The Sporkful24 Mar 2025

“Crying In H Mart” Helped Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Grieve Her Mother

Indie musician Michelle Zauner (leader of the band Japanese Breakfast) always had a complicated relationship with her mother, Chongmi. Michelle was born in Seoul and raised in Oregon, where she never felt like she was fully Korean or American. While it was sometimes hard for mother and daughter to understand each other, the thread that kept them together was their shared “Korean appetite,” as Michelle writes in her memoir, Crying in H Mart. Dan talks with Michelle about losing her mother to cancer before she ever had a chance to learn her mom’s recipes. In the wake of Chongmi’s death, Michelle used food — and frequent trips to H Mart — as a way to rediscover her identity, and to grieve.

This episode originally aired on April 19, 2021 and was produced by Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, and Andres O’Hara. It was edited by Tracey Samuelson. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Kameel Stanley, Jared O'Connell, and Giulia Leo. Publishing by Shantel Holder.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. Get all your favorite podcasts, more than 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, and live sports coverage with the SiriusXM app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(319)

Why Are People Hooked On A Fake Food Delivery App?

Can “functional” candy be delicious? Why are people ordering from a fake food delivery app? And should tomatoes be banned from sandwiches? We cover all of these questions and more in this week’s Salad...

24 Aug 45min

Marcus Samuelsson Says French Cuisine Isn't The Gold Standard (Reheat)

Chef Marcus Samuelsson was taught in culinary school that French cuisine is the gold standard of cooking. One day, he realized, “somebody lied." Samuelsson, a black Swede and the youngest chef to ever...

21 Aug 31min

Who Killed The Florida Orange?

Like palm trees, the Everglades, Disney World, and “Florida Man,” the orange is a classic symbol of the Sunshine State. But maybe not for much longer. Production has declined more than 95% in less tha...

17 Aug 47min

The Rise, Fall, And Redemption of Belgian Waffles (Reheat)

At the 1964 New York World's Fair, Belgian waffles were introduced to America. They became a sensation. But a half-century later, the woman who sold those waffles says her family's legacy has been co-...

14 Aug 44min

This Rare Condition Causes Extreme, Insatiable Hunger

The Rao family in Maryland knew that something was different about their younger daughter, Ayoni, almost as soon as she was born. But it took them until she was five to get a diagnosis of Prader-Willi...

10 Aug 44min

Meat Pies In Sweeney Todd On Broadway! (Reheat)

The musical Sweeney Todd is about a barber who goes on a killing spree and disposes of his victims by baking them into meat pies. In an off-Broadway production, they serve you an actual meat pie befor...

7 Aug 30min

How Do You Prep For The Hardest Beer Test In The World?

Mandy Naglich is an award-winning home brewer who also writes and teaches about beer. Now she wants to become a Master Cicerone — basically the beer equivalent of a master sommelier. There’s only a ha...

3 Aug 39min

This Is Your Brain On Cheesesteak (Reheat)

Why do our brains go crazy for the melted cheese on Philly's iconic cheesesteak? What is it about scrapple’s crispy fried goodness? How does surface-area-to-volume ratio make the roast pork sandwich m...

31 Jul 25min