Best Krulwich Podcasts (2025)

1
Reheat: Jason Mantzoukas Sees Every Meal As A Threat 33:08

1d ago33:08

33:08

Actor and comedian Jason Mantzoukas is known for playing characters that are overzealous, exuberant, and more than a little wacky. But these characters are the exact opposite of how Jason felt growing up — like a “boy made of glass.” Jason has a life-threatening allergy to eggs, and that constant threat has forced him to live a life of vigilance. D…

1
The Age of Aquaticus 43:00

1d ago43:00

43:00

For years, scientists thought nothing could live above 73℃/163℉. At that temperature, everything boiled to death. But scientists Tom Brock and Hudson Freeze weren’t convinced. What began as their simple quest to trawl for life in some of the hottest natural springs on Earth would, decades later, change the trajectory of biological science forever, …

1
Men Have Eating Disorders Too. Why Don’t They Seek Help? 49:17

5d ago49:17

49:17

Public discussions about eating disorders tend to focus on women, and in the past, so have our episodes on the subject. But millions of men also struggle with some form of disordered eating, though they’re far less likely to be diagnosed or to seek treatment. Today we hear stories from three men—in three different stages of life—who have complicate…

1
Reheat: The Geometry Of Pizza 24:54

8d ago24:54

24:54

A neuroscientist calls in to debate the geometry of pizza, and food science guru Kenji Lopez-Alt explains how woodworking can help us make a better bagel and cream cheese. This episode originally aired on September 16, 2017 , and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Shoshana Gold, with editing by Dan Charles. The Sporkful team now includes …

1
Ghosts in the Green Machine 33:19

8d ago33:19

33:19

In honor of our Earth, on her day, we have two stories about the overlooked, ignored, and neglected parts of nature. In the first half, we learn about an epic battle that is raging across the globe every day, every moment. It's happening in the ocean, and your very life depends on it. In the second half, we make an earnest, possibly foolhardy, atte…

1
Roy Choi Can Summon Flavor From His Fingertips 41:30

12d ago41:30

41:30

Roy Choi is a legend in LA. He was one of the first chefs to start cooking out of a food truck, and one of the first to mashup different cuisines in the way that’s become so popular. His Kogi korean beef taco truck was a sensation in LA when he debuted it in 2008 -- it later inspired the movie “Chef,” starring Jon Favreau. Roy wrote a bestselling c…

1
Reheat: Are All Vodkas The Same? 29:50

15d ago29:50

29:50

Is there really a difference between cheap and expensive vodkas? In this collaboration with NPR's Planet Money, we go on a mission to learn how super premium vodka is made and marketed. Then we make our own, to see how it measures up. This episode originally aired on March 25, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini. The Sporkful team …

1
Signal Hill: Caterpillar Roadshow 50:34

15d ago50:34

50:34

A couple years ago, an entomologist named Martha Weiss got a letter from a little boy in Japan saying he wanted to replicate a famous study of hers. We covered that original study on Radiolab more than a decade ago in an episode called Goo and You – check it out here – and in addition to revealing some fascinating secrets of insect life, it also ra…

1
Comedian Matteo Lane Says ‘Your Pasta Sucks’ 34:01

19d ago34:01

34:01

Comedian Matteo Lane comes from a large Italian family, which gave him his passion for food and his sense of humor. A few years back he started posting cooking videos on social media, and now he’s published Your Pasta Sucks, a collection of recipes, stories, and jokes. The book includes a quiz to tell you if you have an Italian grandmother, as well…

1
Killer Empathy 25:52

22d ago25:52

25:52

In an episode first aired in 2012, Lulu Miller introduces us to Jeff Lockwood, a professor at the University of Wyoming, who spent a part of his career studying a particularly ferocious set of insects: Gryllacrididae. Or, as Jeff describes them, "crickets on steroids." They have crushingly strong, serrated jaws, and they launch all-out attacks on a…

1
Reheat: Malcolm Gladwell Only Drinks Five Liquids 38:37

22d ago38:37

38:37

Author and podcast host Malcolm Gladwell immigrated to Canada when he was young, the child of an English father and Jamaican mother. He’s always felt like an outsider. He hated maple syrup, in a town that hosts the largest one-day maple syrup festival in the world. That outsider’s perspective served him well as he became a cultural observer, and ov…

