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 lozenges. The dark and chewy treat begins life as a plant root that is more than fifty times as sweet as sugar. This episode, we tell the story of how a traditional remedy become England's first branded candy, and we get to the bottom of a medical mystery (licorice poisoning!) in a tale that involves both Tutankhamun and Henry VIII.&nbsp;

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 lozenges. The dark and chewy treat begins life as a plant root that is more than fifty times as sweet as sugar. This episode, we tell the story of how a traditional remedy become England's first branded candy, and we get to the bottom of a medical mystery (licorice poisoning!) in a tale that involves both Tutankhamun and Henry VIII.&nbsp;

Gastropod

Licorice: A Dark and Salty Stranger

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, frankly, incredibly depressing. But this episode, we&rsquo;ve got the story of one of the most exciting, seemingly feasible efforts to reduce atmospheric carbon&mdash;by storing it in the soil. The solution involves refreshing beer, crusty bread, and sweet, crunchy broccoli&mdash;and a complete reinvention of modern agriculture, including domesticating entirely new crops. And the impact could be huge: because a third of Earth&rsquo;s ice-free surface is farmland, scientists say that banking just a tiny bit more carbon beneath our fields would help remove billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Join us this episode on our quest to discover how switching to no-till, regenerative agriculture and breeding brand new perennial crops can help restock soil carbon, produce delicious grains and greens, and&mdash;maybe&mdash;save the world.

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, frankly, incredibly depressing. But this episode, we&rsquo;ve got the story of one of the most exciting, seemingly feasible efforts to reduce atmospheric carbon&mdash;by storing it in the soil. The solution involves refreshing beer, crusty bread, and sweet, crunchy broccoli&mdash;and a complete reinvention of modern agriculture, including domesticating entirely new crops. And the impact could be huge: because a third of Earth&rsquo;s ice-free surface is farmland, scientists say that banking just a tiny bit more carbon beneath our fields would help remove billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Join us this episode on our quest to discover how switching to no-till, regenerative agriculture and breeding brand new perennial crops can help restock soil carbon, produce delicious grains and greens, and&mdash;maybe&mdash;save the world.

To Fight Climate Change, Bank on Soil

Just a few decades ago, gin &amp; 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&rsquo;s due to a boom in craft gin distilling&mdash;a <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/09/the-intoxicating-history-of-gin">ginaissance</a>! But there&rsquo;s also been a new wave of experimentation with gin&rsquo;s life partner, tonic water. This episode, we focus on the tonic side of the equation. Which genius came up with the idea of combining quinine, a malaria drug, with soda water and sugar in order to create this refreshing beverage? How did the bark of a South American tree end up in everything from hair-restoring shampoo to cocktails? And is it true that the G&amp;T began life as a pleasant way for the Anglo-Indian elite to take their anti-malarials? This episode, we take a sip of tonic&rsquo;s history with <a href="https://www.kimwalkerresearch.com/about">Kim Walker</a> and <a href="http://www.marknesbitt.org.uk/">Mark Nesbitt</a>, authors of the new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1842466895/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1842466895&amp;linkId=0a6ebd804f6b911842c3e9d7bf7d2011">Just the Tonic: A Natural History of Tonic Water</a>. Listen in for all that, plus beef-infused tonic wines, Aperol spritzes, and the gin &amp; tonic&rsquo;s true origin story. Cheers!

Just a few decades ago, gin &amp; 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&rsquo;s due to a boom in craft gin distilling&mdash;a ginaissance! But there&rsquo;s also been a new wave of experimentation with gin&rsquo;s life partner, tonic water. This episode, we focus on the tonic side of the equation. Which genius came up with the idea of combining quinine, a malaria drug, with soda water and sugar in order to create this refreshing beverage? How did the bark of a South American tree end up in everything from hair-restoring shampoo to cocktails? And is it true that the G&amp;T began life as a pleasant way for the Anglo-Indian elite to take their anti-malarials? This episode, we take a sip of tonic&rsquo;s history with Kim Walker and Mark Nesbitt, authors of the new book Just the Tonic: A Natural History of Tonic Water. Listen in for all that, plus beef-infused tonic wines, Aperol spritzes, and the gin &amp; tonic&rsquo;s true origin story. Cheers!

