In this interview with Stanley, Professor Lotte Holm explains why a sociological understanding of different people’s experiences around food, body-weight, and income is vital for implementing better policies around food. Much of her research focuses on populations in Denmark and the European Union, but understanding everyday struggles around food is a huge component of our global food and healthcare system. Prof. Holm is a sociologist at the Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO) at the University of Copenhagen. Two of her recent publications include: Gronow, J.  & Holm, L ..read more

In this interview with Stanley, Prof. Lars Holm discusses the importance of protein in our diet as we age. As we get older, our sensitivity to amino acids begins to deteriorate, which prevents us from absorbing as much protein as we could earlier in life. He also explains why the uptake of amino acids is better when the protein is eaten with meals and how protein relates to exercise. Lars Holm is Professor at the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK.  ..read more

In this episode, Tess interviews Ashley Chard Dinella, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and food marketing specialist. Ashley tells a story about not being able to diagnosis an illness as a child and finally turning to a nutrition expert who located the culprits. The subsequent twenty years of knowledge acquisition and experimentation eventually led her to intuitive, healthy eating as an overarching principle of her lifestyle. She also has a few tidbits of real-world advice for our listeners. Ashley runs Zoetic Wellness Consulting, which designs corporate and personal wellness so ..read more

The Mediterranean diet has risen in popularity around the world. In this informative and inspiring episode, Stanley talks to Dr. Anna Bach-Faig, a leading scholar on the Mediterranean diet in Spain. As Prof. Bach-Faig explains, this diet is considered one of the healthiest diets out there, with strong evidence showing its role in preventing “cardiodiabesity,” or cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and type II diabetes. It’s also a unique diet because it tackles two key aspects of food: what-we-eat as well as the how-we-eat. She explains how the pleasure of preparing and sharing meals with signif ..read more

Stanley interviews Claude Fischler, a French social scientist, Senior Investigator Emeritus with CNRS, the French National Science Center, and a former director of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Contemporary Anthropology in Paris. In this episode, he talks about the importance of food to humans, beginning with why he decided to pursue the study of food. He defines commensality, explaining where this word comes from and how it manifests today. He also discusses the contemporary eating habits of the French and how they compare to other countries ..read more

Season 2 is here! In this season, we have bite-sized interviews with experts in food and nutrition, and other issues that impact the biological body. We will pepper these with interviews with households on the topics discussed. Write to us! DM us on Instagram @aroundthetablepod or send us a message at anchor.fm/aroundthetablepod ..read more

We cover some of the themes that came out through our interviews, from creativity in the kitchen to inequality, obesity, and Covid-19. For those of you that don't know, Stanley is a nutritional anthropologist whose work centers on the evolutionary basis for, and cultural diversity in, nutritional health. This includes both undernutrition and obesity, and the diseases associated with them. Tess asks him a few questions about the future of food and science when it comes to obesity and Covid-19. Just a reminder that all thoughts are preliminary: we put this podcast out to think and muse as t ..read more

Stanley interviews Dr. Amy McLennan, a human scientist and social researcher in Australia, who discusses how Covid-19 has impacted the meat industry, exposing issues of structural violence and inequality. She also discusses the implications for the global meat supply chain, including what it means to live in a society that has aimed to eliminate food storage. Once you give it a listen, here are some additional articles about some of the topics covered, including the US vs. Australian meat industry, a mobile butcher in Germany,  how the pandemic is messing with AI models, and the plant-bas ..read more

Stanley talks to Steph Morphew, a food writer and service industry worker who discusses direct to consumer selling from the restaurant industry during lock down and what our future access to good food might look like ..read more

Stanley interviews Dr. Giles Yeo, a Geneticist at the University of Cambridge and author of "Gene Eating: The Story of Human Appetite." He talks about food insecurity during Covid19, concerns for Brexit, and posting his cooking under #bringingchinatownhome, a London campaign to draw positive attention to Chinatown, which was one of the areas most devastated by the lock down. Check out his recipe for crispy aromatic duck, a "high impact, low effort" dish ..read more