The Secret Ingredient: Recent Episodes
KUT & KUTX Studios, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott & Rebecca McInroy
“[Hope] is a key source of energy to enable us to seek solutions together.” -Frances Moore Lappé Hope is different from faith in that we need to act in hope as opposed to just having faith that everything will be okay. But in acting, when it comes to food, we are doing so and operating […]
“We’re fighting for a worldview. We’re fighting for a different version of what it means to be human on the planet. We’re fighting for a different version of what just relations look like between the human and non-human world.” –Julian Aguon Guam is the secret ingredient for our conversation with indigenous human rights lawyer and […]
“How do we build these understandings from a decolonial, antiracist and antipatriarchal basis? How do we build real solidarity bridges that do not replicate patronising structures of power? How can we learn and build with those who have resisted and re(x)isted, in order to open new imaginaries to heal mother earth, the other, and ourselves?” […]
The Secret Ingredient with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, Raj Patel author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones, Tom Philpott welcome back Rob Wallace an evolutionary biologist for his take on the link between global outbreaks of infectious disease and global agriculture. Rob Wallace is […]
“The climate crisis is an emergency, it is a crisis and so we need to make major, major changes in our agriculture system.” Ben Lilliston is the Director of Climate Change and Rural strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He spoke with The Secret Ingredient team–Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy, […]
“We need to change society so everybody can fit in and everyone can afford to live in a decarbonized society.” – Jim Goodman In this episode of The Secret Ingredient host Raj Patel plays double-duty — he is not just a host, but joins Jim Goodman as a guest. The two discuss what A Green […]
Explore the future of the Green New Deal and what it means for Texas with Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez. Tzintzún is challenging John Cornyn for the 2020 US Senate seat for the State of Texas. She is the Co-founder of the Workers Defense Project and Jolt, and she talked with The Secret Ingredient team–Raj Patel, Tom […]
The Secret Ingredient with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, Raj Patel, author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones, Tom Philpott explore the future of the Green New Deal with Naomi Klein, author of “On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal.”
The Secret Ingredient with KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, Raj Patel, author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones, Tom Philpott to talk about what the Green New Deal is, what it could mean for the future of agriculture, and what it will take to revive […]
Season 3 of The Secret Ingredient will focus on The Green New Deal (GND). Listen this season as Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy discuss the future of agriculture, climate change, economic inequality and what it will take to create The Green New Deal in an effort to save the planet!
The Secret Ingredient is “Economic Man.” Swedish economist Katrine Marçal, author of “Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?” guides the conversation on the role of gender in economics and food politics along with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy.
The Secret Ingredient is “Prison Labor on Farms.” You might not expect where prison-produced food may show up! Listen back as agriculture farmer and former inmate Jahi Ellis guides the conversation on food production in prison along with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy.
The Secret Ingredient is “Solidarity.” Listen back as Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebeca McInroy talk with organizers Hodaliz Borrayes, Diana Sierra, and Andrea Schmid from The Pioneer Vally Workers Center, about their profound backgrounds and how they come together to educate, inform, and support immigrant workers.
Dr. Joshua Eisenman author of Red China’s Green Revolution: Technological Innovation, Institutional Change, and Economic Development Under the Commune is our guest on this edition of The Secret Ingredient with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy. Join us as we explore the hidden history of communes in China.
