Podcasts by Gastropod
Food with a side of science and history. Every other week, co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley serve up a brand new episode exploring the hidden history and surprising science behind a different food- or farming-related topic, from aquaculture to ancient feasts, from cutlery to chile peppers, and from microbes to Malbec. We interview experts, visit labs, fields, and archaeological digs, and generally have lots of fun while discovering new ways to think about and understand the world through food. Find us online at gastropod.com, follow us on Twitter @gastropodcast, and like us on Facebook at facebook.com/gastropodcast.
Further podcasts by Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley
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Baked: How Pot Brownies and Pate de Fruits Fueled an Edible Cannabis Revolution from 2021-08-03T19:07:07
Edible cannabis products are hot right now: Snoop's got some, Willie Nelson's got some—even Martha Stewart's making fancy French-style gummies. In states where it’s legal, you can buy everything fr...
ListenBaked: How Pot Brownies and Pate de Fruits Fueled an Edible Cannabis Revolution from 2021-08-03T19:07:07
Edible cannabis products are hot right now: Snoop's got some, Willie Nelson's got some—even Martha Stewart's making fancy French-style gummies. In states where it’s legal, you can buy everything fr...
ListenBaked: How Pot Brownies and Pate de Fruits Fueled an Edible Cannabis Revolution from 2021-08-03T19:07:07
Edible cannabis products are hot right now: Snoop's got some, Willie Nelson's got some—even Martha Stewart's making fancy French-style gummies. In states where it’s legal, you can buy everything fr...
ListenBaked: How Pot Brownies and Pate de Fruits Fueled an Edible Cannabis Revolution from 2021-08-03T19:07:07
Edible cannabis products are hot right now: Snoop's got some, Willie Nelson's got some—even Martha Stewart's making fancy French-style gummies. In states where it’s legal, you can buy everything fr...
ListenThe Bottle vs. Tap Battle Finale: Alkaline H2O, Lead Pipes, and, Yes, Water Sommeliers from 2021-07-20T14:21
As promised, it's time for the final splashdown in the battle of bottled vs. tap water. When we left off last episode, bottled water had staged a miraculous comeback thanks to Nike, yuppies, and Or...
ListenBottled Vs. Tap: The Battle to Quench Our Thirst from 2021-07-06T23:36
Today, bottled water is ubiquitous and cheap: every single second of every single day, more than a thousand people buy and drink a plastic bottle of water in the U.S.. But it wasn’t always so. In t...
ListenChocpocalypse Now! Quarantine and the Future of Food from 2021-06-22T17:34
We’ve dropped hints and left clues—and now, at long last, Gastropod’s very own Nicola Twilley has published her first book! Co-written with her husband Geoff Manaugh, Until Proven Safe: The History...
ListenGuest Episode: Immune Boosting, Is It a Bust? | Science Vs from 2021-06-08T14:46
Internet influencers have been pushing “immune boosters” during the pandemic — claiming they’ve got just the pill, berry, or brew to rev up our body’s defenses. But is there really a way to boost o...
ListenGuest Episode: How Much Water Do You Actually Need a Day? from 2021-06-01T14:38
Guest Episode: Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter. Think you know how your body works? Think again! Dr. Jen Gunter is here to shake up everything you thought you knew — from how much water you need to ...
ListenFirst Class Fare from 2021-05-25T20:52
Like most people around the world, you probably didn’t do much flying this past year. Maybe you miss the bustle of airports and the joy of seeing friends in far-off places—but chances are, you prob...
ListenGuest Episode: How To Save a Planet from 2021-05-18T16:29
Guest Episode: Does climate change freak you out? Want to know what we, collectively, can do about it? Us too. How to Save a Planet is a podcast that asks the big questions: what do we need to do t...
ListenYou're Wrong About Prohibition from 2021-05-11T21:22
For most of us, Prohibition seems like a peculiar American experiment—a doomed attempt by straight-laced religious conservatives to ban alcohol, and, with it, fun. But as it turns out, we've got it...
ListenSo Hot Right Now: Why We Love the Chile Pepper from 2021-04-27T18:53
Perhaps no other plant is as entwined with pain and pleasure as the chile pepper. But why does it burn—and why on earth do we crave that uncomfortable sensation? How did capsaicin's fungus-fighting...
ListenEasy A: The SuperRad Story of Home Economics from 2021-04-13T20:32
If you grew up in the U.S., you might remember home economics class as the source of deflated muffins and horrifically distorted sewing projects. You might, like Jonah Hill’s character in Superbad,...
ListenWhere There's Smoke, There's ... Whiskey, Fish, and Barbecue! from 2021-03-30T20:20
As anyone who’s spent time by a crackling campfire or a barbecue pit can attest, the scent of smoke is unmistakable—and surprisingly mysterious. Smoke clings to clothing but vanishes in the breeze....
ListenPhage Against the Machine from 2021-03-16T20:40
If you thought food poisoning was just a matter of the occasional stomach upset from a dodgy shrimp or two, the CDC has some unsettling numbers for you: foodborne bacteria is responsible for at lea...
