AnthroDish

If you grew up in the early 2000s, you might remember the American push for True Love Waits, abstinence only-sex education, and purity rings being sported by celebrities like Jessica Simpson or the Jonas Brothers. Known as Purity Culture, this Protestant evangelical movement emphasizes sexual purity through abstinence… but beyond sex, how has the culture shaped how women understand their bodies, experiences with food, or informed the broader American diet culture? My guest this week is Rebecca Wolfe, who is currently a doctoral candidate in the department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at UCSF. She is interested in the intersection of race, class, gender, religion, embodiment and eating disoders. Her current work is focused on the impact of the Protestant, Evangelical movement known as “Purity Culture” on the development and manifestation of eating disorders in people assigned female at birth and raised within the movement. Learn More About Rebecca:  Twitter: @rebeccathewolfe Medium article on Purity Culture Email: rebecca.wolfe@ucsf.edu

If there’s one thing a lot of us have been doing since the start of COVID last spring, it’s returning to our kitchens – sometimes to help us grieve, sometimes to find joy, and sometimes just for needed sustenance. But there’s something about baking in particular that has re-emerged as an incredible source of joy and heart. My guest this week is Jerrod Blandino, and he is here to talk about how his personal experiences baking have transformed into something much bigger and community based. Jerrod is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Too Faced, a beauty brand he launched with Jeremy Johnson in 1998. Blandino got his start working behind the Estee Lauder makeup counter in the 1990s, and through working one-on-one with clients, he quickly discovered the transformative power that makeup had on women. While he loved working behind the counter, one of his main goals was to create a fun and unique makeup brand that would inject joy back into an industry that was rigidly defined by rules. With a credit card, laser-like focus, and a dream to celebrate and empower women, Too Faced Cosmetics was born. Over twenty-two years, Blandino’s out of the box creativity helped pave the way to make the bran grow into a multi-million dollar business. Aside from Beauty, Blandino’s other greatest passion in life is baking, and many of Too Faced’s product names are a nod to this - if you’ve ever used Too Faced products, you’ll immediately think about the captivating food-inspired and infused scents that many of their products have – there are cocoa contours, peach eye shadow palettes, and cinnamon bear lip plumpers… it’s really like a candyland dream come true! In 2019, he began baking more seriously, and started an IGTV series, #BakeupwithJerrod, which has racked up thousands of views and features celebrity guests. Today, Jerrod is here to talk about his revamped IGTV Bakeup series, and shares how he takes inspiration from the beauty of the natural world to bring to his beauty and baking experiences. I don’t know if it’s obvious yet, but I’m a huuuge fan of Too Faced cosmetics, so being able to interview Jerrod on the intersections of beauty and food is really a dream come true for me! Learn More About #BakeupwithJerrod! IGTV Series: @jerrodblandino (use #BakeupwithJerrod to share your baking!) Website: Too Faced Cosmetics

What role does religion play in cultural attitudes and practices towards drinking alcohol? Is it possible to look at one element without accounting for the other? And how does gender inform how religious and cultural identities are understood or enforced?  My guest this week is Manvinder Gill, a researcher interested in the intersections of alcohol and Sikhi. She recently finished her MA in religious studies at McMaster University. Her thesis interrogated the ways colonialism and intergenerational trauma influence problems with alcohol in the Sikh-Canadian community. Outside of the academy, Manvinder is the co-lead at Asra: The Punjabi Alcohol Resource (asranow.ca), a grassroots organization that serves as a starting point for Punjabi families who struggle with alcohol use. Currently, Manvinder is pursuing her Master of Social Work at the University of Toronto. She's on the show today to explore the results of this research, highlighting the complexities of alcohol consumption and problems with alcohol for Sikh-Canadian communities, the role that masculinity plays in this relationship, and how the colonial binaries of good/bad can be re-imagined for better harm reduction approaches.  Learn more about Manvinder! Instagram: @womanvinder Twitter: @womanvinder Website: asranow.ca 

