Marianna Orlandi received her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Padua, Italy, and from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Prior to moving to Texas, she was a 2019-2020 James Madison Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. She was admitted to the Italian bar in 2015 after graduating magna cum laude from the University of Padua. She practiced as a criminal lawyer in Milan and worked in the United States as a policy research analyst. Since 2020, she directs the academic programming of the Austin Institute, where she contributes both as a speaker and teacher as well as a mentor for the students. While continuing to publish on topics like abortion and marriage, both in Italy and in the United States, she is the host of the Austin Institute podcast, a show that covers all the topics that truly matter for our full human flourishing.
In our work of promoting traditional family values and marriage, we are often forced to remind "older" scholars and policymakers that relationships, both romantic and familial, cannot be repaired unless we restore a proper view of the human person. For real change to take place, and for it to be in the right direction, it is imperative for younger generations to first accept some simple truths that older generations took for granted: the truths that lie at the basis of any healthy and flourishing relationship, but that are now alien to the modern way of thinking.
Date posted: 2026-04-18
I do not know what it is like to be bedridden for years. I hope I never will. I also wish I never knew what it meant to live through the disappointments, fears, abandonments, or heartbreaks I've already endured. But I am glad nobody suggested to me that those pains were too much to bear.
Date posted: 2025-07-18
Should children gestated and born in violation of Italian laws be taken from these putative "parents?" Or should Italian sovereignty capitulate, accepting that whatever adults want, and pay for (even other lives), becomes a right?
Date posted: 2025-01-04
Living for others is hard for everyone, in any stage of life. And in a culture that exalts the autonomous self, it is hard to remember that sacrifice is the only path to flourishing.
Date posted: 2024-10-22