ListenGuest Episode: Mission: ImPASTAble from The Sporkful from 2021-03-09T22:10
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ListenTV Dinners from 2021-02-03T00:43
Cue the dramatic music, it’s quiz time: Can you identify the people behind these catchphrases? “Yum-O!” “Pukka!” “Bam!” “Peace, love, and taco grease!” The answers are below—but if you’ve already c...
ListenThe Brightest Bulb from 2020-12-22T21:36
Imagine, for a moment, a world without garlic: garlic-free garlic bread, tzatziki sans Allium sativum, a chili crisp defanged. If this sounds like the makings of a horror story to you, you’re not a...
ListenLike Water in the Desert from 2020-12-08T22:09
Over the past century, we've transformed the arid lands of the American west into year-round, well-irrigated agricultural powerhouses. Today, fruits, nuts, and nearly all of our leafy greens are gr...
ListenThe Magic Cube from 2020-11-24T20:05
You could call it the Swiss Army knife of the kitchen: bouillon is a handy ingredient, whether it comes as bottled brown gloop, or a cube wrapped up in shiny foil like a tiny present. Today, cooks ...
ListenThe Big Apple Episode from 2020-11-10T22:24
There’s nothing more American than apple pie—or is there? We might prescribe an apple a day and call our largest city the Big Apple, but this legendary fruit originally hails from the mountains of ...
ListenThe Hangover: Part Gastropod from 2020-10-27T18:23
Morning fog. Gallon-distemper. Busthead. These are all names for alcohol's age-old after-party: the hangover. But, aside from being a physical (and painful) manifestation of regret, what exactly is...
ListenSnack Attack! from 2020-10-13T23:05
To snack or not to snack? And what counts as a snack, anyhow? Plus the great meal vs. snack smackdown: is grazing good, or does eating between meals lead to waistline expansion? We’re asking deep q...
ListenThis Spud's For You from 2020-09-29T21:05
Fried, roasted, mashed, steamed: it's hard to imagine life without the crispy, fluffy comfort blanket of potatoes. But until the late 1500s, no one outside the Americas had ever encountered this te...
ListenMoo-Dunnit: How Beef Replaced Bison on the American Plains—and Plate from 2020-09-15T18:57
Saddle up, folks: Today’s episode involves the cowboys' lullabies and meat riots that helped make beef an American birthright. With the help of Joshua Specht, author of Red Meat Republic, we tell t...
ListenWhat the Shell? Cracking the Lobster's Mysteries from 2020-08-31T21:49
Consider the lobster roll: tender chunks of lobster bathed in butter or mayo, sandwiched between two slices of a squishy bread roll… Have we caught your attention yet? Lobster is a summertime stapl...
ListenGuest Episode: Rocky Road with Science Diction from 2020-08-25T15:16
This episode, Gastropod is bringing you a guest: Science Diction, a bite-sized podcast about words, and the science stories behind them. They answer questions like: what does the word “meme” have t...
ListenShatter-Proof: How Glass Took Over the Kitchen—and Ended Child Labor from 2020-08-17T23:53
Cheers! The lively clink of glass on glass is a must for any festive gathering, whether you’re sipping champagne in a flute or lemonade in a tumbler. We rely on glass in the kitchen—for baking perf...
ListenThe Most Dangerous Fruit in America from 2020-08-03T18:54
It's the epitome of summertime: there’s nothing like a cold, juicy slice of red watermelon on a swelteringly hot day. But, once upon a time, watermelons were neither red nor sweet—the wild watermel...
ListenDig for Victory from 2020-06-16T23:51
You’ve seen the news: vegetable seeds are selling out. All that quarantine ennui has combined with anxiety about the gaps on supermarket shelves to create a whole new population of city farmers in ...
ListenShared Plates: How Eating Together Makes Us Human from 2020-06-03T03:36
We love eating dinner together with friends and extended family, and we miss it! But why does sharing a meal mean so much—and can we ever recreate that on Zoom? As we wait for the dinner parties, c...
ListenPizza Pizza! from 2020-05-19T18:40
At last, an episode on pizza! But that raises a tricky question: what exactly is pizza? As it turns out, the original pizzas from eighteenth-century Naples looked nothing like a standard slice—they...
ListenEating the Wild: Bushmeat, Game, and the Fuzzy Line Between Them from 2020-05-05T21:10
It's a safe bet that your recent media diet has included the words "wet market," "zoonotic disease," and "pangolin," as experts take a pause from discussing COVID-19's spread and impact to speculat...
ListenEating the Rainbow: Or, the Mystery of the Orange Oranges, the Red M&Ms, and the Blue Raspberry from 2020-04-21T22:40
From stripy fuchsia beets to unicorn doughnuts, the foods available today on grocery store shelves and in cafe displays are more brightly colored than ever. But this hasn't always been the case. Th...
ListenA Tale To Warm The Cockles Of Your Heart from 2020-04-07T20:43
You might have heard of Molly Malone, selling cockles from a wheelbarrow in Dublin, or of Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, with her cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row—but the chances are most G...
ListenWhite vs. Wheat: The Food Fight of the Centuries from 2020-03-24T21:36
White or whole wheat: while today the question is most frequently asked at the sandwich counter, the debate over the correct answer goes back literally thousands of years. In the past century, thou...
ListenLicorice: A Dark and Salty Stranger from 2020-03-10T18:58
Licorice is a polarizing candy: there are those who pick out the black jelly beans, those who think Twizzlers are better than Red Vines, and those who won't travel without a supply of salty dark lo...