It’s been a while since I’ve put out an episode, so I am extra excited to get these episodes rolling out again. These are a continuation of season 6 that got a bit de-railed after a provincial lockdown up here in Ontario. Today, we’re back on our regular interviews, and this one is an episode I’ve been SO pumped to share since the moment we sat down for this talk. When we talk about the food system and all its faults, the overwhelming trend in the last twenty years has been, well… we just have to eat local. But what does that actually mean, and is it accessible to eat local, or is it an elitist bandaid solution to the much bigger societal problems it’s trying to skirt? My guest this week is the phenomenal food writer, creator, and educator Paul O. Mims, who is on the show to explore the elitism of local food movements and his unique and refreshing lens as a food writer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Paul began cooking at six years old with his grandmother. He's run culinary programs at a public library, worked as a museum educator at New York’s premier food and beverage museum, taught at public schools worked as a community organizer conducting community food access programs, and even teaching cooking as a drag queen. Paul's unique and expansive career is so easily showcased in his food writing as well: he has that very rare ability of being incredibly concise but also able to bring so many considerations in when exploring key issues in the food world. This week he’s on the show to explore one of the essays he’s written on Medium unpacking the local food scene. We look at how the local food movement started, and Paul explores how the public started to romanticize agriculture, and how white women’s moralities began to shape and take hold of the ethics of food consumption in the 21st century.  If you grew up in the era of Food, Inc, feeling stressed about Michael Pollan telling you what to eat and how to eat it, this is one of those conversations that really takes a step back and assesses the amount of damage that these movements and their elitism has had on the food world, and I have been so looking forward to sharing this with you. Learn More About Paul!  Website: https://mrpaulomims.com/ Instagram: @mrpaulomims Twitter: @mrpaulomims Medium: https://medium.com/@hausofoneal Okra Project essay: https://www.foodandwine.com/news/the-okra-project

Today’s interview is really special for me to share with you all, because my guest is someone I’ve formed a really wonderful friendship with through the podcast community – I’m fairly certain we connected through one of my former guests, Trina Moyles – and being able to sit with her today after years of both of us growing our work and cheering each other on means a lot. So! Now that I’ve set the stage, I will introduce our fabulous guest for today… Tiffany Traverse! Tiffany’s self described as a Secwépemc and Swiss-Italian Seed Keeper, chicken chaser, Zone 2 stretcher, and Fourth Sister to the land. She’s been experimenting and working on cultivating, saving, and sharing Indigenous vegetable and herb seed varieties through Fourth Sister Farms. Today she speaks with me on the work she’s doing at Fourth Sister Farms and how it connects to a broader community of seed keepers across Turtle Island to foster Indigenous food and land sovereignty. We also speak to the importance of Land Back and the ways we can do more to help Indigenous land and water protectors continue their efforts. Learn More About Tiffany and 4th Sister Farm!  Facebook: @4thsisterfarm Instagram: @4thsisterfarm Email: 4thsisterfarm@gmail.com More Land and Seed Resources Community Seed Network Young Agrarians Land Matching  Sundance Harvest 

We’ve seen food media really start to crack when grappling this summer with who can cook what, and for who. The power that recipe production and food media has on flattening complex marginalized identities into harmful stereotypes while white chefs appropriate cultural dishes for their own prestige has become a much bigger conversation. But how does the idea of authenticity shape power and privilege in cooking? And what are the particular ways that commodifying identities can harm BIPOC chefs and restaurant owners? Today chef and activist Jenny Dorsey is here to explore these further. She founded and runs the incredible Studio ATAO, a non-profit that creates immersive experiences at the centre of food, art, and social impact. Jenny is a first-generation Chinese American who has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants. In 2014, she pivoted to impact-driven culinary work, which eventually led to the formation of Studio ATAO. It’s best known for Asian in America, a public exhibition that explores the narrative of Asian American identity through food and drink courses, VR, spoken word, and poetry, and they’re also know for their free, collaborative community resources that address social impact topics. Since the onset of the pandemic, she and her team have put their public and live events on hold, but they’ve continued to create online content and educational resources that address pertinent issues in the food world and beyond, from Recognizing, Disrupting & Preventing Tokenization in Food Media to Understanding Anti-Intellectualism. Today on the show we’re unpacking the idea of authenticity in food, and how it ties in deeply to the commodification of marginalized identities, as well as the ways she’s challenging this through her exhibits, resources, and impact-driven culinary work.  Learn More About Jenny & Studio ATAO! Studio ATAO Website: https://www.studioatao.org/ Instagram: @studioatao and @chefjennydorsey Twitter: @studioatao and @chefjennydorsey Studio ATAO GoFundMe Campaign

