Athena Calderone on Aspiration and an Endless Aesthetic Education

June 4, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Athena Calderone built a career as a designer, cookbook author, and creative director without any formal training in those fields. She calls her lack of education her “greatest wound,” but she has come to see it as her greatest gift: it keeps her hungry, curious, and open to discovery. In conversation with David Prior on Traveling Through, she traces how that hunger was forged in childhood—she rarely traveled growing up, and her family’s few trips were modest—and how it later turned every new destination into a classroom. The episode is less a tour of beautiful places than a study of how travel can function as an ongoing, self-directed aesthetic education.

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What you'll learn

1 (01:30) **Lack of Travel as a Child Created an Urgent Curiosity** - Athena and David discuss how growing up without much travel (Vermont fishing trips for Athena, a single European youth-hostel trip for David) fostered a lifelong hunger for exploration.
2 (03:54) **Morocco & The Riyadh: How Travel First Forged Identity** - Athena’s first trip to Marrakech in 2005 with her toddler son and DJ husband became the catalyst for her entire creative and family ethos.
3 (13:22) **Ibiza as a Mirror: Nightlife, Family, and the Return to Self** - Athena details how Ibiza evolved from a courtship destination with her husband Victor to a family touchstone, and now a place where she reconnects with different parts of her identity.
4 (22:30) **Planning a 50th Birthday & 25th Anniversary in Italy** - Athena and David recount their collaboration on a massive dual celebration: a family vow renewal in Umbria and a grand party for friends at Palazzo Talia in Rome.
5 (30:57) **Red Porphyry: How a Roman Stone Shaped a New York Home** - Athena explains how a specific material she saw at the Vatican—red porphyry—sparked a rabbit hole of research that directly influenced the design of her Tribeca apartment.
6 (35:20) **The Table as a Fusion of Food, Design, and Culture** - Athena describes her signature approach to creating a table-scape that is not happenstance, but a direct translation of the local culture.
7 (38:10) **Paris: From a Modeling Toilet to the Art Deco Education** - Athena traces her relationship with Paris from a grim modeling apartment with a hole-in-the-floor toilet to a deep immersion in early 20th-century design.

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Show Notes

Self-taught designer, cook, and creative force Athena Calderone — dubbed "the modern girl's Martha Stewart” by T magazine — joins David to trace the restless curiosity that took her from Long Island to New York's nightlife scene, and on to Ibiza, Morocco, and Rome, always finding beauty and inspiration just beyond the obvious.

Traveling Through is proudly presented by Capital One. Eligible cardholders can book unforgettable experiences at entertainment.capitalone.com.

Check out our Apple Maps Guides on Marrakech's Most Magical Riads and Vienna’s Best Coffeehouses.

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