Move Over Gin, We’ve Got Tonic Fever

McDonald&rsquo;s is mind-boggling. According to <a href="https://www.adamchandler.com/">Adam Chandler</a>, author of the recent book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250090725/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1250090725&amp;linkId=a93a54e9251ba83f38593e7c4b07797e">Drive-Thru Dreams</a>, it sells roughly 75 burgers every second and serves 68 million people every day&mdash;equivalent to 1 percent of the entire world&rsquo;s population. &ldquo;The golden arches are thought to be, according to an independent survey, more recognizable as a symbol than the Christian cross is around the world,&rdquo; Chandler told us. This episode, we tell the story of McDonald&rsquo;s&mdash;but more importantly, we explore what it has to say about who we are. To do that, we&rsquo;re also joined by historian <a href="https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RhMmAAK/marcia-chatelain">Marcia Chatelain</a>, author of the new book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1631493949/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1631493949&amp;linkId=93ce45d8eff042558eccf4fc86b9aa48">Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America</a>, who helps us unpack the troubled but fascinating relationship between McDonald&rsquo;s and African Americans. Why did taxpayers end up funding the spread of McDonald&rsquo;s into the inner city &ldquo;food deserts&rdquo; it now dominates? Who invented the hamburger and how did it become America&rsquo;s national cuisine? From a bustling barbecue stand in San Bernardino to Ray Kroc&rsquo;s location-scouting airplane rides, and from the McNugget to the McJob, this episode we figure out how McDonald&rsquo;s became so ubiquitous, and what that means for America.

McDonald&rsquo;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&mdash;equivalent to 1 percent of the entire world&rsquo;s population. &ldquo;The golden arches are thought to be, according to an independent survey, more recognizable as a symbol than the Christian cross is around the world,&rdquo; Chandler told us. This episode, we tell the story of McDonald&rsquo;s&mdash;but more importantly, we explore what it has to say about who we are. To do that, we&rsquo;re also joined by historian Marcia Chatelain, author of the new book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, who helps us unpack the troubled but fascinating relationship between McDonald&rsquo;s and African Americans. Why did taxpayers end up funding the spread of McDonald&rsquo;s into the inner city &ldquo;food deserts&rdquo; it now dominates? Who invented the hamburger and how did it become America&rsquo;s national cuisine? From a bustling barbecue stand in San Bernardino to Ray Kroc&rsquo;s location-scouting airplane rides, and from the McNugget to the McJob, this episode we figure out how McDonald&rsquo;s became so ubiquitous, and what that means for America.

The United States of McDonald’s

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 landscape: banks deny mortgages to infested properties, and the government regulates its disposal with the same precautions it takes for low-level nuclear waste. Humans are to blame&mdash;we introduced invasive species such as these to their new homes. But some conservation biologists and chefs think humans can also be the solution: by eating the invaders. Are we ready for a menu of Asian shore crab and bullfrogs&mdash;and can our appetite really make a difference, or might the approach lead to unforeseen consequences? This episode, we forage an invasive menu with <a href="http://www.miyassushi.com">chef Bun Lai</a>, and then argue the case with conservation biologists <a href="http://www.joeroman.com">Joe Roman</a> and <a href="https://www.sarakuebbing.com">Sara Kuebbing</a>. Listen in now!

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 landscape: banks deny mortgages to infested properties, and the government regulates its disposal with the same precautions it takes for low-level nuclear waste. Humans are to blame&mdash;we introduced invasive species such as these to their new homes. But some conservation biologists and chefs think humans can also be the solution: by eating the invaders. Are we ready for a menu of Asian shore crab and bullfrogs&mdash;and can our appetite really make a difference, or might the approach lead to unforeseen consequences? This episode, we forage an invasive menu with chef Bun Lai, and then argue the case with conservation biologists Joe Roman and Sara Kuebbing. Listen in now!

Dinner Plate Invasion: Lionfish, Tiger Shrimp, and Feral Pigs, Oh My!

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.

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.

