b'What Makes You Tick? Jackie Tantillo and her podcast guests explore the role of their mothersBY SARA COURTNEYD idyoueverwonderwhereTantillo had a close relationship with her mom,reminisces. Her enthusiastic urging was prescient. youwouldbetodaywith- Linda,andspeakswithadmirationaboutherre- She actually did send my demos to WABC Radio! out the love and support ofmarkable life. At 17 years old she went to Southshe recalls. And sure enough, a few years after her your mom? For MaplewoodAmerica to work for the State Department. She wasdemos were sent in, Jackie started working there.residentJackie Tantillo,thisfluent in French, Italian, Spanish, and even someTantillos radio career kept her busy. I have al-question goes to the heart ofPortuguese. Tantillo marvels at how her mother wasways worked. Ive always been very lucky working her popular podcast, Shouldable to get anything done while she and her siblingsin radio, then my voice-over career, and then back Have Listened To My Mother, where she employswere growing up. She would be in her sewing roomto radio. Yet the transition from radio to a podcast her soothing radio voice and inquisitive mind to dis- all night long and we would be driving her crazy notcame unexpectedly, when, after a 20-year career at cover what makes people tick. Tantillo often findsgoing to bed when we should have. But she was pa- WABC Radio in New York, it was sold and everyone that at the heart of every successful person is a storytient with all of us. Calling her mother brilliant,was let go. Jackie con-about their mother. she says, She had so many interests of her own thatsidered how to move Tantillo, who was born in Europe and grew up onshe kept up as she was raising us. She would stay lateforward. I was like, Long Island, moved to Maplewood in 1999. Shes aat night in her little studio whether it was paintingOkay. Now what do second-generation Italian American, and one of sevenor studying Italian or sewing and designing our littleI do? children. The family traveled extensively and remainclothes. She was really remarkable. Notinghowthe a tight-knit group to this day. My six other siblingsTantillo, who has made a career of coaxing fas- media landscape had and myself, we talk many, many times a day. They arecinating persons into sharing their stories, began inchanged,Tantillo my best friends, she says. Its a giggle and a smileradio in 1979 with the encouragement of her mom.consideredstartinga every time we get on the phone together. My parentsShe would tell me to send in my tapes, saying thingspodcast. After mullingJackie Tantillo enjoyed a long career in radio before did a really remarkable job. We were very, very lucky.like You should be the voice of that station! Jackieovervariouscontentstarting her podcast.36/ matters magazine / spring 2021'