The Business of Food with Steve Alexander

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 […]

In 1978, the Illinois State Legislature proclaimed St. Charles, Illinois, “Pickle Capital of the World.” It didn’t matter that not one pickle is produced in the city on the Fox River. The designation was solely because Pickle Packers International, a non-profit focused on educating consumers about the benefits of pickles, was located there until it […]

In the audio clip below, Farm Action co-founder Joe Maxwell tells WGN’s Steve Alexander he believes the Department of Justice’s launch of an investigation into egg prices on March 6 was due to Farm Action’s letter to the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission urging the departments to investigate and take action to restore competition […]

With many homeowners deciding to hang on to their 3% mortgages and stay put, remodeling the kitchen is gaining popularity. A lot has changed in kitchen styles (if you still have avocado-green appliances, seek help), and in the audio clip below, Sarah Leonard, owner of Legacy Properties tells WGN’s Steve Alexander things to do to […]

One of the reasons people switched from cow’s milk to fake milk made with things like almonds, oats, and soy, was calories. Milk, even skim milk, had more calories than the fake ones. Now, though, the Dairy Farmers of America, a co-op made up of nearly 5,500 family dairy farms, has produced Milk 50, real […]

One would expect Jones Dairy Farm, a seventh-generation farm in America’s Dairyland, Wisconsin, to be all about milk and other dairy products. It isn’t, and hasn’t had cows on its farm since the 1980s. But it’s big in bacon and other pork products and is one of the vendors passing out samples of bacon at […]

We’re all feeling the pain of egg-flation but it’s one thing to wince when we buy a dozen every week or two. The House of Cakes Bakery in NW Chicago buys 90 dozen a week in order to make the fresh, made-from-scratch pastries, donuts, pizza bread, coffee cakes, their famous cheese sticks, cookies, and more […]

Stefania Marzelia has these words of advice for kitchen creators who want to turn their creations into a business: “Just go for it.” She went for it, working as a barista in Chicago coffee shops, starting at age 16 at Starbucks, and later at Cafe Umbria, where she learned about making coffee syrups. When the […]

GloBowl founder and CEO Erica Bethe Levin flipped the equation: Instead of necessity being the mother of invention, she’s a mother who invented something–a new type of baby food–out of necessity. Levin shares some dos and don’ts for people hoping to turn a product dreamt up in a home kitchen (or spare bedroom, or closet, […]

One of the most famous graduates of Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn is pitching in to help raise money for the Glen House Food Pantry in that town. In the audio clip below, Hayes relates a touching story about how hard his mother worked as a single mother of five and a staff […]

20-year-old Nathan Spangler doesn’t wear a cape and leap tall buildings with a single bound, or shoot spider webs out of his palms. No, he’s just a western Illinois farm boy who grew up on the family farm between Macomb and Canton raising corn, soybeans, and beef cattle. And he has proven you don’t need […]

For Baja Foods CEO Art Velasquez, the thought of seeing his company’s Mexican dinners in the frozen food aisles of Costco stores didn’t cross his mind. “It was never anything on my radar to try to do,” he tells WGN’s Steve Alexander. For nearly 25 years, the Southside Chicago company has been making enchiladas, burritos, […]

If you spend a lot of time in urban traffic jams and you are putting on unwanted pounds, a new study says the two may be connected. In the audio clip below, author Becca Taylor, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University […]

If egg prices have you clucking, you may be thinking about building a coop in your backyard and raising your own hens. Before you buy the lumber and chicken wire, take a listen to what Brooke Bestwina of The Feed Store in Summit, Illinois, tells WGN’s Steve Alexander about what’s involved in being a backyard […]

TikTok is full of videos from people preaching the virtues of juice cleanses. Three-day cleanses seem to be the most popular, but there are people hawking 10-day and even 30-day cleanses. Don’t do it, says  Dr. Melinda Ring, director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a […]