Dinner Last Night (with Emma & Dimity)

Esi Lewis grew up on Huguenot Street in New Paltz, in the same house she lives in now with her daughter. It wasn't until later in life that she learned the property sits on a burial ground for enslaved Africans, a discovery that reshaped how she understood the place she'd always called home.Esi is an attorney and the founder of the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Center for Black History and Culture, named for her mother, a pioneering Black Studies professor who chaired the department at SUNY New Paltz for over three decades. In this episode of Dinner Last Night, we follow Esi's path from New Paltz to a decade in New York City, including six years as a prosecutor in Brooklyn's Sex Crimes Bureau, and back home again after her daughter was born. We talk about the Center's work to save the Ann Oliver House, built in 1885 by Jacob Wynkoop, from demolition, the field trips to Huguenot Street that taught Esi about French Protestant settlers but nothing about the Black community that built and worshipped alongside them, and the moment she learned what her own childhood home was built on. We also talk about her podcast We Be Griots, the role of Black churches and song as historic anchors of joy, and the dish that most reminds her of her mother.

In this episode:

• Ribeye, a 10-year-old dancer's protein craving, and why Esi tries never to rush through dinner
• Growing up in the shadow of her mother's legacy, and how Margaret Wade Lewis shaped everything from food to faith to community
• Jacob Wynkoop, the Ann Oliver House, and why Esi fought to save a piece of New Paltz history from demolition
• What a griot is, and why Esi's podcast We Be Griots is an act of documented resistance
• Living on Huguenot Street and learning that her family home sits near a burial ground of enslaved Africans
• Joy as resistance: how Black communities in the Hudson Valley use celebration, song, and togetherness as a form of healing
• Raising a daughter with roots, ritual, and a sense of her own place in history

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Margaret Wade Lewis Center for Black History and Culture
• We Be Griots podcast (Esi's show)
• Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, NY
• The Ann Oliver House
• SUNY New Paltz

Katrín Björk is an Icelandic food photographer, cookbook author, and mom of three adopted kids, and she'll be the first to tell you that dinner in her house is a disaster.

Katrín grew up in North Iceland in a fishing and farming family, where wild Icelandic lamb and fresh fish three times a week were just Tuesday. She went on to study photography in Copenhagen (where she met her husband!), publish From the North, a love letter to Icelandic and Danish food, and build a career in commercial food photography. But none of that prepared her for the reality of feeding a family where one child has ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder), one is autistic and struggles significantly with eating, and all three carry early childhood trauma with deep ties to food. In this episode, Katrín talks openly about the therapy, the letting go, and the slow, hard work of replacing perfectionism with presence.

In this episode:

• Growing up in North Iceland with wild lamb, fresh fish, and from-scratch everything
• What ARFID actually is, and how it shows up at the dinner table differently than picky eating
• The "safe list" tool: what it is, how Katrín's daughter helped build hers, and why it has to stay flexible
• How her romantic idea of the perfect family dinner collided with the reality of raising three kids with complex needs
• Sourcing prepared food locally and releasing the pressure to cook everything from scratch
• The evolution of her blog Modern Wife Style and why its messaging no longer rings true to who she is
• Why her family connects over bike rides and nature, not dinner, and why that's okay

Mentioned in this episode:

• From the North by Katrín Björk
• Katrín's website
• Modern Wifestyle Blog
• Follow Katrín on Instagram
• Black Eyed Susie's in Kingston, NY
• Common Table meal prep service in Kingston, NY
• Dia Beacon in Beacon, NY
• Julia Turshen's Episode on Dinner Last Night

Paragini Amin grew up in Jersey City in a Gujarati household where dinner, cooked daily by her mother, was always Indian food, and everything else was negotiable. Today, her husband does all the cooking, and he's exceptional at it: French technique one night, Caribbean-Southeast Asian the next, with an instinct for sniffing out the best restaurant on any highway.

In this episode, Paragini takes us through the experiences that shaped her, including the early racism she experienced in school, and the radically intentional desegregation high school where she learned what happens when kids from different backgrounds are just given room to be. She tells us what a psychic once said about getting into the kitchen, and why she still hasn't done it. We get into Things & Things, the conversation game she designed — cards paired with physical objects — that helped her quiet, heady eight-year-old finally open up at the dinner table. And we talk perimenopause and HRT, because we're all in our forties and we have things to say. Paragini is co-founder and creative director of Design for Progress, a brand strategy firm serving social justice nonprofits focused on criminal justice reform and mass incarceration.