ListenTo Fight Climate Change, Bank on Soil from 2020-02-25T23:49
Our glaciers are melting, our forests are on fire, our harvests are increasingly decimated by either floods and drought. We are in a climate emergency that threatens our very survival, and it is, f...
ListenMove Over Gin, We’ve Got Tonic Fever from 2020-02-11T05:45
Just a few decades ago, gin&tonics were considered rather stodgy and boring, the drink of suburbanites at the golf club. Today, the century-old drink is hot again. In part, that’s due to a boom in ...
ListenThe United States of McDonald’s from 2020-01-28T01:00
McDonald’s is mind-boggling. According to Adam Chandler, author of the recent book, Drive-Thru Dreams, it sells roughly 75 burgers every second and serves 68 million people every day—equivalent to ...
ListenDinner Plate Invasion: Lionfish, Tiger Shrimp, and Feral Pigs, Oh My! from 2020-01-13T19:21
Across America, feral pigs are on the rampage, wrecking fields of crops, hunting local wildlife to extinction, and even attacking humans. In the United Kingdom, Japanese knotweed is taking over the...
ListenMeet the Queen of Kiwi: the 96-Year-Old Woman Who Transformed America’s Produce Aisle from 2019-12-17T14:39
The produce section of most American supermarkets in the 1950s was minimal to a fault, with only a few dozen fruits and vegetables to choose from: perhaps one kind of apple, one kind of lettuce, a ...
ListenAre Insect Guts the Secret to the Most Delicious Kimchi? from 2019-12-03T21:05
This side dish of spicy, bubbly, funky pickled vegetables is such a staple in Korea that no meal is considered complete without it—but, recently, kimchi has found its way into burgers, pasta, grill...
ListenMenu Mind Control from 2019-11-18T23:21
At its most basic, a menu is simply a way for a restaurant to communicate its offerings and their prices to its customers. But, perhaps even more importantly, says Alison Pearlman, author of a new ...
ListenOf Ghost Foods and Culinary Extinction from 2019-11-05T01:31
The earliest humans favored juicy, meaty mammoth at mealtimes. Ancient Romans loved their favorite herb, silphium, so much that they sprinkled it on everything from lamb to melon. In the 19th centu...
ListenTiki Time! from 2019-10-22T13:22
Tiki bars are hot these days: you can enjoy a fruity tropical drink while surrounded by faux-Polynesian décor in most major cities around the U.S. and elsewhere, with new tiki spots opening every m...
ListenWhat’s CRISPR Doing in our Food? from 2019-10-08T02:12
You’ve probably heard the hype: CRISPR will revolutionize biotech, cure disease, resurrect extinct species, and even create new-and-(not-so)-improved humans. But what is CRISPR—and what’s it doing ...
ListenHappy Birthday to Us: Gastropod Turns Five from 2019-09-24T18:40
We launched Gastropod in September 2014, which means we’re turning five this month, and that’s approximately 100 in podcast years. We’re celebrating our birthday with a special episode featuring hi...
ListenCelebrate Mexico’s True National Holiday with the Mysteries of Mole from 2019-09-10T20:27
In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is an excuse for margarita-fueled partying. But in Mexico, that date—the anniversary of a military triumph over Napoleon on May 5, 1862—is marked by a parade and...
ListenRunning on Fumes: Strawberry’s Dirty Secret from 2019-08-27T17:19
This episode, we tell an age-old tale: an innocent young berry heads west to make its fame and fortune—but sells its soul in the process. In order for our hero, the strawberry, to defeat its nemesi...
ListenOmega 1-2-3 from 2019-08-13T02:52
Based on all the hype, you’d be forgiven for believing that the fish oils known as omega-3s are solution to every problem. Heart disease, dementia, depression, even obesity—the list of ailments tha...
ListenMeet Sharbat, the Ancestor of Sorbet, Syrup, Shrub, Sherbet, and Pretty Much Everything Else Cool from 2019-08-06T05:42
Many of you won’t have heard of sharbat, the delightfully tangy, refreshingly icy Persian drink. But most of you will have tasted atleast one of its many descendants: sorbet, sherbet, syrup, shrub,...
ListenSuper Fry: The Fight for the Golden Frite from 2019-06-19T00:50
Shoestring, waffle, curly, or thick-cut: however you slice it, nearly everyone loves a deep-fried, golden brown piece of potato. But that’s where the agreement ends and the battles begin. While Ame...
ListenEat This, Not That: The Surprising Science of Personalized Nutrition from 2019-06-10T05:18
This episode, we’ve got the exclusive on the preliminary results of the world’s largest personalized nutrition experiment. Genetic epidemiologist Tim Spector launched the study, called PREDICT, to ...
ListenGuts and Glory from 2019-05-21T13:44
What does it mean when your stomach rumbles? How do our bodies extract nutrients and vitamins from food? Does what you eat affect your mood? Digestion is an invisible, effortless, unconscious proce...
ListenBONUS: Introducing Science Rules! with Bill Nye from 2019-05-16T13:23
We interrupt our regular programming to bring you news of a new podcast you might like. Bill Nye is on a mission to change the world—one phone call at a time. On his new podcast, Science Rules!, he...
