I especially laughed when, in the very end, she eluded to how a skirt chasing, money grabbing politician couldn’t happen here! Hahaha! Calling Bill Clinton out like that!!

Huge fan of wonders podcasts and “feeling the story” however in this case I could have dealt with feeling the story through a different narrator as Whitney Cummings made this mostly dull story insufferable.

American girls pretending to know all about Italian politics. The only interesting thing about this podcast is the thumbnail and the title, everything else is Boring.

Loving this podcast, heard a little of this story but great to get a bigger picture. Plus LOVE Whitney Cummings.

It’s prolly a Great story, I just couldnt get into this style of telling it. Also, I dont like the title and the story behind it was pretty anti-climactic.

Truly excellent work, entertaining and horrifying

Pathetic storytelling with stupid ironic and heavy handed jokes. Not funny and wish you had simply told the story without all the sing song reading. Sounded like a bad disc jockey

Great reporting but the host’s jokes are painful and absolutely insufferable. It almost makes this unlistenable. This would have been just as funny with straight narration and none of the forced commentary.

Absolutely engaging narration of a very weird part of Italy’s recent history. Told in such a way that I feel like I am hearing it from a favorite girlfriend while talking over dinner. Obviously well researched so I learned something too. Highly recommend this.

An unethical charming ruler of a country who’s mob rule violates all laws, ethics, and standards? Would never happen in the U.S. It’s like the Trump story if he had sex parties in Mara Lago.

Story is interesting but the hosts narration is heavy handed, biased, and overall sounds likes shes just trying a bit too hard to make a point. We get it.

Interesting story but the ad reads make it intolerable.

Great storytelling and good narration. I like Whitney’s narration a lot but some of the jokes and comments felt a little heavy-handed or forced. Overall a very interesting and informative podcast.

Whitney’s dismissive style makes sense through an American lens. Yet the interview with an accomplished Italy based American journalist in chapter nine reveals the Italian frame of reference. Not so dismissive at all. The death of objective reporting continues. Whitney didn’t show up for Chapter 9

This is such a fascinating story, but the immaturity and the ‘Americans are better than this’ attitude of the narrator ruined it.

Way too US political bias to enjoy.

Tried to listen but could not get interested. Sarcasm overload!

I love Whitney! She’s entertaining as she tells this story and not too shy to say things as they are. I thought our country was corrupt—-yikes!

Great story, but the narration editorialized a TON. Like another review said- we get it, you’re a comedian. Just give us the story.

This is a top-dog production amongst the clutter of podcasts on political theatre which is a subset of historical significance. 90% is because Whitney Cummings voice delivers the story and keeps the wandering mind in the story and wanting more. Excellent! RT Stewart

narrator is annoying with fake voice inflections, but story is good

The music and background sounds are very annoying. I would love to be able to hear the story without all the noise and the narrator keeps trying to be funny.

Way too overproduced and the narrator is obnoxious. Bummer because I was interested.

My podcast listening time is small. After reading the reviews, I know I won’t care for Whitney’s delivery.

The voice expression reminds me Harris’ facial expression during the first VP debate. You know what I mean🤭

hardly be noticed. The story was compelling but this narrator tried too hard to “entertain” missed the mark big time. We get it, you’re a comedian.

In this case a straight forward narrative, without sensationalist style would have been more interesting. The character himself is intrinsically fascinating. A simple history of his life, rise and (semi-) fall would sufficed since Berlusconi is interesting and horrifying.

Loved the story telling narrative. A long overdue work on a bigger than life character

Interesting story I was mad and I laughed too. Whitney is great story teller

...seriously irritating....has that sort of American ‘I’m above it all mocking all of this throughout’ that is cringe-worthy.

Feel bad saying this and I hardly ever leave reviews, but the presenter’s tone was so very annoying. The story itself is interesting, but the editorializing and as reads could get insufferable at times. Rather surprising, as other Wondery podcasts don’t have this issue.

Could have been half as many episodes. Last half of episodes really said nothing new. Waste of time.

I tried to ignore the unsubstantiated trump references but couldn’t. It made me question how much of the podcast I could trust. Also, story jumped around too much. Listened through episode 3 and then stopped.

Super interesting story, and is presented beautifully. I hope Wondery brings Whitney back for more podcasts, she really brought it over the top.

Loved learning about Italian political history from a funny perspective! Thanks Whitney and writers!

The story sounds like what’s happened in the US. Real estate developer, minor tv personality becomes our president. History repeats itself. And not in a good way. Excellent presentation and narration.

Sorry but it wasn’t.

Highly entertaining, LOL podcast! Whitney is excellent narrator & makes this a FUN podcast to listen to. Love it!!!