It's our annual Thanksgiving show and we're bringing you a banquet of recipes, stories, a cut of history, and new looks at feasting inside and outside our borders. Food authority Joan Nathan talks real American food today from home kitchens across the country. Her recipe for Braised Butternut Squash with Mustard Seeds, Chili, Curry Leaves, and Ginger is from her new book, The New American Cooking.

Who but the Sterns would find popcorn missing from the Thanksgiving table? They fill the void at Yoder Popcorn in Topeka, Indiana. Lynne has a new rule for the big feast and a whole do-ahead menu designed for one oven. It could change how you do Thanksgiving dinner from now on.

Sally Schneider is back tackling side dishes and the big pumpkin question: fresh or canned? Her delicious Cranberry-Walnut Conserve is one side dish you'll want on your table! Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio tell of going inside the kitchens and lives of families from Greenland to Chad to photograph what they eat in one week. It's all documented in their book, Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.

You'll hear about a coronation feast with a spine-tingling twist from Nichola Fletcher, author of Charlemagne's Tablecloth, and one urban activist tells the political side of dumpster diving.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• November 19, 2005