ListenThe Great Gastropod Pudding Off from 2019-05-06T22:44
Four bakers, one evening, and one challenge: Who can steam the best spotted dick? On this week’s action-packed episode, Tom Gilliford, Selasi Gbormittah, and Yan Tsou of Great British Bake-Off fame...
ListenPotatoes in Space! from 2019-04-23T19:20
Today, a half century after Neil Armstrong took one small step onto the surface of the Moon, there are still just three humans living in space—the crew of the International Space Station. But, afte...
ListenThe Curry Chronicles from 2019-04-09T18:47
Curry is, supposedly, Indian. But there is no such word in any of the country’s many official languages—and no Indian would use the term to describe their own food. So what is curry? This episode t...
ListenThe Bagelization of America from 2019-03-26T08:12
Today, it’s a breakfast staple, but, as recently as 1960, The New York Times had to define it for readers—as “an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis.” That’s right, this episode is all about the...
ListenCan Diet Stop Alzheimer’s? from 2019-03-11T20:41
Every three seconds, someone in the world develops Alzheimer’s disease. It’s a devastating disease: millions of people, as well as their caretakers, spend years dealing with disabling disorientatio...
ListenSeeds of Immortality from 2019-03-04T21:22
When seeds first evolved, hundreds of millions of years ago, they not only revolutionized the plant world, but they also eventually sowed the path for human civilization. Today, it’s nearly impossi...
ListenPick A Pawpaw: America’s Forgotten Fruit from 2019-02-26T20:03
In 1916, agricultural experts voted the pawpaw the American fruit most likely to succeed, ahead of blueberries and cranberries. But today, most people have never even heard of it, let alone tried i...
ListenEating to Win: Gatorade, Muscle Milk, and… Chicken Nuggets? from 2019-02-12T21:36
Ancient Greek Olympians swore by beans to give them a competitive edge. Japanese sumo wrestlers rely on a protein-rich soup called chankonabe to get into peak condition. And NBA all-stars Kevin Gar...
ListenThe Secret History of the Slave Behind Jack Daniel’s Whiskey from 2019-01-28T23:51
Back in 1866, Jack Daniel’s became the first registered distillery in the United States; today, it’s the top-selling American whiskey in the world. For much of the brand’s 150-plus years, the story...
ListenSweet and Low (Calorie): The Story of Artificial Sweeteners from 2019-01-15T19:54
For decades, ads for treats sweetened with substances like Sweet’N Low, NutraSweet, and Splenda have promised what seems like a miracle of modern science: that you can enjoy all the dessert you wan...
ListenDirty Tricks and Data: The Great Soda Wars, Part 2 from 2018-12-18T04:13
Over the past five years, more than forty cities and countries around the world have passed a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. These soda taxes are designed to improve public health—but do they? O...
ListenSouring on Sweet: The Great Soda Wars, Part 1 from 2018-12-04T21:01
Public health researchers agree: the evidence is clear that Americans consume way too much sugar, that sugar contributes to weight gain, and that rising rates of obesity in the U.S. will lead to si...
ListenThe Truth is in the Tooth: Braces, Cavities, and the Paleo Diet from 2018-11-19T22:47
Brush, floss, and forget: chances are, you only think about your teeth when they cause you trouble. But teeth have tales to tell, such as how old we are, how fast we grew, and how far we’ve travele...
ListenWho Invented Mac and Cheese? from 2018-11-13T17:15
The warm, gooey dish, a childhood staple across North America, is many things to many people: a mainstay of African-American Sunday dinners, according to soul food expert Adrian Miller; a comfortin...
ListenHow the Carrot Became Orange, and Other Stories from 2018-11-06T03:28
Thousands of years ago, in what’s now Afghanistan, people unearthed the tangled, gnarled roots of Queen Anne’s Lace—a ubiquitous, hairy-stemmed plant with a spray of tiny white flowers. These fibro...
ListenThe Incredible Egg from 2018-10-23T22:48
We love eggs scrambled, fried, or poached; we couldn’t enjoy a quiche, meringue, or flan without them. But for scientists and archaeologists, these perfect packages are a source of both wonder and ...
ListenEspresso and Whisky: The Place of Time in Food from 2018-10-09T03:06
Why does fish cook so fast? What’s the “wasabi window”? And can you really make 20-year-old aged whisky in six days? This episode, we’re looking at the role of time in food and flavor: what it does...
ListenWhy These Animals? from 2018-09-25T02:58
In the West, when it comes to which meat is for dinner, we nearly always choose beef, pork, or chicken. Yet cows and pigs are only two of more than five thousand of species of mammals, and chicken ...
ListenMango Mania: How the American Mango Lost its Flavor—and How it Might Just Get it Back from 2018-09-11T04:49
Mangoes inspire passion, particularly in India, which is home to hundreds of varieties of the fruit. They are celebrated in Indian music, poetry, and art; they are mentioned in Hindu and Buddhist r...
ListenKeeping it Fresh: Preservatives and The Poison Squad from 2018-08-28T03:59
More than a century ago, enterprising manufacturers added brand-new chemical preservatives into food to keep it fresh as it traveled from the farm into rapidly growing American cities. Milk no long...
