The Secret Ingredient

• Podcast

Mushrooms

“We just assume our everyday normal consciousness is the one and the most accurate…there are unseen worlds, there are unseen forces, and you can look them in a religious sense, but you don’t have to.”... Read More

2018-07-20

• Podcast

Decolonization

“We can’t even talk about decolonizing our medicine until we talk about decolonizing our food.”  –Rupa Marya On this edition of The Secret Ingredient hosts Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk with Dr.... Read More

2018-06-28

• Podcast

Democracy

“Our enemy is apathy.” –Yanis Varoufakis In 2015 today’s guests were propelled onto the global stage by their efforts to take on the European banking establishment and restructure the Greek government’s financial system.  For 5 months they worked to negotiate alternatives to further... Read More

2017-11-10

• Podcast

Cheap Food

“[Reparation Ecology] is an invitation to observe these big transformations as reparation. Moving away from capitalism moving toward something much better…it is a deeper way of engaging with the  politics of possibility after capitalism.” -Raj... Read More

2017-10-18

• Podcast

Tomatoes

“The work we do is too important to the nation. We are the people who make it possible for every meal to exist. We feed the nation and we ask, have always asked, for the... Read More

2017-10-02

• Podcast

Sidney Mintz (Extended Interview)

“Most of all I would like more coming to terms with what happened…I think what needs to be done is for all of my fellow citizens in this country to understand what happened and to... Read More

2017-09-22

• Podcast

Land Reform

“We have to do something to take us off this treadmill of ratcheting up land prices.” -Suzan Erem, The Sustainable Iowa Land Trust On the latest edition of The Secret Ingredient Raj Patel, Tom Philpott,... Read More

2017-08-10

• Podcast

Strawberries

“Strawberries is kind of the quintessence of industrial agriculture in California. It’s the fifth highest value crop in the state. It also got the most heavy pesticide regime, by far, of any other crop in... Read More

2017-06-14

• Podcast

Seed Saving

“Life begins with the seed germinating…we depend on seed and most of the seed is the seed we will produce, have it, save and use in the next planting season. That’s what most of the... Read More

2017-05-11

• Podcast

Nutritionism

James Baldwin said, “the purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.” When considering this sentiment in relationship to “nutritionism” one might look at Aya Kimura‘s book,... Read More

2017-04-11

• Podcast

Nutrition

“People are being kept confused, by the fact that they’re being made to focus on nutrients.” -Joan Gussow These days, it’s understood that eating a variety of whole foods is integral to maintaining a healthy... Read More

2017-03-28

• Podcast

Tips

“Building unity across divide is possible. Building something even better than we had before, out of terrible tragedy, is possible. A movement for change is never more ripe than when we are, in some cases,... Read More

2017-01-11

• Podcast

Letter From A Correspondent: Teaching Public Policy In A Trump Administration

Op-Ed by James K. Galbraith From The New Deal until the present moment the architecture of The United States formed around some basic principles of public policy; principles that will no longer apply under a... Read More

2017-01-04

• Podcast

Ethnic Food

From agriculture to restaurant kitchens, the American food system is dominated by immigrants – and has been for over a century. On this edition of The Secret Ingredient Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy... Read More

2016-12-20

• Podcast

(Bush) Tea

“The history of slavery in the Caribbean is traumatic. It’s a difficult legacy and I don’t think that it’s been well processed. So the serving of tea becomes this way to sort of address that.... Read More

2016-11-30

• Podcast

Spin

“There isn’t a single aspect of what we eat that is not touched by industry spin.” –Anna Lappé There are so many logistical barriers to healthy, fresh, ethically produced and farmed foods — from food... Read More

2016-11-08

• Podcast

Letter From A Correspondent: The Bitter Story of Sweetness by James K. Galbraith

The story of sugar in the Western world is sordid and bitter, however this past gets quickly candy coated in our day to day lives as consumers. In this special op-ed from the eminent economist,... Read More

2016-10-26

• Podcast

School Food

“As the food movement has gotten stronger and stronger, and people have been asking many more questions, not just about, where is my food coming from? But, how is it produced? Who’s being harmed along... Read More