In this episode:

• Growing up Gujarati in Jersey City, and her parents' approach to two cultures at the dinner table
• The racism Paragini faced as a young Indian-American girl, and how she made sense of it
• The quietly radical desegregation high school in Jersey City that just worked
• The husband who does all the cooking, and his nose for the best restaurant on any highway
• What a psychic once told Paragini about getting into the kitchen, and why she still hasn't done it
• Things & Things: a conversation game with cards and objects that opened up her quiet eight-year-old at the dinner table
• Perimenopause, HRT, and the conversations we should all be having in our 40s

Mentioned in this episode:

• Things & Things, Paragini's conversation game
• Design for Progress, Paragini and Chris's design firm
• The First 40 Days by Heng Ou
• Earlier episode with Eliza Blank on Farmlink and food waste
• Cornell Prison Education Program

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Credits

• Produced: Wombmate Productions, Inc., ⁠REP Studio⁠, and Stuart Hetzler
• Editing: ⁠REP Studio⁠ and Stuart Hetzler
• Music by: ⁠⁣⁠⁠Emerson ‘Longstory’ Bartlett⁠ (feat. ⁠Drew Martin⁠ on Saxophone)

When Stefan Merrill Block was nine, his mother concluded that his teachers were stifling his creativity and pulled him out of public school. He wouldn't return until ninth grade. Those five years in between shaped everything that came after, including, eventually, his relationship with food and cooking.

Stefan is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Homeschooled, which traces a fiercely loved boy through the years he spent learning at home with a mother whose ideas grew more inventive (and more unsteady) as the months went on. In this episode, we follow the food: his mother's recipe-less cooking, the Dallas chicken tortilla soup that tasted like friendship and a bigger world, and the long road that led Stefan at 30, alone on 250 acres of Texas land, to fall in love with cooking on his own terms. We also talk about writing a memoir with a novelist's instincts, feeling anger for your younger self for the first time, and the homeschool reform conversations the book has sparked in three states.

In this episode:

• Why Stefan's mother pulled him from school at nine, and how that impacted his later years
• His mother's recipe-less cooking, and the meals that felt like something to endure
• The Dallas chicken tortilla soup that tasted like friendship and a bigger world
• Falling in love with cooking at 30, alone on 250 acres of Texas land
• Cooking three separate dinners as the main cook in his household
• Writing a memoir with a novelist's instincts, and feeling anger for your younger self
• Co-owning Skate Time 209, the beloved roller rink in Accord, NY

Mentioned in this episode:

• Stefan's Website
• Follow Stefan on Instagram
• Get a copy of Stefan's memoir, Homeschooled
• The Coalition for Responsible Home Education
• Skate Time 209

Subscribe

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Giveaways

CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway for any episode!

Follow Us

• Substack: subscribe to our newsletter
• YouTube: @DinnerLastNightPod
• Instagram: @dinnerlastnightpod
• Website: dinnerlastnightpod.com

Credits

• Produced: Wombmate Productions, Inc., REP Studio, and Stuart Hetzler
• Editing: REP Studio and Stuart Hetzler
• Music by: ⁣Emerson ‘Longstory’ Bartlett (feat. Drew Martin on Saxophone)

Virginia Craddock is the founder of Inside Out Agency, a multi-brand showroom working to shift the way we think about what we wear, how we consume, and what it all means.

Virginia grew up eating Brazilian moqueca in two different households — her parents had both spent time in the Peace Corps in Brazil — and now she makes the dish her own way. We talk about scruffy hospitality and why clarity in how you invite people into your home changes everything about the experience. And in one of the most moving moments of the season, Virginia shares how blending her and her partner's families is her biggest triumph, and why. The phrase her business teacher gave her — “clarity is connection” — turns out to be the thread running through it all.

In this episode:

• A Brazilian moqueca passed down from Peace Corps parents, adapted and made her own
• Building Inside Out Agency to shift how we think about clothing and consumption
• Scruffy hospitality, and the freeing power of low-stakes gathering
• How knowing where your clothes come from changes how much you love them
• The Art of Gathering, and hosting with intention instead of effort
• Blending three boys, two households, and years of hard conversations into one family
• “Clarity is connection” — her business teacher's mantra that became her life's

Mentioned in the episode:

• Virginia on Instagram
• Inside Out Agency
• The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
• Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

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Giveaways

CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway for any episode!

Follow Us

• Substack: subscribe to our newsletter
• YouTube: @DinnerLastNightPod
• Instagram: @dinnerlastnightpod
• Website: dinnerlastnightpod.com

Credits

• Produced: Wombmate Productions, Inc., REP Studio, and Stuart Hetzler
• Editing: REP Studio and Stuart Hetzler
• Music by: ⁣Emerson ‘Longstory’ Bartlett (feat. Drew Martin on Saxophone)

Cookbook author and former competitive powerlifter Julia Turshen sits down for a warm, wide-ranging conversation about healing a lifelong eating disorder, the daily labor of home cooking, and how food can heal the people you love.

