They are informative, investigative, entertaining, free and the best part? You can take them with you everywhere you go this holiday season. Podcasts are a great resource at your fingertips for hearing about what’s going on in the food world. From culinary to political, there is definitely a podcast out there discussing your favorite topics. To help you to navigate the wealth of options out there, The New York City Food Policy Center has compiled a list of 25 favorite food policy podcasts of 2016.
The following podcasts are available directly from their website (listed) or on your favorite podcast listening apps like iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher and more.
A Sustainable Mind
Podcaster:
Marjorie Alexander
What it’s about:
Sustainable food, agriculture, and eco-friendly lifestyles
Year Started:
2015
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
21, about once a month, last update May 5, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
A Sustainable Mind is a podcast created for you, the ecopreneur, environmental activist, sustainability enthusiast, grassroots organizer, or those curious about eco-friendly lifestyles. If you are looking to get inspired, motivated and take ACTION to be the change you want to see in the world you are in the right place. Marjorie Alexander brings you environmental changemakers whose campaigns, companies and projects have changed the planet for the better. They discuss their journey to go green, light-bulb moment, sustainable habits, lessons from launching their project, and much more. Each episode ends with ACTIONABLE advice and resources for you to hit the ground running!
Where to find it:
A Taste of the Past
Podcaster:
Linda Pelaccio
What it’s about:
Food culture past and present
Year Started:
2009
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
239, every 1-2 weeks, last update June 2, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
Linda Pelaccio, a culinary historian, takes a weekly journey through the history of food on A Taste of the Past. Tune in for interviews with authors, scholars and culinary chroniclers who discuss food culture from ancient Mesopotamia and Rome to the grazing tables and deli counters of today. Each week Linda explores the lively link between food cultures of the present and past.
Where to find it:
https://heritageradionetwork.org/series/a-taste-of-the-past/
Bite
Podcaster:
Mother Jones, hosted by Maddie Oatman
What it’s about:
Food News and Politics
Year Started:
2016
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
8, biweekly, last update June 3, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Bite is a podcast for people who think hard about their food. In each biweekly episode, my co-hosts Tom Philpott and Kiera Butler and I will interview a writer, scientist, farmer, or chef to uncover the surprising stories behind what ends up on your plate. We’ll help you digest the major food news of the week. We’re interested in how your food intersects with other important topics like identity, social justice, health, corporate influence, and climate change.”
Where to find it:
https://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/03/bite-food-politics-podcast-trailer
The Bond Appetit
Podcaster:
Ronsley Vaz
What it’s about:
Food discussions on culture, cooking, and politics.
Year Started:
2013
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
161, about every 7 days, last update June 2, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
This show focuses on food and the effects it has on people. This show interviews high performing people who do the cool stuff, how they find the time to eat well, and how they focus on what they eat. This podcast will give you tips, ideas and ways to change your experience with food. Then, to use that experience to motivate you to do the things you have on your bucket list. We help you figure out what to eat, how to cook it, and when to make time to do it all. We interview entrepreneurs, fresh food chefs, dieticians, health professionals, personal trainers, and high achieving people that are making a change to their lives and others around them by changing the food that fuel their everyday.
Where to find it:
The Brookings Cafeteria
Podcaster:
The Brookings Institution, hosted by Fred Dews
What it’s about:
Indirectly related to food via public policy and ideas from experts on how to influence societal change.
Year Started:
2013
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
89, weekly, last update June 3, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Where Brookings experts discuss ideas about and solutions for the most pressing public policy challenges, both domestic and global.”
Where to find it:
https://www.brookings.edu/research/podcasts/brookings-cafeteria-podcast
Burnt Toast by Food52
Podcaster:
Panoply Network, hosted by Kenzi Wilbur
What it’s about:
Food, cooking and culture
Year Started:
2015
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
34, biweekly, last update June 16, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“Burnt Toast is a podcast from Food52 for people who never stop wondering about food. Join host Kenzi Wilbur, plus a rotating cast of guests, for controversial cooking topics, food culture, and occasional good-spirited debate.”