We’ve talked on the show before about how there are a lot of really white-centric connotations around the idea of “Canadian” food – a lot of people say there’s no such thing as Canadian food, or joke about poutine… and those whitewashing tactics in our food landscape are woven in more insidious ways into the fabrics of how nutrition and dietetics are taught and understood. My guest today is Gurneet Kaur Dhami, a settler of Panjabi-Sikh descent travelling between Kanadario and Mi’lma’ki as she completes her Masters of Science in Applied Human Nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University. She is currently completing her studies to become a dietitian and her thesis focus is on the experiences of racialized dietitians in Canada. Gurneet is on the show today to share some of her work and knowledge on the main issues that racialized dietiticians face – not just in being dieticians but also in the process of becoming dieticians, and how the racist structures guiding nutrition and diet studies perpetuate racism and food security issues for BIPOC communities seeking nutritional guidance.  Gurneet’s approaches to social justice and anti-oppression work within the many communities she works in are so multi-faceted, and I am really excited to share this conversation with you! Learn More About Gurneet:  Website: https://www.gurneetkdhami.com/ Support Gurneet on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gurneetkdhami Instagram: @gurneetkdhami Twitter: @GurneetKDhami

The phrase “dude food” likely brings to mind a range of very specific images: burgers stacked impossibly high with an assortment of toppings that were themselves once considered a meal, crazed sports fans demolishing radioactively hot wings, barbecued or bacon wrapped…anything. But there is SO much more to the phenomenon of dude food than how outrageous the plate looks. My guest this week, Dr. Emily Contois, is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Tulsa. Dr. Contois is here to explore dude food and chat about her fresh out this week book, Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture. Her book begins with the dude himself – the man who retains masculine privileges but doesn’t meet traditional standards of economic and social success. Dr. Contois explores how the Great Recession’s aftermath contributed to this collision of dude masculinity and food producers and markets, and the lasting impact this gendering of food has had on food production, consumption, and informs the way we carry out our personal identity contests and media lives. She is truly one of my absolute favourite food researchers out there – I mean she has papers out that explore Guy Fieri’s Flavourtown, and she’s got these accessible syllabi and reading lists for food media studies that really get the weird ways social media and Instagram have interacted with our own identities and selfhoods… so suffice to say I’ve been very excited to share this interview! Learn More about Dr. Contois Get a copy of her book, Diners, Dudes, and Diets! Website: https://emilycontois.com/ Twitter: @EmilyContois

With much attention finally being paid to sexual harassment and labour issues within the restaurant industries, it’s easy to view restaurant and food culture simply as being rooted in misogyny and patriarchy. But there are many feminist restaurant and coffeehouse spaces, some incredibly long standing, that serve to really challenge the structures and spaces we operate in. So what does a feminist coffeehouse or restaurant look like? My guest this week, Dr. Alex Ketchum, is here to unpack that question more. Dr. Ketchum is currently a faculty lecturer at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at McGill University. Her doctoral dissertation from McGill focused on feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses in the United States and Canada from 1972-1989. Searching through women’s lesbian, and gay travel archives, she creates a data base that built a series of maps showing where American and Canadian feminist restaurants and cafes were located.  She has a newly launched DIY guidebook, How to Start a Feminist Restaurant, that gleans the lessons of what makes an intentional feminist restaurant space work, and what to consider. Today she’s on the show to explore some of the key findings from her research, and how she used them to launch the feminist restaurant project website to share her findings to highlight how past feminist restaurant owners navigated gender and racial barriers to opening restaurants, and what these takeaways can offer for today’s feminist communities. Get Social with Dr. Ketchum! Website: www.alexketchum.ca  Twitter: @aketchum22

