About Paolo

Hey! Thanks for coming by. I’m a writer, broadcaster, documentary producer and sound designer based in Vancouver, Canada. Forever I’ve been obsessed by all the little details of the world and the stories they tell. (Lately, I’ve been especially obsessed by cool insects and weird mushrooms, driving my family crazy by constantly taking pictures of random organisms.)

You might be here because you heard me on CBC Music, on my weekly classical music show, In Concert. I’ve also done stints on other CBC shows like Hot Air, British Columbia’s jazz show, CBC Music’s Shift, and NXNW.

In addition to broadcasting, I love making radio documentaries. My programmes have been broadcast in Canada, the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Finland and Ireland, and they’ve been been awarded two Prix Italia and a Peabody Award.

In 2006, I had the unbelievable opportunity to be the cultural correspondent for CBC Television and Télévision de Radio-Canada during the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. As the kid of Italian immigrants, it was a dream gig to go to the motherland and create and present a series of 12 vignettes about the culture of Northern Italy, like Barolo wine, opera at La Scala, the Slow Food movement and Cinque Terre National Park.

I like to joke that I’m a failed scientist, since I always said I wanted to be a biologist when I was a kid. In 2009, I participated in the Banff Centre Science Communications Program as a Jack Webster Fellow. I’ve since written on science in The Vancouver Sun and the sadly defunct online magazine BoulderPavement.ca (you can find those articles in the Writing section of this site.) I still jump at any chance to work on projects about nature and the environment. Oh yeah, that obsession with insects and mushrooms? I funnel a lot of energy into that failed science dream by participating in the amazing citizen science website iNaturalist.

Over the years I’ve sometimes had the chance to compose original music for my documentaries and for the theatre. Once upon a time, I was a taiko drummer with the Kiyoshi Nagata Ensemble. I really miss taiko drumming. Taiko drumming is the best, and if you haven’t, you should really check it out.

How about you? Get in touch – I’d love to hear from you.

Social media

Get in touch – I’d love to hear from you!

Selected Awards

2005 for The Wire: the Impact of Electricity on Music

2005 for The Wire: the Impact of Electricity on Music

2013 for The Signature Series