Log in

goodpods headphones icon

To access all our features

Open the Goodpods app
Close icon
headphones
The Sporkful

The Sporkful

Dan Pashman and Stitcher

We obsess about food to learn more about people. The Sporkful isn't for foodies, it's for eaters. Hosted by Dan Pashman, who's also the inventor of the new pasta shape cascatelli. James Beard and Webby Award winner for Best Food Podcast. A Stitcher Production.
profile image
profile image
profile image

73 Listeners

bookmark
Share icon

All episodes

Best episodes

Top 10 The Sporkful Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Sporkful episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Sporkful for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Sporkful episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

The Sporkful - New Year’s Food Resolutions 2023
play

12/19/22 • 44 min

What foods do Sporkful listeners resolve to eat more of in the new year, and why? And what’s Dan’s New Year’s food resolution for 2023? All is revealed in our annual year-end spectacular. Plus we replay one of the Sporkful crew’s favorite episodes of the year, which we all loved for our guest’s combination of extreme hilarity and thoughtful storytelling... Jason Mantzoukas sees every meal as a threat. As an actor and comedian, he plays characters who are wild, intense, and wacky. But he grew up as a “boy made of glass,” because of his life threatening allergy to eggs. Dan and Jason talk about how that’s affected Jason’s comedy, and Dan comes up with a way for Jason to use his improv skills to take a break from the allergy.

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Fernanda Aguero.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image
profile image

12 Listeners

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
The Sporkful - Are Shallots Bull$#!t?
play

02/28/22 • 29 min

Do you actually need to heat the oil in the pan before adding onions? Are fresh vegetables always better than frozen? And what’s so special about a shallot? You have lots of burning questions about recipes, ingredients, and food science, and this week, we get some answers. Daniel Holzman and Matt Rodbard, authors of Food IQ: 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts, bring their culinary knowledge to The Sporkful, and take your calls. They reveal the secret ingredient for the best baked mac and cheese, explain when to start worrying about the color of raw ground beef, and separate fact from fiction around salting your pasta water.

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. This week's episode was mixed by Marina Paiz. 

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com

profile image
profile image
profile image

11 Listeners

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
The Sporkful - Is Halal Pork Impossible?
play

03/07/22 • 36 min

Many of us grew up with rules or customs around food. For Aymann Ismail, a practicing Muslim, that meant not eating pork. But as he got older, he became curious about why eating pork was a line that even less observant Muslims wouldn’t cross. So when a new loophole product hit the market, Aymann was faced with a choice — one that brought up questions of faith, tradition, and whether changing your food habits changes who you are.

Check out Aymann Ismail’s writing and podcasts, and find Leah Koenig’s writing and cookbooks on her website.

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Editing help this week from Fernanda Aguero.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image

7 Listeners

comment icon

1 Comment

1

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
The Sporkful - The Firehouse Chef Who Still Burns His Toast
play

11/21/22 • 26 min

Firefighters face plenty of high-pressure situations — including cooking a lunch for their crewmates that’s hot, filling, and on time. The pressure is even greater for A.J. Fusco, a firefighter in Harrison, New York, who moonlights as a chef in New York City. His firehouse lunches sometimes include ingredients the other firefighters aren’t used to. And when he makes mistakes, his crewmates make sure he doesn’t forget. On today’s show, Dan makes a firehouse meal with A.J. Can they get lunch on the table before the crew mutinies? Or will an emergency call come in and ruin the whole meal?

This episode originally aired on February 5, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, Peter Clowney, and John DeLore. The Sporkful production team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image

5 Listeners

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
The Sporkful - The Secret To Grace Church’s Lobster Rolls
play

05/29/23 • 31 min

In the 1980s, six women on an island off the coast of Massachusetts began selling lobster rolls as a church fundraiser. Today people travel by car, boat, and plane just to taste these hallowed summer treats. This week, one of those people is Dan. He travels to Martha’s Vineyard to uncover Grace Church's secret recipe. Plus, Daniel Gritzer from Serious Eats breaks down the science of why frozen lobster might be better than fresh.

On Saturday, June 3, Dan will be moderating a panel at a food festival on Martha’s Vineyard called Martha’s Vineyard Flavors. It’s a weekend of talks, demonstrations, and delicious meals. You can buy tickets to part of the event or the whole thing here.