Today is our first real episode of the 6th season! Thank you all for joining me here today, it really means the world to share these conversations with you, and especially so when we’re all living in these very difficult new realities and a changed world, that you take the time to tune in. My guest this week is Carolyn Davenport-Moncel. Carolyn is an American expat and Chicago native, who wears many, many hats as a writer, entrepreneur, digital marketing professional, mum of two, and Souper-in-Chief at Simply Souperlicious. Simply Souperlicious is a food recipe website, app, and community that is devoted to converting those veggie haters into veggie lovers – one local, seasonal, homemade soup at a time. Carolyn carries a wealth of knowledge and experience in digital media and communication, which spans more than 20 years. When she’s not cooking in her kitchen, singing loudly and off key to some 90s indie song, she’s serving as the Head of Digital Marketing at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland, where she oversees integrated marketing and digital transformation strategies. She is also the author of three collections of published short stories and numerous online media relations and lifestyle articles. I will warn you that this episode might make you feel very strong soup cravings, so maybe just pin that idea for your next lunch! I am really excited to share this conversation, because through her Simply Souperlicious website and work, she’s really tackling these issues of who has access to healthy food, challenging what healthy food and wellness “is” or “isn’t” and making delicious and nutritious meals much more accessible for all those of us who are incredibly time crunched, stressed, and wanting to make some small first step changes for ourselves and our families.  Get Social with Carolyn!  Website: https://simplysouperlicious.com/ Instagram: @simplysouperlicious

This episode kicks off the brand new 6th season for AnthroDish! Tune in to hear some reflections from Sarah on where the show is going, and tackling some issues and discomforts while growing the podcast audience and community. Full interview episodes start next Tuesday! 

Have you ever heard about health foods or superfoods, and been curious to try them out, but not really sure how to go about it? My guest this week, Elizabeth Stein, is here to help alleviate some of that! Elizabeth is the founder and CEO of Purely Elizabeth Natural Foods, and is on the show today to share her story about how Purely Elizabeth came to be and how it’s working to innovate food and wellness spaces to be more inclusive, affordable, and tasty too! Long before ingredients like chia or quinoa became popular, holistic nutritionist Elizabeth Stein dreamed of starting a natural foods company. Coupling her personal expertise and love for all things food and wellness, she founded Purely Elizabeth in 2009. Since it’s launch over 10 years ago Elizabeth has transformed the natural category by putting ancient grains on the map with their Ancient Grain Granolas, jumping from the #9 granola brand in the natural channel to #1 and selling over 17 million units worldwide. Her latest achievement has Elizabeth going back to her roots in celebration of the brand’s 10 year anniversary with the launch of delectable, nutrient-rich Pancake Mixes, including a paleo-friendly, grain-free version and the FIRST featuring grass-fed collagen. Now, health-conscious foodies can enjoy this beloved breakfast food, guilt-free, and with more options to align with dietary and lifestyle choices. Elizabeth strives to promote a healthy food system through sustainability and transparency, and to be a force for good in everything that she does. Learn More About Purely Elizabeth: Website: https://purelyelizabeth.com/ Instagram: @purely_elizabeth YouTube Facebook: Purely Elizabeth

Today we’re taking a step back in time and exploring some interesting food trends from the past. Every so often, there is a massive migration period for herring towards the Swedish West Coast. These seasonal migrations allow for coastal fishing of herring that is much more abundant than regular methods. During one Herring Period of the 18th century, Atlantic herring began migrating to the western coast of Sweden in seemingly infinite numbers, until they suddenly disappeared in 1809. In response, the Swedes imported the art of smoking herring kipper-style from Britain, but then lost this practice, with very little mention of it in the historical literature. So why did this happen, and how can we learn about it from the past? My guest this week is Anton Larsson, who is here to share his research on the rise of Western Sweden’s industrial herring smokehouses. Anton is a PhD student in Archaeology at Stockholm University. Originally from Uddevalla on the west coast of Sweden, Anton fuels his research by his roots to the region. He shares how he explore the mystery of these industrial smokehouses rise and fall in the 18th century Sweden, and what we can learn about food systems, traditions, and industries from this particularly interesting episode from Swedish history. He also demonstrates the value of using archaeology in historical contexts to piece together new perspectives and understandings of how communities and cultures interacted with their landscapes, and why staying closer to home for research is good practice. Learn More from Anton: Twitter: @antonyaolarsson Website: https://www.su.se/english/profiles/anla3265-1.447274

