The Business of Food with Steve Alexander

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8618013/8618013_2026-08-25-195413.64kmono.mp3 The “Made with Avocado Oil” label has been showing up more and more in supermarket aisles. You find it on products like chips, mayonnaise, and salad dressings. They are sold at premium prices because of the perception that, for example, avocado oil chips are healthier than chips made the old-fashioned way with other types […]

Three families of women farmers are being honored by Illinois Agri-Women as Legacy Farm Family winners for 2026. At a ceremony in Bloomington-Normal on August 21st, the Schultz/Miller family, which farms in northwest Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and central Iowa will be honored as the first place winner. In the audio clip below, two generations of […]

Our gardening guru Jim Fizzell has plenty to say in this extended version of “Mr. Fizz Friday” about things to do during August to repair damage to your lawn, or start over. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8550265/8550265_2026-07-30-204905.64kmono.mp3

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8521656/8521656_2026-07-17-184456.64kmono.mp3 Gardening guru Jim Fizzell, aka “Mr. Fizz,” has the birds and bees and the flower and the trees on his mind. It’s pollination time in our gardens. Specifically, as University of Illinois Extension describes it, the male reproductive part of a flower, stamens, consisting of a stalk-like filament topped with an anther that produces pollen. On the […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8496002/8496002_2026-07-07-201202.64kmono.mp3 When Dana Cree decided to open an ice cream shop, she went on Kickstarter and immediately had to make a decision: what to name it. In the audio clip above, she tells WGN’s Steve Alexander, “The first question was ‘Tell us a little about yourself,’ and I wrote, ‘My name is Dana Cree and […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8484188/8484188_2026-06-30-164128.64kmono.mp3 Whether you eat it for breakfast or another meal, cereal is arguably the most popular item in the grocery store. The cereal aisle is big for a reason: Industry and government figures show Americans purchase roughly 2.5 billion boxes of cereal every year, which translates to roughly 10 to 14 pounds of cereal per person. 94% of […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8478625/8478625_2026-06-26-170425.64kmono.mp3 In the audio clip above, Jim Fizzell, our WGN gardening guru of more than 60 years, tells Steve Alexander that an important piece of equipment needed for successful gardening is a spiral notebook. And a pen or pencil.

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8464694/8464694_2026-06-19-134134.64kmono.mp3 It’s vacation season for a lot of us, and in the audio clip above, Mr. Fizz, gardening guru Jim Fizzell, has tips for making sure that when you get back, your houseplants, garden plants, lawn, trees, cats, and dogs are in good shape.

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8446811/8446811_2026-06-11-230911.64kmono.mp3 College isn’t for everyone, and some Chicago high school students are now getting the opportunity to get started in a well-paying job as a forklift driver. In the audio clip above, Olive-Harvey College President, Dr. Kimberly Hollingsworth, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander that for the first time, a credit course is being offered at its […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8446732/8446732_2026-06-11-224332.64kmono.mp3 Without agriculture, there’d be no FIFA World Cup games at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The natural grass turf, installed just for the World Cup, is one example. Another example is in the stands. Thanks to farmers, a company called PlantSwitch has replaced cups and lids and utensils made with petroleum with a plastic […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8434203/8434203_2026-06-05-144703.64kmono.mp3 If you’re a parent or grandparent, you may consider those plastic pouches of food your toddler sucks on contentedly while you drive down the road as the best invention ever. But Lincoln Park mom and baby food company founder Erica Bethe Levin is alarmed by a Greenpeace study finding as much as 11,000 microplastics […]

