Pressure Cooker

Artificial intelligence can write term papers and computer code. It helped someone win the lottery. But could it succeed at the ultimate task: Meal planning for demanding children? Pressure Cooker takes on the challenge with the help of a special guest. Want to try this at home? We have a cheat sheet for how to create customized, easy dinners with ChatGPT. Plus, a Pressure Cooker-tested ChatGPT wr...

Welcome new listeners. We’re highlighting one or our favorite episodes: The Great American Food System makes chicken nuggets that look like hearts, dinosaurs even Baby Yoda. And why not? Last year, American families spent more than $200 million on frozen nuggets in novelty shapes. In this episode, Jane and Liz talk to Scott Friedman, whose family invented the dinosaur chicken nugget, and explore w...

Listen in on a live podcasting event on the future of motherhood, coproduced by Future of Women. This week, Jane is joined by the Better Life Lab’s Brigid Schulte, journalists Helena Dyer Andrews, Julianna Goldman and Daniella Senior of the Colada Shop to discuss what’s not working for moms in America today and how we can work together to make change.  If you’re fired up after the conversation, he...

For years, cook and writer Tamar Adler’s kitchen overflowed with leftovers: stale bread, leftover buttermilk, potato chip crumbs. Her mission was to figure out what to do with all of them. Her new book, The Everlasting Cookbook: Leftovers A - Z, has the answers. In this episode, she troubleshoots how busy parents can rethink leftovers – it’s a meal with half the work already done! – plus offers ad...

On Instagram, mommy influencers abound, offering recipe inspiration, parenting hacks…and advice on which non-stick pan or organic snackbar will definitely, finally make you feel like the mother you always thought you would be! On this episode, Jane and Liz talk to Sara Petersen, the author of the new book “Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture” about...

Americans spend almost a billion dollars each year on children’s dietary supplements: a category which, today, includes not just daily multivitamins but an increasingly exotic array of gummies aimed at promoting immunity, digestion, mood, and sleep. Liz and Jane unspool the history of our national obsession with vitamins with the science journalist and Vitamania author Catherine Price – then talk...

“Do I look fat in this?” This is the phrase that parents fear more than most any other. And yet, how many parents raised in the diet crazed 1980s and ‘90s have never said this themselves. As a nation, we are pathologically afraid of fat. And this, argues Virginia Sole-Smith is making us, not thinner or healthier, but fatter and sicker. Jane and Liz go deep with Virginia on her new book, Fat Talk:...

Three meals, good. Extra snacks, bad. Or so they say. With the help of Professor Marion Nestle, Jane and Liz dig into the cultural history of snacking to find out why parents believe they should limit snacking and whether that advice still stands in a 24/7 world. Sales and distribution by Lemonada Media. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twenty-six episodes down and still so many things to discover about why feeding kids is so absurdly complicated! Jane and Liz reflect on how a year of reporting did–and did not–change how they feed their kids, and, essentially, how they feel about their success.  We're always planning future episodes. So if you have ideas you want to share with us, stories from your own kitchens, crazy things your...

Some people will go to any length to cook the best version of pizza, ribs–you name it. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is their culinary hero. The best-selling cookbook author and New York Times recipe columnist has earned a cult following putting the scientific method to work for home cooks. On this week’s episode, Kenji talks about how he really cooks at home for his kids and how he managed to get the only k...

Going to restaurants with kids is…not always fun. So how do we set the table for success? Jane and Liz talk to Roberta Schomburg, a child development expert who worked for many years with Fred–that’s Mister, to you--Rogers, and Daniel Post Senning, the great-, great-grandson of Emily Post who offers up tactical wisdom on how to teach good table manners to your kids.   Sales and distribution by Lem...

One-third of Americans are trying to eat less meat. And yet…U.S. meat consumption per capita is at an all-time high. What gives? Turns out shifting your family’s diet is really (really) hard. On this episode, Jane and Liz talk to Jenny Rosenstrach, author of “The Weekday Vegetarians” for ideas on how to eat less meat overall and to accommodate kids who choose to skip meat.  Trying to eat less meat...

Is scratch cooking really all it’s cracked up to be? In this episode, Jane and Liz challenge the idea that society’s ills can be solved by each of us spending more time in the kitchen, sing the praises of convenience food, and talk to the authors of the 2019 book Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems, and What We Can Do About It. The hosts close out the show by sharing the din...

