#20: Interview with Jeff Canarsie

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Episode OVERVIEW

In today’s episode, we’ve recorded an amazing interview with Jeff Canarsie, the host of Mob Talk Radio. I’m really excited and honestly very appreciative that this guest was able to take time out of their busy life to sit and talk with me for a few hours to talk about his life, his show, and much more.

In the interview, we discuss a range of topics including:

Jeff's early life growing up in Providence, Rhode Island
Jeff's mother and father, as well as his "extended" family
What life was like growing up within a mob-connected family
Stories about Jeff's grandfather including the infamous beach story, the story of his mom borrowing his grandfather's car, and much more
When he realized his family was a part of the mob in Providence
His cousin, Joseph "Joe" Badway, who was an alleged associate of the Patriarca family
What is was like growing up Providence during the turbulent 1980's and early 1990's
How the darker side of the mob lifestyle affected his family

We also cover:

Jeff's initial entry into crime and how things escalated for him
When Jeff was arrested, informed on by several of his counterparts, and nearly sent to a long prison stretch
The background of Jeff's personal stance on government informants (aka "rats")
Turning his life around and starting Mob Talk Radio, which is now a decade old
Turning Mob Talk Radio into a success and a viable business -How Jeff developed relationships with alleged wiseguys in Philadelphia and New York
How he became a member of several social clubs
What's coming next for Jeff and the future of Mob Talk Radio

Episode Transcript

Episode Teaser:

For me, the realization that people that I probably loved had something to do with it was a tough pill to swallow. But I think what enables you to escape that is you don’t know. You just, you don’t know. And you’re never gonna know.

And chances are whoever was involved, if that’s the way it went down, they’re dead now anyway. But it’s sort of a…Fredo type of situation….It’s how can one hurt the other?!? It’s always blown my mind.

And I think that when you live on all sides of this, so, it’s different. If you’re a guy, such as yourself, who enjoys history, enjoys the stories, enjoys the politics, likes to do research, you have the comfort of being able to put the book down and going to bed at night. Right?!?

I don’t. Because I live with that, specifically. And there’s been other events that I’m not gonna get into, at least not until, you know, some of my family’s dead. But, I think it’s just when you love people so very, very much, and you can see the other side of that, it’s…it has a way of really warping your mind.

It really does because you love them. You’re never gonna stop loving them, but at the same time you know what they’re capable of. And being young, and being impressionable, you think that’s power.

And my grandfather used to always say, ‘Power is not the matter of life and death. Power is with a look. Of knowing it could go to that.’ What’s sort of like a threat, you know like…

Just giving somebody a look knowing what I’m capable of is more…People will be afraid of you for the rest of your life knowing what you’re capable of, verus issuing a threat.’

Episode Intro:

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of The Member’s Only Podcast. I am your host Jacob Stoops, and I’m a mob enthusiast and historian.

In today’s episode, we’ve recorded an amazing interview, and I’m really excited and honestly very appreciative that this guest was able to take time out of their busy life to sit and talk with me for a few hours.

You see, when I began this podcast, I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to do interviews. There are a lot of things that come with doing interviews, some good and some bad, and I weighed it for a very long time really. Ultimately, I decided that my goal was to create sort of a mosaic of stories concerning the Mafia life, and really the only way to do that is through first and second-hand accounts of the people that lived it. So, you will be seeing more interviews for sure.

And in the back of my mind, I knew that if I ever did start doing interviews this guest was definitely at the top of my list and frankly one of my inspirations for starting this podcast in the first place. And when you consider that this person in particular doesn’t do interviews, but made an exception to come on my show, I’m really left with nothing but gratitude.

The guest today of course is none other than Jeff Canarsie, the host of Mob Talk Radio. Now before we bring Jeff on, let me give you a quick background on who he is before we bring him on.

For those that don’t know him, Jeff is the creator and host of Mob Talk Radio, in my opinion the best and certainly most entertaining Mafia history podcast in the genre. Jeff was one of the first people, if not the first in the space, to really enter the Mafia history arena on a consistent basis and has been doing so for about a decade, which really makes him an O.G. for this genre.

Not only that, Jeff speaks from experience. And what I mean by that is that he grew up in a family involved in organized crime in Providence, Rhode Island, and to this day he has built friendships with what I’ll just call some very serious people in other cities. This fact of course, as a “civilian” really makes his story and his show about as authentic as you can get in this day and age for someone who isn’t or wasn’t in the mob themselves.

And as I said, Jeff was kind enough to share many details of his life with me, and of course he brought his personal brand of color to the show.

But quickly before we get into the interview, I’d like to remind you to hit that subscribe button and turn on the bell to get notifications. If you’re already a subscriber, please share the show to help my small but mighty Mafia channel grow! If you’re listening to the audio only version, please leave a review and let me know what you think!

Alright, let’s bring on our guest, Mr. Jeff Canarsie!

Episode Transcript:

Coming soon.

Jacob Stoops

Host of the Gangland History Podcast

This podcast sits at the intersection of my life-long love for history, my love of mob movies, my now decades-long fascination with the Mafia, as well as my passion for content creation.