1
All Aboard The Pizza Bus! 32:43

26d ago32:43

32:43

Scott Wiener, founder of Scott’s Pizza Tours, has made a name for himself as one of the most knowledgeable and passionate pizza experts in America. (He has the Guinness Record for the world’s largest collection of pizza boxes -- nearly 2,000.) This week, Dan and his family join Scott on one of his famous Sunday tours, in which pizza pilgrims board …

1
Reheat: Green Apple Bad Apple 34:59

29d ago34:59

34:59

When Dan hit 40, he noticed his body wasn't feeling as good. So recently, he embarked on a journey to change his lifestyle. Today, you'll meet the three people who've inspired him. (This episode is a satire. Please enjoy it as such!) This episode originally aired on March 31, 2019, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Ngofeen Mputubwele…

1
Malthusian Swerve 38:58

29d ago38:58

38:58

Earth can sustain life for another 100 million years, but can we? In this episode, we partnered with the team at Planet Money to take stock of the essential raw materials that enable us to live as we do here on Earth—everything from sand to copper to oil— and tally up how much we have left. Are we living with reckless abandon? And if so, is there e…

1
“Crying In H Mart” Helped Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner Grieve Her Mother 29:58

1M ago29:58

29:58

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 to…

1
Reheat: Who Invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos? 31:40

1M ago31:40

31:40

For two decades, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos has been one of the most popular snacks in America. In recent years its legend has grown, as word spread that they were invented by Richard Montañez, a Mexican-American janitor at Frito-Lay who went on to become a company executive. The story made Montañez something of a Latino icon, with two memoirs and a biopi…

1
Everybody's Got One 28:12

1M ago28:12

28:12

We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. this story isn’t the nursery rhyme we think it is. In a way, it’s a struggle, almost like a tiny war. And right on the front lines of that battle is another major player on the stage of pregnancy that not a single perso…

1
Is A $1 Slice Of Pizza A Snack? (with Katie Nolan) 34:46

1M ago34:46

34:46

Is wine actually better than beer when watching football? What would a Thanksgiving feast prepared with recipes from Tom Brady’s cookbook taste like? Do you really need to wash your vegetables? We’re tackling your food disputes and hot takes this week, with someone who’s seen plenty of tackling — Katie Nolan. Katie’s hosted shows on ESPN and Fox Sp…

1
Reheat: A Priest Walks Into A Bar 29:18

1M ago29:18

29:18

What do a great bartender and a great priest have in common? We ask a Catholic priest who moonlights as a mixologist. Plus, Dan revisits a beloved pub from his past to find out what makes a great bar. This episode originally aired on March 6, 2016, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morg…

1
Growth 58:52

1M ago58:52

58:52

It’s easy to take growth for granted, for it to seem expected, inevitable even. Every person starts out as a baby and grows up. Plants grow from seeds into food. The economy grows. That stack of mail on your table grows. But why does anything grow the way that it does? In this hour, we go from the Alaska State Fair, to a kitchen in Berkeley, to the…

1
Working With Bourdain And Batali, Laurie Woolever Saw It All 45:50

2M ago45:50

45:50

Laurie Woolever is a food writer in New York, but she’s probably best known for two other jobs she’s held: an assistant to Mario Batali, and an assistant to and collaborator with Anthony Bourdain. Laurie was working with Bourdain when he took his own life in 2018. After his death, she published Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography. Now she’s tel…

1
Reheat: Pizza Legend Patsy Grimaldi 28:49

2M ago28:49

28:49

81-year-old Patsy Grimaldi may be the last person making pizza today who trained under someone who trained at Lombardi's—the first pizzeria in American history. Dan sits down with Patsy and his wife Carol to discuss slice folding technique, the art and science of using a coal oven, what she taught him about pizza, and the scourge of pineapple pizza…

1
More Perfect: Sex Appeal 1:05:21

2M ago1:05:21

1:05:21

In 2017 our sister show, More Perfect aired an episode all about RBG, In September of 2020, we lost Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the annals of history. She was 87. Given the atmosphere around reproductive rights, gender and law, we decided to re-air this More Perfect episode dedicated to one of her cases. Because it offers a unique …

