Claim OwnershipUnwasted: The Podcast
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© 2023 Unwasted: The Podcast
Description
Newsflash — We have a waste problem in this country.
Want proof? In the United States, about 40% of our food supply goes to waste. And that’s just food.
We know it's easy to get overwhelmed by how wasteful we are in modern America. Maybe what's missing is some hope, some inspiration, and a helpful way to get started on the path to a more sustainable lifestyle.
Welcome to Unwasted — a podcast all about inspiring everyone to live less wasteful, more meaningful lives.
Each week, we hear the powerful stories of people on a mission to end our addiction to waste. We’ll have conversations full of food-for-thought, fun facts, and actionable tips, tricks, and recipes that you can try at home.
Because while we all may not see eye to eye on everything, the one thing we can agree on, is that we only have one life, one planet, and it would be a shame to waste any of it.
So join us, every week, on Unwasted with Imperfect.
59 Episodes
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We’ve all had the experience of buying that apple, or avocado, and having it go bad before you can eat it. It’s so widespread that there are memes about it now. Have you ever wondered what exactly makes food go bad and what we can do to slow this process down? The folks at Apeel Sciences took this real conundrum of how to make our favorite foods last longer and answered it with a game changing new product. Apeel is an innovative, plant-based coating that goes on your favorite fruits &...
When it comes to making farming truly sustainable in the long run, the elephant in the room is land ownership. Healthy soil matters, but so does who owns the soil. Did you know that there were nearly 1 million Black farmers in 1920 and fewer than 45 thousand today? Overall Black landowners own only 0.8 percent of land in the US today. What accounts for this huge racial disparity in land ownership? We’ve brought in agricultural law expert and farmer advocate Jillian Hishaw to h...
Did you know that over 20 billion pounds of textiles are thrown away in the United States every year? Just like the food industry, the clothing industry creates a shocking and honestly overwhelming amount of waste. So what can we do about it? After getting frustrated with how much fabric he saw going to waste in the fashion industry, Daniel Silverstein quit his job and started his own company, Zero Waste Daniel, focused on turning fabric scraps into stylish new clothes. For every pi...
Does environmentalism have a racism problem? Is veganism elitist? Why do so many young environmental activists suffer from burnout? These are some of the thorny but important issues that Isaias Hernandez fearlessly tackles everyday. He is an educator and speaker who’s passionate about environmental justice, veganism, and zero-waste.Our conversation was thought-provoking and packed with insights about our food system, environmentalism, plant-based diets, and more! Episode Show Notes:...
Plant-based eating is here to stay.Most of us have heard about the health benefits and the environmental benefits of going plant based thanks to documentaries like “The Game Changers” and “What the Health.” While eating plant-based sounds great on paper, a lot of us wonder how you can possibly replace the unique taste of dairy products like butter and cheese. So, is dairy really the final frontier for plant-based eating? Miyoko Schinner thinks it is. Miyoko is the founder of Miyoko’...
Nothing makes you feel quite as warm, fuzzy, and cozy as eating some of your comfort foods from childhood. What is it about these meals that is so magical? How can they bring us meaning and connection even across oceans and decades? Hawa Hassan has spent her life exploring the magical power of family memories and recipes. She turned this experience into a marvellous cookbook called “In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Tou...
We’ve all heard the phrase, health is wealth. We know that how we eat is one of the biggest things that determines how healthy we are, but it seems like eating healthy is such a moving target sometimes. There’s new studies, trends, and diets coming out every week and it can be genuinely hard to separate fact from hype and misconception when it comes to the seemingly simple act of feeding ourselves. Why is it so hard to figure out what to eat? Brooklynne Palmer is a medical student w...
When it comes to sustainability, the holy grail a lot of people dream about is growing your own food. What better way to eliminate food miles, cut out the pesticides, and become self sufficient, right? However, as anyone who has ever tried gardening can attest, it’s pretty intimidating at the start. Knowing what to plant, when to plant, and how to get started requires a lot of research. Once you get going you realize that it’s not as simple as just putting something in the ground and wai...
1What is wellness and who is it for? Outside of the colorful healthy smoothies and Lululemon branded yoga classes we see on our Instagram feeds, what does wellness really mean in 2020? Maryam Ajayi has a lot to teach us about the wellness world and its blind spots when it comes to racial diversity and inclusion. She argues that the world and industry of wellness has a long way to go until it prioritizes the health and wellness of all people. In this candid conversation she shares her...
