AnthroDish

Have you ever heard about health foods or superfoods, and been curious to try them out, but not really sure how to go about it? My guest this week, Elizabeth Stein , is here to help alleviate some of that! Elizabeth is the founder and CEO of Purely Elizabeth Natural Foods, and is on the show today to share her story about how Purely Elizabeth came to be and how it's working to innovate food and we...

Today we're taking a step back in time and exploring some interesting food trends from the past. Every so often, there is a massive migration period for herring towards the Swedish West Coast. These seasonal migrations allow for coastal fishing of herring that is much more abundant than regular methods. During one Herring Period of the 18th century, Atlantic herring began migrating to the western...

When most of us think about peanut butter and jelly, we're immediately filled with memories of childhood lunches. And while it's certainly a nostalgic snack, at its core it is a healthy snack – when it's made from whole ingredients! So how can you make a nut butter and jam snack that's not only tasty but also good for you? My guest this week, Jeff Mahin , is here to talk about this! Jeff is one of...

When the pandemic started, I put out a call to anyone who had their conference or public talk or event cancelled, to see if they wanted to share some of the foundational ideas from those events in podcast form. My guest this week is Simone Johnson, who took me up on the offer after her guest talk on fermentation was cancelled. Something I always marvel at is how many folks I get to meet and connec...

We're living in a very surreal and increasingly digital world these days, and I don't know about you all, but I'm finding myself taking a step back each day trying to figure out what this means for how our society is shaped and what our futures will look like. We see a heightened presence of fitness and wellness apps, with extended free trials, or nutrition trackers that give you healthy recipes…...

How many of you have started trying your hand at baking bread since the start of the pandemic? With our lives totally upheaved and our work-related identities really being called into question, it's allowing us some time to explore different sides of ourselves, and sometimes connect more deeply with our communities even in isolation. My guest this week, Dolly Meckler, is doing just that! Dolly is...

With the pandemic, we're seeing much more clearly how food and beverage companies and restaurants treat their employees… and unfortunately in some cases, we're seeing that many operate under traditional bottom line approaches, without building inclusivity and care into the foundations of their work. My guest this week, Ryan Fortwendel, is someone who's striving to do change what a successful bever...

When we talk about food systems and eating experiences, we often are quick to bring up the ideas of exclusion – what we should remove or limit or restrict – through veganism, vegetarianism, paleo diets, carnivore diets, and more. My guest this week, Jordan Higgins, is one of the entrepreneurs of Higgins and Phillips Innovations, and is looking to create more inclusive and holistic solutions for fo...

So this week is particularly heavy, and I don't feel right starting out this episode without addressing that. I have been thinking for a long time about the role of podcasting in pandemics, and whether it's silly to produce and share episodes when everyone's minds are riddled with panic, fear, and an ever-growing awareness of just how much food you have in your pantry. But then I remembered that t...

Do you ever wonder how scientists come to understand what we ate in the past, or how they know what types of farming and irrigation methods were used? Or wondered why it's important to understand past diet and farming strategies in today's globalized world? My guest this week is here to help answer some of these questions! Today I'm chatting with Ayushi Nayak, who is a Doctoral Researcher at the M...

This is the first episode in a special two-parter series dedicated to taking a closer look into the rise of plant-based meats. This week we're looking specifically at the nutritional elements to plant-based meats with a dietician , and then next week, armed with some of this new knowledge, we'll be exploring the psychology of plant-based diets, the marketing rhetoric around plant-based meat produc...

When you think about dirt, what comes to mind? Probably not eating it! We teach our children not to put dirt in their mouths from the moment they start crawling away from us in infancy, and we throw insults like "eat dirt" at people when we want to really stick it to them. Yet… humans have eaten earth, on purpose, for more than 2300 years. Humans also crave starch, ice, chalk, and a whole roster o...

