Podcast Dispatches from Vol. 21: What To Read Now with Kim Walker and Mark Nesbitt

For our fifth series of podcasts produced in collaboration with Meant to Be Eaten on Heritage Radio Network, we sit down (virtually) with authors who have contributed to our recently published second issue of 2021, featuring articles on topics including commensality and creative collaboration, the politics of food systems, and race and representation.

For this episode, our Reviews Editor Jaclyn Rohel and her Culinaria research colleague Janita Van Dyk introduce a new feature on recent and upcoming books in Food Studies, “What to Read Now.” This week Jackie and Janita are joined by Kim Walker and Mark Nesbitt, authors of Just the Tonic: A Natural History of Tonic Water (Kew Publishing, 2019; reviewed in Issue 21.1), to explore cinchona-infused sparkling water in the history of medicine, in cocktail cultures, and in the archives.

Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.1: Amy Bentley

For our fourth series of podcasts produced in collaboration with Meant to Be Eaten on Heritage Radio Network, we sit down (virtually) with authors who have contributed to our upcoming first issue of 2021, which continues to feature COVID-19 Dispatches, but also original research articles around the themes of the relationship between food, power and politics, cultivating relationships, and sustaining memories.

For this last episode of our current season, historian Amy Bentley returns to the show to discuss the politics of food and nutrition with Editorial Collective member Melissa Fuster. She traces how the Reagan administration 40 years ago shifted (deliberately or inadvertently) the classification of ketchup from a condiment to a vegetable in an effort to overhaul national school lunch programs and cut government costs, a move that disproportionately affected the health of lower-income children.

Podcast: COVID-19 Dispatches #7

For the seventh episode of our podcast series, produced in collaboration with “Meant to be Eaten” on Heritage Radio Network and dedicated to dispatches from the food world in reaction to the first months of the pandemic (the focus of recently published 20.3 issue), issue editor Bob Valgenti is joined by Dr. Saumya Gupta to discuss her essay, Lockdown Destitution: Delhi, March 2020, in which she describes the enormous challenges faced by millions of working class people in response to India’s national lockdown in March this year, many of whom were forced to flee their cities – places of informal employment (much of it related to selling food, but not deemed “essential” under lockdown) – and the precariousness of education in a country marked by a stark divide in access to the technologies required to accomplish remote learning.

For 30% off single-print issues of “Food in the Time of COVID-19”, use promo code GASTROAUG2020 at checkout.

Podcast: COVID-19 Dispatches #6

For the sixth episode of our podcast series, produced in collaboration with “Meant to be Eaten” on Heritage Radio Network and dedicated to dispatches from the food world in reaction to the first months of the pandemic (the focus of recently published 20.3 issue), issue editor Bob Valgenti is joined by Ashley Rose Young (author of “A COVID-19 Relief Kitchen Created by an Unexpected Advocate”) to discuss the importance of giving voice to and documenting often unseen and unheard – but indispensable – employees in the retail sector and hospitality industry, such as restaurant servers and grocery store employees, many of whom either lost jobs or had no choice but to risk their own health by continuing to work through the pandemic.

For 30% off single print-issues of “Food in the Time of COVID-19”, use promo code GASTROAUG2020 at checkout.