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
The true history of the potato in Europe
November 15, 2021 12:00 - 24 minutes - 22.8 MBIt may not contain wily aristocrats or superstitious peasants, but the true history of the potato is much more interesting.
Rachel Roddy: An A–Z of Pasta
October 25, 2021 11:00 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBRachel Roddy had no intention of producing an encyclopaedia of pasta. Her book is more informative than that, and more readable.
Midnight’s chicken: Indian food evolution
October 11, 2021 11:00 - 21 minutes - 19.4 MBA dish that is today an icon of Indian food dates back only to 1947, using an ingredient that became widespread only in the 1920s
Sushi
September 27, 2021 11:00 - 25 minutes - 23.5 MBThe story of perhaps the greatest transformation in the history of food and how it continues today
Italian coffee: a temporary triangle
September 13, 2021 11:18 - 22 minutes - 20.4 MB"The cups might break, but the images recycle endlessly."
Food in post-independence India
June 21, 2021 10:53 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBIndia gained independence in 1947 with nationalist politicians promising food for all and an end to the rapacious imperial administration. What happened next?
The original global food system
June 07, 2021 11:00 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBDiet for a Large Planet shows how the world is still living with free trade policies from the 19th century
Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?
May 24, 2021 11:00 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBJess Fanzo takes a close look at what’s wrong with global food systems and how it might be possible to change them.
A very modern spice merchant
May 10, 2021 18:01 - 25 minutes - 24.3 MBGreen Saffron is a new kind of spice merchant, that cares as much about how its spices are grown as their taste.
Coffea stenophylla tastes terrific
April 26, 2021 11:04 - 18 minutes - 17.4 MBCoffee that tastes of light black tea — a good thing — and is able to cope with warmer climates.
The Great Re-Think: What is agriculture for, really?
April 12, 2021 11:00 - 27 minutes - 25.4 MBSkill and craft over automation, complexity over simplicity, and diversity over monoculture
What is the value of functional foods?
March 29, 2021 11:00 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MBThere’s one group of people that functional foods and superfoods can definitely help: the people who grow them.
Naomi Duguid: Exploring the World through Food
March 15, 2021 12:09 - 32 minutes - 30.2 MBThere may not be a recipe, but there’s always someone sitting behind your shoulder going tsk, tsk, tsk.
The cost is too damn high
March 01, 2021 12:00 - 20 minutes - 19 MBThree billion people couldn’t afford a healthy diet even if they wanted to.
Still ticking
February 15, 2021 12:00 - 22 minutes - 21 MBThese days, population is barely considered as a factor in food security. That doesn’t mean the problem is solved.
The quest to conserve rare breeds
February 01, 2021 12:00 - 26 minutes - 24 MBUsing land that could be used to feed people to feed animals is a terrible waste, but for today’s modern breeds it is absolutely essential.
The International Year of Fruits and Vegetables
January 18, 2021 12:10 - 14 minutes - 14 MBEmojipedia understands: 🍅 is both a fruit and a vegetable
Oh, poop
December 14, 2020 12:00 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MBIs our excrement simply a waste product, to be dumped out of sight and out of mind? Or is it a valuable resource that we squander at our peril?
How the Brits became a nation of tea drinkers
November 30, 2020 12:00 - 28 minutes - 26.6 MBPersuading people to drink tea from the subcontinent more or less created the modern propaganda machine
Where did the chicken cross the road?
November 16, 2020 12:00 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBThe DNA of chickens, sheep and cattle tells slightly different stories about their domestication
A Blissful Feast
November 01, 2020 16:24 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBHer aunt’s gnocchi were enough to set Teresa Lust on a long and roundabout journey to learn more about Italian and Italian food.
Whole grain labels sow confusion
October 19, 2020 10:14 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBWe know what whole grain means. Whole grain food? Not so much.
Coffee leaf rust is bad news
October 05, 2020 11:10 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MBCoffee leaf rust is bad, but at least in the short term it may not be the threat you think it is
Carême at home in New Zealand
September 21, 2020 11:00 - 18 minutes - 16.6 MBFood for settlers in New Zealand used to be mutton, mutton, mutton and potatoes or potatoes. Not any more.
How the chilli pepper conquered China
September 07, 2020 14:00 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBChilli peppers took a few years to reach China after their initial encounter with Westerners, but rapidly became a very hot item.