Our gardening guru Mr. Fizz, Jim Fizzell, talks about how to keep those “wascally wabbits” out of your garden without resorting to the way Elmer Fudd tried to deal with bugs. Jim also says it’s not to late too plant, even from seed, and talks about the proper amounts of water to put on your […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8399412/8399412_2026-05-20-164212.64kmono.mp3 If you like your Italian Beef “dragged through the garden,” you can thank Vincent Formusa. More than a hundred years ago, he started packing chopped veggies in the tradition of his native Sicily–in olive oil. Not only did other Italian immigrants love it, popularity spread, and the V. Formusa Company is still in business […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8383204/8383204_2026-05-14-210004.64kmono.mp3 For those of us who love to raise food and flowers and anything else that we can grow, this is a difficult time of year. We’re itching to get out in the garden and plant, but the soil temperature isn’t quite warm enough. Even in the middle of May, Chicago-area weather can be unpredictable. […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8372305/8372305_2026-05-11-165505.64kmono.mp3 Forgetting to eat is a real thing for people taking the GLP-1 magic weight loss drugs. But before we get to that, let’s talk about TV dinners. In the 1950s, televisions were a new thing and rapidly became prominent in American homes, so people decided that rather than sitting around the dinner table, why […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8356576/8356576_2026-05-04-171816.64kmono.mp3 Guacamole, the Cinco de Mayo (and Super Bowl, and general party of any kind) staple, wasn’t as common, nor available year-round, prior to 1997. That’s the year a ban on avocados from Mexico was lifted, thanks in large part to the North American Free Trade Agreement approved during the Clinton administration. Now, we have […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8337452/8337452_2026-04-27-164752.64kmono.mp3 Synthetic fertilizer is arguably the most important life-saving innovation of all time, credited with preventing 2.7 billion premature deaths. In the audio clip above, Susan Stroud, the founder of No Bull Agriculture, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander we have a couple of Germans to thank for that. In the early 1900s, Fritz Haber, a German […]

Whether you pronounce it “NUT-tella” or “NEW-tella” doesn’t matter. “We are very accepting of both pronunciations,” says Seth Gonzales, Senior Director of Marketing for Nutella in the Ferrero candy group. In the audio clip above, he tells WGN’s Steve Alexander the origins of Nutella go back to post-World War II Italy, where poverty was rampant, […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8079514/8079514_2026-04-06-160814.64kmono.mp3 When Danielle Marshall’s doctor told her she was on the verge of pre-diabetes, it got her attention. Her parents were diabetic and she had seen the difficulties they endured. She took her doctor’s advice to lose weight to heart, began exercising regularly and juicing — as in grinding veggies and fruit into juices that […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/8030357/8030357_2026-03-12-172957.64kmono.mp3 When an email from Northwestern University landed in my inbox, I thought I was reading a very early April Fools joke, or maybe something from The Onion. “I thought it was a joke, too,” says Dr. Fred Turek, a professor in the Departments of Neurobiology and Neurology, and director of the Center on Sleep […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7945359/7945359_2026-01-30-153359.64kmono.mp3 There’s a company in Chicago’s Medical District that has figured out how to replace petroleum in the manufacture of many everyday items, from house paint to bandages to diapers. In the audio clip above, Justin Brown, the CEO of Låkril Technologies, tells how its proprietary technology converts low-cost lactic acid (from renewable sugars like […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7933188/7933188_2026-01-24-170628.64kmono.mp3 Once again, corn is proving it can replace petroleum-based plastics in a commonly-used product: filters for HVAC systems in home and commercial systems. Aerterra (a combination of the Latin words for air and earth), a Chicago-area company, spins fiber for the filters from a by-product of corn. In the audio clip above, Mike Malloy, […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7894379/7894379_2026-01-05-173619.64kmono.mp3 The City of Chicago has 27 locations where you can take your Christmas tree to be recycled, and where you can later pick up mulch for your garden. The full list and a link to a map are shown below. There are eco-friendly alternatives, though, as noted in the audio clip above with WGN’s […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7870255/7870255_2025-12-22-155255.64kmono.mp3 To understand why Revolution Brewing named its Christmas beer “Fistmas,” look no further than the company’s logo: a raised fist. “Craft beer is nothing short of a revolution,” says the founder, CEO, and self-described Chairman of the Party, Josh Deth. In the audio clip above, he tells WGN’s Steve Alexander, “When we came along, […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7867669/7867669_2025-12-19-164709.64kmono.mp3 Remember those kids birthday parties where you had to be sooooo careful about serving your child’s friends anything containing peanuts?  The allergies were real. The scientific advice to deal with allergens by total avoidance, it turns out, was wrong.   Around the turn of the century, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended delaying exposing babies and […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7861990/7861990_2025-12-16-222730.64kmono.mp3 When you think of Denny’s, the breakfast served 24/7, the Grand Slam, or the cleverly named breakfast sandwich “Moons Over My Hammy” probably stand out. Any time, day or night, Denny’s is there to sate your appetite. What you don’t think of when you think of Denny’s, and what I’m confident Harold Butler and Richard […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7846670/7846670_2025-12-08-013910.64kmono.mp3 Until Sunday’s loss at Green Bay, the Bears had won eight in a row. Is it a coincidence that the Bears began their winning streak after the co-owners and operators of Kneads and Wants, a Skokie bakery, were featured as a Chicago Bears Small Business All-Pro? Perhaps, but Madeleine England, who runs the bakery […]