Have you ever had just one of those days where everything felt like it was on fire, maybe literally in the world or metaphorically in your own career… and you just wanted a quick way to chill? If you stumbled across a pastel beverage in a convenience store that could offer you chill in a bottle… would you go for it? This week, we're exploring the rise of the calming beverage industry with the incr...

When you think craft beer, what - or who - is most likely coming to mind? It's an industry that is so dominated by straight white dudes, but that doesn't mean it needs to stay that way. My guest this week, Ren Navarro, is working on improving diversity in beer. Navarro is one of the most well-respected members of the Ontario beer industry, and has worked for years as the face of breweries within h...

This week's episode is truly such an honour and treat for me to share with you all, as the guest this week is Shiza Shahid. Shiza is someone who is an incredible inspiration, a force for positive change in the world, and a woman who knows how to creatively shake up the status quo in business ventures so that they can be rooted in community building and diversity. Shiza is already known as the co-f...

Today marks the kickstart to our 5th season! I don't want to give too much away about this season, but so far we're really digging into questions around meat and identity and also branching out into the very fun topic of beverages, which we haven't covered much before! But that's all the spoilers I'll give.. I'm very excited. To start our exploration of meat, we're looking into the future of it –...

Wrapping up an amazing season 4 with a solo episode this week - I reflect on some of the major themes and responses we got to episodes, and share a bit more on the personal side of things, particularly some lessons I've learned this fall about reconnecting to and through food. Plus there's an extra special guest on the show today... my daughter!  We will be back with all-new episodes for season 5...

I'm really excited about this week's topic, because I find the connections between bees and humans such an interesting one, and we're talking today about the power of bee-based medicines. My guest this week is Carly Stein , who is the founder and CEO of the wellness brand Beekeeper's Naturals – whose mission is to improve the health of humans and bees alike. As a beekeeper and tireless advocate fo...

Have you ever read a book you just couldn't put down, and dreamt that you'd be able to chat with the author to steep a little bit more in their perspective? This week's episode is a bit of a dream come true in that sense for me! I'm speaking with Charlotte Druckman all about her newest book, Women on Food. Based out of New York City, Charlotte is a journalist, food writer, and the creator of Food5...

With the holiday season in full swing, I always like to come back to conversations about body image and disordered eating… because holidays are really intense for a lot of people, myself included, and we are often face to face with anxieties about ourselves, our families, and sometimes with our relationship to food. My guest this week is Jennifer Rollin, an eating disorder therapist and the founde...

This week we are exploring the food scene in Los Angeles, California, with my guest Amanda Lanza who works with Cash Only Productions out there.  Cash Only is a collective of culinary and community-minded creatives – most of whom work in different creative worlds outside the culinary world, but who all view food as the building block for their community. Cash Only started as a zine that honoured r...

Sometimes the stories we want to share through AnthroDish are bigger that just one person's perspective. We've been working to create more thematically based narrative-style episodes, using multiple interviews to explore how different folks look at the same topic. In this way, we're able to get a bigger picture story about the ways in which food can be used as a tool for powerful social moments an...

You're probably wondering what the heck we're about to explore today… and indeed, it's going to be all about farts and gassy foods.   My guest this week is Danielle Gendron, a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia. Danielle and I work together on some research projects, and have been friends for a while through that. She first pitched this idea to me back in the spring, and I laughed...

The past week or so has been a bit of a whirlwind for me personally, and I'm sure anyone who's in academia and in the full swing of the fall semester can attest to! So what a perfect time to have my guest this week, Dr. Michael B.C. Rivera on the show. Michael is also an anthropology podcaster and the host of the incredible Arch and Anth podcast, a three-a-week show featuring interviews with exper...

If you've been listening to AnthroDish for a while, you know I get really critical when it comes to the idea of what we define "health" as or how we define and understand "diets" – and this week's guest, Kaila Tova, explores the depths of how healthism and fitness can blend into harmful disordered eating behaviours, like orthorexia. After recovering from orthorexia, anorexia, and an exercise addic...