When most of us think about peanut butter and jelly, we’re immediately filled with memories of childhood lunches. And while it’s certainly a nostalgic snack, at its core it is a healthy snack – when it’s made from whole ingredients! So how can you make a nut butter and jam snack that’s not only tasty but also good for you? My guest this week, Jeff Mahin, is here to talk about this! Jeff is one of the co-founders of Split Nutrition, the first-ever pairing of nut butters and fruit spreads in an easy, on-the-go snack packs made with real ingredients. He’s also a cyclist and chef, as the creative force behind Stella Barra Pizzeria, Summer House Santa Monica, Do-Rite Donuts, and M Street Kitchen. Jeff partnered with renowned nutritionist Dr. Philip Goglia to develop the first ever dual nut butter and jam packets for Split Nutrition, which are nostalgia snacks with cleaner and better-for-you ingredients. Split’s mission is to make convenient and nourishing options for active families everywhere. They hit this balance of bringing comfort back into our snack and fuelling food while providing a hearty source of proteins and healthy fats in their raw roasted nut butters, and essential sugars from their cooked jams. Jeff shares his own story of health and his journey towards becoming a cyclist, and how this ultimately shaped how Split Nutrition came to be. I’m always really excited about seeing how people of different perspectives can come together to shape new knowledge, so it’s super cool to learn about how his experiences as a chef pair with a nutritionist’s understandings of food to form a really holistic and dynamic food product. Through this, they’re challenging what healthy food looks and tastes like, and most importantly, changing who has access to healthy foods by creating space for all sorts of lifestyles. He speaks to how Split Nutrition works to celebrate activity and community, including donating over 200k packets to schools, food banks, and folks in need during the pandemic.  Get Social with Split Nutrition Website: https://www.splitnutrition.com/ Instagram: @splitnutrition and @jeffmahin Facebook: @splitnutrition For more anthrodish, you can find us at anthrodish.com. Sound editing and production was done by Lukas Wojcicki at lukasound.com. AnthroDish is produced in partnership with the American Anthropological Association. Thank you so much for tuning in, we’ll catch you next week!

When the pandemic started, I put out a call to anyone who had their conference or public talk or event cancelled, to see if they wanted to share some of the foundational ideas from those events in podcast form. My guest this week is Simone Johnson, who took me up on the offer after her guest talk on fermentation was cancelled. Something I always marvel at is how many folks I get to meet and connect with through this show I wouldn’t have otherwise, and I’m always so thankful for it. Simone is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York City with a background in urban agriculture and performance art. Over the last couple of years, she has gravitated toward the culinary art world, seeking to cook with friends and help prepare community meals in art spaces. Simone started Cosmos to Kitchen in 2017, and over time it has become a long term mixed media project that mainly focuses on cooking and other topics like foraging and wild foods, seed stewardship, zero waste, energetics, sensory studies, somatics, movement and the body. Through hand made and digital collages, photography, audio recordings, sound art and writing, Simone captures these areas of study mostly through a spiritual lens, embracing uncensored ‘woo woo’ ways of knowing and art-making. These topics are also explored through personal, cultural/ancestral, political and ecological viewpoints. She’s on today to share some of the lasting lessons and experiences she’s had in the Cosmos to Kitchen project, and showcasing how spirituality, art, and food can all work together to create some powerful and beautiful knowledge. Social: Instagram: @cosmostokitchen Website: https://dancewithsimone.wordpress.com/what-is-cosmos-to-kitchen/ Fermentation Materials: MARSH: Materializing and Activating Radical Social Habitus (where I was going to perform) From Birth, Our Microbes Become As Personal as a Fingerprint  Forget Fingerprints--in the Future We'll Be Identified by Gut Bacteria  What ancient African fermentation techniques reveal about probiotics Fermentation is back: how will living organisms reshape your plate? Universe in a Jar: Fermentation makes a comeback

