The story

King Lucertola returns to La Zanzara after appearing outside the Milan headquarters of Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s business newspaper. His proposal is straightforward: take a large building that, in his view, contains too few people and use it to accommodate people who have nowhere to live.

Host Giuseppe Cruciani brings up footage of the visit and calls him. King sounds strained and almost immediately says he has recently taken several substances. What follows moves between political provocation, addiction, insecure living conditions and a very personal idea of redistributing wealth. Co-host David Parenzo repeatedly tries to bring the conversation back to getting help.

A newspaper building for homeless people

King says he went to the building after being told that it housed the radio station and Confindustria, Italy’s employers’ confederation. Looking at its size, he says he imagined it could accommodate thousands of people.

He wants buildings of that kind redistributed: used for overnight shelter as well as concerts, workshops and collective activities. Cruciani points out that the offices are not empty and that hundreds of people work there.

King has an immediate answer: when the employees go home, other people could move in.

The argument broadens into a defence of squatting. He recalls the Cantiere social centre sympathetically and argues that occupying buildings for people in difficulty is a legitimate form of redistribution. Asked where he places himself politically, he identifies himself without hesitation as a Stalinist.

Housing, work and insecurity

Beneath the provocation, a more concrete personal situation emerges. King says he has been waiting for social housing for years and has done seasonal work, including grape harvesting.

He describes the difficulty of holding down a job without a stable home, a bed or reliable access to washing facilities. In his account, it is a circular problem: without a home it is hard to arrive at work in acceptable conditions, while without a steady job it is even harder to obtain a home.

He also says he previously worked as an educator. Cruciani uses his own job as a comparison: if he arrived at Il Sole 24 Ore to discuss renewing his contract in King’s condition, he would hardly make a good impression. King replies that a person’s appearance does not necessarily reveal their abilities or potential.

His account of drug use

The central part of the call concerns substances. King openly describes using cocaine, crack and cannabis, while saying he does not regard himself as a daily user. He talks about recurring episodes and says that when substances are unavailable, he does not experience symptoms that would convince him he is dependent.

Cruciani and Parenzo strongly disagree with his reading of the situation. They say his voice and condition suggest a serious problem and urge him to approach a recovery community or other services that could help.

King replies that private facilities cost money and quickly returns to the housing problem. Parenzo reminds him that public services also exist and argues that seeking help should come before plans to occupy office buildings.

These are the participants’ accounts and reactions during a radio conversation, rather than a clinical assessment.

Rogoredo and the “queens”

Cruciani also asks about King’s connection with the wooded area around Rogoredo in Milan, discussed on the programme in connection with drug dealing and addiction. King says he does not live there permanently but confirms that he visits the area.

Asked why, he begins with wordplay: he is the King and goes to visit the queens. Cruciani tries to return to the question of drugs and asks whether the visits are also connected with substance use.

King continues to minimise the issue, insisting that he is not someone who must obtain drugs every day.

How the “professor” nickname develops

The moment that turns King into the episode’s professor comes when he describes having tried many substances over his lifetime. He jokingly presents himself as having a degree in drugs. Cruciani escalates the joke by appointing him head of a fictional University of Drugs.

King says his personal experience allows him to explain the effects of different substances. Asked whether he teaches other people how to use them, he says his intention is the opposite: to describe what he has seen and experienced so that others avoid it.

The exchange remains suspended between comedy and genuine distress.

The scar and the character

There is also a conspicuous scar on his head. King initially offers a surreal explanation: because he was poor and could not afford a football, he supposedly played with a brick and tried to head it.

Cruciani does not believe him and suggests an old fight or violent incident instead. King sticks to the brick story, maintaining the mixture of anecdote and provocation that runs through the call.

He says that, above all, he wants to give people something to smile about. Parenzo replies that he should be seeking help rather than concentrating on that ambition.

The revolution can wait

At the end, King returns to his starting point. He wants to occupy buildings and give wealth back, presenting his own circumstances as part of a broader social injustice.

Cruciani offers one firm conclusion: the newspaper building will not become King’s commune. King does not entirely concede the point. Never say never, he replies.

The appearance closes with the same unresolved contrast: an openly Stalinist radio character, a would-be redistributor of property, a former educator and seasonal worker waiting for social housing, and a man whose joking academic title cannot conceal the concerns raised by the hosts.