Eat This Podcast
288 episodes - English - Latest episode: 25 days ago - ★★★★★ - 52 ratingsUsing food to explore all manner of topics, from agriculture to zoology. Eat This Podcast tries to go beyond the obvious to see how the food we eat influences and is influenced by history, archaeology, trade, chemistry, economics, geography, evolution, religion — you get the picture. We don’t do recipes, except when we do, or restaurant reviews, ditto. We do offer an eclectic smorgasbord of tasty topics.
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Episodes
Palatable is not Potable
June 17, 2024 11:00 - 26 minutes - 24.8 MBWhy are some people tap-water hesitant and what do we expect water to taste like anyway?
Women Butchers
June 03, 2024 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MB“I thought, okay, I’m eating meat, but am I supposed to be eating meat? Would I ever kill an animal myself? Would I ever butcher an animal?”
Leftovers Through History
May 13, 2024 11:00 - 28 minutes - 26 MBThroughout history, people repurposed food leftovers and surplus and animal byproducts, challenging the modern perception of them as waste.
What is Chametz?
April 29, 2024 11:00 - 14 minutes - 13.5 MBIn the end, the meaning of chametz rests on history and tradition, and new traditions are possible.
Passover and Easter Revisited
April 15, 2024 11:30 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBGod’s original instructions for Passover did not include one of the crucial items on the Seder plate.
Malta Besieged & Black-market Intrigues
April 01, 2024 11:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBOrdinarily, evading food rationing in times of war is considered a crime. There are times when it must be accepted as a necessity.
The Case for Folic Acid Fortification
March 18, 2024 11:55 - 21 minutes - 20.2 MBThe European Union has failed to implement one of the most effective public health interventions, one that the United Kingdom is now able to contemplate.
Anthony Mongiello, Inventor of the Stuffed Crust Pizza
March 04, 2024 12:15 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBPizza Hut says it invented the stuffed crust pizza. A judge agreed. But Anthony Mongiello has US patent 4,661,361, no matter what the law says.
Prehistoric cooking pots
February 19, 2024 12:10 - 19 minutes - 18.1 MBIn many respects the diets of farmers and hunter-gatherers were more alike than different
The Invention of Baby Food
February 05, 2024 12:30 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBCommercial baby food was perhaps the original industrial food product, with all that that entails
Black Stoneflower: A unique Indian spice
December 18, 2023 16:35 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBA lichen, which has no taste of its own, contributes hugely to the flavour of many Indian dishes
A New Story for Maize Domestication
December 04, 2023 12:00 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBA close look at more than 1000 varieties of maize solves a mystery about how the crop evolved from its wild relatives.
Honey and Adulteration
November 13, 2023 12:00 - 23 minutes - 21.2 MBWhy is honey the world’s third most-adulterated food? Because adulteration delivers profits.
Fat, Sugar, Salt
October 30, 2023 12:00 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MBBefore he uncovered "Nutrition Science's Most Preposterous Result," David Johns had already dug into reports on salt and sugar.
Jewish Food in Rome
October 16, 2023 11:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MBThe Jewish Community of Rome arrived before the Christian Era and has never left. Its cuisine was created by hardship and ingenuity.
Small Dairy
October 02, 2023 10:55 - 22 minutes - 20.5 MBIf you’re lucky enough to live in the right place, you may be able to experience real, fresh, whole milk.
Food Riots in England
September 18, 2023 11:00 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBWhen you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose ... except your life
Milk is not a Superfood
September 04, 2023 11:00 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBThe first celebrity doctor's fad diet is still going strong today, 300 years later, and it has a lot to answer for.
Pomegranates & Artichokes
June 05, 2023 11:00 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MB“It is about migrations: of ingredients, of recipes, of stories — but most importantly of the people who make them.”
Why Did the Artist Cross the Chicken?
May 22, 2023 11:00 - 28 minutes - 26 MBAccumulating the genetic diversity of birds around the world in a population of truly cosmopolitan chickens
Feeding the People in Wartime Britain
May 08, 2023 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBOnce upon a time, government made it possible for people to get a good meal at a reasonable price.
What is Wrong with Biofortification
April 24, 2023 11:00 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBYields are generally lower than those of unfortified varieties and there’s little evidence it works. Biofortification is a waste of land and money.
Making Mr Song’s Cheese
April 10, 2023 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBThe standard story is that ethnic Chinese don’t eat cheese or drink milk because they are lactose intolerant. They do, but it’s complicated
What Price Chicken Wings?
