Oops, Your Culture's Showing!

Hungry for more food talk after last month’s “Somebody Feed Dean” episode? We’re serving it up to you on a silver platter with this special reissue of our July 2018 episode, “Fish Cheeks & Dining Myth Explosions”. Bon appétit!

This episode, Dean and Tom remain hungry for traditional foods across cultures: fish cheeks in China, black pudding and haggis in the U.K., guinea pigs in the Andes, and many more (1:45)! Next, Dean answers a listener question about visiting the Middle East during Ramadan (15:30), and does his best to drink liquified yogurt on his recent trip to the Balkans (23:20). Then, take cover as Dean explodes pesky myths regarding perceived dining pretensions in France, Italy, Hawaii, and Japan (32:09). Please, slurp up this episode as loudly as you’d like – it’s not at all rude!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

It’s a food travel show for your ears! Dean ventures to his favorite worldwide hole-in-the-wall restaurants, street stands, and more in this episode, experiencing the best meals of his life from Sri Lanka to Shanghai and everywhere in between. Meanwhile, Tom risks losing his head in his search for the most spectacular chocolate mousse in and around Paris. We hope that you’ll take the calculated risk to both venture out to that bus station shawarma stand with the long line, and into the artichoke heart of this episode – you (likely) won’t regret it!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

We’re popping open a bottle of Mirto from Sardinia in celebration of our 50TH EPISODE! First, Dean caps off our prior episode about music and dance with the happiest song he’s ever heard, Jambo Bwana, from East Africa, and with an Italian version of the card game Spoons in which the losing player sings an aria. From there, Dean and Tom explore divisions between the north and south of Italy, the cultural prominence of “la bella figura” across Italy, and the intersection of transactions and personal relationships throughout Italy as well. Lastly, our friends at Licensing check in on all of the celebratory singing going on (and perhaps to enjoy some Mirto too?). Thanks very much for laughing and learning with us over these 50 episodes! Ciao bella, until next time!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

We’re groovin’ to the tunes in this episode! Join Dean and Tom as they explore varying expressions, along with common purposes, of music and dance across cultures: from an indoor wedding in Cairo and music bar in Dublin, to an outdoor opera in Rome and the salsa-filled streets of Havana. Everybody gather ’round now. Let your body feel the heat. Don’t you worry if you can’t dance. Let the music move your feet! (Well said, Gloria Estefan!)

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

If you’ve paid attention to U.S. national news recently *ahem Kristi Noem ahem*, you’ve surely been reminded that many U.S. Americans love love love dogs and have them as pets. Therefore, we thought it would be the perfect time for a special reissue of our May 2021 episode, “Pets Around The World! Meow.” Enjoy!

While remembering pets both old and new, Dean and Tom take the op-purr-tunity to discuss which animals do and don’t constitute pets across dif-fur-rent cultures. (Without any pet puns in the actual episode, we just had to include some here; thank you for understanding.) Plus: Wondering how long pet parrots can live, or where you can safely cross a piranha-infested river in the Amazonas? Well then, you’ve certainly come to the right pawed-cast (that’s the last one, really)!

Have a cultural question or episode idea for Dean and Tom? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

Earth Day 2024 was this past Monday April 22nd! In honor of our one and only Earth, Dean brings Tom (and us) along with him on his recent excursion to Antarctica in this episode, where he walked among thousands of non-tap-dancing penguins and giant calving glaciers on the warmest day ever recorded there to-date. Specifically, Dean details his conversations on his Antarctic journey with global climate leader Christiana Figueres on how cultural “DNA” underlies the US-American case, the Asian case, and the Latin American case for addressing climate change. As Dean writes in his July 2023 Substack article about this: “To ignore culture’s role in how we advocate for climate and the environment ensures a protracted struggle, even with all the best science, and the best negotiations. However, when we understand culture, and leverage that understanding in the strategic service of global goals, like climate, we accelerate the success we need to have. When it comes to climate, in the limited time we have left, we cannot afford to overlook or ignore the cultural advantage.”

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here to read the whole July 2023 article titled “Climate & Culture”, plus check out Dean’s “Culture’s Consequences” articles, CultureQuizzes, and much much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

Dean and Tom have truly “fallen down the rabbit hole” in this episode as they explore different idioms across cultures, offering context as well as advice on what to do when faced with unknown idioms on your travels. (A preview: An idiom in another country may feel like it “comes out of left field,” but give yourself some grace – you’re not an ‘idiom idiot’!) We know that you’ll enjoy listening to this idiotic idiomatic episode “as soon as possible” (when is this? that’s up to you!) because you’re all “pieces of bread”, “salt of the earth”, and other figurative fundamental foodstuffs!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here to find all of Dean’s “Culture’s Consequences” articles, CultureQuizzes, and much much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

Introducing…Dean’s new “Culture’s Consequences” Substack column, in which he reveals the hidden cultural reasons behind the daily headlines! In this episode, Dean and Tom bite into Dean’s February 2024 “Culture’s Consequences” article about Dong Phuong Bakery’s luscious King Cake, available only during New Orleans’ Mardi Gras season, and how it represents a melding of New Orleans, Creole, French, and Vietnamese cultures. Plus, they float into talk of krewes and parades during Mardi Gras, involving some of the cutest dogs you’ve ever seen. We hope you find this episode to be the same as Dean’s description in the article of the Dong Phuong King Cake: “layer upon layer upon layer upon layer of just-right.” Don’t be afraid to drool if so, dear listeners, and laissez les bons temps rouler (i.e., let the good times roll)!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here to find ALL of Dean’s “Culture’s Consequences” articles, plus Dean’s CultureQuizzes and much much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

With next month marking 10 years since Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in Ukraine, and 2 years since the start of the current war there, we will continue to keep Ukraine & Ukrainians in our ears, hearts, and minds with this special reissue of our “For Ukrainians, the sunflower is an incredibly powerful symbol” episode from April 2022. 🇺🇦 Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 Stay well & stay strong, dear listeners – and stay tuned for new episodes of Oops, Your Culture’s Showing! in the coming months.

Dean and Tom are back to talk about the use and importance of symbols across cultures, otherwise known as “going the full Robert Langdon” (you know, the main protagonist in Dan Brown’s novels). Being the super symbologists they are, Dean and Tom decipher what iconic symbols have to tell us about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while also decoding symbols that have arisen from other conflicts, such as in Hong Kong, the United States, and more. (For more on protest symbols in Russia, here is the April 15, 2022 episode of the Rough Translation podcast from NPR.)

Have a cultural question or episode idea for Dean and Tom? Reach out on Twitter and Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

Happy holidays, dear listeners! Welcome back for the thrilling conclusion of our Cornucopia series, in which Tom and Torin now face off in the final two of six of Dean’s CultureQuizzes: that is, brief quizzes about fundamental culture concepts in different regions of the world. They’re playing for the prize of, well, it’s unclear, as the culture-curious fellows are now into their third successive episode of imbibing frivolity. As time passes and the point totals rise, the decorum tumbles, someone’s chin hits a microphone, and a producer is finally replaced (?). The focus of this episode’s slate of quizzes is on countries in Africa and then in Latin America, and one can’t help but wonder: Will the three-part contest simply peter out in the final round, or can Tom and Torin remain simpatico to finish out the bout? No need to wait to find out: this 52-minute listening adventure contains all answers, quiz-related and otherwise, for you. Enjoy & we’ll be back soon with new episodes in 2024!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here to find ALL of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, including the CultureQuizzes from this episode and many many more.***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at [email protected].

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com