PODCAST · society
The Secret Ingredient
by KUT & KUTX Studios, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott & Rebecca McInroy
The history and story behind the foods we eat.
Episodes
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Hope: Frances Moore Lappé
“[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 […]
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Guam
“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...
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Each Others: Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz
“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...
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COVID-19 Series: Rob Wallace
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...
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Politics and The Green New Deal: Ben Lilliston
“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…
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The Green New Deal for Agriculture: Jim Goodman and Raj Patel
“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 […]
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The Green New Deal in Texas: Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez
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...
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Social Movement: Naomi Klein
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...
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Trailer: Season 3–The Green New Deal
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!
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Economic Man
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.
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Prison Labor on Farms
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.
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Solidarity (Ep. 35)
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…
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Communes (Ep. 34)
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…
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Mushrooms (Ep. 33)
“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...
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Decolonization (Ep. 32)
“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...
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Special: Pesticides, Science, and Subterfuge
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…
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Update
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 […]
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Democracy (Ep. 31)
“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...
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Cheap Food (Ep. 30)
“[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…
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Tomatoes: Coalition of Immokalee Workers (Ep. 29)
“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 […]
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Sidney Mintz (Extended Interview)
“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 […]
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Land Reform: Suzan Erem (Ep. 28)
“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...
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Strawberries: Julie Guthman (Ep 27.)
“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...
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Seed Saving: Janet Maro (Ep. 26)
“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…
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Nutritionism: Aya Kimura (Ep. 25)
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...
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V&B Extra: Food and Trump’s Border Wall
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...
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Nutrition: Joan Gussow (Ep. 24)
“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 […]
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Tips: Saru Jayaraman (Ep. 23)
“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...
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Op-Ed Teaching Public Policy In A Trump Administration: James K. Galbraith
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....
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Ethnic Food: Krishnendu Ray (Ep. 22)
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…
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(Bush) Tea: Annalee Davis (Ep. 21)
“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 […]
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Spin: Anna Lappé (Ep. 20)
“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...
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TSI Extra – Hoover Alexander [Part Two]
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...
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TSI Extra – Hoover Alexander [Part One]
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...
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Sugar Op-Ed: James K. Galbraith
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...
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School Food: Alexa Delwiche (Ep. 19)
“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...
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TSI Live: Feeding Austin’s Hungry
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...
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Whiteness: Breeze Harper (Ep. 18)
“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...
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TSI Weekend: Zika
“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…
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Cotton: Sven Beckert (Ep. 17)
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…
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TSI Weekend: Nationalism
“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...
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Breast Milk: Kimberly Seals Allers (Ep. 16)
“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...
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Pathogens: Rob Wallace (Ep. 15)
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.
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Nationalism: Arjun Appadurai (Ep. 14)
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…
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The Peasantry: Blain Snipstal (Ep. 13)
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.
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SXSW: Tech & The Future of Food
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...
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Quinoa: Tanya Kerssen (Ep. 12)
“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...
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Golden Rice: Glenn Davis Stone (Ep. 11)
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 […]
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Hot Peppers: Gary Nabhan (Ep. 10)
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...
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Jesus: Fred Bahnson (Ep. 9)
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…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Secret Ingredient have?
The Secret Ingredient currently has 62 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Secret Ingredient about?
The history and story behind the foods we eat.
How often does The Secret Ingredient release new episodes?
The Secret Ingredient has 62 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Secret Ingredient?
You can listen to The Secret Ingredient on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Secret Ingredient?
The Secret Ingredient is created and hosted by KUT & KUTX Studios, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott & Rebecca McInroy.
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