Is Your Cinnamon Fake? Where Does Kefir Come From? Plus: Why Is Citric Acid In Everything? Ask Gastropod!

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1. 

   10 Feb 2026 · 51 min

   OXO, Cuisinart, and Julia Child: The Secret (Accessible) History Behind Your Kitchen

   For many people with disabilities, the kitchen can seem a deeply unfriendly place. From counters that require users to stand and cabinets that are often out of reach, to ovens that can’t be opened in mobility chairs and tools that are hard to grip or difficult to read—cooking can seem like an impossible challenge. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, since the mid-1900s, researchers, designers, and people with disabilities have worked together to reimagine the kitchen in ways that have made it better for all of us. Listen in for this hidden history behind many of your favorite…

2. 

   27 Jan 2026 · 47 min

   Ripe for Global Domination: The Story of the Avocado

   We’re coming up to AvocadoFest 2026, otherwise known as the Super Bowl, when Americans get fully a fifth of their annual avocado allocation. But how did this humble fruit, originally named after testicles, get from its Mexican forest home to a tattoo on Miley Cyrus's upper arm? This episode, we unravel the avocado's amazing journey, a story that involves not only conquistadors and cartel violence, but also a Southern California postman and actress Angie Dickinson lounging in a white leotard. And we discover where the avocado is headed next—a place where it's known as the butter fruit, and…

3. 

   13 Jan 2026 · 50 min

   Canned Tomatoes and the Myth of the San Marzano

   Canned tomatoes are a perfect winter food. As you'll know from our tomato episode, the beautiful fruits in fresh aisle of the supermarket are mostly flavorless outside of the summer season—but the tomatoes that get packed in a can are cheap, readily available, and, most importantly, delicious year-round. This episode, we have the stories of how turtle poop, full English fry-ups, and an Italian romance helped turn the canned tomato into a pantry hero. Plus, are San Marzanos really the best tasting option out there? We've got the juicy tips you need to score the ultimate tomato fix, no matter…

4. 

   2 Dec 2025 · 51 min

   Forget Plain Vanilla: You'll Never See The World's Favorite Flavor the Same Way Again

   Today, 'vanilla' often means boring, and yet the edible seedpod of this Central American orchid is one of the most expensive spices in the world, not to mention one of the most popular flavors globally. So how did this coveted bean get such a ho-hum reputation? Listen in this episode as Gastropod travels to vanilla's homeland in the highlands of Veracruz, Mexico, to investigate. It's a tale of botanical piracy, beaver butts, and ice-cream barges, in which an ingenious enslaved tween and the product of pulp paper waste combine to transform vanilla from a complex and sophisticated elite treat…

5. 

   18 Nov 2025 · 51 min

   From Fountain of Youth to Fruit on the Bottom: How Yoghurt Finally Made it Big in America

   Yoghurt is the most diverse section of the dairy case: from Icelandic skyr to creamy Australian, and fruity French Yoplait to full-fat Greek. With something to suit every palate, plus a dose of microbes to support healthy digestion, yoghurt is a staple food in the US, hero of a million smoothies, berry bowls, and snack breaks every day. Which is why it's pretty weird that, until about 50 years ago, most Americans had no idea what it was. This episode, we've got the story of the microbial miracle (and ants?) that gave us yoghurt, as well as the secret connection between those heat-loving…

6. 

   4 Nov 2025 · 48 min

   Yes, You Really Can Make Food From Thin Air—And We Tried It

   Every second of every day, plants on earth do something miraculous: they take the carbon dioxide from air and turn it into food. With very few exceptions, everything we eat starts out that way. But what if we wanted to cut out the middlemen, re-wild all those fields full of wheat and corn, and manufacture dinner directly from the atmosphere ourselves? Scientists began dreaming of turning air into food back into the 1800s, but it's only recently that dream has become a reality—with results that, depending on where you live, you can already taste for yourself. In this episode, we’re exploring…

7. 

   6 Oct 2026 · 52 min

   Fibermaxxing FTW: Meet the Neglected Nutrient That's the Key to Health

   Move over protein, it's time to fibermaxx! Fiber has always been the neglected stepchild of nutrients: it's never been seen as essential, and some of its earliest enthusiasts were poop-obsessed oddballs. Take the inventor of cornflakes, John Harvey Kellogg. Inspired by the gorillas he saw at the zoo, he was fiber's first popular champion—but he also went around making people sniff his own perfect poops, and he believed that eating a plant-based, fiber-heavy, and condiment-free diet would help achieve his goal of reducing masturbation. It wasn't until surprisingly recently that scientists…

8. 

   22 Sep 2026 · 48 min

   Eat Bison to Save Bison

   For tens of thousands of years, North America was bison country. Millions of these giant, shaggy animals—also known as buffalo—roamed from the far north to the Gulf and from the east coast to the west. They defined the land and its people: the animals provided food, clothing, and spiritual connection to the continent's Indigenous peoples—while their hooves, wallows, and dung patties shaped the prairie, providing essential habitat for plants, birds, amphibians, and more. But by the late 1800s, the bison had nearly been driven extinct. Today, cattle have largely taken their place, with huge…

9. 

   8 Sep 2026 · 49 min

   Plant Milk Proliferation: Oat, Soy, Almond, and More, But Which Is Best?

   Cow milk is out, and plant milk reigns supreme. At least, that's how it feels in the supermarket these days, where the refrigerated section is full of "milk" made from oats, almonds, peanuts, coconuts, soy, macadamia nuts, pistachios, and even peas, with new plants being milked seemingly every day. But this proliferation had us wondering: who invented all these plant milks, and are they better for us and the planet than the OG cow-based beverage? To find out, we're exploring the surprisingly long history of plant-based milks—including why most civilizations preferred them over any animal's,…

10. 

    18 Aug 2026 · 48 min

    So Hot Right Now: Why We Love the Chile Pepper

    Perhaps no other plant is as entwined with pain and pleasure as the chile pepper. But why does it burn—and why on earth do we crave that uncomfortable sensation? How did capsaicin's fungus-fighting, digestion-enhancing, and adrenaline-triggering powers convince early hunter gatherers in South America to fall in love with the chile's tiny berry ancestors, and then European colonists to spread chiles around the world? Plus, new insights into the rise of the “superhots,” chilehead competitions, and a murder-by-Carolina-Reaper attempt right here on team Gastropod. Who survived to tell the tale?…

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