Where to find it:
https://food52.com/topics/burnt-toast-podcast
Cooking Issues
Podcaster:
Dave Arnold
What it’s about:
Food technique and information from professionals in the field
Year Started:
2010
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
255, biweekly, last update June 28, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Dave Arnold, chef and inventor, answers listener questions on the latest innovative techniques, equipment, and ingredients in the food world. Each week on Cooking Issues, Dave solves your cooking dilemmas with his mile-a-minute stream of knowledge. Got a question on ike-jime, the Japanese fish killing technique? We got you covered. Hydrocolloids, sous-vide, liquid nitrogen? No problem. Have a question about pimping your oven to make great pizza? Give us a call. Occasionally Dave will invite special guest chefs, bartenders, authors and columnists to join the show.”
Where to find it:
https://heritageradionetwork.org/series/cooking-issues/
Delicious Revolution
Podcaster:
Chelsea Wills and Devon Sampson
What it’s about:
Discussions with food-world experts
Year Started:
2015
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
20, every 7-10 days, last update April 30, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Delicious Revolution is a show about food, culture and place. We talk with people whose expertise in food comes from working with food as farmers, fishers, artists, cooks, activists, scholars, journalists, and more. They spend a large portion of their life thinking about food- what it means, how to make it, how to change the food system, how it ties together societies. We will bring you in-depth conversations with some of the brilliant people that inspire the ways we think about food.”
Where to find it:
https://devon-sampson-t4cp.squarespace.com/subscribe
Eat This Podcast
Podcaster:
Jeremy Cherfas
What it’s about:
All things food
Year Started:
2012
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
95, biweekly, last update June 27, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Talking about anything around food.”
Where to find it:
https://www.eatthispodcast.com/
Eat Your Words
Podcaster:
Cathy Erway
What it’s about:
Food writing
Year Started:
2009
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
269 Episodes-to-date, Live on Sundays 1pm-1:30pm on Heritage Radio Network, last update June 5, 1016
From the Podcaster:
“Eat Your Words is the weekly radio dispatch from Cathy Erway, founder of the blog Not Eating Out In New York. Every week, Cathy is joined by authors of books that you just want to eat up — from colorful cookbooks to food memoirs to exposes on the food industry, it’s all meaty topic for discussion. Tune in to learn what’s new and happening in the world of food through its literature.”
Where to find it:
https://heritageradionetwork.org/series/eat-your-words/
The Food Seen
Podcaster:
Michael Harlan Turkell
What it’s about:
Food through a visual lens
Year Started:
2010
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
284, weekly, last update June 28, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“THE FOOD SEEN explores the intersections of food, art & design, and how chefs and artists alike are amalgamating those ideas, using food as their muse & medium across a multitude of media. Host, Michael Harlan Turkell, talks with fellow photographers, food stylists, restaurateurs, industrial and interior designers; all the players that make the world so visually delicious, that want to eat with your eyes.”
Where to find it:
https://heritageradionetwork.org/series/the-food-seen/
Garden Dine Love
Podcaster:
Emily Pelligra
What it’s about:
Farm-to-Fork
Year Started:
2015
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
35, approximately once a month, last update June 2, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“The official podcast for the Farm to Fork Movement! We are enthusiastically promoting the national conversation on eating locally grown foods through podcasts, blog posts, videos, and other services. We encourage culinary gardens, gourmet clean eating and content that inspires you to have a healthier relationship with yourself, significant others and friends. We support home based businesses and creative pursuits. Our vision is to nurture a positive community that inspires people to achieve their dreams whether they choose a path or blaze a trail. Our mission is to enjoy the world while improving it so that we leave the planet better than we found it by giving our best and encouraging the best in others.”
Where to find it:
Gastropod
Podcaster:
Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley
What it’s about:
Food Through the Lens of Science and History
Year Started:
2014
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
38, biweekly, May 30, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
Food with a side of science and history. Every other week, co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley serve up a brand new episode exploring the hidden history and surprising science behind a different food- or farming-related topic, from aquaculture to ancient feasts, from cutlery to chile peppers, and from microbes to Malbec. We interview experts, visit labs, fields, and archaeological digs, and generally have lots of fun while discovering new ways to think about and understand the world through food.