March 27, 2023 11:00 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBA chicken has two wings, two legs, two breasts; how does the market cope when all people want is wings?
Patrik Johansson, the Butter Viking
March 13, 2023 12:00 - 23 minutes - 21.2 MBPatrik Johansson blends ancient knowledge and modern science to craft exquisite butter: hand-made, intensely flavourful and scarce.
Food Security in Egypt
February 06, 2023 12:00 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBThe price of subsidised bread in Egypt has not changed in decades, though the bread shrunk. That remains a huge challenge to security, for the government and the people.
Fully Tested Tuna
January 23, 2023 12:00 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBOne tin of tuna may contain 10 times more mercury than another, and there’s no way to tell them apart.
Biodiversity at Liberty
January 09, 2023 12:00 - 25 minutes - 24.5 MBHow farmers in Belgium and the south of France are taking advantage of new a EU regulation to become more sustainable
Feed Your Baby Like a Fascist
December 24, 2022 12:00 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBMussolini made the trains run on time, but that doesn’t work for hungry infants
Some thoughts on markets and such
December 12, 2022 12:00 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBSpeculators can actually drive prices higher, which was news to me
A Restaurant’s Reckoning
November 28, 2022 12:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MB“The corollary to white innocence is white passivity, the feeling that what one’s ancestors did was so messed up that it couldn’t possibly make a difference where one eats a barbecue sandwich.”
How to be a good host and a good guest
November 14, 2022 12:00 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBAsking for a doctor’s note when your guest says they are allergic or intolerant is not an option
Feeding children well
October 31, 2022 14:59 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBThere’s a huge difference between neophobia and picky eating, just as there is between food and nutrition. How best to undertake the tricky business of helping children to eat well.
In search of tomato gold
October 17, 2022 11:00 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MBOrganic growers and breeders in Europe are preparing to take advantage of their new freedom to sow biodiversity
Mothers and Milk
October 03, 2022 11:05 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBHow can the simple and vital connection between mother and baby possibly be considered shameful?
Fad diets
September 20, 2022 11:00 - 27 minutes - 25.1 MBThe average American starts in on a fad diet four times a year. A quarter give up after two weeks. What are they hoping for?
Empire and grain
July 04, 2022 11:00 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBThe ability to tax wheat moving through choke points gives empires their power, even today.
Grain and finance
June 27, 2022 11:00 - 29 minutes - 13.5 MBWheat was money, when a store was no more than a store of goods to be exchanged for wheat.
Grain and transport
June 20, 2022 11:00 - 30 minutes - 28 MBMoving wheat from where it grows to where it is eaten shaped the world
Persephone’s secret
June 13, 2022 17:19 - 8 minutes - 7.74 MBWhy did the participants in the Eleusinian Mysteries leave no trace of what it was about?
Peanuts, Senegal and Slavery
May 16, 2022 11:15 - 19 minutes - 17.6 MBFrance abolished slavery in 1815 but the practice continued long after that in its west African enclaves
Garum: Rome’s new library and museum of food
May 02, 2022 11:24 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBOn the slopes of the Palatine Hill, supposedly on the site where the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, a new food museum.
Tomatoes: domestication and diversity
April 18, 2022 11:00 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBNew studies make sense of tomato’s transformation from teeny-fruited weed to diversity diva.
Aaron Vallance — 1dish4theroad
April 04, 2022 11:00 - 26 minutes - 24.2 MBA doctor in London chronicles his eating adventures through fact and fiction
Yes, we have no plantains
March 14, 2022 11:55 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBWhat you call a plantain is probably an accident of history
Food Philosophy
February 21, 2022 11:48 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBDiscussions about food often “bump up against philosophy” according to an actual philosopher, whose book helped me to think more clearly about food.
Unconditional cash to improve nutrition
February 07, 2022 12:27 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBGiving people cash improves dietary diversity and child growth
Ten thousand years of yoghurt
January 24, 2022 12:00 - 23 minutes - 22 MBYoghurt is good for you, no doubt about that, although it probably will not confer eternal life.
High Art
December 20, 2021 12:00 - 16 minutes - 14.9 MBAs an artist, looking down on Google Earth, Mishka Henner saw things that made him wonder — and that have the power to make all of us think, a bit.
A visit to an ancient Roman bakery
December 06, 2021 12:00 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBFarrell Monaco has studied, and brought back to life, the canonical bread of Ancient Rome. Now she brings an ancient bakery back to life.