From her grandparents' Brooklyn bread bakery to her 81-year-old mom's illustrated cooking class notes, Julia shares the threads that have shaped her relationship with food, family, and feeding others. It's a thoughtful, moving episode about the rituals that anchor us — and the people we cook for along the way.

In this episode:

• The concept of “the everlasting meal”
• Growing up in a workaholic household, and the Brooklyn bread bakery her Jewish grandparents ran
• Her mother's illustrated cooking class notes, and their evolving relationship
• Navigating disordered eating and finding healing through powerlifting
• How food works in her home with spouse Grace, a therapist with Type 1 diabetes
• Why investing in neighbors and community is the most important thing any of us can do

Mentioned in this episode:

• Julia's website and books: www.juliaturshen.com
• Julia's Substack newsletter Keep Calm and Cook On
• Follow Julia on Instagram
• Reem Kassis, Palestinian cookbook author mentioned by Julia
• An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler

Subscribe

Never miss an episode: Follow Dinner Last Night and subscribe to our newsletter. If you loved this episode, please leave us a review, tap “like”, and share it with a friend! It helps more people discover the show. 💛

Giveaways

CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway for any episode!

Follow Us

• Substack: subscribe to our newsletter
• YouTube: @DinnerLastNightPod
• Instagram: @dinnerlastnightpod
• Website: dinnerlastnightpod.com

Credits

• Produced: Wombmate Productions, Inc., REP Studio, and Stuart Hetzler
• Editing: REP Studio and Stuart Hetzler
• Music by: ⁣Emerson ‘Longstory’ Bartlett (feat. Drew Martin on Saxophone)

Novelist, screenwriter, and father Jonathan Lee joins us for a riveting conversation about family dinners, storytelling, and the surprising parenting lessons hidden in Taco Night.

From the “perils of precedent” — why kids love Tuesday Tacos but not Monday Tacos — to writing about real-life tragedy in High Dive and The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Jonathan shares insights on parenting, trauma, and the role of food in stories. Plus, a hilarious dinner-table storytelling game you'll want to try at home.

In this episode:

• Why “branding” dinner matters for kids
• Jonathan's journey to becoming a full-time writer
• The realities of writing about trauma, and the self-care it requires
• How food shapes storytelling even in moments of crisis and connection
• Talking to children about difficult topics
• Behind the scenes of The Bombing of Pan Am 103
• A playful dinner table storytelling game

Mentioned in this episode:

• Jonathan’s website and books: www.jonathanleewriter.com
• Episode 09 of Dinner Last Night with his wife, Amy Lee
• Television Show: The Bombing of Pan Am 103

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Giveaways

CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway for any episode!

Follow Us

• Substack: subscribe to our newsletter
• YouTube: @DinnerLastNightPod
• Instagram: @dinnerlastnightpod
• Website: dinnerlastnightpod.com

Credits

• Produced: Wombmate Productions, Inc., REP Studio, and Stuart Hetzler
• Editing: REP Studio and Stuart Hetzler
• Music by: ⁣Emerson ‘Longstory’ Bartlett (feat. Drew Martin on Saxophone)

Mother, entrepreneur, herbalist, and founder of pioneering green beauty brand Captain Blankenship, Jana Blankenship joins us for a conversation rooted in the powerful connection between plants, scent, memory, and family tradition.

We start where every episode does — with dinner last night — and hear about the first meal Jana's family shared after a long stretch of home renovation. From there, we explore the Serbian food traditions passed down by her grandmother, Baka Milka, how childhood perfume “potions” led her to develop a sensitivity to synthetic fragrances, and how that journey inspired her path into natural perfume, herbalism, and clean beauty. Jana is the author of Wild Beauty and co-author (with Emma) of Seasonal Family Almanac.

In this episode:

• Serbian food and herbalism traditions passed down by Jana's grandmother and aunt
• Developing a childhood sensitivity to synthetic fragrances, and how it inspired her work with natural scent
• The power of scent — the first sense to develop in the womb — to anchor us in memory
• Founding and growing Captain Blankenship as an early clean beauty brand
• DIY herbal beauty, and why making things yourself is so powerful
• Practical meal strategies for busy families juggling sports, school, and chaotic evenings
• Foraging and harvesting responsibly, including how to work with evergreens

Mentioned in this episode:

• Jana's website
• Captain Blankenship
• Witch Way by Jana Blankenship on Substack
• Wild Beauty by Jana Blankenship
• Seasonal Family Almanac, co-authored by Jana and Emma Frisch

Subscribe

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Giveaways

CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway for any episode!

