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 Friday

Episodes312

Newest first

Jun 5, 2023 · 31 min
After A Lifetime Of Eating, Gail Simmons Is Still Hungry
Top Chef judge Gail Simmons never thought she’d have a career in food. Sure, her mom ran a cooking school in their home growing up. Yes, she worked in the kitchen on a kibbutz in Israel.
May 29, 2023 · 31 min
The Secret To Grace Church’s Lobster Rolls
In the 1980s, six women on an island off the coast of Massachusetts began selling lobster rolls as a church fundraiser. Today people travel by car, boat, and plane just to taste these hallowed summer treats. This week, one of those people is Dan.
May 22, 2023 · 34 min
Comic Jamie Loftus’s Hot Dog Summer
Comedian and podcaster Jamie Loftus set out on a cross-country road trip to try to figure out: Why do hot dogs have such a hold on American culture? And why does she continue to find them so damn delicious? Over the course of her Hot Dog Summer, she tried all kinds of regional American dogs, from a bacon-wrapped Sonoran dog in Tucson, to a bologna-wrapped dog in Baltimore, to one that involved SpaghettiOs.
May 15, 2023 · 35 min
Is Protecting Abalone Also Destroying A Native Tradition?
When the California government stepped in to try to prevent abalone from going extinct, it also criminalized the food traditions of indigenous people in the region. In this collaboration with our friends at the podcast Copper and Heat, we look into the history of this now luxury ingredient — a tale that involves San Francisco bohemians, Japanese fishermen, and a Pomo-Paiute woman who has risked jail time and fines in order to keep these food traditions alive.
May 8, 2023 · 35 min
The Musical History Of Jelly
This week we're exploring the musical history of jelly, from the Harlem Renaissance to Beyoncé and beyond. Along the way, we hear the story of a famous moment in internet history, explore depictions of Black women in music, and learn how jelly became an affirmation for LGBTQIA+ identity. And then, for our grand finale, we write an original song about JELLY!
May 1, 2023 · 32 min
Can ChatGPT Write An Episode Of The Sporkful?
ChatGPT can use artificial intelligence to generate high school essays, emails, cover letters, and a lot more. But can it write an episode of The Sporkful? Eater senior reporter Bettina Makalintal joins us to discuss, and to tell us what happened when she asked ChatGPT to write a “stinky lunchbox immigrant memoir.”
Apr 24, 2023 · 35 min
Meet The Banh Mi Innovators
Cookbook author Andrea Nguyen helped change the tone of Vietnamese cookbooks when she published her first in 2006. “They had these long, long ingredient lists that kind of exoticized the cuisine,” Andrea tells Dan. “But we're here in America. Why can't we talk about Vietnamese food in America?”
Apr 17, 2023 · 52 min
Squishy Or Crunchy? Why Texture Matters
Crunchy, creamy, squishy, slimy… the list goes on. Texture might not be the first thing you think of when describing your favorite foods, but it plays a big role in the foods you love and the foods you hate. And it’s not just an individual preference; culture can help determine whether you love crunchy or squishy foods.
Apr 10, 2023 · 28 min
Bill Nye, The FOOD Science Guy!
Bill Nye is a goofball nerd to the core, and he’s built a career on making science fun and accessible for everyone. So can Bill give Dan some satisfying answers to big, and small, food science questions? Like what’s the deal with the five second rule?
Apr 3, 2023 · 36 min
Are You Eating Chipotle Bowls Wrong?
How do you eat ice cream on a first date? When should you start meal prepping when you’re in a new relationship? What’s the perfect tailgating food?
Mar 27, 2023 · 33 min
For Ghetto Gastro, Food Is A Weapon
Hip hop records as placemats. A sneaker chandelier, reminiscent of shoes hanging on telephone lines. A bouillabaisse overflowing with seafood from the south of France. That was the scene at one of the high-end events put on by Ghetto Gastro, a Bronx-based culinary collective.
Mar 20, 2023 · 33 min
The Brewer Rewriting The Story of Beer In Iran