Same house. Same parents. Same food. And yet kids have vastly different tastes and interest in food. Is it something you’re doing? Or do genes control what our children will eat? Liz and Jane speak with Dr. Alison Fildes, a British geneticist, to try to untangle what’s nature, what’s nurture and how science can liberate you at the dinner table. Sales and distribution by Lemonada Media See omnystud...

Since publishing her New York Times bestseller Fair Play in 2019, Eve Rodsky has become a leader in the movement to rebalance the domestic chore burden, which has historically fallen mostly to women. In this episode, Jane and Liz chat with Eve about her Fair Play system, how it came to be, and real strategies to help parents better work together to tackle the daily grind of feeding kids.  Sales an...

We know kids love it. But is boxed mac and cheese a healthy, and safe, meal for kids? In partnership with ParentData, Brown economist Emily Oster’s newsletter, Jane and Liz untangle the pros and cons of our kids’ beloved day-glo orange pasta. Alert: Emily Oster fans! Until March 31, Emily is offering Pressure Cooker listeners 20% off subscriptions to ParentData. For more information, visit www.par...

Kraft. Annie’s. Kids adore boxed mac and cheese. But how did this Depression Era “innovation” become America’s go-to kids food? Join Jane and Liz as they track the story from the days of Yankee Doodle and the 1893 World’s Fair to the modern Kraft juggernaut that sells more than 1 million boxes of day-glo orange cheesy pasta every day. Sales and distribution by Lemonada Media See omnystudio.com/lis...

About 20 percent of American children are obese and the rates are disproportionately high among Black and Latino children. But parents seeking help for their children often have a hard time getting good advice. The dietetics industry is overwhelmingly white and industry education has, heretofore, focused on foods prized in European cultures. Deanna Bellany Lewis, co-founder of Diversify Dietetics,...

Jamie Oliver is a global celebrity chef at the helm of a media empire. And yep, even he struggles to feed his five kids without complaints. On this episode, Jamie discusses how to maintain your confidence, NOT to be a short order cook and shares his no-fair kid-approved recipe. Check out his new (awesome) book, One: Simple One-Pan Wonders, which is designed specifically to minimize dishes. You won...

Sugar is America’s number-one dietary villain. And kids…LOVE it. So how much sugar really is okay? Jane and Liz dive into the complicated question with Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine to find out how much you need to worry about snacks, birthday party binges, and how to sensibly manage your little ones’ sugar intake. Sales and distribution by Lemonada Media See om...

Admit it. That vision that you have of baking with your children doesn’t always pan out. Instead of creating powerful memories, it’s often just a mess. So this week Jane and Liz are asking and answering whether the pros of cooking with kids really outweigh the cons–and how you can make cooking with your kids a pleasure this holiday season. Sales and distribution by Lemonada Media See omnystudio.co...

Get ready: This week, we’re talking about everybody’s favorite, totally NOT cringe-inducing or awkward topic: puberty. Because kids today--and girls, in particular--are going through it earlier than they used to. Why is it happening? And what, if anything, do the hormones in milk and meat have to do with it? On this episode, Jand and Liz talk with Dr. Louise Greenspan, who led one of the landmark...

Color-blocked bento boxes? Bunny-shaped sandwiches? There are a lot of books that claim to have solutions to the tedium of packing school lunch. But are they realistic?  Jane and Liz tested them out–so you don’t have to. We review four new books and dig up the tips and tricks that actually make packing lunch less tedious and maybe–maybe?--even fun. Sales and distribution by Lemonada Media See omny...

OMG! Prices are insanely high. What foods have jumped the most and which are still affordable? Jane and Liz talk about what’s up and what’s down, when rising food prices might slow, then challenge the amazing chef Edward Lee to share creatively cheap weeknight lunches and dinners that kids will gobble up. (Hint: our favorite is a warm, honey-butter sweet potato.) Sales and distribution by Lemonada...

So many recipes out there are billed as  “fast” or “easy.” But are those labels deserved?  The shopping. The chopping. The cooking. The cleaning. It leaves a parent wondering: Is it just me, or is none of this, actually, easy? On this week’s episode, Liz and Jane talk to Caroline Chambers, author of the popular newsletter What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, to take on the myth of easy w...