What happens when two food scientists get bored in a pandemic? It turns out, they start to brainstorm how they would feed a colony of humans on Mars. What might seem like a trivial question is actually a more nuanced exploration of how we can sustain ourselves on Mars, and what we can learn from this thought experiment back on Earth, too. My guests this week are Drs. Evan Fraser and Lenore Newman, two food scientists that started a series of conversations to pass the time during lockdowns, which then turned into something much more important. Dr. Evan Fraser is the director of the Arrell Fo ..read more

When you think about comfort food, what types of meals or dishes come to mind – is it mashed potatoes and gravy, the best of your grandmother’s kitchens, or a chickpea curry? Often we have this idea around “comforting” foods that is rooted so deeply in our family ties and meaty or hearty cultural dishes. Yet sometimes, comfort food can be a bit more imaginative, if you reframe it.  Today I’m talking with Nat and Bec Davey, two writer sisters who like to use art and conversations to reframe more than themselves – you might say they practice socially conscious self-help. Sometimes they d ..read more

Alcohol has been navigating a new social landscape in America and Canada since COVID hit. While there were signs that alcohol consumption was rising with lockdowns, there’s also been more spaces for conversation around the use of alcohol as a drug, or trickier relationships with drinking and binge drinking, amidst a backdrop of the drug use crisis that is sweeping across families of all types with changes in drug supply and challenges with cost of living. It is a lot to navigate, so I brought back my favourite beer and diversity expert to talk through it, Ren Navarro. Ren runs B.Diversity Gr ..read more

When we think about food security and food systems, it can easily be imagined as a large national or state or provincial level experience. Yet many young adults increasingly are experiencing the unique dynamics of food systems on campus landscapes, which offers a concentrated and specific food environment that can feel limited as food prices increase and food vendors on campus continue to produce some questionable (and now expensive) meatloaf.  Yet post-secondary campuses are spaces of resistance and social justice, and it seems only fitting that students can push back to create food sy ..read more

In 2023, we’re facing increased food prices, tech-heavy innovations around lab grown foods for climate change, and heavily industrialized and packaged foods. Amidst that, though, there’s still interest in the world of fermented foods and returning to working with microbes to create a multitude of communities. My guest today is Dr. Julia Skinner, who shares her work and research on fermentation. Julia is a former librarian and Library Science PhD turned food historian and fermentation expert. She is the author of the award-winning book Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Hav ..read more

“In the way people are looking for genetic testing to get a sense of their background, it’s the same data that is then used to say, ‘Here is a particular diet tailored to your genetic information that will allow you to reach these expectations around health and wellness.’ … I found them to be quite difficult to deal with, on a personal level, as it felt like any neuroses I had around food, exercise, control, and perfectionism was really exacerbated by using these apps. ” — Dr. Tina Sikka With increasingly wearable and seamless tech experiences, there is a growing ability for us to monitor alm ..read more

Food on popular television shows can be a storytelling mechanism, particularly in terms of building a sense of place and history. While the television show can tell a specific story, there can be a whole world to explore extending beyond this, which is rife for creative exploration for cookbook writers and recipe developers.  My guest this week, Jackie Alpers, is here to share her own experiences with this how they played into the concept of her new cookbook, The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook: Recipes Inspired by the Dutton Family Ranch. Jackie Alpers is a cookbook author, food photog ..read more

When we think about “authentic” food experiences – what are we really explicitly looking for? Oftentimes the idea of authenticity can be exoticized to represent a particular type of ethnic cuisine at a specific time – or someone’s version of it. But in a diasporic world, there are ways to create a menu and recipes that reflect both local and seasonal food availability in a way that continues to weave food stories from the past into present life. My guest this week is someone who is exceptionally good at blending the past and present into her dining experiences, Chef Ji Hye Kim.  She is ..read more

We started off this season looking at just how much Canadians wasted food, and how food systems management can be used to tackle this from a research based perspective. But the realities of how to navigate food waste, and the chain from supplier to consumer get a bit more murky. So how can it be done? This week, I’m chatting with Monique Chan, who is working on a solution through her company, Bruized. Monique is a 26-year old creative from Toronto, Ontario. She founded Bruized in 2019 as a way to combat the food waste crisis through upcycling commonly discarded ingredients like juice pulp, i ..read more

“Diet culture existed in all our ancient societies as well - like who’s statues were made into bodies? I want us to be really specific and particular when we blame social media. I don’t think I blame social media personally for creating diet culture. I think it’s led to some nuances, youngins have access to filters where before you maybe needed digital editing skills to do that.” — Ary Maharaj With every new year, we get absolutely bombarded by diet ads, fitness discounts, gym memberships (even if gyms are closed during lockdowns), and constant messaging about what our bodies are worth. Even ..read more