Gastropod
Episodes
Mango Mania: How the American Mango Lost its Flavor—and How it Might Just Get it Back
11 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mangoes inspire passion, particularly in India, which is home to hundreds of varieties of the fruit. They are celebrated in Indian music, poetry, and ...
Keeping it Fresh: Preservatives and The Poison Squad
28 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
More than a century ago, enterprising manufacturers added brand-new chemical preservatives into food to keep it fresh as it traveled from the farm int...
Watch It Wiggle: The Jell-O Story
14 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan
19 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 a...
Hotbox: The Oven From Turnspit Dogs to Microwaves
05 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Feed the World: How the U.S. Became the World’s Biggest Food Aid Donor—And Why That Might Not be Such a Great Thing
22 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Ripe for Global Domination: The Story of the Avocado
08 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 phot...
Meet the Man Who Found, Finagled, and Ferried Home the Foods We Eat Today
24 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Who Faked My Cheese?
10 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ingr...
Marching on our Stomachs: The Science and History of Feeding the Troops
27 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 S...
Cooking the Books with Yotam and Nigella
13 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Cutting the Mustard
27 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 b...
Remembrance of Things Pasta: A Saucy Tale
13 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
We’ve Lost It: The Diet Episode
30 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...
Meet Saffron, the World’s Most Expensive Spice
16 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 sero...
Secrets of Sourdough
18 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Green Gold: Our Love Affair with Olive Oil
05 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Women, Food, Power … and Books!
21 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
Crantastic: The Story of America’s Berry
07 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It’s nearly Thanksgiving, which, for most Americans, marks the one time a year their dinner table is adorned with jewel-like cranberries, simmered i...
Cannibalism: From Calories to Kuru
24 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 can...
Eataly World and the Future of Food Shopping
10 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
What the Fluff is Marshmallow Creme?
26 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Lunch Gets Schooled
11 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Across the United States, school lunch is being transformed, as counties and cities partner with local farms to access fresh vegetables, as well as hi...
Sour Grapes: The History and Science of Vinegar
29 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 ta...
The Birds and The Bugs
15 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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...
It’s Tea Time: Pirates, Polyphenols, and a Proper Cuppa
01 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Gastropod tells the story of two countries and their shared obsession with a plant: Camellia sinensis, otherwise known as the tea bush. Th...
Peanuts: Peril and Promise
20 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Despite their diminutive scale, peanuts play an outsized role in American culture. Peanut butter has long been a mainstay of the American lunchbox, ...
Fake Food
06 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Hamburgers that turn out to be horse, not beef. Honey sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. Old, grey olives dipped in copper sulfate solution to ...
Here’s Why You Should Care About Southern Food
22 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 crop...
Better Believe It’s Butter
09 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Butter is beautiful: solid golden bars add the perfect flakiness to pastry, give cake a delightfully tender springiness, and melt mouth-wateringly ont...
Meet Koji, Your New Favorite Fungus
25 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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...
V is for Vitamin
10 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Hacking Taste
14 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Cork Dork: Inside the Weird World of Wine Appreciation
28 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“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’...
To Eat or Not to Eat Meat
14 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
With flexitarianism on the rise throughout the developed world, and everyone from Bill Clinton to Beyoncé endorsing the benefits of a vegetarian or v...
We Heart Chocolate
31 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Inventing the Restaurant: From Bone Broth to Michelin
17 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Gettin’ Fizzy With It
13 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
‘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 serio...
The Spice Curve: From Pepper to Sriracha with Sarah Lohman
29 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
American food has a reputation for being bland—but, according to historical gastronomist Sarah Lohman, “It’s nonsense that Americans don’t lik...
The Buzz on Honey
15 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 rea...
What is Native American Cuisine?
01 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 cui...
Counting Fish
04 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 impo...
Seaweed Special
13 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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’...
The Salt Wars
23 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Salt is a magical substance. It reduces bitterness, enhances sweetness, boosts flavor, and preserves perishable foods. Without it, we would die: the h...
Kombucha Culture
08 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
If you haven’t tasted kombucha yet, you probably will soon. The sour-sweet, fizzy, fermented tea is becoming ubiquitous in trendy cafes, workplac...
Keeping Kosher: When Jewish Law Met Processed Food
26 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Poultry Power: The Fried Chicken Chronicles
12 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Juicy, crispy, crunchy…fried chicken is undoubtedly delicious. But it’s also complicated, in ways that go far deeper than the science behind that ...
Outside the Box: The Story of Food Packaging
28 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 grea...
Who Invented the Cherry Tomato?
14 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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, wit...
Everything Old is Brew Again
31 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 k...
Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus
19 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 lu...
Grand Theft Food
05 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 m...
Caffeine: The World’s Most Popular Drug
21 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 quest...
The Maple Boom
08 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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’...
First Foods: Learning to Eat
23 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Food of Love
09 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout history, humans have attributed aphrodisiac powers to certain foods, from legendary lover Casanova’s diet of fifty oysters for breakfast ...
The End of the Calorie
26 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
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 wi...
End-Of-Year Feast
15 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 u...
The Mushroom Underground
17 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
They’re a kingdom unto themselves, neither animal, vegetable, nor mineral. They count among their number both the world’s largest organism and mil...
Peak Booze
03 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Mezcal: Everything but the Worm
20 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
The Good, The Bad, The Cilantro
06 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Bitter Truth
22 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 b...
The United States of Chinese Food
25 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Whole Hog
11 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 an...
The Scoop on Ice Cream
28 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
Crunch, Crackle, and Pop
14 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
“Sound is the forgotten flavor sense,” says experimental psychologist Charles Spence. In this episode, we discover how manipulating sound can tran...
Field Recordings
30 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Plants that can hear themselves being eaten. Microphone-equipped drones that eavesdrop on sick chickens. Lasers that detect an insect’s wing-beats f...
The Cocktail Hour
26 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 cockta...
Gastropod on Gastropods
04 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Finally, Gastropod is tackling gastropods! In this episode, Cynthia visits one of America’s first and only snail farms. Though Gastropod is, as reg...
Savor Flavor
21 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Say Cheese!
23 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 crystalli...
No Scrubs: Breeding a Better Bull
17 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Breakfast of Champions
20 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 intentionall...
Kale of the Sea
09 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
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 wa...
Bite: Smoked Pigeon and Other Subnatural Delights
25 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
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 explor...
The Microbe Revolution
11 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
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 compositi...
Dan Barber’s Quest for Flavor
14 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
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 ecosys...
Episode 1: The Golden Spoon
06 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...