The Secret Ingredient

The Secret Ingredient > All Episodes

January 23, 2016

Hot Peppers: Gary Nabhan (Ep. 10)

By: Rebecca McInroy

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient we talk with Gary Nabhan, author of: Chasing Chiles – Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail; Why Some Like It Hot: Food, Genes and Cultural Diversity; and Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey. Nabhan is an internationally-celebrated nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. He is also the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, where he works to build a more just, nutritious, sustainable and climate-resilient foodshed spanning the U.S./Mexico border.

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

June 14, 2017

Strawberries: Julie Guthman (Ep 27.)

“Strawberries is kind of the quintessence of industrial agriculture in California. It’s the fifth highest value crop in the state. It also got the most heavy pesticide regime, by far, of any other crop in the state. And it kind of captures so much of the dynamics of what’s going on in California.“-Julie Guthman In […]

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May 10, 2017

Seed Saving: Janet Maro (Ep. 26)

“Life begins with the seed germinating…we depend on seed and most of the seed is the seed we will produce, have it, save and use in the next planting season. That’s what most of the farmers in Tanzania still do… It was inherited for generations and generations.” –Janet Maro The seed exchange system that Maro […]

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April 10, 2017

Nutritionism: Aya Kimura (Ep. 25)

James Baldwin said, “the purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.” When considering this sentiment in relationship to “nutritionism” one might look at Aya Kimura‘s book, Hidden Hunger: Gender and the Politics of Smarter Foods, as a work of “art” as she explores the questions that […]

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March 28, 2017

V&B Extra: Food and Trump’s Border Wall

The Lorano Long Conference brought many great thinkers and activists to the campus of The University of Texas in February to talk about, “New Perspectives on the Contemporary Food System in Latin America.” The Secret Ingredient Podcast’s Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy took that opportunity to talk with Dr. Alexis Racelis from the […]

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March 27, 2017

Nutrition: Joan Gussow (Ep. 24)

“Once in a while, I thin I’ve had an original thought, then I look and read around and realize Joan said it first.” -Michael Pollan We take for granted now that part of being healthy is eating a variety of whole foods, but not so long ago talking about food was taboo in the field […]

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January 10, 2017

Tips: Saru Jayaraman (Ep. 23)

“Building unity across divide is possible. Building something even better than we had before, out of terrible tragedy, is possible. A movement for change is never more ripe than when we are, in some cases, at our lowest moment. Because it’s the moment in which we are going to demand absolute transformation, and I have […]

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December 21, 2016

Op-Ed Teaching Public Policy In A Trump Administration: James K. Galbraith

From The New Deal until the present moment the architecture of The United States formed around some basic principles of public policy; principles that will no longer apply under a Trump administration. With all the questions that are on the table when it comes to this transition, Dr. James K. Galbraith asks: “Is the study […]

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December 19, 2016

Ethnic Food: Krishnendu Ray (Ep. 22)

Krishnendu Ray is the chair of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University, and author of The Ethnic Restaurateur. Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy spoke to him Ray on the day after the 2016 presidential election about his book, and the current political landscape, where change and transformation is possible through food.

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