Meet the Queen of Kiwi: the 96-Year-Old Woman Who Transformed America’s Produce Aisle

This side dish of spicy, bubbly, funky pickled vegetables is such a staple in Korea that no meal is considered complete without it&mdash;but, recently, kimchi has found its way into burgers, pasta, grilled cheese, and even tacos. This episode, we trace the behind-the-scenes story of the &ldquo;kimchi diplomacy&rdquo; that turned Korea&rsquo;s favorite fermented cabbage into an international food trend. And then, because we&rsquo;re Gastropod, we take part in our very own cutting-edge science experiment to understand one of kimchi science&rsquo;s most mysterious questions: where do the microbes that transform the sugars in cabbage into such tangy, savory flavors actually come from? Is it our hands? The soil? Or could the secret to all that deliciousness actually lie in the stomach of beetles and bugs? Listen in this episode for kimchi secrets, kimchi explosions, and a little bit of kimchi K-pop, too.

This side dish of spicy, bubbly, funky pickled vegetables is such a staple in Korea that no meal is considered complete without it&mdash;but, recently, kimchi has found its way into burgers, pasta, grilled cheese, and even tacos. This episode, we trace the behind-the-scenes story of the &ldquo;kimchi diplomacy&rdquo; that turned Korea&rsquo;s favorite fermented cabbage into an international food trend. And then, because we&rsquo;re Gastropod, we take part in our very own cutting-edge science experiment to understand one of kimchi science&rsquo;s most mysterious questions: where do the microbes that transform the sugars in cabbage into such tangy, savory flavors actually come from? Is it our hands? The soil? Or could the secret to all that deliciousness actually lie in the stomach of beetles and bugs? Listen in this episode for kimchi secrets, kimchi explosions, and a little bit of kimchi K-pop, too.

Are Insect Guts the Secret to the Most Delicious Kimchi?

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 <a href="https://env.cpp.edu/art/faculty/alison-pearlman">Alison Pearlman</a>, author of a new book on menus called <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572842601/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1572842601&amp;linkId=68bc4a00828a526341db06aacc40aa09">May We Suggest</a>, a menu has to persuade diners that they want what the restaurant is selling. So how do menus do that&mdash;and are they somehow subconsciously manipulating our choices? Are there universal principles of effective menu design that savvy diners can identify and outsmart? Listen in this episode as we decode the history and science of the not-so-humble menu.

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 book on menus called May We Suggest, a menu has to persuade diners that they want what the restaurant is selling. So how do menus do that&mdash;and are they somehow subconsciously manipulating our choices? Are there universal principles of effective menu design that savvy diners can identify and outsmart? Listen in this episode as we decode the history and science of the not-so-humble menu.