Where to find it:
Hacking Hunger
Podcaster:
WFP USA, hosted by MJ Altman
What it’s about:
Food politics and humanitarian aid around the world
Year Started:
2015
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
6, every 1-2 months, last update May 12, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Hacking Hunger, produced by World Food Program USA, shares how Americans and the most vulnerable people in the most remote corners of the world come together around food and the often invisible work being done to ensure this foundation of life is whole for everyone. Through interviews with humanitarian workers, experts in the field, and staffers who interact regularly with hungry families, Hacking Hunger shares their experiences and insights on the front lines. These perspectives are contextualized with the latest news and innovations on emergency food aid, nutrition, and the logistical operations involved in delivering food to tens of millions of people every year that only the UN World Food Programme —the largest humanitarian agency in the world—can provide.”
Where to find it:
https://wfpusa.org/blog/podcast-journalist-roger-thurow-hunger-post-911-world
KCRW’s Good Food
Podcaster:
Evan Kleiman
What it’s about:
Food culture
Year Started:
16 years +
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
200+, weekly, last update June 25, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“Good Food explores current events, social phenomena, history and culture through the lens of food. From food politics to the science behind cooking, host Evan Kleiman highlights the diverse community of cooks, farmers, entrepreneurs, historians and journalists who have devoted their lives to food. Good Food is the only radio show where you can hear LA Times Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold each week.”
Where to find it:
https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/good-food
Let’s Get Real
Podcaster:
Erica Wides
What it’s about:
Debunking the “foodiness” of food vs real food
Year Started:
2011
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
157, weekly, last update May 31, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
A walk down any grocery store aisle shows that while foodiness™ has become incredibly convenient, a real food can be hard to find. Food has become inconvenient.
While growing vegetables, raising chickens, being a “locavore” and getting a birth certificate for every piece of salmon you eat sounds like a really nice idea – and a wonderful thing to be smug about on your Facebook page – let’s face it: for most of us these solutions aren’t very realistic.
That’s where Let’s Get Real comes in.
On Let’s Get Real Chef Erica Wides walks you down the aisles of the surreal world of food, serving up a heaping dose of reality by separating the food from the foodiness™ so you can forage, hunt, gather, trap and fish for real food anywhere, even in a foodiness™-filled mega market.
Where to find it:
https://letsgetrealshow.com/episodes/
Meal Mentor
Podcaster:
Lindsay S. Nixon
What it’s about:
Plant-based diets
Year Started:
2015
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
65, weekly, last update May 27, 2016 (Breaking for the summer)
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“Lindsay S. Nixon interviews people that have successfully adopted a plant-based diet.”
Where to find it:
https://www.getmealplans.com/podcast/
Monocle 24: The Menu
Podcaster:
Monocle magazine, hosted by Markus Hippi
What it’s about:
Interviews with food world influencers
Year Started:
2011
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
244, weekly, last update June 17, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“Our guide to the world of food, drink and entertaining, The Menu serves up interviews with the world’s most creative chefs, introduces the makers behind the scenes and the ingredients that will soon be landing on your restaurant table.”
Where to find it:
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-menu/
Online Chicken School
Podcaster:
Don and Suzy, The Chicken Tenders
What it’s about:
Raising and keeping your own chickens
Year Started:
2014
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
63, biweekly, last update June 28, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Online Chicken School is a project Suzy and I came up with to share our joy of chickens with new and soon-to-be flock keepers. If you already keep a backyard flock, or if you are thinking of starting one, we hope to give you the encouragement and information you need to do it well. Keeping chickens is pretty easy, but it definitely helps to understand the basics, and to have someone to turn to when we are faced with not-so-basic situations.”
