From introduced species to the slave trade, ballast has had a huge impact on our world.

In this episode, host Elin Kelsey serves up a ballast-infused meal inspired by a ballast flora artist. Then she gets into the dark story of the slave trade, which was partly responsible for the ingredients, and steers us to former colonial outposts profoundly shaped by ballast—both the solid stuff and water. Ballast, it turns out, was a colonizer in its own right.

Find show notes and a transcript at www.hakaimagazine.com/ballast-podcast.