Menu Mind Control

<h2>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 century United States, passenger pigeon pie was a cherished comfort food, long before chicken pot pie became commonplace. And, for dessert, Americans a century ago might have enjoyed a superlatively buttery Ansault pear, reckoned to be the greatest pear ever grown. What did these foods beloved by previous generations taste like? Well, apart from some written descriptions, we&#8217;ll never know: they&#8217;re all extinct. Join us this episode as culinary geographer <a href="http://lenorenewman.com/about-lenore/">Lenore Newman</a> takes us on a tour of lost foods—and the lessons they can teach us as we fight to save our current favorite foods from disappearing forever.</h2> <cite>&#8220;Shooting wild pigeons in Iowa,&#8221; illustration from the 2 July 1867 edition of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (vol. XXV, no. 625, p. 8), from <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-full-page-spread-that-appeared-in-the-2-July-1867-edition-of-Frank-Leslies_fig1_282740625">&#8220;Large-scale live capture of Passenger Pigeons Ectopistes migratorius for sporting purposes: Overlooked illustrated documentation,&#8221;</a> by Julian Hume.</cite> &#8220;This project started because of a bird,&#8221; <a href="http://lenorenewman.com/about-lenore/">Lenore Newman</a> told Gastropod. &#8220;And that bird was Martha.&#8221; Newman&#8217;s project is a new book titled <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1770414355/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1770414355&amp;linkId=40fd4ac02570e9925c160c968b2c2da8">Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food</a>; Martha was a passenger pigeon and the last living member of her species—an &#8220;endling,&#8221; as such lonely creatures are evocatively called. Her death, on September 1st, 1914, represented the first time that humanity watched a species disappear, in full awareness of the concept of extinction and our role in causing this particular one. &#8220;There was no denying it was us,&#8221; said Newman: somehow, together, we had eaten so many pigeons that we had wiped the most abundant bird in North America off the face of the planet. But the passenger pigeon wasn&#8217;t our first culinary extinction. This episode, Newman takes us on a tour through the foods we have eaten to their end, such as the Pleistocene megafauna, which early humans destroyed as our numbers spread around the world, and the leek-flavored silphium that was so valuable its last stalks were hoarded, alongside gold and jewels, by Roman emperors. In each case, we sift through the evidence that points to human appetite as the leading cause of extinction, and unpack the response of a bewildered, bereft humanity. <cite><a href="https://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=1535934&amp;AucID=3193&amp;Lot=980&amp;Val=934b8206059deb5bf3b36bfe702e5958">Gold coin</a> from Cyrene, from between 308-250 BC; the tails side depicts silphium.</cite> The Romans clung to the belief that their beloved silphium could perhaps spontaneous reappear someday; the idea that that something could be gone forever was simply, at the time, inconceivable. The concept of extinction—along with its mirror, evolution—wasn&#8217;t formulated until the end of the eighteenth century, and it finally gave humans a framework within which to understand their actions. But, as Newman describes, the pace of culinary extinctions has only increased since then, with thousands and thousands of varieties of plants and breeds of animals vanishing in the early 20th century. Why have we allowed so many of the foods we love to vanish? What impact has their loss had—and what lessons can it teach us for the future? Listen in this episode as Newman helps us tackle these morbid questions, leaving us with some hope, as well as a whole new perspective on chicken. <h1>Episode Notes</h1> <h3><a href="http://lenorenewman.com/about-lenore/">Lenore Newman</a>&#8216;s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1770414355/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1770414355&amp;linkId=40fd4ac02570e9925c160c968b2c2da8">Lost Feast</a></h3> Lenore Newman holds a Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment at the <a href="https://www.ufv.ca">University of the Fraser Valley</a>, where she is currently an associate professor of <a href="https://www.ufv.ca/geography/">geography and the environment</a>. Her most recent book is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1770414355/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=1770414355&amp;linkId=40fd4ac02570e9925c160c968b2c2da8">Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food</a>; prior to that, she authored <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0889774595/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0889774595&amp;linkId=83d175b8b1c7058002dd27cf7ea7c2f4">Speaking in Cod Tongues: A Canadian Culinary Journey</a>. <cite>The Ansault pear, painted by Deborah G. Passmore on 10/13/1897, <a href="https://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/PacWest/Corvallis/ncgr/pwc/pyrus-art.html">from the collection</a> of the USDA National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland.</cite> The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://gastropod.com/of-ghost-foods-and-culinary-extinction/">Of Ghost Foods and Culinary Extinction</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://gastropod.com">Gastropod</a>.