Where to find it:
https://www.onlinechickenschool.com/
The Sporkful
Podcaster:
Dan Pashman
What it’s about:
Food and eating
Year Started:
2014
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
94, weekly, last update June 20, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“The Sporkful isn’t for foodies, it’s for eaters. Each week Dan and his guests explore the huge, fun world of food and eating that’s beyond the realm of recipes, chefs, and restaurants. Episodes range from a parody of the hit podcast Serial in which Dan investigates a series of office fridge food thefts to a feature on Asian-Americans in the food world who are defying stereotypes to a debate over the definition of a sandwich to a comedian’s struggle with his autistic son’s eating issues.
But it’s not just one man’s vision. It’s a gathering place for Eaters from across the globe. So take part and together we will all learn to eat more better!”
Where to find it:
https://www.sporkful.com/dan-and-the-sporkful/
Sustainable Dish
Podcaster:
Diana Rodgers, RD
What it’s about:
Sustainable food and nutrition
Year Started:
2014 (previously titled Modern Farm Girls)
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
41, about once a month, last update June 14, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Sustainable Dish Podcast is a show hosted by nutritionist, author and sustainability advocate Diana Rodgers. Learn about healthy living, eco-eating, and regenerative food production from leading experts in their fields.”
Where to find it:
https://sustainabledish.com/
Sustainable World Radio
Podcaster:
Jill Cloutier
What it’s about:
Permaculture and Ecology
Year Started:
2008
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
130, monthly, last update June 19, 2016
From the Podcaster:
“Host Jill Cloutier has interviewed experts from around the globe; teachers, designers, environmentalists and earth activists who learn from and work with Nature.
Are you interested in learning more about Permaculture projects? How to plant a food forest? Regenerative design or ethnobotany? Would you like to learn about urban homesteading, organic gardening, and herbal remedies? Listen to Sustainable World Radio: Ecology & Permaculture Podcast and discover practical, earth-friendly and nature-based solutions that can lead us to a better world.”
Where to find it:
https://sustainableworldradio.com/category/sustainable-world-radio-podcast/
The Urban Farm
Podcaster:
Greg Peterson
What it’s about:
Growing food in urban environments
Year Started:
2015
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
94, about once a week, last update June 21, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“Welcome to The Urban Farm Podcast, your partner in the Grow Your Own Food revolution! This 3-day per week audio only podcast features special guests like Jason Mraz, Lisa Steele, and Kari Spencer as we discuss the art and value of growing food in urban areas. We’ll explore topics such as urban beekeeping and chicken farming, permaculture, successful composting, monetizing your farm, and much more! Each episode will bring you tips and tricks on how to overcome common challenges, opportunities to learn from the experience of people just like you, and plenty of resources to ensure you’re informed, equipped, and empowered to participate more mindfully in your local food system… and to have a great time doing it!”
Where to find it:
https://www.urbanfarm.org/blog/podcast/
WFIU: Earth Eats
Podcaster:
Daniel Orr
What it’s about:
Food and sustainable living
Year Started:
2009
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
200+, weekly, last update June 23, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“Earth Eats is a weekly program of real food and green living hosted by Chef Daniel Orr. The program explores local food and sustainable agriculture with recipes you can make at home, interviews with local farmers and Chef Orr’s musings on food, history and culture.”
Where to find it:
https://indianapublicmedia.org/eartheats/
What Doesn’t Kill You
Podcaster:
Katy Keiffer
What it’s about:
Key issues in the food system
Year Started:
2011
Episodes-to-date/Frequency:
195, weekly, last update June 20, 2016
From the Podcaster (list the description):
“Food production is a curious business. It seems so straightforward, and yet it is so nuanced, layered, complex, and political. What Doesn’t Kill You; Food Industry Insights endeavors to identify and explain some of the key issues in our food system through interviews with journalists, authors, scientists, activists, and industry experts. Water rights, meat and agricultural production, food waste, labor issues, and new technologies are just some of the topics explored so we can better understand how to feed the future.”
Where to find it:
https://heritageradionetwork.org/series/what-doesnt-kill-you/
