Food

Food

episodes

Interview with authors and scholars about books on food and the culinary arts.

56 Gastronomy as Sensory Engineering

August 31, 2026

56 Gastronomy as Sensory Engineering

Sascha Benjamin Fink
Hosted by Gastronomica

One year after the publication of Gastronomica’s special feature on food and philosophy, Robert T. Valgenti of the Editorial Collective revisits the …

Ashanté M. Reese, "Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness" (W. W. Norton, 2026)

August 21, 2026

Gather

Ashanté M. Reese
Hosted by Reighan Gillam

Food justice is defined as the understanding that our food system is unequal and that something needs to be done about it. But how can we create a wor…

Claudia Kreklau, "The Making of Modern Eating: How the German Middle Class Forged the Way We Eat, 1780–1910" (Berghahn, 2026)

August 20, 2026

The Making of Modern Eating

Claudia Kreklau
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Nineteenth-century Germany invented the way we eat. Women experimenting in households, French chefs fleeing guillotines, and one of the most rapid…

Po-Yi Hung, "Routes of Taiwan Tea: Mobility, Borders, and Territoriality" (U Washington Press, 2026)

August 19, 2026

Routes of Taiwan Tea

Po-Yi Hung
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

From misty mountain oolongs to the global boba boom, Taiwan’s teas carry far more than flavor. They embody contested borders, evolving identities, and…

Dan Du, "This World in a Teacup: Credit, Taste, and Power in the U. S.-China Tea Trade, 1784–1911" (U Nebraska Press, 2026)

August 18, 2026

This World in a Teacup

Dan Du
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Popular history tells the story of how the tea boycott during the American Revolution caused a transition in American taste from tea to coffee, …

Matias E. Margulis, "Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security" (Stanford UP, 2023)

August 15, 2026

Shadow Negotiators

Matias E. Margulis
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security (Stanford University Press, 2023) by Dr. Matias E. Marguli…

Sophie Chao, "Land of Famished Beings: West Papuan Theories of Hunger" (Duke UP, 2025)

August 15, 2026

Land of Famished Beings

Sophie Chao
Hosted by Natali Pearson

In Land of Famished Beings: West Papuan Theories of Hunger (Duke UP, 2025), Sophie Chao examines how Indigenous Marind communities understand and theo…

The Microbiopolitics of Novel Foods

August 7, 2026

55 The Microbiopolitics of Novel Foods

Lukáš Senft, Tereza Stöckelová, and Varvara Borisova
Hosted by Gastronomica

What role do microbes play in aquaponic farming and cultivated meat production, and how might such novel food technologies impact microbiomes? In this…

Robert Lee Maril, "Hungry Oklahoma: Confronting Poverty and Food Insecurity" (U Oklahoma Press, 2026)

July 30, 2026

Hungry Oklahoma

Robert Lee Maril
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

In Oklahoma, one out of every six residents is poor. One in five children lives in poverty and faces food insecurity. In Hungry Oklahoma: Confronting …

Samantha Iyer, "Agrarian Superpower: Food, Development, and the Global Ascendancy of the United States" (Columbia UP, 2026)

July 25, 2026

Agrarian Superpower

Samantha Iyer
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The United States’ superpower status is often associated with its industrial, financial, and military might. Yet its global power after the Second Wor…

Andrew Flachs, "Feeding the World as If People Mattered: How Small Farms Produce Value Beyond Yields" (U Arizona Press, 2026)

July 24, 2026

Feeding the World as If People Mattered

Andrew Flachs

Backyard gardens flush with cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers where bees buzz and chickens scratch. Beyond, a forest filled with blackberries and jewel…

Lily Kelting, "Against Heritage: The Reinvention of Traditional Foods" (UNC Press, 2026)

July 24, 2026

Against Heritage

Lily Kelting
Hosted by Kelly Spivey

The rise of “heritage” foods—that is, the reinvention of traditional foods—has enjoyed a high profile thanks to the oft-praised efforts of chefs such …

Maria Pinto, "Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless: What Fungi Taught Me about Nourishment, Poison, Ecology, Hidden Histories, Zombies, and Black Survival" (UNC Press, 2026)

July 21, 2026

Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless

Maria Pinto
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

In Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless: What Fungi Taught Me about Nourishment, Poison, Ecology, Hidden Histories, Zombies, and Black Survival (University …

Bradford A. Bouley, "The Barberini Butchers: Meat, Murder, and Warfare in Early Modern Italy" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026)

July 18, 2026

The Barberini Butchers

Bradford A. Bouley
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1644 four norcini or pork butchers were accused of killing not pigs, but seven of their fellow citizens, stripping the meat from the bones, the…

Paul Stangl, "San Francisco Seafood: A History from Ocean to Table" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

July 17, 2026

San Francisco Seafood

Paul Stangl
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

For early San Franciscans, seafood was an important source of nutrition and a feature of social life, inspiring culinary developments that remain comp…

Nora L. Rubel, "Recipes for the Melting Pot: The Lives of the Settlement Cook Book" (Columbia UP, 2026)

July 15, 2026

Recipes for the Melting Pot

Nora L. Rubel
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1901, Lizzie Black Kander put together a cookbook based on the classes she taught at the Milwaukee Jewish Mission. “I was trying to teach a g…

Meena Khandelwal, "Cookstove Chronicles: Social Life of a Women's Technology in India" (U Arizona Press, 2026)

July 8, 2026

Cookstove Chronicles

Meena Khandelwal
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Stove improvers have been designing and promoting “clean” or “efficient” biomass cookstoves in India since the 1940s and have been frustrated to …

Making Microbes Explicit

July 3, 2026

54 Making Microbes Explicit

Sarah Elton and Maya Hey
Hosted by Gastronomica

This episode takes listeners into the latest issues of Gastronomica, with a special feature on microbes. Sarah Elton and Maya Hey talk with Dan Bender…

Peter Ross, "Insatiable Appetites: Eating Out in Georgian London" (Bodleian Library, 2026)

July 1, 2026

Insatiable Appetites

Peter Ross
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In ⁠Insatiable Appetites: Eating Out in Georgian London⁠ (Bodleian Library, 2026) by Dr. Peter Ross, step into the kitchens, streets and chop houses…

Ryan Angulo and Doug Crowell, "Kindness & Salt: Recipes for the Care & Feeding of Your Friends & Neighbors" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018)

June 29, 2026

Kindness & Salt

Ryan Angulo & Doug Crowell
Hosted by Laura Goldberg

When Brooklyn restaurateurs Doug Crowell and Ryan Angulo opened Buttermilk Channel in Carroll Gardens in 2008, they created more than a restaurant—the…