Zahra Tabatabai’s parents grew up in an Iran that would be unrecognizable today. “The pictures I see of my family in Iran in the sixties and seventies, they're in bikinis at the beach, drinking beer,” she says. Now, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women are legally required to wear hijabs and alcohol is banned.
Mar 13, 2023 · 36 min
Raina’s Disordered Eating, One Year Later
A year ago we spoke with a young woman we’re calling Raina, who felt she was on the verge of developing an eating disorder. For context and perspective, we spoke with comedian Margaret Cho, who's struggled with eating disorders much of her life. This week, we get an update on how Raina is doing one year later.
Mar 6, 2023 · 30 min
Should Fine Dining Exist?
The Copenhagen restaurant Noma has consistently topped lists of best restaurants in the world. People fly in from all over the globe to pay $500 per person for the hyperlocal tasting menus dreamed up by chef/owner Rene Redzepi. But a couple months ago, Redzepi announced the restaurant will close next year because it had become unsustainable, “financially and emotionally.”
Feb 27, 2023 · 27 min
The Last Big Mac In Iceland
When Alexandra Yingst plopped down at a bar in Reykjavik after a 10-hour drive through a blizzard, she saw something unexpected: a Big Mac, in seemingly perfect condition, under a glass dome. It turns out that Big Mac tells us a lot about Iceland’s economy and national identity. Our friends at the Atlas Obscura podcast explore the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places — and this week they’re bringing us two of their best food stories.
Feb 13, 2023 · 26 min
Alan And Arlene Alda Bonded Over A Fallen Rum Cake
"Flirting over food is really the best way to flirt," says actor Alan Alda, and he would know. He met his wife, Arlene, at a dinner party in college. A rum cake fell off the top of a refrigerator, and Arlene and Alan were the only ones to grab a fork and eat it off the floor.
Feb 6, 2023 · 28 min
A French Chef And Cincinnati: A Love Story
When the French chef Jean-Robert de Cavel died in December, hundreds of chefs wore their white coats to his memorial service in downtown Cincinnati. It was a testament to how many people Jean-Robert had inspired in the thirty years he lived in the city. So how did this fancy French chef end up in Cincinnati — and why did he stay?
Jan 23, 2023 · 35 min
Mission: ImPASTAble 9 | New Shapes From Old Places
The number one question Dan has gotten since inventing cascatelli is: Are you going to invent another pasta shape? The answer is probably not — the sequel is never as good as the original. Instead, he gets a better idea: find some old, obscure shapes that he loves, make a tweak or two, and team up with Sfoglini to produce them.
Feb 15, 2022 · 36 min
Mission: ImPASTAble 8 | The Pursuit Of Viscoelasticity
When cascatelli first went viral, Dan heard from dozens of listeners who wanted to try it, but couldn’t because they were gluten-free. Well, challenge accepted: Dan sets out to make a version of cascatelli without gluten, a project that’s now nearly a year in the making.
Jan 3, 2022 · 37 min
The Hardest Beer Test In The World
Mandy Naglich is an award-winning home brewer who also writes and teaches about beer. Now she wants to become a Master Cicerone — basically the beer equivalent of a master sommelier. There are only 19 in the world, and just three are women.

The Sporkful

After A Lifetime Of Eating, Gail Simmons Is Still Hungry

The Secret To Grace Church’s Lobster Rolls

Comic Jamie Loftus’s Hot Dog Summer

Is Protecting Abalone Also Destroying A Native Tradition?

The Musical History Of Jelly

Can ChatGPT Write An Episode Of The Sporkful?

Meet The Banh Mi Innovators

Squishy Or Crunchy? Why Texture Matters

Bill Nye, The FOOD Science Guy!

Are You Eating Chipotle Bowls Wrong?

For Ghetto Gastro, Food Is A Weapon

The Brewer Rewriting The Story of Beer In Iran

Raina’s Disordered Eating, One Year Later

Should Fine Dining Exist?

The Last Big Mac In Iceland

Alan And Arlene Alda Bonded Over A Fallen Rum Cake

A French Chef And Cincinnati: A Love Story

Mission: ImPASTAble 9 | New Shapes From Old Places

Mission: ImPASTAble 8 | The Pursuit Of Viscoelasticity

The Hardest Beer Test In The World