The Sporkful

Dan Pashman

3x James Beard Award winner. Named one of TIME's 100 Best Podcasts Of All Time. We obsess about food to learn more about people. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. Hosted by Dan Pashman, inventor of the viral pasta shape cascatelli.

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312 episodes
Updated Yesterday

Episodes312

Newest first

This Is Your Brain On Cheesesteak (Reheat)
Why do our brains go crazy for the melted cheese on Philly's iconic cheesesteak? What is it about scrapple’s crispy fried goodness? How does surface-area-to-volume ratio make the roast pork sandwich more delicious?
Yesterday · 25 min
The Ice Cream Truck Kingpins Of Southern California
Is there anything better than hearing the sound of an ice cream truck approaching? Today we’re bringing you two stories of ice cream trucks, past and present. First, Sporkful managing producer Emma Morgenstern tells the tale of her great-uncles, who owned a fleet of trucks starting in the 1940s — complete with sibling rivalries, California dreaming, and the exact right speed to drive a truck to maximize profits.
Monday · 44 min
Carla Hall Isn't Going Back To The Frozen Food Section (Reheat)
Carla Hall is known for her quirky, energetic personality on TV. But in some ways she’s very different today from the woman who first appeared as a contestant on Top Chef almost two decades ago. "I didn't want to show up as my Blackness if it wasn't going to be accepted," the former co-host of The Chew says of her first foray into food media.
July 24 · 36 min
2 Chefs And A Lie 2026 With NPR’s Rachel Martin
We’re back with our annual game show: Two Chefs And A Lie! This year our contestant is Rachel Martin, host of the NPR podcast Wild Card and an old friend of Dan’s. The game goes like this: Rachel talks with three guests.
July 20 · 42 min
The Man Who Made 5 Million Burritos (Reheat)
Is the perfect burrito a feat of engineering or art? We debate burrito construction and the Los Angeles/San Francisco rivalry with Jesse Thorn (founder of Maximum Fun and host of Bullseye) and Evan Kleiman (host of KCRW's Good Food). Matt Yglesias (cofounder of Vox Media and author of the Slow Boring newsletter) compares Chipotle burritos to iPhones. And then, Dan and cookbook author/YouTuber Kenji López-Alt take some calls: A wife objects to her husband's embarrassing food hacks, and Kenji expl
July 17 · 52 min
Can You Be On A GLP-1 And Still Love Food?
Recent studies say that somewhere between 12 and 16 percent of Americans have used GLP-1s like Ozempic, Wegovy, or Zepbound. Many people who take these drugs report that the meds have fundamentally changed their relationship to food.
July 13 · 30 min
The Great Office Coffee Election (Reheat)
“The time has come for us to change the coffee brand that we offer and we want your input!” The email came from Myiesha Gordon in the HR Department at WNYC. Like many others, Myiesha hated the office coffee.
July 10 · 28 min
Does McDonald’s Want Their Soft-Serve Machines To Stay Broken?
McDonald’s soft-serve machines break down so often that a corner of the internet is awash in memes and videos about their unreliability. Enter Jeremy O’Sullivan and Melissa Nelson, two entrepreneurs who wanted to fix the broken machines. They thought they'd succeeded — until McDonald’s told its franchisees to stay away.
July 6 · 32 min
The Enslaved Chefs At Monticello Who Created American Cuisine (Reheat)
This week in honor of July 4th, we’re exploring an important part of American history – the contributions of enslaved Black chefs, whose work influences American cuisine to this day. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson brought the enslaved chef James Hemings, brother of Sally Hemings, with him to France to train under the French culinary masters of the day. Hemings created a cuisine that was half French, half Virginian, and brought it back to Jefferson's plantation, Monticello.
July 3 · 33 min
Welcome To The Clam Capital Of America
Summer is here, and for years, Dan has spent part of his summer in New England visiting family and friends. This week he’s visiting two New England summer institutions. First is Woodman’s—known as the place where fried clams were invented—in Essex, Massachusetts, the clam capital of America.
June 29 · 48 min
Inside The Consumer Reports Test Labs (Reheat)
Dan goes inside Consumer Reports, the independent nonprofit that tests and rates everything from toaster ovens to frozen pizzas to luxury cars. CR takes testing very seriously, and Dan gets to see their process in action. It all starts with an undercover shopper who goes by the pseudonym Jim.