ListenWatch It Wiggle: The Jell-O Story from 2018-08-14T03:01
It’s been described as the ultimate status symbol for the wealthy, as the perfect solution for dieters and the sick, and, confusingly, as a liquid trapped in a solid that somehow remains fluid. Wha...
ListenOut of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan from 2018-06-19T18:51
From rainbow-hued enameled stew pots to lightweight nonstick frying pans, the metal and ceramic vessels we use to heat our food are such an everyday aspect of the kitchen that they’re easy to take ...
ListenHotbox: The Oven From Turnspit Dogs to Microwaves from 2018-06-05T07:38
Humans are the only animals that cook their food, an innovation that changed the course of our evolution and the trajectory of the planet. But how did we tame those early cooking fires and put them...
ListenFeed the World: How the U.S. Became the World’s Biggest Food Aid Donor—And Why That Might Not be Such a Great Thing from 2018-05-22T04:19
The United States is, by far, the world’s largest international food aid donor. Almost every year since the 1950s, it has been responsible for more than 50 percent of the billions of tons of food s...
ListenRipe for Global Domination: The Story of the Avocado from 2018-05-08T03:00
Avocados are on a roll. More precisely, they’re on toast—a lot of toast. Last summer, British Vogue reported that more than three million new photos of avocado toast are uploaded to Instagram every...
ListenMeet the Man Who Found, Finagled, and Ferried Home the Foods We Eat Today from 2018-04-24T03:18
You’ve probably never heard of David Fairchild. But if you’ve savored kale, mango, peaches, dates, grapes, a Meyer lemon, or a glass of craft beer lately, you’ve tasted the fruits of his globe-trot...
ListenWho Faked My Cheese? from 2018-04-10T02:36
Cheeeeese: that one word alone causes our stomachs to rumble and mouths to water. The sheer variety of flavors and textures created by only a few ingredients—milk, salt, enzymes, and microbes—is as...
ListenMarching on our Stomachs: The Science and History of Feeding the Troops from 2018-03-27T00:35
For most of us, eggs are perfect packets of portable protein, and pizza is the lazy option for dinner. For the research team at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, pizza and eggs are two o...
ListenCooking the Books with Yotam and Nigella from 2018-03-13T00:15
Who first started collecting recipes into cookbooks? Do cookbooks have a future in a world full of online recipes? And can cookbooks tell us anything about what people are actually eating, or are t...
ListenCutting the Mustard from 2018-02-27T03:18
For some Americans, a trip to the ballpark isn’t complete without the bright yellow squiggle of French’s atop a hotdog. For the French, the slow burn of Dijon is a must-have complement to charcuter...
ListenRemembrance of Things Pasta: A Saucy Tale from 2018-02-13T04:04
It’s one of food’s most beautiful relationships: pasta and sauce. But which came first—and how on Earth are you supposed to figure out which of those hundreds of shapes to serve with your pesto? Wi...
ListenWe’ve Lost It: The Diet Episode from 2018-01-30T22:46
Diet dreams are splashed across magazine covers and blare from the T.V., offering tips and tricks, that will, readers and viewers are promised, make weight loss easy and fast. Diet books making sim...
ListenMeet Saffron, the World’s Most Expensive Spice from 2018-01-16T03:45
It’s the poshest spice of all, often worth its weight in gold. But saffron also has a hidden history as a dye, a luxury self-tanner, and even a serotonin stimulant. That’s right, this episode we’re...
ListenSecrets of Sourdough from 2017-12-18T20:16
Today, you can find a huge variety of breads on supermarket shelves, only a few of which are called “sourdough.” For most of human history, though, any bread that wasn’t flat was sourdough—that is,...
ListenGreen Gold: Our Love Affair with Olive Oil from 2017-12-05T03:07
Olive oil is not what you think it is. According to Tom Mueller, author of Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, an olive is a stone fruit like a plum or cherry—meaning th...
ListenWomen, Food, Power … and Books! from 2017-11-21T15:58
From “The Flintstones” to Focus on the Family, the stereotype has long been that men hunt and provide, while women just stir the pot. Thankfully, today many women—and men—reject both that biologica...
ListenCrantastic: The Story of America’s Berry from 2017-11-07T03:34
It’s nearly Thanksgiving, which, for most Americans, marks the one time a year their dinner table is adorned with jewel-like cranberries, simmered into a delicious sauce. But hundreds of years ago,...
ListenCannibalism: From Calories to Kuru from 2017-10-24T17:32
For most of us, it’s unthinkable: human is never what’s for dinner. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but this episode, we discover that not only is cannibalism widespread throughout the natural world, b...
ListenEataly World and the Future of Food Shopping from 2017-10-10T00:41
In just over a month, the world’s first theme park devoted entirely to Italian food will open its doors—and Gastropod has the scoop! Among Eataly World‘s delights will be hunt-your-own truffles, ba...
ListenWhat the Fluff is Marshmallow Creme? from 2017-09-26T01:33
If you’re not from New England, you may never have heard of Fluff, or its legendary sandwich-based incarnation, the Fluffernutter. The sticky sweet marshmallow creme was invented exactly one hundre...
ListenLunch Gets Schooled from 2017-09-11T21:50
Across the United States, school lunch is being transformed, as counties and cities partner with local farms to access fresh vegetables, as well as hire chefs to introduce tastier and more adventur...
