I was trying to look for stuff on John Podesta's father, John David Podesta Sr, but I kept running into all John Podesta stuff since they have the same name. So I decided to tack on Italy and look at what I came across on Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podesta

So his last name is derived from a word that means 'power' and it was given to "certain high officials in many Italian cities" who were the representative of "the Holy Roman Emperor." So I guess his path was predetermined in either an ironic or coordinated way. Either way, it's pretty interesting for trying to trace lineage - wanted to share for those looking into historical ancestry to try and link people up.