It’s coffee, but not as we know it
June 29, 2020 18:58 - 20 minutes - 19.3 MBIn Sierra Leone, a hunt for long lost species of coffee succeeds
Alexis Soyer
June 15, 2020 11:05 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBA brief look at the life of one of the first celebrity chefs
Questions of Taste
June 01, 2020 11:07 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MBAre there any universals about more complex kinds of gustatory taste? And how do we learn to talk about taste?
You are what you drink
May 11, 2020 11:00 - 21 minutes - 19.4 MBRobert Walpole — like all great politicians — understood how to use his tipple to send a signal
Disputations about taste
April 27, 2020 11:00 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBI know taste is entirely subjective. But I’m also willing to think about good taste and bad taste and even to use that as part of a value judgement. How about you?
The Man Who Tried to Feed the World
April 13, 2020 11:12 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBNorman Borlaug gave birth to the Green Revolution, with little thought for the unintended consequences of his work.
Russian Food: Old and New
March 30, 2020 11:00 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MBBeyond the North Wind, the true heart of Russian Food
The book of the Book of Tasty and Healthy Food
March 16, 2020 12:09 - 20 minutes - 23.5 MBA young Russian woman blogs her way through the only cookbook her grandmother knew -- and gets her own book out of it
Orange-fleshed sweet potato to feed hidden hunger
March 02, 2020 12:00 - 27 minutes - 22.1 MBA food people don't like, and don't even know they need, turns their lives around
Another cup of coffee culture
February 17, 2020 12:00 - 16 minutes - 13.2 MBIt took more than a hundred years, but eventually the United States too developed a recognisable coffee culture.
Coffee culture in Italy and England
February 03, 2020 12:00 - 29 minutes - 23.5 MBEspresso is the canonical coffee of Italy, even though the original espresso was something entirely different. How did espresso happen? And what happened when it got to England?
Why a spurtle makes a superior porridge stirrer
January 20, 2020 12:00 - 9 minutes - 7.9 MBWith a bag of porridge oats in my baggage, I set off for Georgetown University and a date with science
Cow sharing in the European Alps
December 23, 2019 12:36 - 18 minutes - 15.5 MBUnlike car sharing, when you buy a share in a cow, you are not free to drive her wherever you want. So what do you get?
Pasta Grannies
December 09, 2019 12:05 - 24 minutes - 20 MBVicky Bennison set out to record Italian grannies making pasta and along the way created terrifically watchable videos
Cashews, the World Bank, and Mozambique
November 25, 2019 12:00 - 18 minutes - 14.9 MBMozambique used to be the world's largest supplier of cashew nuts. Then along came the World Bank, to help.
How capuchin monkeys learn about food
November 11, 2019 12:00 - 31 minutes - 25.2 MBCapuchin monkeys are resourceful and smart, which helps them to select a good diet from all the potential food around them.
Fifty ways to cook a carrot
October 21, 2019 14:44 - 20 minutes - 16.2 MBYou can't judge a book by its cover. 50 Ways to Cook a Carrot is not really about carrots.
Porridge
October 07, 2019 11:05 - 21 minutes - 17 MBHow did porridge go from a fine breakfast food, albeit one that's easily abused, to the stuff of foodie dreams?
Radish redux
September 23, 2019 11:00 - 16 minutes - 13.7 MB"All the intrigue of a murder mystery and all the painstaking, arduous pursuit of an archeological dig." For a radish.
When in Rome
September 09, 2019 11:15 - 24 minutes - 20 MBAlfredo sauce, made famous in the 1920s, dates back to at least 1390. That, and other surprises of food in the Eternal City.
A sweet sour story
August 26, 2019 11:12 - 16 minutes - 13.1 MBA downturn in the house-building business set Maurice Gilbert at Ballyhoura Artisan Food Park on the road to award-winning apple juices.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, or
August 12, 2019 11:15 - 24 minutes - 19.7 MBIgnorance, paranoia and greed have damaged the olives of the Salento almost beyond recognition.
Eating Alone
April 29, 2019 11:00 - 18 minutes - 14.8 MBSome people hate eating alone, others love it, but we all have to do it at times.
Celebrating Passover and Easter
April 15, 2019 10:54 - 34 minutes - 28 MBFrom the first last supper to the resurrection roll.