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 century United States, passenger pigeon pie was a cherished comfort food, long before chicken pot pie became commonplace. And, for dessert, Americans a century ago might have enjoyed a superlatively buttery Ansault pear, reckoned to be the greatest pear ever grown. What did these foods beloved by previous generations taste like? Well, apart from some written descriptions, we&#8217;ll never know: they&#8217;re all extinct. Join us this episode as culinary geographer Lenore Newman takes us on a tour of lost foods—and the lessons they can teach us as we fight to save our current favorite foods from disappearing forever. &#8220;Shooting wild pigeons in Iowa,&#8221; illustration from the 2 July 1867 edition of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (vol. XXV, no. 625, p. 8), from &#8220;Large-scale live capture of Passenger Pigeons Ectopistes migratorius for sporting purposes: Overlooked illustrated documentation,&#8221; by Julian Hume. &#8220;This project started because of a bird,&#8221; Lenore Newman told Gastropod. &#8220;And that bird was Martha.&#8221; Newman&#8217;s project is a new book titled Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food; Martha was a passenger pigeon and the last living member of her species—an &#8220;endling,&#8221; as such lonely creatures are evocatively called. Her death, on September 1st, 1914, represented the first time that humanity watched a species disappear, in full awareness of the concept of extinction and our role in causing this particular one. &#8220;There was no denying it was us,&#8221; said Newman: somehow, together, we had eaten so many pigeons that we had wiped the most abundant bird in North America off the face of the planet. But the passenger pigeon wasn&#8217;t our first culinary extinction. This episode, Newman takes us on a tour through the foods we have eaten to their end, such as the Pleistocene megafauna, which early humans destroyed as our numbers spread around the world, and the leek-flavored silphium that was so valuable its last stalks were hoarded, alongside gold and jewels, by Roman emperors. In each case, we sift through the evidence that points to human appetite as the leading cause of extinction, and unpack the response of a bewildered, bereft humanity. Gold coin from Cyrene, from between 308-250 BC; the tails side depicts silphium. The Romans clung to the belief that their beloved silphium could perhaps spontaneous reappear someday; the idea that that something could be gone forever was simply, at the time, inconceivable. The concept of extinction—along with its mirror, evolution—wasn&#8217;t formulated until the end of the eighteenth century, and it finally gave humans a framework within which to understand their actions. But, as Newman describes, the pace of culinary extinctions has only increased since then, with thousands and thousands of varieties of plants and breeds of animals vanishing in the early 20th century. Why have we allowed so many of the foods we love to vanish? What impact has their loss had—and what lessons can it teach us for the future? Listen in this episode as Newman helps us tackle these morbid questions, leaving us with some hope, as well as a whole new perspective on chicken. Episode Notes Lenore Newman&#8216;s Lost Feast Lenore Newman holds a Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment at the University of the Fraser Valley, where she is currently an associate professor of geography and the environment. Her most recent book is Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food; prior to that, she authored Speaking in Cod Tongues: A Canadian Culinary Journey. The Ansault pear, painted by Deborah G. Passmore on 10/13/1897, from the collection of the USDA National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland. The post Of Ghost Foods and Culinary Extinction appeared first on Gastropod.

Of Ghost Foods and Culinary Extinction

Tiki bars are hot these days: you can enjoy a fruity tropical drink while surrounded by faux-Polynesian d&eacute;cor in most major cities around the U.S. and elsewhere, with new tiki spots opening every month. The trend is a revival of a nearly century-old American tradition&mdash;but the knowledge of how to make these classic tiki cocktails had been all but lost over the intervening decades. It took an amateur sleuth who went on a deep dive into cocktail archaeology and recipe cryptography to bring back the lost flavors. But, while the drinks he rediscovered are delicious, does the classic tiki bar interior, adorned with carvings that resemble traditional Polynesian gods, stand the test of time? Listen in for tales of Hollywood celebrities, backyard luaus, and a savvy restaurateur with a wooden leg.

Tiki bars are hot these days: you can enjoy a fruity tropical drink while surrounded by faux-Polynesian d&eacute;cor in most major cities around the U.S. and elsewhere, with new tiki spots opening every month. The trend is a revival of a nearly century-old American tradition&mdash;but the knowledge of how to make these classic tiki cocktails had been all but lost over the intervening decades. It took an amateur sleuth who went on a deep dive into cocktail archaeology and recipe cryptography to bring back the lost flavors. But, while the drinks he rediscovered are delicious, does the classic tiki bar interior, adorned with carvings that resemble traditional Polynesian gods, stand the test of time? Listen in for tales of Hollywood celebrities, backyard luaus, and a savvy restaurateur with a wooden leg.

Tiki Time!

You&rsquo;ve probably heard the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/23/17594864/crispr-cas9-gene-editing">hype</a>: CRISPR will <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2019/05/14/crispr-biotech-biosciences/">revolutionize biotech</a>, <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/11/blood-diseases-show-crisprs-potential-therapy/">cure disease</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/should-we-bring-extinct-species-back-dead">resurrect extinct species</a>, and even create new-and-(not-so)-improved <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-mutation-in-crispr-babies-may-shorten-lifespan/">humans</a>. But what is CRISPR&mdash;and what&rsquo;s it doing in our food? The first generation of genetically modified crops, or GMOs, were labelled &ldquo;Frankenfoods&rdquo; by critics and are banned in the European Union. Can CRISPR succeed where fish-tomatoes failed? And what&rsquo;s yoghurt got to do with it? Listen in this episode for the CRISPR story you haven&rsquo;t heard&mdash;and for a taste of our CRISPRized future.