ListenSour Grapes: The History and Science of Vinegar from 2017-08-29T03:15
It’s found in almost every home, whether it’s destined to dress salads or clean surfaces and kill fruit flies. But, effective as it is at those tasks, most of us struggle to get excited about vineg...
ListenThe Birds and The Bugs from 2017-08-15T11:32
Chicken is such a mainstay of the contemporary American dinner table that it seems hard to imagine that, just a century ago, it was rare and expensive. But over the course of the 20th century, both...
ListenIt’s Tea Time: Pirates, Polyphenols, and a Proper Cuppa from 2017-08-01T02:51
This week, Gastropod tells the story of two countries and their shared obsession with a plant: Camellia sinensis, otherwise known as the tea bush. The Chinese domesticated tea over thousands of yea...
ListenPeanuts: Peril and Promise from 2017-06-20T08:25
Despite their diminutive scale, peanuts play an outsized role in American culture. Peanut butter has long been a mainstay of the American lunchbox, with its sticky, slightly sweet nuttiness flavori...
ListenHere’s Why You Should Care About Southern Food from 2017-05-22T21:58
The food of the South is one of the most complicated, complex, contradictory cuisines in the U.S. This is the region where a monumental mixing of crops and culinary traditions gave way to one of th...
ListenBetter Believe It’s Butter from 2017-05-09T12:58
Butter is beautiful: solid golden bars add the perfect flakiness to pastry, give cake a delightfully tender springiness, and melt mouth-wateringly onto toast. But unlike its cousin, cheese—another ...
ListenMeet Koji, Your New Favorite Fungus from 2017-04-25T01:12
It’s impossible to imagine Japanese meals without soy sauce, or the umami-rich fermented bean paste called miso, or the rice-based spirit known as sake. Which means that Japanese cuisine depends on...
ListenV is for Vitamin from 2017-04-10T21:23
They’re added to breakfast cereal, bread, and even Pop-Tarts, giving the sweetest, most processed treats a halo of health. Most people pop an extra dose for good measure, perhaps washing it down wi...
ListenHacking Taste from 2017-03-14T13:10
Taste is the oldest of our five senses, and yet perhaps the least understood. It’s far more complicated than salty versus sweet: new research is dramatically expanding our knowledge of taste, showi...
ListenCork Dork: Inside the Weird World of Wine Appreciation from 2017-02-28T17:15
“There’s the faintest soupçon of asparagus and just a flutter of Edam cheese,” says Paul Giamatti in the movie Sideways. Believe it or not, he’s describing pinot noir, not quiche. The world of somm...
ListenTo Eat or Not to Eat Meat from 2017-02-14T19:23
With flexitarianism on the rise throughout the developed world, and everyone from Bill Clinton to Beyoncé endorsing the benefits of a vegetarian or vegan diet, it can sometimes seem as though meat ...
ListenWe Heart Chocolate from 2017-01-31T01:16
In the weeks before Valentine’s Day, U.S. consumers will buy nearly 58 million pounds of chocolate. This love affair is not limited to just one day or one country: chocolate has spread from its nat...
ListenInventing the Restaurant: From Bone Broth to Michelin from 2017-01-17T01:12
Early humans may have visited each others’ caves for a shared meal, but they wouldn’t have expected to be served at their own table, or to choose when and what to eat. But today, restaurants are ub...
ListenGettin’ Fizzy With It from 2016-12-13T01:52:52
‘Tis the season for a glass of bubbly—but this episode we’re not talking champagne, we’re talking seltzer. America is in the throes of a serious seltzer craze, with consumption of the bubbly stuff ...
ListenThe Spice Curve: From Pepper to Sriracha with Sarah Lohman from 2016-11-29T14:28:51
American food has a reputation for being bland—but, according to historical gastronomist Sarah Lohman, “It’s nonsense that Americans don’t like spicy food.” Lohman is the author of a new book, Eigh...
ListenThe Buzz on Honey from 2016-11-15T13:17
Honey seems like a simple, comforting food, slathered on toast, spooned down to soothe sore throats, and beloved of bears, both plush and real. In reality, this sticky combination of bee spit and e...
ListenWhat is Native American Cuisine? from 2016-11-01T12:51:16
Pasta, sushi, tacos, samosas, and pad thai: In the U.S., enthusiastic eaters will likely be able to name traditional dishes from a wide variety of cuisines around the world. But most of us couldn’t...
ListenOysters: History and Science on the Half Shell from 2016-10-18T17:12:35
We’re living in a golden age for oysters. Just two decades ago, an ostreophile would have thought him or herself lucky to choose among a handful of options; today, in the U.S. alone, hundreds of va...
ListenCounting Fish from 2016-10-04T05:43:44
This week, we are taking on one of the universe’s great mysteries: how many fish are in the sea? If you stop to think about it, it seems almost impossible to figure out how many fish there are—afte...
ListenSeaweed Special from 2016-09-13T06:51:10
Seaweed farming is booming: the global harvest has doubled in the past decade, according to a new report from the United Nations University, and it’s now worth more than all the world’s lemons and ...
