In this episode of The Hungry Historians Matthew Phillpott and Kelly Spring interview Eric C. Rath about his book Kanpai: The History of Sake (Reaktion Books, 2025).

Eric brings us into the world of sake, both in Japan and its increasing popularity internationally. You can find out more about Eric C. Rath on his profile page. Kanpai is available from Reakton Books and all good bookshops.

This episode is sponsored by Bloomsbury Food Library,  an essential resource for students, researchers, and scholars studying food, offering the widest-ranging existing collection of food studies content.

Welcome to the second episode of season 2 of The Hungry Historians. In this episode Kelly A. Spring and Matt Phillpott interview educator, scholar and creator Marcus Weaver-Hightower about his book Unpacking School Lunch. In this episode we explore the challenges and politics of school lunches, mainly in the US, but also with a quick excursion into the UK system.

You can find out more about Marcus Weaver-Hightower at his ⁠website⁠. Unpacking School Lunch is available from Palgrave Macmillan and all good bookshops.

Welcome to the first episode of season 2 of The Hungry Historians. In this episode Kelly A. Spring and Matt Phillpott interview historian and writer, Or Rosenboim on her 2024 book Air and Love: A Story of Food, Migration and Belonging. This book is one part history told through the story of food, cooking, and eating, and one part family history. The book follows Or's family as it migrates from Samarkand, Riga, Jerusualem, and Tel Aviv in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

You can find out more about Or Rosenboim at her website. Air and Love is available from Pan MacMillan and all good bookshops.

This month's episode of The Hungry Historians turns our attention to our host Kelly A. Spring, who has just released her new book with Reaktion Books as part of their 'The Edible Series'. This book is a study of Spam, looking particularly at its origins, importance during World War II, and its afterlife, especially in Korea, the USA.

In this episode, Matt interviews Kelly about her book to learn more about this fasinating food product.

SPAM: A Global History can be bought from Reaktion Books and other booksellers.

In this month's episode of The Hungry Historians, Kelly and Matt chat with Alex Ketchum and Megan Elias about their book "Queers at the Table". This is an anthology of essays, comics, and recipes that reveals the dynamic and transformative relationship between queerness and food.

In this episode we discuss the nature of putting such a book together, what the intended purposes were, and what they hoped their readers will do with the book and how they hope to gain more interaction through various forthcoming events and activities.

Queers at the Table is available via Arsenal Pulp Press and various other booksellers.

In this month's episode Matt and Kelly interview Eleanor Barnett about her book "Leftovers: A History of Food Waste and Preservation" which can be found at Bloomsbury Publishers and other book retailers.

In this month's Hungry Historians, Kelly A. Spring and Matt Phillpott discuss the history of menus with Nathalie Cooke (McGill University). We were surprised by just how much can be learned from menus and excited to hear about the various tricks used to encourage certain choices and illustrations used to excite interest. We also discuss cryptic menus and who is left out.

You can find out more from Nathalie's latest book, Tastes and Traditions: A Journey through Menu History, available from Reaktion Books and all good bookstores.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

In this month's episode, Kelly and Matt interview Xaq Frohlich (Auburn University), about his book "FRom Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age. You can learn more about Xaq and his book from his website www.xaqfrohlich.com.

In this episode Kelly Spring and Matt Phillpott interview Brandi Simpson Miller about her book Food and Identity in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Ghana: Food, Fights, and Regionalism (2021).

In this episode Kelly Spring and Matt Phillpott interview Professor Anne Murcott about her book The (Not So) Secret Lives of Food Packaging.