You&rsquo;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&mdash;and what&rsquo;s it doing in our food? The first generation of genetically modified crops, or GMOs, were labelled &ldquo;Frankenfoods&rdquo; by critics and are banned in the European Union. Can CRISPR succeed where fish-tomatoes failed? And what&rsquo;s yoghurt got to do with it? Listen in this episode for the CRISPR story you haven&rsquo;t heard&mdash;and for a taste of our CRISPRized future.

What’s CRISPR Doing in our Food?

We launched Gastropod in September 2014, which means we&rsquo;re turning five this month, and that&rsquo;s approximately 100 in podcast years. We&rsquo;re celebrating our birthday with a special episode featuring highlights from the past five years&rsquo; worth of episodes, as chosen by you, our listeners&mdash;served up alongside a generous slice of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/168177349X/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=168177349X&amp;linkId=fa6de73095bf9d4015817d9e5977ad3e">cake science and history</a>. Join the party and listen in now as we revisit fan favorites and behind-the-scenes highlights from our first half-decade, and then sit down with this souvenir list: 25 of our favorite fun facts from Gastropod, or five for each of the five years we&rsquo;ve been making the show!

We launched Gastropod in September 2014, which means we&rsquo;re turning five this month, and that&rsquo;s approximately 100 in podcast years. We&rsquo;re celebrating our birthday with a special episode featuring highlights from the past five years&rsquo; worth of episodes, as chosen by you, our listeners&mdash;served up alongside a generous slice of cake science and history. Join the party and listen in now as we revisit fan favorites and behind-the-scenes highlights from our first half-decade, and then sit down with this souvenir list: 25 of our favorite fun facts from Gastropod, or five for each of the five years we&rsquo;ve been making the show!

Happy Birthday to Us: Gastropod Turns Five

<h2>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 not much else. The real celebrations happen on September 16, which is Mexican Independence Day. At Gastropod, we&#8217;re always down to party, so here&#8217;s to Mexico&#8217;s true national holiday—and its true national dish: mole! But what is mole? Listen in this episode as we trace mole&#8217;s complicated evolution from medieval Moors to the invention of the blender, and from something that had been considered peasant food to a special occasion showstopper.</h2> <a href="https://www.rachellaudan.com/">Rachel Laudan</a> is a food historian and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520286316/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0520286316&amp;linkId=36075b2b89bda7103461edcbf7a1b9e6">Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History</a>—but, when she started researching mole, the first document she uncovered was hardly deep in the archives. When she first visited Mexico in the 1990s, Laudan went to a restaurant famous for its mole. &#8220;And, of course, they had the statutory place mat with the story of mole poblano being invented in a convent in the eighteenth century,&#8221; she told us. According to the origin story on the place mat, some nuns, in a panic because an archbishop was visiting and they had nothing to serve him, threw a bunch of spices in a pot and somehow came up with the perfect rich, chocolate-brown sauce. &#8220;That, to me, just sounds like propaganda,&#8221; said Fernando Lopez, one of three siblings whose father founded <a href="http://www.ilovemole.com/">Guelaguetza</a>, an Angeleno restaurant that is a temple to Oaxacan mole. He believes mole is far too complex to have been created overnight. Plus, mole comes in many varieties and colors. Guelaguetza serves six kinds of mole—mole negro, mole rojo, mole coloradito, mole amarillo, mole verde, and mole estofado—but <a href="http://moravian.academia.edu/SandraAguilar">Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez</a>, associate professor of Latin American history at Moravian College in Pennsylvania, told us that she could name ten versions off the top of her head, and that each town in the south of Mexico will have its own variation on the classic recipes. So where does this delicious and extremely labor-intensive sauce come from? This episode, with the help of chef <a href="https://www.elnaranjorestaurant.com/">Iliana de la Vega</a>, Rachel Laudan, Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez, and the Lopez siblings, we trace the varied elements that make up mole: the indigenous tradition of hand-ground sauces, the Old World ingredients and Baroque aesthetic, the surprising Islamic influence, and, yes, the nuns. And we tell the story of how mole was elevated from its humble, southern origins to become a sophisticated sauce that doubles as Mexico&#8217;s national dish. Plus, we&#8217;ve got the expert verdict on jarred mole pastes, for those of you who can&#8217;t face spending two to three days roasting and grinding nuts, chiles, and spices. Listen in now for a deep dive—literally, someone falls into a bucket of the stuff—into the mysteries of mole. <h1>Episode Notes</h1> <h3><a href="http://www.ilovemole.com/">Guelaguetza</a></h3> Guelaguetza&#8217;s website is <a href="http://www.ilovemole.com/">ilovemole.com</a>, and the restaurant in LA&#8217;s Koreatown is known for its delicious mole, as well as other Oaxacan specialties. We spoke to three of the four Lopez siblings—Bricia, Paulina, and Fernando Jr.—who run it today. You can buy mole paste from <a href="https://store.ilovemole.com/">their online store</a> (they have three varieties: rojo, negro, and coloradito) and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/141973542X/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=141973542X&amp;linkId=d2070529e2b9c99d1795d4300c33285a">order their new cookbook here</a>. <h3>Iliana de la Vega and <a href="https://www.elnaranjorestaurant.com/">El Naranjo</a></h3> Chef Iliana de la Vega grew up in Mexico City, but her mother was from Oaxaca, and when she opened her first restaurant, El Naranjo, it was in Oaxaca. So many people asked for her mole recipe that she ended up opening a cooking school there, too. In 2006, she moved to Austin, Texas, and re-opened <a href="https://www.elnaranjorestaurant.com/">El Naranjo</a> there; this year, she was a semi-finalist in the James Beard Awards for best chef in the Southwest. <h3><a href="https://www.rachellaudan.com/">Rachel Laudan</a></h3> <a href="https://www.rachellaudan.com/">Rachel Laudan</a> is a food historian whose most recent book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520286316/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=gastropod-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0520286316&amp;linkId=36075b2b89bda7103461edcbf7a1b9e6">Cuisine and Empire</a>, won Best Book in Culinary History from the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award in 2014. Her <a href="https://www.rachellaudan.com/blog">blog</a> is required reading. <h3><a href="http://moravian.academia.edu/SandraAguilar">Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez</a></h3> <a href="http://moravian.academia.edu/SandraAguilar">Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez</a> is assistant professor of history at Moravian College, and author of the recent article, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15528014.2018.1516403">&#8220;Mole and mestizaje: race and national identity in twentieth-century Mexico.&#8221;</a> The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://gastropod.com/celebrate-mexicos-true-national-holiday-with-the-mysteries-of-mole/">Celebrate Mexico&#8217;s True National Holiday with the Mysteries of Mole</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://gastropod.com">Gastropod</a>.

