Food Tank is rounding up 21 podcasts that take listeners on a journey of food and agriculture systems around the world. These shows highlight the efforts of food producers, reflect on how eaters’ earliest memories in the kitchen shaped who they became today, and offer solutions for sustainable ocean management. Whether you’re looking for a true-crime story, an engaging interview with food policy champions, or trying to navigate the latest health and wellness fads, there’s a show for everyone.
1. Big Sugar
Exploring themes of civil rights, inequity, racism, and backdoor deals, Big Sugar dives into the inner workings of the multibillion-dollar sugar industry. Episodes follow the decades-long fight to get justice for sugarcane workers. Listeners will hear from the workers themselves along with lawyers and journalists who uncover how sugar is grown, cultivated, and sold—and the exploitation that made it all possible.
Described as sitting at the intersection of Black Culture and horticulture, Black in the Garden covers topics relevant to Black plant keepers. Some of the podcast’s food-focused episodes tackle urban farming, the history of pumpkin spice, and plants that hold deep importance in Black communities for their uses in foodways, medicine, and skincare. The show is hosted by the Founder of the national tree-planting nonprofit organization Underground Arborist, Colah B. Tawkin.
Breaking Waves is a six-episode limited series from WWF’s Nature Breaking podcast about sustainable oceans. WWF’s Senior Vice President of Oceans, Johan Berganas, interviews experts on effective management of marine protected areas, new partnerships that are helping ocean conservation efforts, and what advancements in Artificial Intelligence mean for the field.
4. Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio
Hosted by Founder of Cook’s Magazine Christopher Kimball, Milk Street Radio is an award-winning public radio show and podcast that takes listeners around the world. Episodes dive into questions about food, cooking, wine, farming, restaurants, and the people behind the food we eat. And almost all feature recipes such as Dark Chocolate Terrine with Coffee and Cardamom, Potato-stuffed Naan, and Yucatecan Citrus-Marinated Pork Tacos.
5. Gastronomica
Food studies meets gastronomy and the culinary arts in Gastronomica, a show engineered by Heritage Radio Network staff. Each episode, hosted by a different member of the Editorial Collective for the Gastronomica journal, tackles questions about cooking, cuisine, culinary traditions, and food justice. Hear about lab grown meat, the Mexican roots of American candy, and how seltzer became a Jewish icon.
A podcast from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Farms. Food. Future. aims to raise awareness of the challenges that smallholder farmers around the world are facing. IFAD experts, partners, donors, celebrities, and farmers weigh in on the intersection of food systems and environmental sustainability, gender, youth, nutrition, and more. Recent episode topics include healthy school meals, gender inequality in rural communities, and the cost of malnutrition.
After working for more than 30 years at the New York Times and running Heated on Medium, chef and author Mark Bittman launched The Bittman Project. The news and media website, which includes articles, recipes, and a podcast, aims to tackle challenges in the food system while celebrating the joy of food. The show features interviews with guests including environmentalist Bill McKibben, chef Alice Waters, and food writer and journalist Khushbu Shah.
8. Good Food
Good Food explores current events, social phenomena, history, and culture through the lens of food. Each episode includes several interviews between host Evan Kleinman and cooks, farmers, historians, and journalists who are dedicated to food. The podcast touches on topics including gene editing, tainted applesauce, spice trade routes, and feminist restaurants.
9. Hot Farm
Food and agriculture systems are responsible for roughly one third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Hot Farm is a four-part, award-winning podcast from the Food & Environment Reporting Network that looks at this intersection of agriculture and the climate crisis. Recognizing that farmers and ranchers must be a part of the solution, host Eve Abrams travels across the Midwestern United States to interview farmers about what they can, or could, do to address the climate crisis.
10. Lecker
Launched in 2016, host Lucy Dearlove started Lecker as a project to bring together the worlds of food, which relies so heavily on the five senses, and audio. Episodes are primarily recorded in kitchens, exploring the personal connections that people have to food and one another. Each month on Lecker, Dearlove also selects a new food-related book and interviews the author about the process of writing it.
11. Longer Tables with Jose Andres
Chef and advocate Jose Andres speaks with leaders in the worlds of the culinary and creative arts, politics, and media. Andres launched his newsletter “Longer Tables” and a podcast of the same name because, he writes, “we need to talk to each other, to enjoy our differences, to celebrate our diversity.” Guests include Chefs Michael Twitty and Eric Ripert, Senator Cory Booker, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Ambassador Susan Rice.
In Maintenance Phase, hosts Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon set out to debunk the junk science that underlies health and wellness fads and misguided nutrition advice. Episodes look at the rise in popularity of weight loss drugs like Ozempic, eaters’ perceptions of sugar, and the history of the food pyramid in the U.S.
13. Pressure Cooker
In Pressure Cooker, hosts and food journalists Jane Black and Elizabeth Dunn set out to offer support to parents who are trying to feed their children in the best way they can. Episodes cover issues ranging from food allergies and climate-smart cooking to “momfluencers.” Throughout the series, the hosts seek to cut through food marketing messaging and help parents navigate cultural expectations about nourishing their families.
14. Sustainable Food Trust Podcast
In this show from the Sustainable Food Trust, the organization’s Chief Executive, Patrick Holden, interviews policymakers, business leaders, food producers, advocates, and other stakeholders. The Sustainable Food Trust Podcast explores some of the most pressing issues shaping food and agriculture systems today, touching on everything from food education and the organic movement to healing herbs and soil health.
15. The Checkout
A member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, The Checkout centers the voices and issues of essential workers across the food system. Episodes tackle labor organizing, policy, industry consolidation, child labor, and more. The show aims to highlight what is necessary to create a just, equitable, and progressive food system.
16. The Food Chain
From the BBC, The Food Chain dives into the business, science, and cultural significance of food and what it takes to put food on the plate. The show takes on a wide range of topics, with recent episodes asking listeners to consider if beef can be carbon neutral, the models that make restaurants most successful in the face of diverse challenges, and the factors that have led to the near disappearance of many indigenous foods.
17. The Food Fight
A project of EIT Food, The Food Fight explores current food trends, food technology and innovation, and entrepreneurs shaping the future of food and agriculture systems. The show features debates on everything from algae and responsible fishing to sustainable chocolate and coffee.
18. The Leading Voices in Food
The Leading Voices in Food is a podcast released by the Duke Sanford World Food Policy Center, a research, education, and convening organization within Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. In each episode, listeners can hear from a range of food and agriculture systems experts on topics including food waste, international sustainable development, and land access.
The Rural Woman Podcast shares the stories and experiences of women passionate about agriculture and rural life who have grown their own food, reared livestock, raised families, and run companies. The podcast touches on the realities of farming that aren’t captured on social media, mentorship in agriculture, and mental health.
20. The Stephen Satterfield Show
Stephen Satterfield, host of the Peabody-winning docuseries High on the Hog, brings together creatives, farmers, activists, chefs, and more to share the latest news in the world of food and agriculture. Episodes have touched on resilience in the restaurant industry, culinary tourism, and depictions of food in art. The show is a part of Whetstone Radio Collective, a series of podcasts focused on global foodways.
To open every episode of this show, journalist and host Michelle Norris asks her guests: “Tell me about your mama’s kitchen.” With that question, Norris seeks to understand how the kitchens people grew up in and their early culinary experiences shaped who they are today. Guests including Michelle Obama, Chef Bryant Terry, professional athlete Abby Wambach, and writer and essayist Eric Kim discuss the histories, memories, and cultures that emerged from the kitchen.
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Photo courtesy of Markus Spiske, Unsplash
