Eat, Drink, and Do Good by Studio ATAO: Recent Episodes
StudioATAO
Original thought pieces from emerging writers at the intersection of food, beverage, hospitality (FBH) and social justice. Past issues have covered everything from gift economies and food apartheid, to healthcare discrimination and ableism. This podcast is a continuation from our monthly newsletter of the same name. Read all the past pieces at https://www.studioatao.org/newsletter.
Journalist Sohel Sarkar explains why lab-grown meat will neither save the planet nor feed the world. Some resources from the author:1. Lab Meat Won’t End Factory Farms, But Could Entrench Them - Food and Water Watch 2. The Politics of Protein - IPES-Food 3. Lab-Grown Meat is Supposed to be Inevitable. The Science Tells a Different Story - The Counter 4. Climate Impacts of Cultured Meat and Beef Cattle - Frontiers 5. Plant-Based Food Companies Face Critics: Environmental Advocates - The New York Times 6. The New Makers of Plant-Based Meat? Big Meat Companies - The New York Times
Cook & writer Annie Faye Cheng explores how restaurants can better serve their teams. Some resources recommended by the writer are: 1. "Still taboo": Eating disorders are a silent epidemic in professional kitchens - Salon 2. Eating disorders - hospitality's last taboo? - Class 3. Happier employees, higher profits: Restaurant owners spend more, and it pays off - The Counter 4. Restaurant health care 101 - Healthcare HQ
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, restorative justice advocate C. Dreams writes on the corrupt incentives pushing incarcerated workers into the food system.Some resources recommended by the writer are:* Critical Resistance: Resources for Abolishing Cages * Leaders Igniting Transformation * Trans Family Network * Center for Workforce Inclusion * Honest Jobs * Prison Policy Initiative's data report * The Sentencing Project * How Employers Can Set Formerly Incarcerated Up For Success
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, investigative journalist Chloe Sorvino shares an excerpt from her book RAW DEAL: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat.
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, an anonymous hospitality worker shares how a chronic illness diagnosis prompted them to leave the industry for good.
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, community organizer Emma Buchman Emma Buchman writes on the Chernobyl accident, some of its heroes, and its unexpected impacts on her work.
Chernobyl:
- “The Chernobyl Podcast”
- Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higgenbotham
- My Chernobyl: The Human Story of a Scientist and the Nuclear Power Plant Catastrophe by Alexander A. Borovoi
Important context to organizing:
- Racial Equity and Organizing: Disparities in Funding for Leaders of Color Leave Impact on the Table by Cheryl Dorsey, Jeff Bradach, and Peter Kim
- “Social Service or Social Change?” by Paul Kivel
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, researcher Likam Kyanzaire writes about what we can learn from the Great Resignation & "Lie Flat" protests.
More on finding on human value:
- Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts
- Blue Period on Netflix
- Untitled 03 by Kendrick Lamar (song)
More on alienation and conspicuous consumption:
- The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen
- Paper Throne by Phum Viphurit (song)
- Anxiety of a Freeman, Mangoprism Magazine
More on radical change:
- Anarchism by Carissa Honeywell
- Democratic Confederalism by Abdullah Ocalan
- The City Nowadays by L.A. Salami (song)
More on the economics of neoliberalism:
- Younger Generations Are Poorer Than Their Parents by EconomicsExplained
- Accumulation by Dispossession by David Harvey
- Around My Way (Freedom Aint Free) by Lupe Fiasco (song)
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, pastry chef Rose McAdoo writes on the importance of creating space for art inside carceral systems.
Read Rose's piece at www.studioatao.org/newsletter. Some additional resources on this topic recommended by the author are:
Readings
- Formerly Incarcerated Artists Visualize Healing by Jasmine Weber
- Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Nicole R. Fleetwood
- Chasing Me To My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert
Watch & Listen
- 13th by Ava DuVernay
- Life on the Outside — a podcast that shares stories about returning to society after decades of incarceration
Resources & Organizations to Support
- Brush up on current statistics on the Equal Justice Initiative website
- Financially support carceral artists through the Art for Justice Fund
- Connect with an incarcerated pen pal through the pARTner project at Justice Arts Coalition
- Consider presenting your art with the Prison Arts Collective
- Purchase your next set of gifts from formerly incarcerated artists at Forgive Everyone Co.
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, community organizer Raeghn Draper writes on the ongoing inequities perpetuated by our culinary school programs, and how we can begin undoing them.
