Keeping kosher. Respecting the Sabbath with plastic utensils. Honoring our bodies. Many humorous stories. They are all in Judy Gruen’s book, Bylines and Blessings: Overcoming Obstacles, Striving for Excellence, and Redefining Success. We talk about these things. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Read more about Judy Gruen.

We all think about the meaning of food - the culture, the people, and the food itself. In this podcast we discuss these questions as they apply to the food culture of Appalachia. We discuss the complexity of the food culture as well as the resiliency of the people. Listen to the discussion with Ashli Quesinberry Stokes and Wendy Atkins-Sayre about their new book, Hungry Roots: How Food Communicates Appalachia’s Search for Resilience. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Listen to a previous podcast with Ashli and Wendy here.

Why Not: Lessons on Comedy, Courage, and Chutzpah is a funny book about growing up, about becoming a comedian, and about living a good life. It talks about the bumps and the trips, as well as the fun parts of life. Listen to Mark Schiff discussing why he wrote this book, being funny, writing, and many more things.

You can read more about Mark on his website.

Want even more about Mark? Listen to his podcast, You Don’t Know Schiff, with cohost, Lowell Benjamin.

Establishing a food museum is a bold move. 20 years ago when we started the Southern Food & Beverage Museum in New Orleans, we were in the wilderness with a bold idea and big ambitions. Rachel Waugh tells us about her dream for a food museum in Denver, Colorado. She and I are definitely kindred spirits.

Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Rachel Waugh

Read all about Rachel’s bold vision on the website.

Take the culinary quiz.

Beth M. Howard and I talk about her experiences in pie. Her sharing attitude and the inclusiveness of the experiences that she creates for people make pie a carrier for supporting each other, regardless of our differences. It seemed the right time to revisit from October, 2022, World Piece and the role of pie in bringing out the best in us.

It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

I can never resist the opportunity to talk with a food scholar about the food of New Orleans. I talked to Theresa McCulla, about her new book, Insatiable City: Food and Race in New Orleans. We still care so much about our food in the city that it is easy to understand its importance in the past. But the city’s past is not all rosy. Learning about it makes for a real discomfort, especially knowing how the city’s wealth and prosperity were built.

Listen as we speak with Theresa McCulla. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

To learn more about Theresa and her research try her website.

A universal fantasy of abundance is often one that motivates hungry immigrants. Luisa Del Giudice talks with us about the search for abundance that is documented in stories and songs. We talk about it. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Learn more from the website . . .

Our seeds are a fragile connection between our lives and the lives of those who come in the future. We seem to forget this important fact. Perhaps the cautionary tale is the best way to illustrate this and make it seem real. We speak with author, Carla Seyler, about possible catastrophe. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

It would be wonderful to know that your cookbook will become a classic when you are writing it. Unfortunately it is impossible to predict what the zeitgeist will demand. But Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux? seems to have met the test of time. We talk with Marcelle Bienvenu, whose title is intriguing and so is her story. But the title also tells the story of south Louisiana in just a few phrases. And it doesn’t hurt that the recipes are classic. We chat with Marcelle. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Can’t get enough of Marcelle? Listen here.

The new edition of Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux? is being published by Susan Schadt Press.

Allison Alsup has written a fascinating novel. It stems from the factual disappearance of Frank Meyer, of Meyer lemon fame, while an agricultural explorer for the US Department of Agriculture in China. The book is definitely worth reading, but I also think that the conversation with Allison about the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction, a part of the US Department of Agriculture, is also worth listening too. We have been adding to the agricultural diversity of the US through agricultural explorers for decades. And ironically it has led to Big Ag using this diversity to cherry pick the characteristics it was and allowing all of the genetic traits of the plants to recede. Today we have less diversity. An interesting and ironic turn of fate. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.