Episodes

  • Absinthe: The World's Most Dangerous Drink?

    Absinthe: The World's Most Dangerous Drink?
    Oct 15 2024
    To painters and poets in late-1800s France, absinthe was "the green muse" or the "green fairy," an almost magical potion that promised vivid dreams, wild ideas, and artistic inspiration with every sip. By the 1910s, this once incredibly popular herbal liquor was banned—not only in France, but in countries around the world. Condemned as the cause of both individual ruin and social decline, absinthe consumption was blamed for seizures, memory gaps, hallucinations, and even murderous rage. So what's the deal: is absinthe just a drink, or is it actually deadly? This episode, we've got the story behind the myths, from witchy distillers to women on bicycles, and military rations to pre-ban bottles. Join us for the trip! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    45 mins
  • From Trash to Treasure: Why's It So Hard to Save Restaurant Leftovers From the Dumpster?

    From Trash to Treasure: Why's It So Hard to Save Restaurant Leftovers From the Dumpster?
    Oct 1 2024
    Every day, at the end of service, restaurants throw away tons of entirely edible food: heaps of pastries and whole loaves of bread, vegetables chopped but not cooked, noodle dough, fish off-cuts, and more. An estimated 20 billion meals's worth of still edible food overall is tossed every year here in the US, and more than 85 percent of it ends up in the landfill. Meanwhile, more than one in ten Americans are food insecure. So why is it so hard to keep all of that perfectly good food out of the trash and get it onto people’s plates instead? This week, we’re taking a deep dive into the dumpster (not literally!), to explore the most innovative and surprising new solutions to this toughest of food challenges, including the wizards transforming everything from stale bagels to gallons of banana cream concentrate into a delicious dinner. Did someone order meals, not methane? Oui chef! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    49 mins
  • Smashing Pumpkin Myths: What's Big, Orange, and Having an Identity Crisis?

    Smashing Pumpkin Myths: What's Big, Orange, and Having an Identity Crisis?
    Sep 17 2024
    It’s already begun: that time of the year now known across the land as Decorative Gourd Season. Squash are everywhere—carved into jack o’lanterns on front porches, adorning our sideboards and porches with strange shapes and autumn colors, and of course, baked into pies for fall celebrations. But get ready to rethink squash, because despite their slightly cheesy House Beautiful vibe and family-friendly pumpkin patch associations, they are—and we quote—"the most interesting plants in the world." Join us this episode as we explore our surprisingly long entanglement with the cucurbit family, from its star role as the very first plant domesticated in the Americas to the can of Libby's behind nine out of every ten pumpkin pies. Along the way, we figure out what on Earth the difference actually is between a squash and a pumpkin, and we get a sneak peek into the weird and wonderful world of giant pumpkins, where growers compete to break the two-ton barrier with fruits the size of a compact car. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    47 mins
  • Meet the Queen of Kiwi: The 96-Year-Old Woman Who Transformed America's Produce Aisle (ENCORE)

    Meet the Queen of Kiwi: The 96-Year-Old Woman Who Transformed America's Produce Aisle (ENCORE)
    Sep 10 2024
    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 yellow onion, a pile of bananas. Today, grocery stores routinely offer hundreds of different fruits and vegetables, many of which would be unrecognizable to time travelers from a half century ago. What changed, and how did Americans learn to embrace spaghetti squash, sugar snap peas, and kiwi fruit? This episode, we tell the story of the woman behind this transformation: Frieda Caplan, the Queen of Kiwi. (Encore) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    48 mins
  • Deli is Short For Delicious—But Are Your Pastrami and Bologna Sandwiches Giving You Cancer?

    Deli is Short For Delicious—But Are Your Pastrami and Bologna Sandwiches Giving You Cancer?
    Sep 3 2024
    School’s back in session, and kids are boarding the bus with lunchboxes in tow. Many of them contain sandwiches stuffed with turkey and ham slices, bologna, even salami—but where did these staples of the lunch break, not to mention the charcuterie platter, come from? Long before the 1900s meat-cute that birthed the deli sandwich, preserved meats were a standby in human diets: from dried yak cured in salt in the Himalayas, to pork fermented into salami in Italy, to beef pressed in the saddle and pickled in horse sweat in Central Asia, people all over the world invented ways to make meat inhospitable to microbes, more portable—and even more delicious! But, in recent years, these meats have gotten a bad name: in 2015, the World Health Organization even labeled them a carcinogen. So should you chuck the corned beef for the sake of your health? This episode, join us for a deep dive on the science behind whether your charcuterie could kill you—plus, the story of how cured meats became a staple of American diet and culture, thanks to German immigrants and Jewish delis, military-manufactured meat glue, and some truly orgasmic sliced pastrami on rye. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    53 mins
  • What's the Buzz on Eating Bugs? Can Insects Really Save the World?

    What's the Buzz on Eating Bugs? Can Insects Really Save the World?
    Aug 20 2024
    About ten years ago, insects were constantly being hyped as the future of food. Headlines proclaimed that, within the decade, everyone would be eating bugs as part of their daily diet—and saving the planet in the process. But while the buzz on edible insects hasn’t completely turned to crickets, the ento-revolution hasn't proceeded exactly as planned. In the Western world, insects are not yet what's for dinner, and, even in parts of the world where bugs are a traditional and treasured part of the cuisine, their consumption is on the decline. So what's the deal? Can edible insects really help solve climate change and world hunger? And, if so, what's stopping us from jumping on the bug bandwagon? Listen in this episode as we debunk insect conspiracy theories and sexist archaeology, savor tangy ants and a cicada bonanza, and visit Madagascar to tell the heart-warming tale of how a bacon-flavored bug is helping feed villagers, while saving an adorable primate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    57 mins
  • The Billion Dollar War Behind U.S. Rum (Planet Money)

    The Billion Dollar War Behind U.S. Rum (Planet Money)
    Aug 6 2024
    When you buy a bottle of rum in the United States, by law nearly all the federal taxes on that rum must be sent to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It's an unusual system that Congress designed decades ago to help fund these two U.S. territories. In 2021 alone, these rum tax payments added up to more than $700 million. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands split the money according to how much rum each territory produces. And the territories produce a lot of it — especially Puerto Rico, which single handedly supplies the majority of the rum that Americans drink. But in 2008, the U.S. Virgin Islands pulled off a coup. It convinced one of the largest rum brands in the world, Captain Morgan, to abandon Puerto Rico and to shift its operations to the tiny island of St. Croix. This was the beginning of the Rum Wars. Listen in to the story of how this war turned the two territories into bitter rivals—and put hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer money in the pockets of big liquor companies. (Guest episode) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    43 mins
  • The Interstitium (Radiolab)

    The Interstitium (Radiolab)
    Jul 23 2024
    Guest episode: In this episode we introduce you to a part of our bodies that was invisible to Western scientists until about five years ago; it’s called "the interstitium," a vast network of fluid channels inside the tissues around our organs that scientists have just begun to see, name, and understand. Along the way we look at how new technologies rub up against long-standing beliefs, and how millions of scientists and doctors failed to see what was right in front (and inside!) of their noses. We also find out how mapping the anatomy of this hidden infrastructure may help solve one of the fundamental mysteries of cancer, and perhaps provide a bridge between ancient and modern medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr