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Forever Fresh

Forever Fresh

Update: 2025-01-3118
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Description

We eat apples in the summer and enjoy bananas in the winter. When we do this, we go against the natural order of life which is towards death and decay. What gives? This week, Latif Nasser spoke with Nicola Twilley, the author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. Twilley spent over a decade reporting about how we keep food alive as it makes its way from the farm to our table. This conversation explores the science of cold, how fruits hold a secret to eternal youth, and how the salad bag, of all things, is our local grocery store’s unsung hero.

Special thanks to Jim Lugg and Jeff Wooster

EPISODE CREDITS: 

Reported by Latif Nasser and Nicola Twilley
with help from Maria Paz Gutierrez
Produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez
Original music from Jeremy Bloom
Sound design contributed by Jeremy Bloom
with mixing help from Arianne Wack
Fact-checking by Emily Krieger 
and Edited by Alex Neason

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Articles  
New Yorker Article - How the Fridge Changed Flavor (https://zpr.io/32TuSmAc2HbQ)by Nicola Twilley
New Yorker Article - Africa’s Cold Rush and the Promise of Refrigeration (https://zpr.io/3g9VdgKMAiHf) by Nicola Twilley

Books 
Frostbite (https://zpr.io/Mg3Q7JCBvcAg) by Nicola Twilley

Podcasts
Gastropod (https://link.chtbl.com/ndCzgCHU)

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Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Comments (2)

Joshua James

Worst timed ad break I've ever heard. Literally mid sentence. Did they stop paying their editor?

Feb 5th
Reply

Jejj

I had no idea that's why we call it iceberg lettuce, or that most people did not have access to salad greens prior to refrigeration. Amazing the simple and elegant technologies that transform our lives.

Feb 1st
Reply
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