The Sporkful
We obsess about food to learn more about people. The Sporkful isn't for foodies, it's for eaters. Hosted by Dan Pashman of Cooking Channel's You're Eating It Wrong and the book Eat More Better. A Stitcher Production.
Episodes
May 10, 2021 • 43 min
In colonial times, lobster was routinely served to prisoners. It was called “the cockroach of the sea.” So what changed? On today’s show, we’re bringing you an episode from our friends at Gastropod, a podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history. They take a deep dive into the fascinating history, and biology, of the lobster. (Like, why is it so difficult to figure out a lobster’s age and how it reproduces?) A...
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April 26, 2021 • 31 min
The first run of cascatelli sold out almost immediately. In the weeks that followed, the pasta basically went viral. In this update, you’ll hear how Dan and his family reacted. Then, Dan weighs his options for the future of cascatelli. For help, he turns to die maker Chris Maldari, and Cara Nicoletti and Ariel Hauptman from Seemore Meats & Veggies.
For more information on cascatelli ordering and shipping, check out these FAQs ...
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April 19, 2021 • 29 min
The indie musician Michelle Zauner (who records under the name Japanese Breakfast) always had a complicated relationship with her mother, Chongmi. Michelle was born in Seoul and raised in Oregon, where she never felt like she was truly Korean or truly American. While it was sometimes hard for mother and daughter to understand each other, the thread that kept them together was their shared “Korean appetite,” as Michelle writes in he...
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April 12, 2021 • 33 min
In 2016, the Library of Congress posted Rosa Parks' personal documents online for the first time. Buried under postcards from Martin Luther King and lists of volunteers for the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a pancake recipe, written on the back of an envelope — which included the addition of peanut butter to the batter. On this week's episode, we visit Adrienne Cannon, a specialist in African-American history at the Library of...
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April 5, 2021 • 27 min
How does a traumatic brain injury affect the way you cook and eat? Filmmaker Cheryl Green, who has a brain injury, satirizes her own experiences in the kitchen in a short video called “Cooking With Brain Injury.” This week Dan talks with Cheryl about what it means to live with an invisible disability, how it affects her cooking, and why asking for help can be a beautiful thing. Plus, Cheryl records herself making a meal. (You can f...
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March 18, 2021 • 39 min
After months of revisions, Dan thinks he’s got his shape. But he’s been working on this for so long, he’s not sure he knows what’s good anymore. So he brings in an all-star panel of taste testers, including Sohla El-Waylly, Francis Lam, Dorie Greenspan, Christopher Kimball, Claire Saffitz, Jet Tila, and Bill Nye the Science Guy. Then J. Kenji López-Alt, Justin Warner, and Samin Nosrat help Dan pick a name for his shape before, fina...
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March 15, 2021 • 39 min
The first test batch of Dan’s pasta rolls off the presses, but problems crop up almost immediately. In order to save his shape, Dan has to make some big decisions that come with a high price tag. Then just as things start coming together, a die redesign goes very wrong.
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March 8, 2021 • 36 min
Dan dusts himself off and goes on the hunt for a pasta company to partner with. Plus, he edges closer to a design for his shape. But the real challenge is convincing pasta industry insiders to take him seriously.
Want to see photos and videos from Dan’s journey? Follow The Sporkful on Instagram!
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March 1, 2021 • 37 min
Dan seeks inspiration for the design of his new pasta shape, a process that includes an epic pasta tasting and a chat with an architect who points him to a very radical concept. But after a meeting with a pasta maker, Dan learns exactly how much these big ideas will cost him.
Want to see photos and videos from Dan’s journey? Follow The Sporkful on Instagram!
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March 1, 2021 • 30 min
Spaghetti doesn’t hold sauce. Angel hair goes from zero to mush. Wagon wheels are gimmicks. These are just a few of Dan’s many frustrations with classic pasta shapes. Three years ago he set out to do better when he embarked on a quest to invent a new pasta shape, actually get it made, and actually sell it. And things have not gone as planned. Starting today, we’re telling the story of Dan’s quest in a five-part series; part 2 is al...