ListenThe Salt Wars from 2016-08-23T01:09:13
Salt is a magical substance. It reduces bitterness, enhances sweetness, boosts flavor, and preserves perishable foods. Without it, we would die: the human body can’t make sodium, but our nerves and...
ListenKombucha Culture from 2016-08-08T21:22:23
If you haven’t tasted kombucha yet, you probably will soon. The sour-sweet, fizzy, fermented tea is becoming ubiquitous in trendy cafes, workplaces, and health food stores across America. Where did...
ListenKeeping Kosher: When Jewish Law Met Processed Food from 2016-07-26T01:18:07
Roughly two percent of Americans are Jewish, and only a small fraction of them keep kosher. Yet between a third and a half of all packaged food in an American supermarket has a kosher label on it. ...
ListenPoultry Power: The Fried Chicken Chronicles from 2016-07-12T12:32:39
Juicy, crispy, crunchy…fried chicken is undoubtedly delicious. But it’s also complicated, in ways that go far deeper than the science behind that perfect crust. From slavery to entrepreneurship and...
ListenOutside the Box: The Story of Food Packaging from 2016-06-28T00:17:08
The invention of food packaging is one of humanity’s greatest achievements. It may seem hard to imagine today, but the first clay pots made the great civilizations of the ancient world possible, wh...
ListenWho Invented the Cherry Tomato? from 2016-06-14T01:12
In the 1960s, cherry tomatoes were nearly impossible to find in the grocery store. By the 1990s, it was hard to get a salad without them. Somehow, within a couple of decades, the tiny tomatoes had ...
ListenEverything Old is Brew Again from 2016-05-31T00:35:43
Pull up a bar stool and prepare to open both your mind and your palate: it’s time to meet beer before it settled down into the fizzy brown brew we know and love today. The ales in this episode of G...
ListenMuseums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus from 2016-04-19T00:14:50
A slice of lime in your cocktail, a lunchbox clementine, or a glass of OJ at breakfast: citrus is so common today that most of us have at least one lurking on the kitchen counter or in the back of ...
ListenGrand Theft Food from 2016-04-05T00:59:18
It’s easy to assume that burglars and thieves are always after conventional valuables: cash, jewels, or high-end electronics. But some of the most memorable heists actually involve food. Inspired b...
ListenCaffeine: The World’s Most Popular Drug from 2016-03-21T18:15:29
A tablespoon of it will kill you, but most of us feel like death without it: we’re talking about caffeine this episode. Inspired by a listener question — does green tea have more or less caffeine t...
ListenThe Maple Boom from 2016-03-08T01:20:43
Many people only think of maple syrup at the breakfast table, when they’re facing down a stack of hot, fluffy pancakes or some French toast. They’re missing out. Maple is undergoing a major boom, n...
ListenFirst Foods: Learning to Eat from 2016-02-23T00:50:35
How do we learn to eat? It may seem like an obvious question, but it’s actually quite a complicated process. Who decided that mushed-up vegetables were the perfect first food—and has that always be...
ListenThe Food of Love from 2016-02-09T00:22:31
Throughout history, humans have attributed aphrodisiac powers to certain foods, from legendary lover Casanova’s diet of fifty oysters for breakfast to chocolate, the default Valentine’s Day gift fo...
ListenThe End of the Calorie from 2016-01-26T02:54:11
For most of us, the calorie is just a number on the back of the packet or on the display at the gym. But what is it, exactly? And how did we end up with this one unit with which to measure our food...
ListenEnd-Of-Year Feast from 2015-12-15T06:23
Cheese science, cilantro phobia, and fork usage: we’ve covered it all on Gastropod. And, for our special end-of-year episode, we’re bringing you updates on some our favorite stories. Join us to fin...
ListenStates’ Plates from 2015-12-01T04:13
What’s the dish that best represents your home state? Whose version or recipe would you choose to define it? And what do those dishes tell us about ourselves? In his new book, The Mad Feast, Matthe...
ListenThe Mushroom Underground from 2015-11-17T02:34:33
They’re a kingdom unto themselves, neither animal, vegetable, nor mineral. They count among their number both the world’s largest organism and millions of microscopic, single-celled creatures. And ...
ListenPeak Booze from 2015-11-03T02:24:08
Are you part of Generation Peak Booze? In this episode, we dive into the factors behind the ups and downs in alcohol consumption in the U.K. and the U.S. over the course of the twentieth century, w...
ListenMezcal: Everything but the Worm from 2015-10-20T00:40:52
It’s nearly the Day of the Dead in Mexico, which gives us the perfect excuse to get familiar with the country’s national spirit: tequila. Or wait, should that be mezcal? And what’s the difference, ...
ListenThe Good, The Bad, The Cilantro from 2015-10-06T01:25:02
On the surface, it’s just a leafy green herb. Its feathery fronds add a decorative note and a distinctive flavor to dishes across Latin America and Asia, from guacamole to phở. And yet cilantro is ...
ListenThe Bitter Truth from 2015-09-22T01:09:16
It’s one of the five basic tastes, along with salty, sweet, sour, and umami. It’s also the least popular and the most mysterious. “That tastes bitter” is not usually a compliment, and yet scientist...
ListenInside the Food Lab with Kenji López-Alt from 2015-09-07T16:58
He has boiled hundreds of eggs in the quest for breakfast perfection. He has expended thousands of words on the divisive subject of mashed potatoes. And he is the only one who cares enough to test ...