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 not much else. The real celebrations happen on September 16, which is Mexican Independence Day. At Gastropod, we&#8217;re always down to party, so here&#8217;s to Mexico&#8217;s true national holiday—and its true national dish: mole! But what is mole? Listen in this episode as we trace mole&#8217;s complicated evolution from medieval Moors to the invention of the blender, and from something that had been considered peasant food to a special occasion showstopper. Rachel Laudan is a food historian and author of Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History—but, when she started researching mole, the first document she uncovered was hardly deep in the archives. When she first visited Mexico in the 1990s, Laudan went to a restaurant famous for its mole. &#8220;And, of course, they had the statutory place mat with the story of mole poblano being invented in a convent in the eighteenth century,&#8221; she told us. According to the origin story on the place mat, some nuns, in a panic because an archbishop was visiting and they had nothing to serve him, threw a bunch of spices in a pot and somehow came up with the perfect rich, chocolate-brown sauce. &#8220;That, to me, just sounds like propaganda,&#8221; said Fernando Lopez, one of three siblings whose father founded Guelaguetza, an Angeleno restaurant that is a temple to Oaxacan mole. He believes mole is far too complex to have been created overnight. Plus, mole comes in many varieties and colors. Guelaguetza serves six kinds of mole—mole negro, mole rojo, mole coloradito, mole amarillo, mole verde, and mole estofado—but Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez, associate professor of Latin American history at Moravian College in Pennsylvania, told us that she could name ten versions off the top of her head, and that each town in the south of Mexico will have its own variation on the classic recipes. So where does this delicious and extremely labor-intensive sauce come from? This episode, with the help of chef Iliana de la Vega, Rachel Laudan, Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez, and the Lopez siblings, we trace the varied elements that make up mole: the indigenous tradition of hand-ground sauces, the Old World ingredients and Baroque aesthetic, the surprising Islamic influence, and, yes, the nuns. And we tell the story of how mole was elevated from its humble, southern origins to become a sophisticated sauce that doubles as Mexico&#8217;s national dish. Plus, we&#8217;ve got the expert verdict on jarred mole pastes, for those of you who can&#8217;t face spending two to three days roasting and grinding nuts, chiles, and spices. Listen in now for a deep dive—literally, someone falls into a bucket of the stuff—into the mysteries of mole. Episode Notes Guelaguetza Guelaguetza&#8217;s website is ilovemole.com, and the restaurant in LA&#8217;s Koreatown is known for its delicious mole, as well as other Oaxacan specialties. We spoke to three of the four Lopez siblings—Bricia, Paulina, and Fernando Jr.—who run it today. You can buy mole paste from their online store (they have three varieties: rojo, negro, and coloradito) and order their new cookbook here. Iliana de la Vega and El Naranjo Chef Iliana de la Vega grew up in Mexico City, but her mother was from Oaxaca, and when she opened her first restaurant, El Naranjo, it was in Oaxaca. So many people asked for her mole recipe that she ended up opening a cooking school there, too. In 2006, she moved to Austin, Texas, and re-opened El Naranjo there; this year, she was a semi-finalist in the James Beard Awards for best chef in the Southwest. Rachel Laudan Rachel Laudan is a food historian whose most recent book, Cuisine and Empire, won Best Book in Culinary History from the International Association of Culinary Professionals Award in 2014. Her blog is required reading. Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez is assistant professor of history at Moravian College, and author of the recent article, &#8220;Mole and mestizaje: race and national identity in twentieth-century Mexico.&#8221; The post Celebrate Mexico&#8217;s True National Holiday with the Mysteries of Mole appeared first on Gastropod.

