As a food podcaster, you’d think that I would run out of steam listening to more shows about food, but sometimes it’s quite the opposite. I’ve found some shows that constantly push my own thinking in new directions, and inspire me to expand the conversations I have on the show and with my friends, family, and students, too! I’ve compiled a list of my current go-to food podcasts below, though it is by no means comprehensive. There are some incredible food podcasts out there, and I’m also a big fan of podcast that fall outside the range of food too (shocker! haha) - so perhaps I will come up with a more general round up of my favourite podcasts down the way.
I will say that I avoided listing podcasts that are traditionally produced through more widely known networks, or the stalwart food podcasts that are often featured on top lists… there’s just something about a small independent group of folks (or an individual working away at this by themselves) that makes me much more excited to listen. Plus, it gets boring seeing the same 10 food podcasts on every list. And I know just how much time and energy the folks on this list below are putting in for the sake of creating some audio magic and sharing food knowledge and stories!
Queer the Table
The moment I heard the trailer for this podcast in May, I was already eager for more and sharing it with as many friends as I could. Hosted by Nico Wisler, this podcast explores the idea of “queer food” in all of its limitless forms. They talk with farmers, chefs, activists, historians, seed savers, and business babes to explore the joyful, messy, radical magic that happens in spaces where queerness and food intersect. Nico also has a love for extra garlic that speaks to my soul!
Episode to Start: Episode 7, The Corners of Their Mouth
Nico chats with Robin Elan and LM Zoller (authors of The Corners of Their Mouth) to explore what queer food is and what it can be, what LGBTQ+ bloggers bring to writing, and those ridiculous and harmful gender reveal cakes.
Toasted Sister
Toasted Sister is a show I’m always excited to listen and learn from. After colonial contact, Indigenous foodways and knowledge were devastated and replaced with foods that were far removed from Indigenous Peoples. Host Andi Murphy talks with Native chefs and foodies about what Indigenous cuisine is, where it comes from, and where it’s headed. In individual interviews, the show explores how Indigenous cuisines are used to connect their people to their origins and traditions. Murphy is Navajo, based out of Albuquerque, and freelance multimedia journalist and a full-time producer for Native America Calling, which is a national call-in show about Native issues and topics. The Toasted Sister website also has some incredible videos and recipes of Indigenous cuisines, and easily the best podcast art I’ve ever come across.
Episode to Start: Episode 6, Dr. Elizabeth Hoover — Food Sovereignty.
Andi interviews Dr. Elizabeth Hoover (Mohawk and Mi’kmaq), who travels around asking Indigenous people what their definition of food sovereignty is. This is a great episode if you’re new to learning about Indigenous food sovereignty, as they explore just how vastly different it can be for different Indigenous Peoples, and the varied ways that communities are starting to revitalize their own food sovereignty.
Keep it Quirky
You might already be familiar with Katie Quinn’s Keep it Quirky podcast if you’ve been listening to AnthroDish for a while — she was a guest back in January! Katie is one of the coolest and most fun people to interview, but is also an incredibly gifted host and digital media expert.Katie is the creator of food and travel videos on her awesome YouTube channel, QKatie, as well as a trained chef with. Her motto throughout all her work is, you guessed it, to keep things quirky! On her podcast, she looks at the Venn diagram of food, entrepreneurship, and inspiration with creatives and entrepreneurship. There isn’t a singe episode that has left me without a new idea for a project or a way to build and grow as a creative. She finds these wildly fascinating guests whose passion for their work just shines through the interview each time - and I think Katie’s natural joy and curiosity are a testament to how consistently fun and powerful these conversations are!
Episode to Start: The episode I’d recommend checking out to jump into this show is “The Women We Learn From, with Anastasia Miari of Grand Dishes” Anastasia explores the inspiration behind starting the GrandDishes cookbook project, which features stories of and recipes from grandmothers all around the world… cool, right?! Be prepared for your mind to be flooded with inspiration!