Stan’s Donuts began in Los Angeles in 1963, after founder Stan Berman moved there in 1954 and opened the first location in Westwood. After forming a friendship and partnership, Rich Labriola of Labriola Baking Company opened the first Chicago location in 2014, and now owns and operates 17 Chicago area locations. For a National Donut […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7785455/7785455_2025-10-28-222955.64kmono.mp3 We hear a lot about omega-3 fatty acids and most of what we hear is that we don’t get enough of them in our diets. In the audio clip above, Dr. Daniel Robinson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and an attending physician in the Division of Neonatology […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7778825/7778825_2025-10-23-231225.64kmono.mp3 As a child, Emilia D’Albero loved cheese. Most kids do, but few take it as far as she did, all the way to the “Olympics of Cheese” — the Mondial du Fromage, a biennial event held in Tours, France, that combines a trade show for dairy professionals with a juried cheese tasting and the […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7765758/7765758_2025-10-16-171158.64kmono.mp3 Sunday, October 12, was National Farmer’s Day in the United States. Traditionally, when people think “farmer,” they don’t think of a woman. “It’s usually expected that it’s her husband, or her father, or her brother,” says Kate Huffman. Not in her case. She owns two farms, and was recently honored by the Illinois Farm […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7757079/7757079_2025-10-12-204619.64kmono.mp3 “I love Choco Chimps,” Jane Goodall told Nature’s Path Organic CEO Arjan Stephens. “I’m really proud to partner with you guys,” she told him in 2014 when the company teamed up with her to protect chimpanzees and raise money for the Institute. “She loved that Choco Chimps were vegan,” as she had been since […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7745106/7745106_2025-10-05-163506.64kmono.mp3 In the film The Irishman, Teamsters Union boss Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino, rallies an audience by pointing out how vital trucks, and the men and women who drive them, are to our way of living. “If you got it, a truck brought it. If you got your food, your clothing, your medicine, […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7741200/7741200_2025-10-02-164000.64kmono.mp3 So there you are, minding your own business as you inspect and squeeze the fresh produce in the supermarket when a robot named Servi, loaded with shelves of bananas and/or pineapples, glides up to you and says, “Hey you. Yes, you.” It’s happening daily at Jewel stores in Fox Lake, Huntley, and Westmont, Illinois. […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7736402/7736402_2025-09-30-165202.64kmono.mp3 It was just another busy day in the Loyola Medical Center cafeteria in Maywood, Illinois. Cashier Ketzly Angel was helping a line of hungry customers. ER physician Dr. Joan Dimopoulos rushed in to grab a quick bite during a busy shift. While she was eating a chicken sandwich, things got scary: A piece of […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7735456/7735456_2025-09-30-011556.64kmono.mp3 When Holly Simon gave birth, “The doctors and the nurses all said that they were sorry,” she recalls. Baby Nate had Down syndrome. Right away she knew she had her work cut out for her, not only raising her child but making sure no other new mom has to hear those words. You may […]

Gardening guru Jim Fizzell talks zucchini, seed harvesting, perennial dividing and more things that need to be done right now. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7637530/7637530_2025-08-08-123030.64kmono.mp3