This episode originally aired on June 17, 2019, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Ngofeen Mputubwele, with editing by Peter Clowney. The Sporkful production team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Jared O'Connell, and Nora Ritchie.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image
profile image

5 Listeners

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
The Sporkful - Comic Jamie Loftus’s Hot Dog Summer
play

05/22/23 • 34 min

Comedian and podcaster Jamie Loftus set out on a cross-country road trip to try to figure out: Why do hot dogs have such a hold on American culture? And why does she continue to find them so damn delicious? Over the course of her Hot Dog Summer, she tried all kinds of regional American dogs, from a bacon-wrapped Sonoran dog in Tucson, to a bologna-wrapped dog in Baltimore, to one that involved SpaghettiOs. She also visited the famed Nathan’s 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, where she learned there was a darker story behind the celebrated ritual. The trip changed the way she thought about hot dogs — but also how she felt about America and herself. Jamie’s new book is Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs.

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image
profile image

5 Listeners

comment icon

1 Comment

1

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Today we tackle news in the world of food that’s at turns substantive, silly, and surprising in a new series we’re calling Salad Spinner! Take a spin with us as Dan chats with journalists Amanda Mull (The Atlantic) and Dennis Lee (The Takeout) about Instant Pot’s parent company declaring bankruptcy, Burger King’s rollout of a cheese sandwich monstrosity in Thailand, and what it means that the World Health Organization now deems aspartame “possibly carcinogenic.” Then the Spinner speeds up for a lightning round.

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image
profile image

5 Listeners

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
The Sporkful - Why Desk Lunches Are Illegal In France
play

08/29/22 • 29 min

In France, you either leave your desk during lunch, or you’re breaking the law. Which makes Kaitlin Plachy, an American expat in Strasbourg who secretly eats at her desk most days, an outlaw. So why do the French have this law? Our friends at the podcast Rough Translation found that one popular theory — that the law is meant to preserve French culture — is not as correct as many people believe. So what is the explanation? And can Rough Translation convince Kaitlin to take a break?

Rough Translation is a podcast that tells stories from far off places that hit close to home, and you can find all their episodes here.

Rough Translation is hosted by Gregory Warner. The team includes Adelina Lancianese, Pablo Arguelles, Katz Laszlo, Luis Trelles, Justine Yan, Tessa Paoli, Emily Bogle, Liana Simstrom, Bruce Auster, Josh Newell, Greta Pittenger, and Anya Grundmann, with help from Eleanor Beardsley, Robert Krulwich, and Sana Krasikov. The French news tape in the episode is from Radio France and Radio Monte Carlo. Music by John Ellis and FirstCom Music and Audio Network.

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image

5 Listeners

comment icon

1 Comment

1

bookmark
plus icon
share episode
The Sporkful - Hot Chicken Is Hot, But Who's Benefiting?
play

10/04/21 • 28 min

In the last 15 years, Nashville hot chicken has become a hot trend. But for decades before that, hot chicken was well known among Nashville’s Black community. For generations, you could only get it at the place where it was invented: Prince’s Hot Chicken. Now with attention from the likes of Beyoncé and Guy Fieri, Prince’s has gone from being a neighborhood institution to a Nashville landmark — and many imitators have come along. Dan travels to Nashville and speaks with André Prince Jeffries, who’s been running Prince’s for more than 40 years. She talks about Nashville’s history of segregation, serving members of the KKK, and the complicated racial dynamics behind this food trend. When white chefs and restaurateurs cash in on a dish created by Black people, who benefits? //

Get 500+ more great Sporkful episodes from our catalog and lots of other Stitcher goodness when you sign up for Stitcher Premium: www.StitcherPremium.com/Sporkful (promo code: SPORKFUL).

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image
profile image

4 Listeners

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

From the show about a thirst trap chef at a Chicago Italian beef joint, to a movie about a luxury restaurant planning to kill its customers, 2022 was the year of ambitious, experimental, and downright weird food TV and movies. This week, comedian and TV writer Ashley Ray (who hosts the podcast “TV I Say”) breaks down some of the most talked about food shows and movies of the past year, including The Bear, Julia, Atlanta, and The Menu. Then Chef John Benhase, who consulted on The Menu, reveals what it was like teaching Ralph Fiennes to cook on camera.

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with additional production this week by Rachel Ward and editing by John DeLore and Abigail Keel.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

profile image
profile image

4 Listeners

bookmark
plus icon
share episode

Show more best episodes

Toggle view more icon

FAQ

How many episodes does The Sporkful have?

The Sporkful currently has 266 episodes available.

What topics does The Sporkful cover?

The podcast is about Podcasts and Arts.

What is the most popular episode on The Sporkful?

The episode title 'New Year’s Food Resolutions 2023' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on The Sporkful?

The average episode length on The Sporkful is 34 minutes.

How often are episodes of The Sporkful released?

Episodes of The Sporkful are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of The Sporkful?

The first episode of The Sporkful was released on Aug 3, 2015.

Show more FAQ

Toggle view more icon

Comments