2016-10-11

• Podcast

Whiteness

“Race is a construct…the problem is a white supremacist framing of what is healthy.” -Breeze Harper On this edition of the Secret Ingredient the secret ingredient is Whiteness. Join Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca... Read More

2016-09-06

• Podcast

Cotton

“It was not just the land, it was not just the seeds, it was not just the tools, it was not just the transportation infrastructure. You had to have somebody who did all the digging,... Read More

2016-08-11

• Podcast

Breast Milk

“When it comes to breastfeeding the ideal of choice verses the illusion of choice are two very different things,” argues Kimberly Seals Allers when talking about her new book, “The Big Let Down: How Medicine,... Read More

2016-06-27

• Podcast

Austerity

If one’s only knowledge about the Greek economic crisis of the early 2000s came from the television news or the New York Times, the complexity of the situation and what it means to the Greek... Read More

2016-06-15

• Podcast

The Peasantry

“We can produce all the great food in the world, but if we’re not working to transform the very nature of the relations of power in the food system, having good food will be null... Read More

2016-06-15

• Podcast

Pathogens

“Pathogens are in someway, something of a mirror of our civilization,” says Dr. Rob Wallace, evolutionary biologist and author of “Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Infectious Disease, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science.” However, most... Read More

2016-06-14

• Podcast

Nationalism

People are interesting animals. We look to many things to help us understand our place and identity in this world. We have maps, passports, languages, families, clothes, books and (among so much more) we also... Read More

2016-05-10

• Podcast

Quinoa

“While no one would argue that Bolivian farmers shouldn’t get a good price for their crop, these trends cannot be ignored—or left up to global market forces. Perhaps most tragic of all is that this... Read More

2016-04-11

• Podcast

TSI Live

Our secret ingredient, for this special live taping, is SXSW! We wanted to explore the future of food on this show, and what better way to ask questions about the future of anything, than through... Read More

2016-02-23

• Podcast

Golden Rice

What is Golden Rice? If you know the answer to that question, chances are you have a strong opinion about it. That’s because a lot of the rhetoric swirling around Golden Rice is heated, but many... Read More

2016-02-13

• Podcast

Hot Peppers

Scoville scale says … “It’s time to talk peppers!” They’re grown all over the world, bear cultural meaning and can satisfy your tastebuds like little else. Why do we eat them? Why can your grandma... Read More

2016-02-01

• Podcast

Jesus

This Christmas, when lots of folks are thinking about others, we unwrap our conversation with Fred Bahnson, author of “Soil & Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith,” touching on his spiritual journey through... Read More

2015-12-25

• Podcast

Charity

We talk with Janet Poppendieck, Professor of Sociology at Hunter College, City University of New York and author of “Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement,” about the complexities of food charities, governmental... Read More

2015-12-17

• Podcast

Salmon

As we observe Thanksgiving in the U.S., The Secret Ingredient takes a step back with this episode on Salmon with Valerie Segrest. Valerie is a native nutrition educator who specializes in local and traditional foods.... Read More

2015-11-26

• Podcast

Prison Food

Dr. Daniel Moshenberg discusses the wide-ranging impact of food on prisoners in the U.S. prison system. Dr. Moshenberg has worked with women in community-based organizations and social movements which are majority women but are not... Read More

2015-11-14

• Podcast

Milk

A conversation with Dr. Alissa Hamilton about milk and her book, “Got Milked? The Great Dairy Deception and Why You’ll Thrive Without Milk.” Hamilton’s critical take on the dairy industry and its pervasive marketing campaigns... Read More

2015-11-03

• Podcast

Soda

Soda. We’ve all had it. But why is it so difficult to find accurate information on soda consumption? How did the industry get to where it is today, and what advocacy groups and consumers are... Read More

2015-10-15

• Podcast

Bananas

In this episode our secret ingredient is Bananas! We talk with feminist writer and professor Dr. Cynthia Enloe, who’s latest book, “Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics,” investigates the long history... Read More

2015-10-01