“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.” –Michael Pollan On the latest Secret Ingredient Podcast Raj Patel and Tom Philpott talk with Michael Pollan about his new […]
Hosts Rebecca McInroy and Tom Philpott of The Secret Ingredient Podcast talk with restaurateurs Adam Orman from L’Oca d’Oro, Jodi Mozeika from Black Star, and Jam from Thai Fresh about why they’ve eliminated tipping at their restaurants, how they make it work for their businesses, and why it’s an important move in terms of social […]
“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. Rupa Marya. Marya teaches and practices medicine in San Francisco, she is also the lead singer with Rupa and The […]
In the 1970s Monsanto unveiled a miracle herbicide–Glyphosate. The pitch: it was as safe as table salt for people, but could flatten even the peskiest weeds. Farmers and homeowners alike have used the product ever since. Now, it shows up in detectable levels in many foods, and almost every American has some in their bodies. […]
This is just a note to let you know what we’re up to with the podcast. We have a three-part piece on the herbicide glyphosate coming out soon, and then we’ll be back on track for the bi-monthly shows. Until then, check out The Secret Ingredient Podcast page at Facebook, and listen back to our […]
“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 austerity measures; trying to extend loans while moving Greece toward a more solvent state. Their efforts to confront the Eurozone and proceed democratically to carry […]
“[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 Patel On this edition of The Secret Ingredient hosts Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy turn the tables on Raj Patel […]
“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 possibility to feed our own families in a dignified way without having to be in a vulnerable position all the […]
“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 be able to say, this is what was done and now we must think about how to make the playing […]
“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, and Rebecca McInroy talk with Suzan Erem about the future of US farming. Erum is the president and co-founder of […]
“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 the state. And it kind of captures so much of the dynamics of what’s going on in California.“-Julie Guthman In […]
“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 farmers in Tanzania still do… It was inherited for generations and generations.” –Janet Maro The seed exchange system that Maro […]
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, Hidden Hunger: Gender and the Politics of Smarter Foods, as a work of “art” as she explores the questions that […]
The Lorano Long Conference brought many great thinkers and activists to the campus of The University of Texas in February to talk about, “New Perspectives on the Contemporary Food System in Latin America.” The Secret Ingredient Podcast’s Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy took that opportunity to talk with Dr. Alexis Racelis from the […]
“Once in a while, I thin I’ve had an original thought, then I look and read around and realize Joan said it first.” -Michael Pollan We take for granted now that part of being healthy is eating a variety of whole foods, but not so long ago talking about food was taboo in the field […]
“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, at our lowest moment. Because it’s the moment in which we are going to demand absolute transformation, and I have […]
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 Trump administration. With all the questions that are on the table when it comes to this transition, Dr. James K. Galbraith asks: “Is the study […]
Krishnendu Ray is the chair of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University, and author of The Ethnic Restaurateur. Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy spoke to him Ray on the day after the 2016 presidential election about his book, and the current political landscape, where change and transformation is possible through food.
“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. To consider, how can we move forward? What does it look like to think about healing in a space like […]
“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 deserts to our busy daily schedules — that managing to eat well is a challenge. But there is another layer […]
Explore the past, present and future of food in Austin with local legend Hoover Alexander alongside the hosts of The Secret Ingredient (Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy). Hoover’s long career in cooking tracks incredible changes that have taken place in Austin— from The Night Hawk, to Good Eats, to Hoover’s—and his perspective can […]
Explore the past, present and future of food in Austin with local legend Hoover Alexander alongside the hosts of The Secret Ingredient (Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy). Hoover’s long career in cooking tracks incredible changes that have taken place in Austin— from The Night Hawk, to Good Eats, to Hoover’s—and his perspective can […]
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, writer and historian James K. Galbraith, we get a peak into the sickly underbelly of the sociopolitical and economic past of sugar.
“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 the way? Food service directors have been asking those same questions.” -Alexa Delwiche When you think about school food, certain […]
In this special edition of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy joins the hosts of The Secret Ingredient, Raj Patel and Tom Philpott, as they talk with guests Edwin Marty, the Food Policy Manager for the City of Austin, and Erin Lentz, from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, to ask: Why are people starving in one of the […]
“America was built on a white supremacist caste system which centers whiteness as the norm…”-Dr. A. Breeze Harper On this edition of the Secret Ingredient the secret ingredient is whiteness. Join Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy as they sit down with Dr. Amie Breeze Harper, author of Scars: A Black Lesbian Experience in […]
“If you divorce economy from ecology then you end up crumbling the mechanisms by which the forest has typically been able to keep the worst of the pathogens from emerging beyond merely hitting a village or two.” -Rob Wallace In this edition of The Secret Ingredient Weekend, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy summarize […]
Cotton. Not quite a food item, but a plant nonetheless with a rather complicated history and an enduring relevance in our lives. Today, a typical day cannot pass without using this pillowy crop that rules our commodified lives. In this edition of the Secret Ingredient with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy: Sven Beckert, […]
“It is the most artificial thing that humans have ever built,” says Appadurai of nationalism. “That seems the most natural.” In this edition of The Secret Ingredient Weekend, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy summarize our show with Dr. Arjun Appadurai about food and nationalism – food trucks, Maggi noodles, cook books and much […]
“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, Big Business and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding.” In this edition of The Secret Ingredient Allers makes the distinction between choices and […]
In this episode of The Secret Ingredient we talk with Rob Wallace, author of “Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Infectious Disease, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science,” about pathogens, zika, bird flu, capitalism, and so much more.
