The Secret Ingredient

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December 17, 2015

Charity: Janet Poppendieck (Ep. 8)

By: Rebecca McInroy

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient, we talk with Janet Poppendieck, Professor of Sociology at Hunter College, City University of New York and author of Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement (Penguin, 1999), about the complexities of food charities, governmental food programs, and the overall condition of our economy, our nations growing poor, and the stark realities of inequality we all need to face.

About The Hosts:

Raj Patel is an award winning food writer, activist and academic. The author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller.

Tom Philpott is an award winning food writer for Mother Jones, who’s ground-breaking work on almonds exposed a myriad of environmental and ethical issues around almond production in California.

Rebecca McInroy is an executive producer and host for KUT Radio in Austin, Texas. She is the co-creator, producer and host of various podcasts and shows including, Views and Brews, Two Guys on Your Head, Liner Notes, The Write Up, and The Secret Ingredient.

In each episode we chose one food to investigate, and talk with the people who’s life’s work has been to understand the complex systems of production, distribution, marketing and impact, these foods have on our lives.


Episodes

October 25, 2021

Hope: Frances Moore Lappé

“[Hope] is a key source of energy to enable us to seek solutions together.” -Frances Moore Lappé Hope is different from faith in that we need to act in hope as opposed to just having faith that everything will be okay. But in acting, when it comes to food, we are doing so and operating […]

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July 13, 2021

Guam

“We’re fighting for a worldview. We’re fighting for a different version of what it means to be human on the planet. We’re fighting for a different version of what just relations look like between the human and non-human world.” –Julian Aguon Guam is the secret ingredient for our conversation with indigenous human rights lawyer and […]

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July 15, 2020

Each Others: Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz

“How do we build these understandings from a decolonial, antiracist and antipatriarchal basis? How do we build real solidarity bridges that do not replicate patronising structures of power? How can we learn and build with those who have resisted and re(x)isted, in order to open new imaginaries to heal mother earth, the other, and ourselves?” […]

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May 1, 2020

COVID-19 Series: Rob Wallace

The Secret Ingredient with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, Raj Patel author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones, Tom Philpott welcome back Rob Wallace an evolutionary biologist for his take on the link between global outbreaks of infectious disease and global agriculture. Rob Wallace is […]

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February 6, 2020

Politics and The Green New Deal: Ben Lilliston

“The climate crisis is an emergency, it is a crisis and so we need to make major, major changes in our agriculture system.” Ben Lilliston is the Director of Climate Change and Rural strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He spoke with The Secret Ingredient team–Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy, […]

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January 21, 2020

The Green New Deal for Agriculture: Jim Goodman and Raj Patel

“We need to change society so everybody can fit in and everyone can afford to live in a decarbonized society.” – Jim Goodman  In this episode of The Secret Ingredient host Raj Patel plays double-duty — he is not just a host, but joins Jim Goodman as a guest. The two discuss what A Green […]

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December 9, 2019

The Green New Deal in Texas: Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez

Explore the future of the Green New Deal and what it means for Texas with Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez. Tzintzún is challenging John Cornyn for the 2020 US Senate seat for the State of Texas. She is the Co-founder of the Workers Defense Project and Jolt, and she talked with The Secret Ingredient team–Raj Patel, Tom […]

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November 11, 2019

Social Movement: Naomi Klein

The Secret Ingredient with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, Raj Patel, author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones, Tom Philpott explore the future of the Green New Deal with  Naomi Klein, author of “On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal.”

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