The Female Farmer Project Podcast
This podcast is a more recent find for me, and quickly becoming one of my all-time favourite shows. The FFP podcast series documents the rise of women in agriculture. It aims to serve as a platform for women to discuss agricultural issues, and give power to the traditional, cultural, and experience-driven knowledge. Hearing directly from female-identifying farmers makes you feel much more connected to food production, and helps you interweave culture, history, tradition, and change within agriculture and food.
Episode to Start: Afro-American Storytelling with Queen Sugar author Natalie Baszile
Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar, discusses writing stories of African American experience with land ownership, intergenerational wealth and inheritance, land loss, mass incarceration, police brutality, and other systems of oppression. It’s an eye-opening discussion that I can’t stop thinking about.
Copper & Heat
Here’s another former AnthroDish guest… perhaps I’m a bit biased in terms of the shows I love, but for good reason! Copper & Heat is a James Beard-winning podcast produced by Katy and Ricardo Osuna, and based in San Francisco. The first season, Being a Girl, is a sound-rich narrative documentary that focuses on why women only represent 19% of chefs, and only 7% of head chefs across the culinary world. They use Katy’s experience working in the Bay Area’s Michelin-starred kitchens, as well as stories of other kitchen employees to uncover the ways that traditional masculinity has impacted kitchen culture. Plus, she uses her anthropology background to question what is understood as “normal” practice and why.
Episode to start: As this is a serial narrative-style podcast, I’d recommend starting this podcast right from the start (season 1 has 8 episodes, and season 2 is coming soon!).
Food Focus Podcast
Food Focus is hosted by Michael von Massow, a professor at the University of Guelph. It’s a show that intends to discuss, challenge, and learn about topic issues around the food system. Mike’s own work looks at consumer choices and trends in food systems, which is something I find endlessly fascinating. I really appreciate his broad and complicated views of food, and the choices and behaviours we make around them. It lends to really interesting and thought-provoking discussions that leave you (or me!) excited to think about new ideas and approaches to food issues in Canada.
Episode to Start: Extraterrestrial Eats — Growing Food in Space
I mean… the title alone should explain what makes this such a cool episode! Host Mike interviews guest Mike Dixon, a professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Guelph to discuss the technical challenges that come with growing food in space, and how these ideas can extend to food insecurity solutions back here on earth.
Food Heroes Podcast
Okay, okay, I promise this is the last former AnthroDish guest I feature on here… or is it? Heheh. Food Heroes Podcast is a total staple for me. Host K80 Jones takes a sustainability lens to key food issues, using one-on-one interviews with food experts to explore their work and what make them a food hero. She has a background in food research and development, but I find she always uses multiple lens to explore her guest’s experiences. Plus, she’s super real, and super funny. She calls it like it is, and isn’t afraid to ask questions when she’s learning something new. I think that’s really important trait for a podcast host, given that we’re acting as the middle-person between audience and expert. It’s important to remember the audience’s level of knowledge and when to ask the questions that are probably popping up in their minds as they listen.
Episode to Start: Episode 26 - Sean Lenihan of the Honest Bison: Honesty and transparency in the meat industry.
One of my recent favourites was this episode on increasing transparency in the meat industry. I’ve been a vegetarian for over a decade now (most of my adult life!), so my meat knowledge is LIMITED (I recently had to ask a friend to teach me how to cook bacon for my daughter…). This episode opened up my mind to some of the key challenges that the meat industry is facing going into the 2020s, and what Sean thinks is integral to a successful and sustainable meat industry.
Your Body, Your Brand
Am I allowed to choose favourites? Yes? Okay great. Without a doubt, this podcast by Kaila Tova is my absolute favourite podcast to come out of 2019. Your Body, Your Brand is a serial documentary podcast that asks really tough and important questions of the fitness and wellness movements: why are people (and particularly women) dropping out of the workforce to become health coaches? Why are we so bought into the idea that our bodies are more lucrative than our minds, and why do people keep reinforcing this with their social and financial capital? Each episode digs deeper into the complicated world of healthy eating, bodies as brands, eating disorders, social and economic capital, and more. And the conceptual photos for each episode are so thoughtful and tongue-in-cheek.
Episode to State: Start with episode 1, as this is a documentary-style podcast that builds on key ideas from one episode to the next. It’s SO good, I’m excited for you to listen to it.