Ox Tales

Ox Tales episodes:

• 05.29.2019

  Episode 14 - The Grandeur that was Lipa

  Filipino food scholar Bel Castro tells the oft-repeated story about a mythic era in the late 19th century in which wealth abounded for Philippine coffee growers thanks to lags in the world market. She debunks and complicates this myth with...

  
• 05.22.2019

  Episode 13 - Taking Back the Hospital Tray

  What responsibilities do public institutions have in resisting the corporatization of food? Canadian chef and activist Joshna Maharaj shares the trials, the quirks and the successes of a one-year project to overhaul a Toronto hospital’s food system, taking it from...

  
• 05.15.2019

  Episode 12 - Why Kitchen Technology Matters

  English food writer Bee Wilson traces the genealogy of kitchen utensils and how they shape our lives-- from vegetable peelers to paleo lithic knives, chopsticks and even the mortar and pestle. She begs the question: why shouldn’t we consider kitchen...

  
• 05.08.2019

  Episode 11 - Family, Freezing and Fermenting in the Arctic

  Arctic culinary scholar Zona Spray Starks explains the diverse range culinary techniques of the Iñupiat people of Alaska, and how the seasonal food landscape shaped family relations. While doing so, she shares the story of her later-in-life return to Alaska...

  
• 05.01.2019

  Episode 10 - Acorns and Civilized Panic

  What do famine foods throughout history tell us about the world in which they were eaten? Medieval food and magic scholar Andrea Maraschi makes a mythical and historical foray into the history of the lowliest yet most versatile famine food...

  
• 04.24.2019

  Episode 9 - Seeding a Movement for Health and Culture

  Many indigenous communities around Turtle Island (North America) are reclaiming relationships to ancestral seeds after hundreds of years of disconnection due to colonial violence. Chef Sean Sherman and scholar Elizabeth Hoover tell the tales of seeds, seed-keepers, and indigenous chefs...

  
• 04.17.2019

  Episode 8 - The Opium Poppies of Anatolia

  What happens when one people’s traditional food is also an international controlled substance? Turkish architect and food researcher Aylin Öney Tan goes on a deep dive into the history of opium poppy cultivation for food in Anatolia and the subsequent...

  
• 04.10.2019

  Episode 7 - Fermentation as a Co-Evolutionary Force

  World-renowned fermentation revivalist Sandor Ellix Katz embarks upon a philosophical and biological journey into the origins of multicellular life, and how the multi-species activity of fermenting foods has played a central role in the evolution of microbes, our bodies-- and...

  
• 03.27.2019

  Coming Soon - Ox Tales Season Two

  Announcing Season Two of Ox Tales, premiering April 10th, 2019!  Listen here for a teaser of the Tales to come.  For more information, including the lineup and guest information, visit our website, www.oxfordsymposium.org.uk/podcast.  We'll see you in a few weeks!

  
• 05.23.2018

  Ox Tales Episode 6 - Bull's Head Breakfast

  Retired LA Times food writer and food historian Charles Perry explains how the 19th century Los Angeles practice of earth-pit barbecuing whole bulls became a culinary craze for settlers who saw the eating of the bull’s head as a wild...

  
• 05.23.2018

  Ox Tales Episode 6 - Bull’s Head Breakfast

  Retired LA Times food writer and food historian Charles Perry explains how the 19th century Los Angeles practice of earth-pit barbecuing whole bulls became a culinary craze for settlers who saw the eating of the bull’s head as a wild...

  
• 05.17.2018

  Ox Tales Episode 5 - The Liver is the Message

  English performance artist and food scholar Amanda Couch reprises the ancient Mesopotamian art of liver divination, and tries to answer questions from mortality to Brexit by reading the lines and lobes on a sheep's liver.   “Chance, when you use it to...

  
• 05.09.2018

  Ox Tales episode 4 - Slurp!

  In Japan, 'slurp' is more than just eating-related onomatopoeia. Japanese cultural and food historian Voltaire Cang researches and explores the significance of this important sound in the complex role it plays when people eat noodle dishes (ramen, in particular) and...

  
• 05.02.2018

  Ox Tales episode 3 - More Than Just a Cup of Tea

  Fozia Ismail, a British-Somali social anthropologist and food activist, challenges the easy consumption of foods with roots in colonialism by exploring the ways different people in Brexit-era Britain see the culinary landscape around them. “As the place became more hostile, I...

  
• 04.25.2018

  Ox Tales episode 2 - Quantum Offal

  Third generation French foie gras producer Guillemette Barthouil takes you on a history lesson that spans thousands of years and an ocean as she makes the case that foie gras is the quantum offal- a food that is both loved...

  
• 04.18.2018

  Ox Tales episode 1 - Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puff

  What do the Pillsbury Bake Off and molecular gastronomy have in common? Culinary historian and food writer Laura Shapiro unwraps the significance of gender to the prestige afforded to different arenas of innovation-driven cuisine by examining the history of the...

  
• 04.09.2018

  Introducing Ox Tales! - Season One Trailer

  Hello dear listeners, We are delighted to announce the official launch of Season One of Ox Tales, beginning on April 18. Please enjoy this trailer of highlights of what's to come! Ox Tales is the podcast that serves up rich and surprising stories about...

  
• 12.28.2017

  Episode 4.5 - Listener Update!

  Hi Oxford Food Symposium Podcast Listeners -  We are doing a new thing and want to fill you in about it! As you might have noticed, we are taking a break from uploading episodes until the spring to give us a bit more time...

  
• 10.20.2017

  Episode Four - Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puff

  What do the Pillsbury Bake Off and molecular gastronomy have in common? Culinary historian Laura Shapiro unwraps the significance of gender on the prestige afforded to different arenas of innovation-driven cuisine. Produced by Anna Sigrithur. Editorial Help from Naomi Duguid and...

  
• 09.09.2017

  Episode Three - Slurp!

  In Japan, 'slurp' is more than just eating-related onomatopoiea. Japanese cultural and food historian Voltaire Cang unpacks the significance of this important sound in the roles it plays in eating noodle dishes (ramen, in particular) and during the refined tea ceremony,...

  
• 06.30.2017

  Episode Two - The Liver is the Message

  What kinds of questions would you ask if you practiced the ancient Mesopotamian art of 'haruspicy'- fortune telling with a liver? English artist and scholar Amanda Couch tries to answer the big ones, from mortality to Brexit by reading the lines...

  
• 05.19.2017

  Episode One - The Quantum Offal

  Join 3rd generation French foie gras producer and food scholar Guillemette Barthouil for a history lesson that spans thousands of years and an ocean as she makes the case for foie gras as the quantum offal. Producer: Anna Sigrithur. Editorial Help:...