ListenThe United States of Chinese Food from 2015-08-25T03:23
Wander into any town in the U.S., no matter how small and remote, and you’re likely to find at least one Chinese restaurant. In fact, there are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonalds, K...
ListenThe Whole Hog from 2015-08-11T01:11:44
Bacon, bratwurst, bangers, barbecue: these are just a few of the many ways people around the world enjoy feasting on pigs. Of all the domesticated animals humans consume, Sus scrofa domesticus is t...
ListenThe Scoop on Ice Cream from 2015-07-28T01:28:17
It’s one of the most complex food products you’ll ever consume: a thermodynamic miracle that contains all three states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas—at the same time. And yet no birthday party, ...
ListenCrunch, Crackle, and Pop from 2015-07-14T00:45:53
“Sound is the forgotten flavor sense,” says experimental psychologist Charles Spence. In this episode, we discover how manipulating sound can transform our experience of food and drink, making stal...
ListenField Recordings from 2015-06-30T00:43:28
Plants that can hear themselves being eaten. Microphone-equipped drones that eavesdrop on sick chickens. Lasers that detect an insect’s wing-beats from dozens of feet away. In this James Bond-insp...
ListenThe Cocktail Hour from 2015-05-26T00:33:40
Whether you sip it with friends, chug it before hitting the dance floor, or take it as a post-work pick-me-up, there’s clearly nothing like a cocktail for bracing the spirit. In addition to its pec...
ListenGastropod on Gastropods from 2015-05-04T23:58:46
Finally, Gastropod is tackling gastropods! In this episode, Cynthia visits one of America’s first and only snail farms. Though Gastropod is, as regular listeners know, a podcast about the science ...
ListenSavor Flavor from 2015-04-21T14:28:14
Why does grape candy taste so fake? What on earth is blue raspberry, anyway? And what is the difference between natural and artificial, at least when it comes to flavor? Join us as we taste the ra...
ListenDNA Detectives from 2015-04-07T14:02
DNA: it’s the genetic information that makes plants and animals what we are. Most of the time when you hear about it in the context of food, it’s to do with breeding. But in this short episode, we ...
ListenSay Cheese! from 2015-03-23T01:46:45
Cheese is the chameleon of the food world, as well as one of its greatest delights. Fresh and light or funky and earthy, creamy and melty or crystalline and crumbly—no other food offers such a vari...
ListenExtreme Salad and Crazy Potatoes from 2015-03-03T02:50
Step away from the French fries—and even from that bag of pre-washed mixed greens lurking in the crisper drawer. It’s time to reconsider the potato and up your salad game. In this episode, Cynthia...
ListenNo Scrubs: Breeding a Better Bull from 2015-02-17T00:56:58
In 1900, the average dairy cow in America produced 424 gallons of milk each year. By 2000, that figure had more than quadrupled, to 2,116 gallons. In this episode of Gastropod, we explore the incre...
ListenEnhanced Eating with Dan Pashman from 2015-02-02T22:31
Have you ever wondered how to avoid sandwich sogginess, what scented soap to pair with your restaurant order, and whether airplane food can be made to taste of anything at all? Dan Pashman has, and...
ListenBreakfast of Champions from 2015-01-20T02:49:30
Breakfast: the most important meal of the day. Or is it? In this episode of Gastropod, we explore the science and history behind the most intentionally designed, the most industrialized, and the mo...
ListenNight of the Living Radishes from 2015-01-02T18:27
For this special New Year episode, Gastropod transports you to Oaxaca, Mexico, for the legendary Night of the Radishes, celebrated the night before Christmas eve, where locals present their most el...
ListenKale of the Sea from 2014-12-09T03:43:24
Call off the search for the new kale: we’ve found it, and it’s called kelp! In this episode of Gastropod, we explore the science behind the new wave of seaweed farms springing up off the New Englan...
ListenBite: Smoked Pigeon and Other Subnatural Delights from 2014-11-25T12:44
In this week’s bite-sized episode, Nicky travels to the campus of Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, for a day of talks and tastings exploring the shifting status of stinky cheese, offal, ...
ListenThe Microbe Revolution from 2014-11-11T02:56
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you’ve probably heard about the human microbiome. Research into the composition, function, and importance of the galaxy of bacte...
ListenBite: Forgotten Fruits&the Future of Food? from 2014-10-28T02:12
We’re back with a bite-sized discussion of two fascinating food history and science stories that have crossed our paths in the last couple of weeks. This time, co-host Nicky spends a week living on...
ListenDan Barber’s Quest for Flavor from 2014-10-14T04:14
In this latest episode of Gastropod, chef and author Dan Barber takes listeners on a journey around the world in search of great flavor and the ecosystems that support it, from Spain to the deep So...
ListenBite: What America Could Taste Like from 2014-09-30T03:25
We promised we’d serve a bite-sized snack in between our full-length episodes, and here it is—a short and snappy update, in which we share two of the most interesting food history and science stori...
ListenEpisode 1: The Golden Spoon from 2014-09-06T23:50
Chances are, you’ve spent more time thinking about the specs on your smartphone than about the gadgets that you use to put food in your mouth. But the shape and material properties of forks, spoons...
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