Episode 52: Food

B-Side‘s Tamara Keith cooks up a pot of her mom’s vegetarian lentil soup and explores food and our relationship to food. Originally aired in March of 2007.

Liner Notes

The Gastronauts: Jody Avirgan
The Gastronauts are a group of adventurous eaters who like to push their culinary limits and explore the most exotic food New York City has to offer. Just what makes these guys hop the subway to seek out giant Nigerian snails, lamb eyeballs and live, squirming octopus? We’ll find out.

Take me Out…to Dinner: Donovan Keith
Donovan Keith is on a strict diet. His food intake is carefully planned and regulated. He’s even signed up with a personal trainer at the local gym. But he’s not, trying to lose weight: he’s trying to put on 30 pounds of muscle for a regional theater production of Take Me Out.

Citrus Freeze Gets Personal: Sasha Khokha
Lemons and oranges have become pricey delicacies after a cold snap destroyed millions of dollars of California citrus this winter. The cold spell didn’t just affect those of us that buy the fruit, it also cost thousands of farmworkers their jobs, and devastated small towns that rely on citrus as their main industry. Sasha Khokha brings us he story of one of those towns, the town were her boyfriend grew up.

Spam?: Rene Gutel
Sometimes food can be a dividing line because what you eat, or what you don’t eat, can say a lot about you. It can speak to your tastes, your socioeconomic status, how you were raised. It gets kind of complicated and touchy and emotional. Rene Gutel found all this out not long ago. She’s a reporter in Phoenix, and also a newlywed. Her husband is John Tynan We’ll let them tell you the story.