Real Food Real Stories is an organization on a mission to humanize our food system, one story at a time. We sat down with their founder and director to learn how they're using storytelling to make food more just and sustainable in the long run.Episode Show Notes:Learn more about Real Food Real Stories on their website and Instagram and be sure to check out their Curious Eater podcast. Jovida and Pei Ru are fans of Diaspora Co spices and Eatwell Farm. We discussed our mutual admirati...
Close your eyes and imagine you’re eating at a fine-dining restaurant for a special occasion. What cuisine are they cooking? French? Italian? Spanish? New American?Why not Ghanaian, Nigerian, or Ethiopian food? Which cuisines do we choose to elevate and which do we sideline or leave out of the conversation entirely? Today’s guest is Kess Eshun, a Ghanaian chef and pastry chef who makes a living creating magical meals that weave together her memories of growing up in Ghana with her ...
We all love chocolate, but what do we actually know about where our chocolate comes from and how it’s made? The fact is that 70% of the world's chocolate is grown in West Africa, in an industry that currently employs more than 2 million child laborers. How did chocolate and child labor become so intertwined and what would a more ethical chocolate industry look like? We sat down with the chief chocolate evangelist from Tony’s Chocolonely, Ynzo Van Zanten, to find out. Episode Sh...
Everyone knows that farming is hard work, but a lot of us still fantasize about quitting our 9-5 and starting a small farm somewhere. So how hard is it to start farming, really? According to the USDA, only 1 out of 2 small farms survive beyond their first five years, and out of those, only 1 out of 4 survive after 15 years. Why is it so hard to make a living by growing food? To separate faring fact from farming fiction, we sat down with Noelle Fogg Elibol of Kitchen Table Advisors, ...
It's safe to say the world is pretty obsessed with food blogs and Instagram pages these days. Have you ever wondered: "who runs these pages and how do they end up making amazingly beautiful food and recipes for a living?" Meet Hetal! After burning out on her career in health care, she ended up as a contestant on season 6 of Master Chef, which launched her into the world of food media. Since then, she has published a cookbook of Indian-Inspired desserts that’s been featured in the New York Tim...
The United Nations Environmental Program recently estimated that "for every square mile of ocean" there are about "46,000 pieces of plastic."Many of us have seen the truly sobering videos and photos of the Pacific garbage patch, which is twice the size of Texas. To help us understand the thorny problem that is plastic pollution in our oceans, we're chatting with Mimi Ausland, a passionate activist and founder of Free the Ocean, an organization dedicated to getting plastics out of our oceans.&...
What should the future of agriculture look like? What if instead of focusing on growing food to feed our cities, we pivoted to growing food within our cities? This seemingly revolutionary concept is the inspiration behind a growing number of urban farms across the country. To learn more about the power and possibilities presented by growing food in a modern American city, we sat down with Yemi Amu, founder of Oko Farms in Brooklyn. In our thought-provoking conversation we cover: Why...
What's it like to be a Black food entrepreneur in 2020? To understand this better, we're joined by a true culinary Renaissance woman of the Twin Cities. Lachelle Cunningham runs a catering business in Minneapolis, runs culinary education at the Good Acre, and is an advocate for food as a tool for economic development and better health. In this conversation we cover: How Lachelle's work helps her clients overcome racial trauma and realize their dreams. What many people misunderstand ...
Is our country's obsession with health actually making us healthier?Even before COVID-19 hit, health and wellness in modern America was big business, and a growing feature of our social media feeds. However, is our society focused on the right aspects of health or are we viewing it in a healthy way? This week we're getting a refreshingly holistic take on the world of health. Dr. Tiffany Lester is here to shed some light on this complex and often misunderstood field, including: Why it's a...
How can growing food heal us and ground us in a world that seems to have gone crazy? After the devastating trauma of her father murdering her mother while she was in school, Amber Tamm lost herself, and then found herself, in the world of farming. Today she's a floral designer, horticulturist, and farmer in New York City focused on nourishing a better food system, one plant at a time. In this fearless conversation she shares: Why so many modern farming practices persist despite...
Have you ever wondered why hunger in America is such a persistent problem, despite all of the volunteer hours, money, and yes, food, that nonprofits throw at it every year? If so, this episode will drop some much-needed knowledge on you. Robert Egger is a nonprofit icon, speaker, and activist who founded DC Central Kitchen as well as LA Kitchen. He has won a Humanitarian Award from the James Beard Foundation, been named one of LA Weekly’s People of the Year, as well as an Oprah angel, an...
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