June 26 · 36 min
How Much Should You Tip At A Coffee Shop?
How do restaurants decide who gets the worst tables? Why are Americans obsessed with the German supermarket chain Aldi? And should iced coffee only be consumed in hot weather?
June 22 · 43 min
Modern Family’s Ty Burrell Cases Hollywood Parties For Free Food (Reheat)
As a struggling young actor, Ty Burrell pretended to be a guest at hotels to get the free breakfast buffet. Now he fights the urge to pocket food at the Emmys. He talks about his hors d'oeuvres strategy at fancy Hollywood events, getting his kids to eat slower, and how Utah's arcane liquor laws actually benefitted the two Salt Lake City bars he owns.
June 19 · 34 min
What Will America’s 250th Birthday Cake Look Like?
In just a few weeks, the United States will mark its 250th birthday, with celebrations all across the country. But when cake artist Grace Pak started looking into it a few months ago, she realized the festivities were missing something crucial: a birthday cake! Now, she’s been tasked with making it.
June 15 · 49 min
Hasan Minhaj Says Life Is Like Biryani (Reheat)
For comedian and former Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj, biryani is more than a delicious food. It's a guide to life: pulling out the good bits and pushing the weird stuff to the side. And when you're a third-culture kid, Hasan says, you pick and choose which parts of the two cultures to make part of your life.
June 12 · 37 min
The Table Freda Built At Ebony Magazine
For decades starting in the 1940s, Ebony was one of the only magazines created by Black people that spoke directly to Black people. It showed Black Americans falling in love, playing sports, dressing in style, gathering together – and eating. Freda DeKnight was the magazine’s first food editor, publishing recipes that were international and sophisticated, challenging the stereotype that Black American food was limited to soul food.
June 8 · 28 min
Rachel Maddow Fixed The Pina Colada (Reheat)
Piña coladas are way better in theory than in practice. Take it from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. "The tragedy of the pina colada is that it was never wholesome."
June 5 · 29 min
Why Would Someone Run 31 Miles While Eating Taco Bell?
Last year we got an email from a young woman named Eleanor Sigel that said: “I’m training for the Taco Bell 50k. With ten Taco Bell stops in thirty miles, it should be a fun run, so I thought I'd invite you to join me.” While Dan had absolutely no interest in running 31 miles, eating that much Taco Bell, or combining the two endeavors into one, we decided to follow Eleanor as she took on the challenge. How do you train for this race?
June 1 · 36 min
Reheat: What's "Poor People's Food"?
Nicole Taylor went through a phase where she rejected the soul food she grew up with. She called it all "slave food." Truth is, we all make judgments about what food is for which people, whether or not we realize it.
May 29 · 39 min
Live: Why Is Massachusetts So Obsessed With Dunkin’?
Matt Shearer, aka Reporter Matt, has made a name for himself with his social media stories about some of the quirkier denizens of Massachusetts. One of his most famous is about the massive public outcry over the closure of both locations of Dunkin’ in Stow, MA -- which led to a surprising development.
May 25 · 45 min

The Sporkful

This Is Your Brain On Cheesesteak (Reheat)

The Ice Cream Truck Kingpins Of Southern California

Carla Hall Isn't Going Back To The Frozen Food Section (Reheat)

2 Chefs And A Lie 2026 With NPR’s Rachel Martin

The Man Who Made 5 Million Burritos (Reheat)

Can You Be On A GLP-1 And Still Love Food?

The Great Office Coffee Election (Reheat)

Does McDonald’s Want Their Soft-Serve Machines To Stay Broken?

The Enslaved Chefs At Monticello Who Created American Cuisine (Reheat)

Welcome To The Clam Capital Of America

Inside The Consumer Reports Test Labs (Reheat)

How Much Should You Tip At A Coffee Shop?

Modern Family’s Ty Burrell Cases Hollywood Parties For Free Food (Reheat)

What Will America’s 250th Birthday Cake Look Like?

Hasan Minhaj Says Life Is Like Biryani (Reheat)

The Table Freda Built At Ebony Magazine

Rachel Maddow Fixed The Pina Colada (Reheat)

Why Would Someone Run 31 Miles While Eating Taco Bell?

Reheat: What's "Poor People's Food"?

Live: Why Is Massachusetts So Obsessed With Dunkin’?