Every Day is a Food Day

There’s DOUGH much we want to tell you about cookies, we had to do it in two episodes! In Part 1 of this epic two-parter, Anna and Lia share their fondest cookie memories and tell us how letting their creativity go wild with cookie decorating was important part of their holiday traditions growing up. They also debate Oreo cookie eating methods — the twist and the dunk — and prove there’s no such thing as moderation when it comes to these sweet treats. Then Lia Ballentine, our Chef-Creator, digs into cookie history, presents the “cookie vs. biscuit” debate, and goes through an epic list of cookie holidays. Can you believe there are more than 15 cookie days to celebrate each year? She highlights some of the most interesting cookie days on the calendar (National Spicy Hermit Cookie Day?) then tells us about three important women who have made (and continue to make) a tremendous impact in cookies and culture: Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girls Scouts; Ruth Graves Wakefield, creator of the chocolate chip cookies; and Jasmine Cho, a cookie activist. Stay tuned for Part 2 coming next week, when Anna Van Valin, our Foodlosopher, discusses the century-long battle for the cookie aisle between Oreo and Hydrox!
More info from the show:
* Watch Jasmine Cho’s TEDx Talk: “Cookies as a Form of Activism”
* Listen to Phoebe tell another lie in this clip from “Friends” -
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*Want to support our women and BIPOC-created independent podcast? Buy us a coffee!
* For more great content about the stories & foods we talk about on the show (plus a peek BTS) follow us at @FoodDayPod on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook or check out our webpage.
* Join our mailing list for extra content and to keep up with all the exciting things we have planned for this season.
*Get yourself a delicious Yumday snack box

We’re back with Part 2 of “Cookies: Double Stuffed” Get ready for an extra deep Deep Dish with our Foodlosopher, Anna Van Valin, as she dives into one of the most epic food business rivalries in history: the century-long battle between Oreo and Hydrox. When a ruthless lawyer and two bitter baker brothers collided at the beginning of the 20th century, it led to the creation of the very first food conglomerate, a world-changing invention, and the most popular cookie on earth. She tells us which cookie really came first (it’s not the one you think!!) and how some of the best and worst marketing played a big role in who came out on top. It’s a story STUFFED with corporate backstabbing, petty revenge and so much shade. Milk isn’t the only thing Oreo’s been DUNKing on!
*If you need reproductive care, want to learn more about your reproductive rights, or find out how to help, visit choice.crd.co
More info from the show:
* Watch the deliciously dramatic “Cookie Wars: The Food That Built America” from the History Channel
* Oreo's delightful 1980 commercial
*Hydrox's questionable commercial from 1966
*Hydrox's VERY questionable 1988 commercial
Connect with us!
*Want to support our women and BIPOC-created independent podcast? Buy us a coffee!
* For more great content about the stories & foods we talk about on the show (plus a peek BTS) follow us at @FoodDayPod on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook or check out our webpage.
* Join our mailing list for extra content and to keep up with all the exciting things we have planned for this season.
*Get yourself a delicious Yumday snack box

Anna and Lia are tied up in knots — delicious, doughy knots — because this episode is all about pretzels! Lia Ballentine, our Chef-Creator, starts us off with the pretzel baking basics and tells us how changing the dough’s pH by boiling it in baking soda or dropping it in a lye bath (that’s right, a lye bath) is essential to achieving the perfect pretzel taste and texture. She takes us through the multiple pretzel-related food holidays on the calendar, including National Pretzel Day, which is day loved by all - especially our hero Stanley from The Office. Plus, she tells us why a region in Pennsylvania is known as the “Snack Belt,” how German immigrants started the pretzel boom in America, and highlights two important women in pretzel history: Helen Hoff and “Auntie Anne” Beiler. Yes, Auntie Anne is a real person! Then get ready for one of the wildest Deep Dish segments ever as Anna Van Valin, our Foodlosopher, tells us the fascinating story behind the bizarre religious history of the pretzel — starting from Middle Ages when monks baked pretzels as a holy treat for students, all the way to the 1970s when an ex-clown founded a movement to bring people back to the Catholic Church during a time when secularism was on the rise and made pretzels the center of it. Anna shares the fascinating story of Marlene McCauley, the founder of “Pretzels for God,” and how she believed the pretzel, with the spiritual guidance of a Native American saint Kateri Tekakwitha, could save our souls. Get ready to enjoy some crazy twists in this episode because these pretzel stories are ones you knead to hear!