Celebrate Mexico’s True National Holiday with the Mysteries of Mole

This episode, we tell an age-old tale: an innocent young berry heads west to make its fame and fortune&mdash;but sells its soul in the process. In order for our hero, the strawberry, to defeat its nemesis, a fungus called wilt, the aromatic red fruit makes a deal with the devil&mdash;and duly becomes America&rsquo;s favorite berry. But its success relies on fumigants, toxic gases injected into the soil that kill everything in their path. So what are fumigants; what&rsquo;s their effect on farm workers, local communities, and the environment; and can the strawberry break free of their poisonous grip? Listen in this episode to find out!

This episode, we tell an age-old tale: an innocent young berry heads west to make its fame and fortune&mdash;but sells its soul in the process. In order for our hero, the strawberry, to defeat its nemesis, a fungus called wilt, the aromatic red fruit makes a deal with the devil&mdash;and duly becomes America&rsquo;s favorite berry. But its success relies on fumigants, toxic gases injected into the soil that kill everything in their path. So what are fumigants; what&rsquo;s their effect on farm workers, local communities, and the environment; and can the strawberry break free of their poisonous grip? Listen in this episode to find out!

Running on Fumes: Strawberry’s Dirty Secret

Based on all the hype, you&rsquo;d be forgiven for believing that the fish oils known as omega-3s are solution to every problem. Heart disease, dementia, depression, even obesity&mdash;the list of ailments that experts claim a daily dose of omega-3 can help prevent seems endless. And with more than ten percent of Americans taking a capsule of fish oil daily, omega-3s are one of the most profitable supplements in the world, too. Listen in this episode, as author <a href="https://paulgreenberg.org/authorbio.html">Paul Greenberg</a> and scientist <a href="http://researchfaculty.brighamandwomens.org/BRIProfile.aspx?id=4718">JoAnn Manson</a> help us figure out what these supposedly miracle molecules are, and what consuming them is doing to our bodies&mdash;and to our oceans.

Based on all the hype, you&rsquo;d be forgiven for believing that the fish oils known as omega-3s are solution to every problem. Heart disease, dementia, depression, even obesity&mdash;the list of ailments that experts claim a daily dose of omega-3 can help prevent seems endless. And with more than ten percent of Americans taking a capsule of fish oil daily, omega-3s are one of the most profitable supplements in the world, too. Listen in this episode, as author Paul Greenberg and scientist JoAnn Manson help us figure out what these supposedly miracle molecules are, and what consuming them is doing to our bodies&mdash;and to our oceans.

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