After two decades as the Editor in Chief of Food & Wine magazine, Dana Cowin launched Progressive Hedonist, a platform to bring joy, connection and uplift through food and gathering while tackling one of the seemingly impossible challenges of our lifetime: healing the natural world. On this podcast, Cowin interviews people who also believe in the powerful potential for food to bring change and fuel community.
Leah Thomas, founder of the Intersectional Environmentalist, speaks eloquently about the importance of understanding interrelated systemic inequities and highlights the extraordinary work of Black environmentalists who have inspired her. In October 2024, podcast host Dana Cowin spoke to Thomas about the challenges of working in the eco space. ...
The Complex Question of Food Innovation: Larissa Zimberoff
July 2, 2025
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In the ever-evolving world of food tech, Larissa Zimberoff is a uniquely thoughtful, well-informed and rigorous writer who cares about health, nutrition, innovation, taste, climate and soil. On this episode, host Dana Cowin learns about the Silicon Valley startups that are making new foods and trying to solve problems that we may one day ...
Designing with Community, Trouble and Impermanence in Mind: LinYee Yuan
June 18, 2025
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LinYee Yuan is the founder of Mold, a platform that "hopes to inspire designers to improve food systems through creative, human-centric solutions." For Yuan, the role of "design" is to ask questions, and on the Progressive Hedonist podcast, she posits several thought-provoking ones: Can we build and power our future using agricultural waste ...
Longevity Lessons from the Blue Zones: Dan Buettner
June 11, 2025
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Bestselling author Dan Buettner has unlocked the secrets of longevity by studying Blue Zones, regions in the world where people live beyond the age of 80. Host Dana Cowin asks Buettner what we can learn from these communities now, and how we can lead long and healthy lives when confronted by environmental chaos. Listen in to hear Buettner’s ...
The Restaurant Quest for Well-Being: Johanna Hellrigl
June 4, 2025
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How are restaurants contributing to health issues for people and planet? That is one of the motivating questions for Johanna Hellrigl, chef and co-owner of Ama in Washington, DC. On the Progressive Hedonist podcast, Hellrigl shares how her own difficult health journey and the death of her talented chef father led her to create "meals that not ...
Imani Black, founder of Minorities in Aquaculture (MIA), discusses the history—and the future—of Black watermen and demystifies the American aquaculture industry in this episode of Progressive Hedonist with Dana Cowin. Growing up on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Imani is drawn to work on the water, and along the way discovers her family’s own ...
One of the best-known chef-environmentalists in the world, Dan Barber of Blue Hill Stone Barns shares his thoughts on how prioritizing deliciousness can improve the world. On this podcast, Barber dives into the benefits of growing food for flavor-first increased nutrition and soil health. He also digs in deep about why he launched a seed ...
Cocktail consultant Kelsey Ramage of LA’s Trash Collective is an expert in making divine drinks from items that would ordinarily be thrown away. After noticing the obscene amount of fresh produce tossed out at a hotel where she was working in London, she began to develop cocktails with ubiquitous leftover lemon and lime rinds. She went on to ...