We’re living in a very surreal and increasingly digital world these days, and I don’t know about you all, but I’m finding myself taking a step back each day trying to figure out what this means for how our society is shaped and what our futures will look like. We see a heightened presence of fitness and wellness apps, with extended free trials, or nutrition trackers that give you healthy recipes… but how do they see health? Who gets left out of these fitness and health ideals, and how is tech playing into or heightening the racial and gendered issues around health and food? My guest this week is the brilliant Dr. Tina Sikka, who’s here to shed light on some of these questions! She is a Lecturer in Media and Culture at Newcastle University in the UK. Her research interests include the sociology of science and technology – which includes environmental science, nutritional science, food culture, and health. She also looks at feminist praxis and the study of race. In addition to her academic work, Tina has written for such outlets as Jacobin, Lady Science and Alternet. Her most recent book is titled Climate Technology, Gender, and Justice: The Standpoint of the Vulnerable (Springer Press, 2019). Her views on the connections between technology, human health and nutrition, race, gender, and environment are so insightful and I learned a lot from this conversation – I’m so excited for you to learn from her as well! Learn More about Tina!  Dr. Sikka's University Website: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/staff/profile/tinasikka.html Twitter: @tsikka For the Alternet: Neoliberal capitalism and the limits of individual choice For Lady Science: Why we need a feminist climate science and how we might get it

How many of you have started trying your hand at baking bread since the start of the pandemic? With our lives totally upheaved and our work-related identities really being called into question, it’s allowing us some time to explore different sides of ourselves, and sometimes connect more deeply with our communities even in isolation. My guest this week, Dolly Meckler, is doing just that! Dolly is a content creator, story teller, and social media strategist based out of NYC and LA. She has a burning desire to bring laughter and entertainment into peoples lives through story – she produces and creates the online webseries and podcast Hello Dolly!, and is the co-founder of Snaplistings. Through her professional experience, she has become an expert in all things digital, social and video, while establishing a social presence and voice for some of the biggest properties in entertainment at HBO + YouTube. Over the last few weeks however, she has used her time in quarantine to learn how to bake challah, a Jewish bread, and has been selling them to Los Angeles locals. After posting about the challah on Instagram, dozens of of followers asked if they could buy themselves one of the "Challah Dolly's" (a play on "Hello Dolly,"). She’s on the show today to share more about her experience learning how to make and share challah, and how she’s bringing in her digital and social media expertise  to not only nurture her own Jewish and creative identities, but bring joy and silver linings to the public as well. Get Social with Dolly! Instagram: @dollymeckler Website: http://www.dollymeckler.com/ Hello Dolly Webseries and Podcast  Snaplistings 

With the pandemic, we’re seeing much more clearly how food and beverage companies and restaurants treat their employees… and unfortunately in some cases, we’re seeing that many operate under traditional bottom line approaches, without building inclusivity and care into the foundations of their work. My guest this week, Ryan Fortwendel, is someone who’s striving to do change what a successful beverage business looks like. Ryan is the CEO and founder of Minna sparkling tea beverages, and he’s on today to share the story of how his company is striving to create a better sparkling beverage, inside and out. As the former executive of e-commerce for Marc Jacobs, Ryan spent over a decade working in the fashion industry. After taking some time away from Marc Jacobs to start fresh in 2016, he noticed a shift in the beverage space in New York City – everyone wanted LaCroix and sparkling beverages were becoming more and more popular. Being a health-conscious consumer, he understood the demand and saw a space to create a better-for-you sparkling beverage – using all organic and non-GMO ingredients, with no sweeteners or added sugars. He created the recipe for a delicious, lightly brewed sparkling tea with a clean and transparent label. Minna is an accessory to everyday life that looks good and tastes great, served in a beautiful art deco inspired can and available in three refreshing flavours: Tropical Green Tea, Citrus Black Tea, and Lime Hibiscus Tea. As a gay founder, Ryan’s philanthropy inspired the name and the message behind the brand. Minna means “everyone’ in Japanese, and focuses on community engagement and inclusivity. Since launching in 2019, 1% of all sales from Minna beverages goes to non-profits that advocate for inclusion, such as Help Refugees and Choose Love, which are both non-profits that provide emergency aid and long-term solutions for people seeking refuge. Most recently, 20% of their online sales are going to non-profits that support COVID-19 relief efforts. As they grow, Minna is planning to diversify their use of funds to non-profits focused on helping those communities still fighting for equality. It’s always exciting for me to see entrepreneurs working at changing how and why we do business – and how setting inclusive practices into the foundations of a company sets the path for building a brighter and community-driven future. I’m really excited for you to hear more about Ryan’s story! Learn More About Ryan and Minna Website: https://www.drinkminna.com/ Instagram: @drinkminna Instagram: @ryanfortwendel Facebook: @drinkminna