More info from the show:

• Take a tour of the Julius Sturgis Bakery in Lititz, PA.
• Watch this interview with Anne Beiler, the real Auntie Anne.
• Relive the excitement of National Pretzel Day with Stanley and the Dunder Mifflin gang.
• Learn all about the "Pretzels for God" movement.

Connect with us!

• Want to support our women and BIPOC-created independent podcast? Buy us a coffee!
• For more great content about the stories & foods we talk about on the show (plus a peek BTS) follow us at @FoodDayPod on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook or check out our webpage.
• Join our mailing list for extra content and to keep up with all the exciting things we have planned for this season.

Anna and Lia have gotten themselves into a sticky situation - because this episode is all about honey!
First, Lia Ballentine, our Chef-Creator, tells us about the food holidays honoring our favorite all-natural sweetener like National Honey Month, as well as the hard-working bees that produce it. She also shares a bit of Norse mythology surrounding the origin of mead (the original mythical ingredients included blood and knowledge), and she reveals a swarm of famous women you may not know were beekeepers, like Michelle Obama and...Maria Von Trapp? Plus, hear about the summer Lia spent painting the backs of actual live bees (for science!).
In the Deep Dish, our Foodlosopher Anna Van Valin revisits one of our favorite topics: food crimes! She gives us the buzz on how a dramatic decline in bee populations has led to some to take desperate (and scandalous) measures - like the international honey tampering fraud scheme nicknamed “Honeygate,” and shocking hive heists, where beehive bandits actually steal hives for profit! But first, and most importantly, we ask: is Winnie the Pooh...okay??? Enjoy this SWEET episode! And let’s save the bees!
More info from the show:
- Watch the full video of Angelina Jolie’s “Women for Bees” initiative in partnership with UNESCO here.
- See a bee detective catch a thief on Vice News here.
- Learn all about mead and how hive theft affects beekeeping on this episode of The Drinking Horn Meadcast.
Connect with us!

• Want to support our women and BIPOC-created independent podcast? Buy us a coffee!
• For more great content about the stories & foods we talk about on the show (plus a peek BTS) follow us at @FoodDayPod on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook or check out our webpage.
• Join our mailing list for extra content and to keep up with all the exciting things we have planned for this season.

Hi Listeners! Anna and Lia are ready to get jalapeño your business, because this episode is all about Peppers! In the Deep Dish, our Foodlosopher Anna Van Valin takes us through the science of what makes Chile peppers spicy, the chemical chain reaction that's triggered in your body when you eat a spicy pepper, and why in the world we keep eating a food that hurts to eat! Anna also tells us about pop culture pepper craze and how the latest YouTube challenges involving eating hotter and hotter peppers have contributed to the gendering of this spicy fruit! But first, our Chef-Creator Lia Ballentine gives us an epic list of pepper food holidays, talks about a festival dedicated to one of the most popular Chile peppers in the country, and tells us about the Black women entrepreneurs who made pepper pot stew the signature dish of Philadelphia—way before the Philly cheesesteak! So, are you ready to spice things up??? Listen today to get some pep in your step!
Read the transcript of this episode.
Explore more from the show:
* Check out the official website of the Hatch Chile Festival.
* Watch Mr. and Mrs. Bumblefoot get burned in the Paqui One Chip Challenge.
* Learn more about the history of Pepper Pot Stew.
Connect with us!
*Want to support our women and BIPOC-created independent podcast? Buy us a coffee!
* For more great content about the stories & foods we talk about on the show (plus a peek BTS) follow us at @FoodDayPod on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook or check out our webpage.
* Join our mailing list for extra content and to keep up with all the exciting things we have planned for this season.
*Get yourself a delicious Yumday snack box