Hungry for History with Eva Longoria and Maite Gomez-Rejón

For the season finale, Eva and Maite take a bite out of the history of botanas, appetizers, and snack culture from around the world. From bar bites to late-night cravings, they explore why humans have always loved a little snack. Along the way, they reflect on an eclectic season filled with stories, history, and unexpected connections across cultures. 

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This week, Eva and Maite trace the layered history of Los Angeles through four places that reveal the city’s shifting identity: the Los Angeles River, Placita Olvera, Chinatown, and Boyle Heights. Long before freeways and concrete channels, the LA River sustained Indigenous communities and shaped the city’s earliest settlements. From there, they move into the heart of Los Angeles at Olvera Street, where questions of heritage and tourism collide. They explore the displacement and reinvention of Chinatown and end in Boyle Heights, one of the most culturally rich neighborhoods in the country, where Jewish, Japanese, Mexican, and Eastern European communities once lived side by side. Together, these places tell a larger story about migration, erasure, resilience, and the many communities that built Los Angeles.

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Maite is joined by artist Monica Martinez, the founder of Don Bugito, a pioneering edible insect business that blends design, sustainability, and food innovation. The conversation moves between industrial design and the realities of industrialized food systems, highlighting Monica’s work raising edible insects on an organic farm in Oakland, CA. They trace the deep culinary roots of insects in Mexico, explore flavor combinations grounded in memory, and how these traditions are being translated for U.S. audiences amid shifting cultural perceptions of food. The episode closes with a reflection on where insect-eating may be headed in the next 10 to 20 years.

Link to Don Bugito: https://www.donbugito.com/  

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In this episode, Eva and Maite explore the long global history of eating insects—an ancient practice shared across cultures in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They unpack how insects have moved to the forefront of modern food conversations, reshaping what we consider food in a changing world. Along the way, they consider the nutritional power of insects as a rich source of protein and their growing role in sustainable food systems, offering a glimpse into the future of food rooted in deep tradition.

Link to Don Bugito: https://www.donbugito.com/  

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Eva and Maite trace the evolution of the fair from holy day marketplaces to the grand World’s Fairs of the 19th and 20th centuries, where visitors encountered sensational visions of the future. Think electricity and dishwashers, but also popcorn machines, ice cream sundaes, and even tequila! Yet these spectacles were far from democratic: intellectual, artistic, and technological contributions from non-Western societies were often minimized or erased. Their influence eventually waned with the rise of the internet. Today, state fairs continue to gather communities around agriculture and tradition, while modern global expos increasingly focus on sustainability and the future of the planet.

The Current War: Director’s Cut (the final scene takes place at the Chicago's World's Fair)

• https://www.amazon.com/Current-War-Directors-Cut/dp/B0833VRPDP

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Eva and Maite continue their burger series with the invention of the Happy Meal and the powerful marketing of fast food to families. Along the way, they spotlight the often overlooked contributions of women and trace the evolution of the burger from fast food staple to gourmet icon, including the rise of the smashburger. As the burger crosses borders, it transforms, absorbing local flavors and traditions. This episode reveals how one of the world’s most recognizable foods continues to evolve, reflecting the tastes, histories, and creativity of the people who make it their own.

Eva’s cookbook in Part 2 of Burgers:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739587/my-mexican-kitchen-by-eva-longoria/    

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Eva and Maite kick off a two-part series on burgers by tracing their roots long before the bun. They begin with the global history of minced meat, follow its path to the United States, where the hamburger starts to take shape, find its perfect match in the bun, and win the heart of America. From early 20th century fears around contaminated beef to the rise of drive-ins and drive-thrus, they explore how car culture transformed the burger into a symbol of freedom, youth, and modern American life, ushering in the age of fast food.

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Dinnerware tells a story far beyond the table—it’s a history of technology, aesthetics, trade, empire, and everyday life. In this episode, Eva and Maite begin with a simple question: what came first, the dish or the bowl? From humble clay vessels to fine porcelain and paper plates, they trace how what we eat from is a reflection of how we live, how we dine, and how we connect with one another.

Sevres Porcelain Manufactory: https://www.sevresciteceramique.fr/en.html  
Heath Ceramics: https://www.heathceramics.com/  
HACHA ceramica: https://hacha.com.mx/  

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This week, Eva and Maite sip the history of Mexico’s aguas frescas, from pre-Columbian fruit waters to the sweet, creamy evolution of horchata. Explore how these refreshing drinks traveled across continents, transformed with local ingredients, and became beloved in markets from Mexico to Central America and beyond.

Maite’s Horchata Recipe: https://www.artbites.net/recipes/mexicanhorchata 

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Eva and Maite head to the kitchen to prepare a deconstructed bacon wrapped hot dog recipe from Eva’s new cookbook. And they share lots of history of course! From the earliest references to sausages in antiquity, to how said sausage found two warm pieces of bread to snuggle into, how immigrants transformed it into our favorite baseball food and how the humble sausage found bacon and chiles in Mexico. This episode is all about creativity!

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