The Keto Paradox: Fad Diet *and* Life-Saving Medical Treatment
What do some epilepsy patients have in common with tech bros, bodybuilders, and Joe Rogan? The high-fat, carb-shunning diet known as keto, whose history dates back much further than its 2010s rise to ...
22 Aug 202343min
Secrets of Sourdough (encore)
Today, you can find a huge variety of breads on supermarket shelves, only a few of which are called "sourdough." For most of human history, though, any bread that wasn't flat was sourdough—that is, it...
8 Aug 202348min
Watch It Wiggle: The Jell-O Story (encore)
It's been described as the ultimate status symbol for the wealthy, as the perfect solution for dieters and the sick, and, confusingly, as a liquid trapped in a solid that somehow remains fluid. What c...
25 Jul 202349min
Where's the Beef? Lab-Grown Meat is Finally on the Menu
Can we really have our burger, eat it—and never need to kill a cow? Growing meat outside of animals—in a lab or, these days, in shiny steel bioreactors—promises to deliver a future in which we can enj...
11 Jul 202354min
The Incredible Egg (encore)
We love eggs scrambled, fried, or poached; we couldn't enjoy a quiche, meringue, or flan without them. But for scientists and archaeologists, these perfect packages are a source of both wonder and cur...
27 Jun 202344min
Good Shit: How Humanure Could Save Agriculture—and the Planet
For most of us, when we sit on the porcelain throne to drop the deuce, priority number one is flushing and never having to think about it again. But it might be time to rethink our stink: all around t...
20 Jun 202351min
Gettin' Fizzy With It (Encore)
'Tis the season for a refreshing glass of bubbly—but this episode we're not talking wine, we're talking seltzer. America is in the throes of a serious seltzer craze, with consumption of the bubbly stu...
13 Jun 202340min
Who's Eating Who: Pineapples and You
What was the hottest accessory for late 1600s European dining rooms? The pineapple! Explorers had recently brought this spiky tropical fruit over from the Americas, and in short order it became the Gu...
6 Jun 202339min