Follow Us

• Substack: subscribe to our newsletter
• YouTube: @DinnerLastNightPod
• Instagram: @dinnerlastnightpod
• Website: dinnerlastnightpod.com

Credits

• Produced: Wombmate Productions, Inc., REP Studio, and Stuart Hetzler
• Editing: REP Studio and Stuart Hetzler
• Music by: ⁣Emerson ‘Longstory’ Bartlett (feat. Drew Martin on Saxophone)

Ayurvedic wellness coach Nandini Austin joins us with a fresh, accessible take on ancient practices, helping modern families feel healthier, more energized, and more connected at the table.

Raised in London with Mauritian roots and a lifelong exposure to Ayurveda, Nandini explains why digestion is the foundation of well-being, how to understand your unique dosha, and which simple daily rituals support balance for both parents and kids. We also follow her path from global hospitality to launching The Cocktail Architect, and leading retreats that blend Ayurvedic cooking, traditional Indian dance, and community.

In this episode:

• Growing up in a Mauritian household in London, learning about food as medicine
• “You are what you digest” — why digestion is central to health
• Understanding doshas and daily rituals (dinacharya)
• Demystifying curry and the value of spices
• Raising adventurous eaters and shaping lifelong food habits
• Food as a pathway to connection, energy, and emotional balance
• Spice-infused syrups and soda alternatives from The Cocktail Architect

Mentioned in this episode:

• For Ayurveda offerings: NandiniAustin.com
• For delicious, handcrafted syrups: The Cocktail Architect
• Follow Nandini on Instagram, Facebook, and Substack

Subscribe

Never miss an episode: Follow Dinner Last Night and subscribe to our newsletter. If you loved this episode, please leave us a review, tap “like”, and share it with a friend! It helps more people discover the show. 💛

Giveaways

CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway for any episode!

Follow Us

• Substack: subscribe to our newsletter
• YouTube: @DinnerLastNightPod
• Instagram: @dinnerlastnightpod
• Website: dinnerlastnightpod.com

Credits

• Produced: Wombmate Productions, Inc., REP Studio, and Stuart Hetzler
• Editing: REP Studio and Stuart Hetzler
• Music by: ⁣Emerson ‘Longstory’ Bartlett (feat. Drew Martin on Saxophone)

Mom, entrepreneur, founder of The Sill, and CEO of Farmlink, Eliza Blank joins us to talk about feeding families thoughtfully in a world where nearly 40% of food is wasted.

Eliza shares how growing up in a Filipino and Jewish household shaped her approach to food, why her husband oversees the kitchen, and how parenthood changed the way she thinks about meals. We dig into her current work rescuing millions of pounds of surplus farm produce for communities in need, and chat about practical ways families can reduce waste, talk to kids about food access and inequality, and honor the time, labor, and natural resources that go into every meal. Honest, funny, and full of ideas you can use at home.
On this episode, we’re talking with Eliza Blank—mom, entrepreneur, founder of The Sill, and CEO of Farmlink—about feeding families thoughtfully in a world where nearly 40% of food is wasted. Eliza shares how growing up in a Filipino and Jewish household shaped her approach to food, why her husband oversees the kitchen, and how parenthood changed the way she thinks about meals.

We also dive into Eliza’s current work, rescuing millions of pounds of surplus farm produce for communities in need, and chat about practical ways families can reduce waste, talk to kids about food access and inequality, and honor the time, labor, and natural resources that go into every meal. This episode is honest, funny, and full of ideas you can actually use at home.

Episode Highlights:

• What happens when dinner doesn’t go as planned (and why that’s okay)
• Why Eliza’s husband oversees the kitchen and cooking at home
• How Filipino and Jewish food traditions shape meals at home
• Building The Sill in her 20's—one of the first direct-to-consumer houseplant brands
• Eliza’s current work as CEO of Farmlink, bridging the gap between excess food waste and food inequality in the U.S.
• Helping children understand food access issues and inequality
• Practical tools for introducing food waste reduction at home 

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Farmlink Project
• The Sill
• The Mill food recycler
  

Subscribe

Never miss an episode: Follow Dinner Last Night and subscribe to our newsletter. If you loved this episode, please leave us a review, tap “like”, and share it with a friend! It helps more people discover the show. 💛

Giveaways

CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway for any episode!

Follow Us

• Substack: subscribe to our newsletter
• YouTube: @DinnerLastNightPod
• Instagram: @dinnerlastnightpod
• Website: dinnerlastnightpod.com

Credits

• Produced: Wombmate Productions, Inc., REP Studio, and Stuart Hetzler
• Editing: REP Studio and Stuart Hetzler
• Music by: ⁣Emerson ‘Longstory’ Bartlett (feat. Drew Martin on Saxophone)