Read Raeghn's piece at www.studioatao.org/newsletter. Some additional resources on this topic recommended by the author are:
- The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African-American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- The work of Tunde Wey
- The Racist Sandwich podcast
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, feminist organizer Zoya Rehman speaks about the need for sustained political activation beyond protests and demonstrations.
Read Zoya's piece at www.studioatao.org/newsletter. Some additional resources on this topic recommended by the author are:
- Watch: The history of protest politics in America.
- Watch: A glimpse into the Aurat Azadi Jalsa held in Islamabad, Pakistan.
- Watch: Ismat Shahjahan talking about the Pakistani feminist movement from a socialist perspective.
- Learn: The Combahee River Collective Statement is an American example of what non-hierarchical feminist organizing should look like.
- Read: Black and Asian Solidarity Letter to learn more about what it could take to build feminist communities.
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, entrepreneur Jessica Chao talks about language discrimination in our healthcare systems, the misguided assumptions that result from not having English alternatives, and what we can do about it.
Read Jessica's piece at www.studioatao.org/newsletter. Some additional reading on this topic recommended the author are:
- This article from STAT News explains more about bias in the healthcare system, especially on diagnosing and treating pain.
- Check out this article by Dr. Rhea Boyd for more about how structural racism and lack of access drive distrust in the medical field.
- Support and donate to grassroots efforts, such as federally qualified health centers like Charles B. Wang Health Center and La Clinica. These are both culturally sensitive community clinics working to increase access to multilingual health literacy information and provide care for the community, by the community.
- For those who work around the healthcare industry, push your organizations and investors to support more language inclusive solutions and to put forth substantial resources to support health equity. For example, the U.S. government has put forth a Language Access Plan for all healthcare service providers.
- The relationship between language barriers and healthcare outcomes in the US is still understudied. Encourage researchers in public health and academia to engage in this research, and support organizations like The Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education, for example, that are advancing this work.
In this episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good, writer Samir Knego speaks about the ableism embedded in our workplace and social structures - and how to start unlearning it and moving towards community care.
Read Samir's piece at www.studioatao.org/newsletter. Some additional reading on this topic recommended the author are:
- ‘You Do Not Exist To Be Used’: Why Your Life Purpose Is Bigger Than Capitalist Productivity / Tú no existes para ser usada. Desmantelando conceptos de productividad como propósito vital by Gillian Giles
- Ten Principles of Disability Justice by Patricia Berne
- Watch: Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice? Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s reading/talk at the 2018 Disability and Intersectionality Summit
In this episode, our own Head of Research, Edric Huang, speaks about the long-tailed effects of rainbow capitalism, as well as how "the PR-friendly narrative of Pride has sponsored a system where white, wealthy, married, cis couples are prioritized over the needs of the most marginalized queer folks."
This episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good from Studio ATAO revisits Edric's piece from June of last year, and part of a series highlighting some of our top newsletters from 2021.
In this episode, student Brighid Kennedy describes her experiences with medical fatphobia, the shortcomings of the BMI scale, and what her hopes are for future interactions with medical professionals.
This is our second episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good from Studio ATAO, and part of a series highlighting youth activism. Read Brighid's piece is www.studioatao.org/newsletter.
Some additional reading on this topic is below:
- The BMI Scale is Bogus: Here’s Whyfrom Nourishing Women Podcast
- Weight and Healthcare Newsletterfrom Ragen Chastain
- Tiny Habits: the Small Changes that Change EverythingbyBJ Fogg, PhD
Welcome to our first episode of Eat, Drink, and Do Good from Studio ATAO! This podcast is a continuation of our monthly newsletter of the same name, and features thought pieces from emerging writers, leaders, advocates, and changemakers.
In this episode, Ph.D student Yash Sharma challenges the idea of a single visionary entrepreneur leading the charge towards success. Read his piece here: https://www.studioatao.org/eddgjan2022
Some additional suggested reading on this topic is below:
- Entrepreneurs don’t have a special gene for risk—they come from families with money by Aimee Groth
- Twilight of the Imperial Chefby Tejal Rao
- The 'Self-Made Billionaire' Is A Lie by Emily Peck
- The Disruption Machine by Jill Lepore
- How Elizabeth Holmes' House of Cards Came Tumbling Downby Nick Bilton
- Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Ageby Alice E. Marwick