Some food podcasts give you tips about brining or offer great sourdough recipes, but others focus on food in ways more about story and emotion — our memories of food, and nostalgia for it, the culture and history associated with it, the impact what we eat has on the world, and a reminder what a joy a good meal is.
These 12 shows aren’t going to beef up your recipe box, but they will feed your soul (and get your stomach growling). Looking to hear two comedians hilariously reviewing Pizza Hut for the fifth time? Looking to see inside Henry Winkler’s refrigerator and hear him talk about it? Or are you hungry for a madcap podcast co-hosted by a magical pickle? Devour an episode from everything on this menu, then come back for seconds. (All food puns intended.)
Doughboys
Doughboys is a show that offers funny but serious fast food restaurant reviews by the duo of Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger. The guys bring on other comedians to test and either praise or totally roast staple items from chains like Taco Bell to more localised spots like Del Taco. Episodes are long — they start with a brief history of the establishment, plenty of banter between Mike, Nick, and the guest (perhaps too much for some listeners’ taste), and a lengthy, detailed overview of the food — what was ordered, and how the joint rates on a 5-fork scale. The more you listen, the more you get to know Mike and Nick and their combative dynamic, and realise this show is just as much about their friendship as it is about the burgers.
The Sporkful
The best, most seasoned (pun intended,) most reliable food podcast is The Sporkful, Dan Pashman’s show “for eaters, not foodies.” Dan covers food from outside the recipe box: issues food causes in relationships; religious, racial, and cultural issues in the food space, food etiquette, interviews with people doing interesting things in the space, and more. Dan even did extensive research and testing to invent his own Sporkful-branded pasta shape called Cascatelli, which you can actually buy.
Richard’s Famous Food Podcast
Richard’s Famous Food Podcast isn’t just unlike any food podcast, it is unlike any other podcast. Host Richard Parks III is guided by his wild imagination to produce colourful, madcap pieces that play with sound and structure. One episode takes you on a road trip through L.A. with Wolfgang Puck, another interviews Avery Truffleman about truffles, another sets out to figure out how Everything Is Alive’s Ian Chillag got an air-filled ketchup packet in a Goldburger order. It sounds like what Pee Wee’s Playhouse looks like. You may not learn how to pickle a cucumber, but you’ll get a song about and an interview with a very spunky pickle.
Green Eggs and Dan
In Green Eggs and Dan, Dan Ahdoot is raids the refrigerators of comedians and invites you to gawk at what’s inside. Guests like Henry Winkler, Eric André, and Jacques Pépin open their fridges wide and snap a pic, and let Dan go through every item, from too-many-cans of White Claw to specially sourced BBQ sauce. It’s like a therapy session where instead of getting asked “how does that make you feel?” they’re asked, “what percentage fat of oat milk is that and why?” The interviews are funny, and you might find yourself inspired to try out a new brand of yogurt.
The Food That Built America
From The History Channel, The Food That Built America tells the untold stories of American foods, viewed through a historical lens: how an ambitious salesman created a fast food empire, how TGIFridays went from a singles’ club to a family establishment, and the parallel rise of Pizza Hut and Dominoes. With a focus on the colourful characters with strange inventions that took off, quirky food combos that struck a chord with Americans, and cultural moments that created a perfect storm for a brand, restaurant, or recipe to go big, it’s a show for anyone who’s ever eaten.
Climavores
There are scientific podcasts that talk about how global warming impacts the way we eat, and food podcasts that talk about the ways our food choices impact the environment. On Climavores, journalists Tamar Haspel and Mike Grunwald take what they know from their perspective fields (Mike studies public policy; Tamar writes about the intersection of food and science) to tackle food and the environment from all sides — scientifically, culturally, and deliciously. They’re on the same page about one thing — they want us to understand how our eating are impacting global warming, but they don’t always agree.
Rebel Eater’s Club
Advice about losing weight is everywhere, and Rebel Eater’s Club is a huge F-You to diet culture. Hosted by writer and activist Virgie Tovar, it is revolutionising the conversation we have about food, with a focus on what makes you feel happy and good, and not about what will make you fit into your jeans. (But post-pandemic, who is wearing those, anyway?) Pizza is not the enemy, diet culture is. Let this podcast plant a new idea in your brain: if you feel great, you look great. And pizza tastes better than skinny feels.
Biscuits & Jam
Want a side of music with your grits? On Biscuits & Jam, Southern Living’s editor-in-chief sits down with musicians from down under (not Australian down under — you know) like Trisha Yearwood, Alton Brown, and Reba McEntire for a celebration of Southern culture about growing up and getting inspired. Stories swing from tales of the Grand Ol’ Opry to Dump Cooking. (If you know what that is, you have to listen. And if you don’t know what that is, you also have to listen.) And yes, there is a Dolly Parton episode.
Bad Table Manners
When it comes to South Asian food, there is a social hierarchy that qualifies certain dishes into “high” and “low” food culture–it’s a paradigm that shouldn’t exist. On Whetstone Magazine’s Bad Table Manners, Delhi-based anthropologist Meher Varma uses narrative storytelling to invite us into an intimate look at micro contexts of homey households, beloved restaurants, bustling streets and neighbourhoods, and vibrant communities in South India. You’ll also learn about how global gastronomic trends are changing the food scene there. Bad Table Manners is a fun, mind-shifting look at food. Pull up a chair.
Brought To You By…
Brought To You By… is a retired podcast from Business Insider about brands, but stay with me. It is home to some of the best audio stories about our biggest name brands in food and the fascinating stories behind them. There is an episode about Santa Clause, KFC, and Japan that I want to give everyone for Christmas; an investigative report into the Oreo’s creamy centre and the little girl who risked divine punishment to taste it. Host Charlie Herman even explains how Donald and Ivana Trump tried to make Pizza Hut’s Stuff Crust Pizza happen.
Maintenance Phase
Maintenance Phase is tearing down our most toxic and terrible health trends with tons of actual science and laughter, and whether they’re fact-checking How To Take 9 kg Off Your Man, unpacking the story of Snackwells, or making a mockery of calorie counting, a lot of it comes down to food: the messages the media sends us about it, and the wild ways people are trying to sell it to us. Aubrey and Michael are excellent hosts, using research to challenge the ways we think about health, unafraid to get mad about the lies we’re being told. Get mad along with them.
Gastropod
Gastropod tells stories about food through the lens of history and science. Every other week, co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley present surprising facts and tales about everything from why ketchup is so thick to the almost unbelievable story of how we started eating eel. Each episode is an experience full of interviews, lab and file visits, and even archaeological digs. Cynthia and Nicola are having fun mining the food history books to help us better understand the world. Absorbing all the fascinating food science and history you get on Gastropod might make you the most interesting guest at your next dinner party. (Bet your host doesn’t know how the American mango lost its flavour, and how it might just get it back.)
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