The Dark History of the Twinkie- w/Michael Johnstone episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 5, 2025 · 1H 9M

The Dark History of the Twinkie- w/Michael Johnstone

from Seemingly Unrelated

This week on Seemingly Unrelated pod we are getting into the villain's origin story behind the most USA of all snack cakes: Twinkies. Love them, or fear them, the twinkie looms large in the US imagination and in the vision of the US from around the world. It represents all things the USA loves: soft golden hydrogenated fats and corn syrup that is pure and white at its core.We're joined this week to help explore the depths of snack cake depravity by the owner of Walkie Talky Brewing in Leith, Scotland and long time food industry expert Michael Johnstone!But how did the twinkie rise above the competition to become so famous/infamous? We'll find out on this episode and answer some seemingly unrelated questions along the way like: Why is the Twinkie called a Twinkie and does that have anything to do with the LGBT+ community? What flavour is a Twinkie meant to be anyway? Can eating too many Twinkies drive you to the edge of sanity? Is the Twinkie healthier than unprocessed roadkill?All these questions plus the life and times of Harvey Milk on this king sized snack of an episode of Seemingly Unrelated!#Twinkie #HarveyMilk #Twinkiedefense @hostess_snacks-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Seemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture. Episodes drop every other week so subscribe to listen to more. Subscribe to the audio only version on: https://shows.acast.com/seemingly-unrelated Find the videos on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SeeminglyUnrelatedPod Want even more Seemingly Unrelated content? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month as well as the list of sources for this episode (free) on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SeeminglyUnrelatedFollow us on the socialsSubstackInstagramTikTokFacebookLinkedInSeemingly Unrelated is a podcast all about exploring how everyday things connect to major movements in history, politics and culture.🎵 Subscribe to the show everywhere 📽️ Find the videos on Youtube🎰 Want even more? Get bonus episodes for as little as $2/month and a list of sources for this episode on our Patreon Follow us on Substack Instagram TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 5, 2025

Embed this episode

Ready to play

The Dark History of the Twinkie- w/Michael Johnstone

0:00 1:09:34

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

America's Crime Lab iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope Welcome to Othram aka "America's Crime Lab." Each week, we meet weary detectives and family members working an unsolved case that has wrecked a community and seemingly hit a dead end… until, in a last-ditch effort, the evidence is mailed to Othram. Explicit My Favorite Haunting Mel & Ames Two best friends sit down to have conversations about haunted places, the history behind them, and a lot of rambling about unrelated things along the way. Explicit Lax Historical Context Sasha and Sean Welcome to Lax Historical Context! Sasha and Sean are two jovial nerds who decided to take their love of whiskey and history and see if anyone wanted to listen to them drink the former and talk about the latter. Each episode features them reviewing a different drink accompanying a random, usually unrelated topic that is at least vaguely historical in nature. Sometimes full of hot air, sometimes offensive, and often both at the same time, Lax Historical Context is the history podcast for people who don’t take life too seriously.Twitter (@LaxHistContext) and Instagram (@laxhistoricalcontext) Explicit Deep Cover Pushkin Industries Deep Cover is a show about people who lead double lives. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Halpern reveals webs of deception and dark underworlds, through interviews with federal agents and convicted criminals. Deep Cover: The Family Man: Elise and Marissa grew up in a seemingly normal house in the suburbs of St. Louis, but it was a house built on secrets. There were things their father never told them—like how he really made his money. One night, the police showed up, raided their house, and seized boxes of evidence. Hours later, the sisters turned on the TV and saw something surreal: their father’s car, in the aftermath of a police chase. The local news identified him as “The Boonie Hat Bandit.” The girls were stunned. They struggled to accept the truth: Dad had been living a double life. How long had he been lying to them? What had he done? And who, exactly, was their father? Deep Cover: The Family Man is a story about the way parents deceive their children and the crimes a de Explicit

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of Seemingly Unrelated?

This episode is 1 hour and 9 minutes long.

When was this Seemingly Unrelated episode published?

This episode was published on August 5, 2025.

Can I download this Seemingly Unrelated episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!