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7563831/7563831_2025-08-06-174531.64kmono.mp3 “We’re halfway through… Spring of ’26,” is how Nilda Esparza describes the reconstruction of Milwaukee Avenue from Belmont Avenue to Logan Square. Esparza is the Executive Producer for the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce. She tells WGN’s Steve Alexander in the audio clip above that the end result will be beautiful. In the interim, […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7557086/7557086_2025-08-04-162826.64kmono.mp3 When Idina Menzel sang “Let it Go,” she probably didn’t have Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in mind, but those lyrics are the essence of the Health and Human Services Secretary’s suggestion for dealing with the bird flu. In the audio clip above, Johns Hopkins University researcher Erin Sorrell tells WGN’s Steve Alexander that after […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7554257/7554257_2025-08-01-150257.64kmono.mp3 Click above to hear the radio edit. Click below to hear the longer version. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7554269/7554269_2025-08-01-152209.64kmono.mp3 Is bacon an ultra-processed food? Some people would say yes, but Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has stated that when he does eat breakfast–he typically skips breakfast as part of intermittent fasting–but when he does, […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7536189/7536189_2025-07-23-020529.64kmono.mp3 Push play for the radio edit above. The extended version is below. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7536190/7536190_2025-07-23-024430.64kmono.mp3 Many Chicagoans remember Emily Hurd. She, her voice and her piano, with occasional accompaniment, played many Chicago clubs: Space, Schubas, Martyrs, and the Old Town School of Music, among them. She played elsewhere nationally and internationally, too, getting rave reviews. How […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7530440/7530440_2025-07-19-003140.64kmono.mp3 Radio edit above, full-length interview below. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7530447/7530447_2025-07-19-001147.64kmono.mp3 When you’re starting a business, it’s wise to pay attention to others’ opinions. Zach Rash and Brad Squicciarini were studying robotics at UCLA and developed the concept for a more efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly way of delivering food: a robot, or more to the point, a […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7527955/7527955_2025-07-17-225355.64kmono.mp3 Radio edit above. Extended interview below. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7530111/7530111_2025-07-18-222311.64kmono.mp3 Chicago is a restaurant city, one of the world’s best, and at the top of the list of Windy City restaurateurs is Alex Dana. In 1973, he opened his first restaurant on the corner of Washington and Wacker in the heart of the Loop. It was across […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7514905/7514905_2025-07-10-203605.64kmono.mp3 Even though he did skydive recently, it’s hard to imagine what WGN legend and meteorologist emeritus Tom Skilling could have in common with Superman. In the audio clip above, WGN’s entertainment reporter Dean Richards, in his regular 8:10 a.m. segment with Bob Sirott, mentions the name of the actor playing Superman in the new […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7499755/7499755_2025-06-30-235855.64kmono.mp3 In the audio clip above, famed Chicago-grown chef Joe Flamm tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about his participation in the recent Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry event where more than 500 people got together to have fun and donate money to tackle food insecurity in Chicago. The sold-out event was at Rockwell […]

Researchers found 'forever chemicals' in 95% of the U.S. beers they tested.

His first drone was made from Popsicle sticks, tape, and some cheap motors. Now, his company is building thousands of drones a year, many of them the size of small cars. In the audio clip above, WGN’s Steve Alexander talks with Arthur Erickson, CEO and co-founder of Hylio, a rapidly growing American ag drone company […]

https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7483330/7483330_2025-06-20-182130.64kmono.mp3 Click above to hear the extended 16 and a half minute interview; click below for the 2 and a half minute radio version. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/7483356/7483356_2025-06-20-182556.64kmono.mp3 First things first: Where did Meathead get his name? In the audio clips above, he tells WGN’s Steve Alexander his dad gave it to him. Not at birth, though. It […]

For nearly a century, one of the biggest names in baking has been Wilton. The Naperville-based company is the go-to brand for professional and home bakers for everything from baking pans and tools to icing pouches and sprinkles. In the audio clip below, Declan O’Leary, the president of Wilton, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about summer […]

Here’s how it works: “Dig up the soybean and hold it up to your nose. If it smells like earth, you’re good. But if you can squeeze it and a liquid comes out and it smells rotten? Guess what, it’s rotten.” That’s how Brad Mason, a field agronomist for Pioneer Seeds in Western Illinois describes […]