Episode 80: Dina Gregory

In this episode of Italian American Stories, host Stephanie Detton is joined by Dina Gregory, creator of La Befana’s Table, for a deeply thoughtful conversation about folklore, belonging, creativity, and the power of gathering.

Born from Dina’s real-life experience animating a puppet of La Befana—Italy’s legendary gift-giver—in the streets of New York City during the isolation of the pandemic, La Befana’s Table began as an unexpected act of connection. What started with a puppet taken “out of the box” grew into a gathering space rooted in Italian folklore, storytelling, and community.

Dina shares how puppeteering La Befana helped her navigate grief, loneliness, and identity, and how those experiences eventually led her to create La Befana’s Table: a Substack, podcast, and evolving creative project centered on curiosity, wonder, and the sacred beauty of everyday life. Together, Stephanie and Dina explore Italian American identity, ancestral memory, storytelling traditions, and what it means to create spaces where people can show up as their full selves.

This episode is an origin story—not just of a project, but of a calling—and an invitation to pull up a chair, slow down, and reconnect with something ancient, meaningful, and deeply human.