Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.3: L. Stephen Velasquez

For our sixth season 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 third issue of 2021, edited by Krishnendu Ray, and featuring articles and creative pieces which collectively address the issue of “gastropolitics,” as described in that issue’s editorial letter.

Join Editorial Collective member Paula Johnson in conversation with her Smithsonian colleague Stephen Velasquez, author of the recently published “Stirring the Pot: Calendario de Comida 1976, Chicano Art as Food Activism.” Paula and Steve discuss how the Calendario, created by California-based artist collectives in 1975, sought to bring attention to alternative foodways and indigenous food knowledges as part of a broader social justice movement, as well as the broader role of Chicano activists in reimagining colonial histories and identity.

Bonus Podcast Dispatch: “The Next Issue”

As a bonus finale to this season’s podcast series in collaboration with Meant To Be Eaten on Heritage Radio Network, we recorded a roundtable discussion at the 2021 ASFS “Just Food” conference which focussed on what both editors and readers can expect, and would like to see more of, in future issues of Gastronomica. Hosted by Lisa Haushofer, with contributions from Daniel Bender, Paula Johnson, and Amy Trubek.

Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.2: V. Constanza Ocampo-Raeder

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.

In this episode, Editorial Collective member – and editor of issue 21.2 – Paula Johnson welcomes V. Constanza Ocampo-Raeder to discuss her recently published article “When the Rainbows Bring the Crawfish,” which explores human-nature relationships through the social life of camarones, a Peruvian river crustacean. Drawing together stories of landscape, labor and gastronomic revival, Ocampo-Raeder distills the complexity of crawfish-catching from river to plate.