Food: Listening List

This month we’ll be exploring food through historical, cultural, and scientific lenses with two episodes chosen by Juleen, Chicago PBClubber.

• A Charleston Feast for Reconciliation (Gravy Episode 17). The Gravy podcast shares stories of the changing American South through the foods we eat. In this episode, Gravy brings us the story of an unusual dinner party that took place in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. It was held in Charleston, which is in the center of discussion today about race in America, and it brought white and black residents together. This episode tells us the story of that dinner, and how it’s still resonating today.
• The Cocktail Hour (Gastropod podcast). Gastropod is food with a side of science and history that explores the hidden history and surprising science behind a different food or farm-related topic. In this episode, the hosts take on The Cocktail. In addition to its peculiar history as a medicinal tonic, plenty of hard science lies behind the perfect cocktail. from the relationship between taste perception and temperature to the all-important decision of whether to shake or stir. What’s more, according to historian David Wondrich, mixology is “the first legitimate American culinary art”—and one that has since caught on around the world.