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February 25, 2021 • 2 min
For the last three years, Dan has been on a quest to invent a new pasta shape, actually get it made, and actually sell it. And things have not gone as planned. Starting this Monday, March 1, we’re telling the story of this quest in a five-part series.//
Get 500+ more great Sporkful episodes from our catalog and lots of other Stitcher goodness when you sign up for Stitcher Premium: www.StitcherPremium.com/Sporkful (promo code: ...
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February 22, 2021 • 29 min
Putting our own homemade vodka to the test... Dan’s friend Alex Goldmark insists that cheap vodka makes his face turn red; Dan doesn’t believe him, because Dan thinks all vodka is the same. We team up with NPR’s Planet Money, where Alex happens to be the senior supervising producer, to settle this debate once and for all. Along the way we visit a vodka distillery, learn about the origins of Grey Goose, and make our own vodka. Then ...
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February 15, 2021 • 35 min
It’s not for foodies, it’s for lovers… Could listening to The Sporkful be the fertile soil out of which true love grows? We put out the call for Sporkful listeners looking for love, and hundreds of you responded. This week, we listen in on two blind Zoom dates that resulted from our extremely unscientific matchmaking. Is The Sporkful enough of a spark to ignite a grease fire of passion for two eaters? Or will these dates turn as co...
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February 8, 2021 • 35 min
Cauliflower rice biryani anyone?… When Kumail Nanjiani was cast as a Marvel superhero, he decided to transform his body. Gone was the guy who played a schlubby coder on Silicon Valley — Kumail got jacked. To many of his fans, and to anyone who heard him wax poetic about his favorite foods on The Sporkful four years ago, this change was shocking. But has Kumail himself changed? This week he returns, now with his creative partner and...
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February 1, 2021 • 40 min
Plus, a surprising new update… Do you drink a Guinness on St. Patrick's Day, even though you're not Irish? Do you eat chips and salsa on Cinco de Mayo, even though you're not Mexican? Here at Sporkful HQ, we sure do. When one culture's holiday becomes everyone's excuse to party, what's gained and what's lost? And how does it feel when it's your holiday? A few years back Dan found out, when he went to...
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January 25, 2021 • 48 min
Three personal stories about an overlooked problem…Public discussions about eating disorders tend to focus on women, and in the past, so have our episodes on the subject. But millions of men also struggle with some form of disordered eating, though they’re far less likely to be diagnosed or to seek treatment. Today we hear stories from three men—in three different stages of life—who have complicated relationships with food. The com...
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January 18, 2021 • 29 min
And why hunger in America became partisan… When Julián Castro sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, he made hunger one of his key campaign issues. The former HUD secretary and San Antonio mayor joins us to discuss food policy, the power and limitations of boycotts, and what he thinks will be different under President Biden. But first: Secretary Castro gets the true Sporkful treatment when he and Dan discuss his DI...
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January 11, 2021 • 28 min
The laws of gastrophysics at work… How do background music, the shape of a spoon, and your DNA affect your taste? These are just a few of the questions that psychologist Charles Spence looks at in his research in the emerging field of gastrophysics. This week, we talk with Charles about the hidden factors that influence our eating experience. Then, Dan and his daughter Becky put the gastrophysicist’s theories to the test at a neigh...
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January 4, 2021 • 29 min
And the importance of representation in food photography… Elle Simone Scott once said that a food stylist’s job is to tell the story of the food — and in her work on shows for Bravo, Food Network, and America’s Test Kitchen, she’s gone to great lengths to do just that. Combing through boxes of cereal for the best-looking cornflakes? Check. Throwing ice cubes across the room to capture the perfect splash? No problem. Elle joins us t...
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December 21, 2020 • 48 min
What foods do Sporkful listeners resolve to eat more of in the new year, and why? And what’s Dan’s New Year’s food resolution for 2021? All is revealed in this annual tradition. Plus we replay one of our favorite episodes of the year… Earlier this year (before Covid), Sotheby’s put a trove of Georgia O'Keeffe items up for sale. It included documents that were far less valuable than her paintings, but to us, much more exciting: ...
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