A Taste of Member Supported Food Radio
As we gear up for the season of giving, HRN has a lot to be thankful for. As a member supported non-profit, our community is essential to carrying out our mission: to make the world for equitable, sustainable and delicious by changing the way eaters think about food. These episodes are just a small taste of our recent programming (and of our 15,000 episode archive) - all made possible by our members and supporters.
The Farm Report Episode 424: The Future of the Global Food System: On September 23, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the first UN Food Systems Summit, with a goal of “setting the stage for global food systems transformation.” In this episode, Ruth Richardson, the executive director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, talks to host Lisa Held about the significance of the Summit, some of the controversies surrounding it, and what she thinks global food systems transformation should look like—from a shift toward agro-ecological practices in farming to calculating the true costs of food.
Cooking in Mexican from A to Z: Episode 22: Crossing Culinary Boarders: Aarón Sanchez and Zarela Martínez are thrilled to welcome Víctor Macías-González to talk about the culinary exchange on the border between Juarez and El Paso. Victor is a professor who focuses on Mexican and Latinx histories. Together, these three share memories of their early lives in the region; including Aaron's Saturday shopping and barbershop trips in Juarez and Zarela's memories of the dance culture. And, of course, they discuss the food! They list local favorites, discuss the popularity of El Paso meats, explain why the Juarez sweet breads were superior to the El Paso version, and much more.
Item 13: An African Food Podcast Episode 63: The Revolution Will Be Brewed with Margaret Nyamumbo: Margaret is the founder of Kahawa 1893 Coffee. She is a third generation coffee farmer from Kenya and grew up on a coffee farm immigrating to the USA. After earning her MBA from Harvard, she went on to work on Wall Street, where she rediscovered her passion for coffee. She founded Kahawa 1893 with a mission to close the gender gap in coffee. In Kenya, over 90% of labor in coffee comes from women. However, they aren't fairly compensated because they don't own the land. Margaret's coffee is roasted and distributed from San Francisco and the brand recently launched in Trader Joe's - the first black & woman-owned coffee brand to launch in the grocery chain.
My Family Recipe Episode 1: Motherhood and Chocolate Cake with Lisa Ruland: A story about how chocolate cake - a festive treat if there ever was one - brought about unlikely healing through grief. Lisa Ruland is a food writer, professional baker, and the curator of The Food + Grief Project. She talks about her relationship to food after the tragic loss of her husband, how she found connection while mourning, and how a chocolate birthday cake catalyzed what is now an honored family tradition. Her step-daughter Margot joins the conversation to share memories and talk about mothers lost and found.
Japan Eats! Episode 240: Sequoia Sake: Reviving 115-Year-Old Sake Rice in San Francisco: Akiko Katayama's guest is Jake Myrick who is the co-owner and toji, or brewmaster, of Sequoia Sake in San Francisco, which was founded in 2015. It is the first local artisanal sake brewery in the city. In 2019, only 4 years after their first production of sake, the brewery received both the gold and silver awards for best sake produced outside of Japan at the Tokyo Sake Competition. Jake has been relentlessly pursuing the best quality sake, and as a result, he has successfully revived the original sake rice brought to California from Japan back in 1906 in collaboration with UC Davies and local rice farmers. Now it is called Sequoia Sake Rice. In this episode, we will discuss how Jake got into sake and ended up opening a sake brewery in America, how sake rice is different from regular table rice, the outstanding quality of the sake rice Jake has revived, Sequioa Sake’s classic and innovative styles of sake, and more.
A Taste of the Past Episode 371: History of Sourdough Culture: Sourdough bread has a history that goes back at least 6,000 years and the earliest cultures--or sourdough starter--were likely an accident. Professor and amateur baker Eric Pallant shares the history and his own introduction to his storied starters from his new book Sourdough Culture.
Eat Your Heartland Out Episode 27: Indigenous Food Sovereignty: Decolonizing Midwestern Diets: Meet two more leaders in the Indigenous food sovereignty movement who are using food to both empower and inspire. From seed cataloguing to sustainable fishing, Indigenous persons are decolonizing their diets, preserving their traditions, and educating their non-Native neighbors about the important role food plays in all of our lives Daniel Grooms, business manager of the Red Cliff Fish Company in Wisconsin, shares how the Red Cliff band of Lake Superior Chippewa stepped up to create their own fishing business to thwart discrimination in commercial fishing and feed their community directly. Elena Terry, from the Ho-Chunk Nation, tells us why she founded Wild Bearies, an organization that educates indigenous youth about traditional Indigenous foodways to preserve tradition and empower the next generation.
All in the Industry Episode 301: Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate, Honeysuckle: Shari Bayer welcomes two guests to the show. First, Omar Tate, a chef, artist, and cofounder of Honeysuckle Projects, a multifaceted food company that focuses on the nuanced cultures and cuisines of the Black diaspora. Omar has emerged as a visionary and a leading thinker on the restaurant industry’s cultural development as a whole. He specifically focuses on race and ethnicity to tear down structural barriers through his practice in Honeysuckle, his pop-up cultural concept. Second: Cybille St.Aude-Tate, a Haitian American chef & children’s book author, who is a partner in Honeysuckle Projects with her husband Omar. Between her sixteen year career in the restaurant industry & degree in African American Studies specializing in Caribbean culture & aesthetics in America, she has found a niche in cultivating a relative Caribbean food experience that expands the narrative of her identity. Cybille is currently hosting modern Haitian gastronomy pop-ups through CAONA and freelancing as a private chef/culinary consultant with Earthseed Provisions, a food studio she co-founded in the New York metro area.
Meat and Three Episode 116: Much Ado About Organics: It’s bought, it’s sold, it’s debated. But what is organic food? On Meat and Three, we travel into the world of organics. In the land we now refer to as the “United States,” indigenous communities have been growing their food “organically” for centuries. But “organic food” in the U.S. is now tied to a slew of technical regulations required for certification. Our stories this week explore the meaning of “organic.” We start off with an organic food 101. Then we report on how corporations in the United States have influenced the movement and we hear from the Gorzynski family about why they penned themselves as ornery instead of organic. In our final segment, we bring you a story on how the ties between white supremacy and organic food challenged a farmer’s market to its core.
The Big Food Question Episode 43: Is It Time to Reinvent Restaurants?: After closing Meme’s Diner in November 2020, co-owner Libby Willis wanted to preserve the sense of community the restaurant fostered but wasn’t ready to open another traditional restaurant. Instead, she has transformed what restaurant operations can look like. Her new enterprise, KIT, is operating as an incubator of sorts, sharing the burden of business ownership with a cohort of owner-operated businesses while creating a cohesive experience for diners. Gain insight into how KIT is operating and the potential Libby sees for creating a more inclusive industry.
