Lachi is an award-winning recording artist, CEO of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), host of the PBS series Renegades, disability advocate and author of the new book, I Identify as Blind: A Brazen Celebration of Disability Culture, Identity and Power. She’s also a joyful, gregarious ray of sunshine! 

Like the name of her book implies, Lachi is legally blind. She tells host Rachel Belle how learning to cook was a big part of learning to be independent and how finally being out and proud of her blindness has made life so much easier and more successful. And she shares why eggs play a starring role in her relationship with her longtime partner, Arthur.  

Then we meet the creator of The Blind Cafe, a pop-up dinner that travels the world, giving diners the experience of eating in pitch darkness.  

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Chuck Klosterman, the pop culture obsessed best-selling author, critic and journalist. 

Chuck moved from New York City to Portland, Oregon in 2017, a city known for its creative, eclectic, innovative restaurant scene. A scene that, you will hear, Chuck does not appreciate! Please enjoy his rant. He talks about the book that most inspired his writing career, the importance of having a distinct writing voice and wonders what distinguishes red velvet cake from regular chocolate cake, besides the Red 40. 

Listen to the full episode of Your Last Meal with Chuck Klosterman here. 

In this fantasy world, where my guests can choose anything they want for their hypothetical last meal, there is something very charming and humble about choosing...leftovers. Which is exactly what bestselling author, critic and journalist Chuck Klosterman did! 

Chuck told me he’s not that into food, then proceeded to deliver hot take after hot take, passionately opining on everything from candy bar innovation to turkey consumption to his disdain of restaurant chitchat. And he asks me a surprising question no guest has ever asked me before, in the nine years of making this podcast: Why am I a guest on this show?  

Do you eat leftovers? A Wall Street Journal food reporter joins the show to share new data on Americans’ relationship with the plastic containers of food piling up in our refrigerators.  

Then Chuck and I chat about his new book, Football and he tells me a hilarious story about the times he’s been mixed up with other famous Chucks.  

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Listen to the Prodigy episode, featuring an inmate who cooked many death row meals.

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Neko Case, Grammy-nominated artist and author of the best-selling memoir, The Harder I Fight the More I Love You. Her brand-new album is called Neon Grey Midnight Green. 

On this week’s lightning round, Neko talks about her favorite fair food (her grandma worked at a food stand at her local fair when she was a kid!), what she listens to when she cooks and her farmer aspirations!  

Listen to the full episode of Your Last Meal with Neko Case here. 

Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!   
Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV showThe Nosh with Rachel Belle. 
Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings. 
Follow along on Instagram. 
Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame. 

The only thing Grammy-nominated musician Neko Case craves more than crisp-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside popovers is Hungarian food from a 61-year-old restaurant in Ohio. Neko tells host Rachel Belle about her favorite Eastern European dishes and how eating at The Balaton helped her reconnect with her long-lost heritage.  

But back to popovers! We’re joined by a pastry chef who baked thousands of popovers every day, five days a week, for five years at Acadia National Park’s Jordan Pond House, the popover epicenter of the United States. Sign up for Rachel’s The Nosh Newsletter to get her recipe.  

Neko Case’s new album is Neon Grey Midnight Green. 

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Jonathan Russell, vocalist, guitarist and founding member of the band The Head and the Heart. 

In this week’s lightning round, Jonathan talks about the joy of picking up the tab, what back-up dish he often brings to holiday meals (just in case he doesn’t like the version the hosts made!) and what he loves to cook when he returns home from tour. 

Listen to the full episode of Your Last Meal with Jonathan Russell here. 

Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!   

Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV showThe Nosh with Rachel Belle. 

Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings. 

Follow along on Instagram. 

Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame. 

Jonathan Russell is one of the founding members (vocals, guitar) of The Head and the Heart, a band that organically formed at weekly open-mic nights at Seattle’s Conor Byrne Pub.  

Russell didn’t grow up with happy memories around the dinner table. He tells host Rachel Belle about his natural inclination to eat alone, why a crab boil is the perfect meal for an introvert and how working in bars and restaurants changed the way he orders.  

Rachel’s friend, Roz Ray, joins the show to share her best party strategies for shy and introverted people, and how to use food as a social glue! 

And Jonathan talks about why the six members of The Head and the Heart started seeing a therapist together. 

Thanks to the Seattle Symphony for setting up this interview! 

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Alice Waters, award winning chef, creator of the iconic 54-year-old restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley California, food activist and author of the new cookbook, “A School Lunch Revolution.” 

In this week’s lightning round, Alice talks about a memorable school lunch from her own childhood, her signature holiday dish, and her favorite comfort food, as someone who eats extremely healthfully, local and organic.  

Listen to the full episode of Your Last Meal with Alice Waters here!

Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!  

Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle.
Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings.
Follow along on Instagram.
Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame. 

Support Cascade PBS: https://secure.cascadepublicmedia.org/page/133995/donate/1/

Alice Waters opened her iconic Berkeley, California restaurant Chez Panisse 54 years ago, introducing the concept of farm-to-table eating to Americans and only serving local, seasonal produce at peak ripeness. She’s also a food activist, and through The Edible Schoolyard Project, has spent the past 30 years showing schools how to integrate locally farmed, organic produce into their cafeterias. 

On today’s episode, Alice shares two life-changing experiences that inspired her to open her restaurant; what diners thought about being served two figs for dessert in Chez Panisse’s early days; how schools can afford to serve kids farm fresh food; and what she packed in her own daughter’s lunchbox. And we take a peak inside her her new cookbook, A School Lunch Revolution. 

Then the Director of Nutrition Services for California’s Sweet Water Union High School district joins the show to talk about how he flipped the district’s lunch program on its head, buying more than half of the food from local farmers and producers or having the students grow it themselves.  

Support Cascade PBS: https://secure.cascadepublicmedia.org/page/133995/donate/1/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from chef and best-selling cookbook author Gaby Dalkin, who's known online and on social as What’s Gaby Cooking. 

In this week’s lightning round, Gaby and host Rachel Belle bond over their favorite childhood birthday cake, Gaby shares the late-night, stand-over-the-sink snack she’d never put in a cookbook, and surprises Rachel with her answer to the question, “What do you wish people would ask you about in interviews, that’s not related to food?”  

• Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle. 

• Follow along on Instagram. 

Support Cascade PBS: https://secure.cascadepublicmedia.org/page/133995/donate/1/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.