The Sporkful5 Des 2025

Can We Go Viral On TikTok? (Reheat)

TikTok is the wild west of the food media world. It’s less professionalized than Instagram and YouTube, and it holds the promise of virality from the very first time you post. So we wondered: What actually makes a food TikTok go viral? To find out, we consult Bettina Makalintal, a food journalist and culture critic (who also makes her own TikTok videos), and Professor Emily Contois, who studies food on Instagram. Then we get advice from a TikTok star: Joanne Lee Molinaro, aka The Korean Vegan. (Joanne just published a new cookbook, The Korean Vegan Homemade!) Armed with tips and tricks from the experts — and a pecan pie — can Dan reverse engineer his own viral TikTok?

If you’re the type who likes to flip to the end of the book first, you can watch Dan’s TikTok right here.

This episode originally aired on November 29, 2021, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Kameel Stanley, Jared O'Connell, Morgan Johnson, and Jazzmin Sutherland. This update was produced by Gianna Palmer.

Every Friday, we reach into our deep freezer and reheat an episode to serve up to you. We're calling these our Reheats. If you have a show you want reheated, send us an email or voice memo at hello@sporkful.com, and include your name, your location, which episode, and why.

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