When we talk about food systems and eating experiences, we often are quick to bring up the ideas of exclusion – what we should remove or limit or restrict – through veganism, vegetarianism, paleo diets, carnivore diets, and more. My guest this week, Jordan Higgins, is one of the entrepreneurs of Higgins and Phillips Innovations, and is looking to create more inclusive and holistic solutions for food and medicine. Jordan has a BSc in Earth Science and a minor in Biology and worked as a scientist and project manager in environmental remediation projects for many years. After his brother passed away from a chronic illness in 2016, Jordan took time to travel across Central and South America on a quest to reflect on his relationship with family: he had two siblings pass away as a result of cancer, and he had battled cancer himself at the age of 21.  In response, Jordan and his business partner began creating 2 natural health products, Life Spice Mushroom Cacao Blend and Dock Walkers Pain Reliever as a way to complement modern medicine with natural and effective ways to help those living in a state of chronic pain. The products are coupled as offering a one-two punch for tackling inflammation and pain. Jordan says that in a society where we have diets that are plagued with nutrient depletion and inflammatory ingredients, he aims to bring harmony back to our bodies through the power of nature. We speak today about how his relationship with the natural world shaped his products and his experiences, and we also explore more deeply how different mushroom varieties offer various health and performance benefits. I always love having conversations with folks who see how we relate to the land and environment, and how we can use holistic approaches to create new solutions for health, so this felt like such a treat. Learn More About Jordan!  Website: https://hpinnovations.ca/home Instagram: @lifespice.ca and @dockwalkers Facebook: @lifespice and @dockwalkers  For anyone listening that is curious to check out LifeSpice or DockWalkers, you can enter the code ANTHRODISH at checkout for 15% off your order!

So this week is particularly heavy, and I don’t feel right starting out this episode without addressing that. I have been thinking for a long time about the role of podcasting in pandemics, and whether it’s silly to produce and share episodes when everyone’s minds are riddled with panic, fear, and an ever-growing awareness of just how much food you have in your pantry. But then I remembered that this show has ALWAYS been about us as a community. This isn’t about me, it’s about what we can offer each other in terms of sharing knowledge and experience. And right now, it’s also about what I can offer you as a break from the endless Twitter feed refreshes and breaking news briefs. So we continue, and hope we can offer you a little peace and distraction, if only for a half hour. So before I introduce our guest, I also want to share that my podcast is open for interview bookings to anyone who may have had to cancel a food-relate lecture or conference, or close your restaurant, or have been hard hit by these as someone working in the food industry in any capacity, please reach out and email anthrodish@gmail.com. I’d love to do a quick interview with you – just because we can’t gather to support each other in person doesn’t mean we can’t still be celebrating hardworking people in our food systems! Okay, so this week we’re exploring the role of food in disease outbreaks with my friend and McMaster colleague, Jessica Hider. She’s a PhD candidate in my anthropology department at McMaster and works in McMaster’s uber-cool Ancient DNA Centre. Jess looks at the spread of pathogens in pre-Rome and ancient Rome. She combines ancient DNA analyses with bioarchaeology and paleopathology (or the study of ancient diseases and pathologies on bone). Her main focus and interest is a disease known as brucellosis – which is a lesser known but absolutely fascinating disease to explore. I will let her do the expert explaining on what it entails in the interview! We’re chatting about the differences between food-borne diseases, zoonotic diseases, and the ways that food can help spread disease in the past. For those of you who are really tired of hearing about COVID-19, don’t worry – we don’t really touch on it. But we do talk about Typhoid Mary, and she’s a real hoot. Learn More About Jess: McMaster's Ancient DNA Centre  Email: hider.jessica@gmail.com