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 have food. At first thought, we might not consider food as part of our identity. We might have toast for […]
In this episode of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy joins the hosts of KUT’s The Secret Ingredient podcast, Tom Philpott and Raj Patel, as they sit down with the eminent economist James K. Galbraith author of the forthcoming “Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe” to talk inequality, the Greek […]
Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy talk with peasant farmer Blain Snipstal about the history of agriculture and racism in America, power, food sovereignty, La Via Campesina, land, and much more.
In this special SXSW edition of The Secret Ingredient, Tom Philpott, Rebecca McInroy and Raj Patel talk about technologies that will shape the future of food. Technologies, as it turns out, that might surprise you, mainly biodiversity, and gender equality. Listen back to this discussion, recorded live at the Convention Center in Austin, Texas for SXSW […]
“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 boom (and booms are always followed by a bust) is leading the poorest, most vulnerable farmers to degrade their own […]
In this special The Secret Ingredient edition of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy joins Tom Philpott, food and agriculture writer for Mother Jones Magazine, and Raj Patel from the LBJ school of public affairs, and author of “Stuffed and Starved” and “The Value of Nothing”, to talk about everything from GMOs and Soylent Green, to […]
What is Golden Rice? If you know the answer to that question chances are you have a strong opinion on it. That is because a lot of the rhetoric swirling around Golden Rice is heated, but many times ill informed. Golden Rice is a technology that was developed in the 1990s to try to make […]
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient we talk with Gary Nabhan, author of: Chasing Chiles – Hot Spots Along the Pepper Trail; Why Some Like It Hot: Food, Genes and Cultural Diversity; and Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey. Nabhan is an internationally-celebrated nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving […]
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient we talk with Fred Bahnson, author of Soil & Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith, about his spiritual journey through agriculture and how some faith-based organizations are re-energizing the conversation around hunger and poverty. About The Hosts: Raj Patel is an award winning food writer, activist and […]
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient, 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 (Penguin, 1999), about the complexities of food charities, governmental food programs, and the overall condition of our economy, our nations […]
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. As an enrolled member of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, she serves her community as the coordinator of the Muckleshoot Food […]
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient we talk with Daniel Moshenberg about the wide-ranging impact of food on prisoners in the US prison industrial complex. Dr. Moshenberg has worked with women in community-based organizations and social movements which are majority women but are not (yet) identified as women’s organizations or movements. That work has […]
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient, Rebecca McInroy, Raj Patel and Tom Philpott talk with Dr. Alissa Hamilton about 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 chronicle a history of public policy messages that have […]
In this edition of The Secret Ingredient, we talk with Marion Nestle about her latest book Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning). She describes why it’s so difficult to find accurate information on soda consumption, how the industry got to where it is today, and what advocacy groups and consumers are doing to […]
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 of oppression in the banana industry, and the intricate power structures involved in bringing this yellow fruit to grocery stores […]
In this episode of Views and Brews we’ll tour over 100 years of southern cooking with Toni-Tipton Martin author of The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks! Join KUT’s Rebecca McInroy, along with food writers and hosts of KUT’s newest podcast The Secret Ingredient, Tom Philpott and Raj Patel, as we explore the rich social, political, and […]
In this episode we talk with anthropologist Sidney Mintz about his seminal work Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar In Modern History. Mintz takes us through our prehistoric relationship to sweetness–from the bloody history of slavery and sugar production to our current state of the mass production and consumption of sweetness worldwide. He talks […]