1
Eggs, Raw Milk, And Tariffs, Oh My! 40:11

2M ago40:11

40:11

Why is the bird flu outbreak that’s currently driving up egg prices different from past outbreaks? Are new tariffs about to make your groceries more expensive? And, perhaps most importantly, are Capri-Sun pouches about to disappear? We tackle these hard hitting questions, and a lot more, in this edition of the Salad Spinner, our rapid-fire roundtab…

1
Reheat: Ask Mimi With Mimi Sheraton 36:45

2M ago36:45

36:45

Mimi Sheraton has seen it all in her 92 years. In this Reheat of our spinoff podcast from 2018, Ask Mimi, the legendary food critic offers advice on food and life to live callers and celebrity guests. The Sporkful's Dan Pashman moderates. In this episode, humorist Mo Rocca joins Mimi and Dan live on stage to ask for help with an issue involving his…

1
Revenge of the Miasma 35:31

2M ago35:31

35:31

Today we uncover an invisible killer hidden, for over a hundred years, by reasonable disbelief. Science journalist extraordinaire Carl Zimmer tells us the story of a centuries-long battle of ideas that came to a head, with tragic consequences, in the very recent past. His latest book, called Airborne, details a largely forgotten history of science …

1
The Pitmaster With A Pulpit 30:16

2M ago30:16

30:16

Monday through Saturday, Devin Pickard and his family run Papa KayJoe's BBQ in Centerville, Tennessee. But on Sundays, Devin trades the BBQ pit for the pulpit at Hope Church, the non-denominational congregation where he preaches. In many ways, food is a natural fit for a southern preacher, but there are other, less obvious ways Devin's two professi…

1
Reheat: Pho The Love Of Slurping Noodles 24:09

2M ago24:09

24:09

We're reheating this episode in honor of Chef Charles Phan, owner of The Slanted Door, who recently died. In 2016, he showed us the right way to eat the Vietnamese noodle soup pho. Then we take a deep dive into the science of soup slurping with a researcher who studies the mechanics of eating. This episode originally aired on February 14, 2016, and…

1
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 34:45

2M ago34:45

34:45

Today, a story that starts small and private, with one woman alone in her bathroom, as she makes a quiet, startling discovery about her own body. But that small, private moment grows and grows, and pretty soon it becomes something so big that it has impacted the life of every person reading this right now… and all that without the woman ever even k…

1
Southern Cooking Icon Edna Lewis Gets Her Due 37:05

2M ago37:05

37:05

Edna Lewis was one of the first Black women to write a successful mainstream cookbook about the South. She talked about seasonality and farm-to-table cooking long before it got trendy, and she tied that approach to the way she grew up in Virginia. So why isn’t Edna Lewis better known? And who exactly was this person who changed the way Americans th…

1
Reheat: Hot Chicken Is Hot, But Who's Benefiting? 29:28

2M ago29:28

29:28

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 nei…

1
Quantum Birds 34:44

2M ago34:44

34:44

Annie McEwen went to a mountain in Pennsylvania to help catch some migratory owls. Then Scott Weidensaul peeled back the owl’s feathery face disc, so that she could look at the back of its eyeball. No owls were harmed in the process, but this brief glimpse into the inner workings of a bird sent her off on a journey to a place where fleshy animal bu…

1
A Southern Gas Station Road Trip 39:57

3M ago39:57

39:57

The South is known for fantastic gas station food, and on today’s show, Dan takes a road trip from Birmingham to Memphis to try some out for himself. He travels across Alabama and Mississippi, eating pimento cheese sandwiches, tacos, fried chicken on a stick, sushi, and a very specific regional pasta dish. He also talks with the people behind these…

1
Reheat: The Search For Perfection In Buffalo Wings And Love 27:34

3M ago27:34

27:34

Dan talks to Matt Reynolds, director and star of the new documentary comedy The Great Chicken Wing Hunt, about the search for perfection in love and Buffalo wings. This episode originally aired on January 26, 2014, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Giulia Leo…

1
Vertigogo 25:48

3M ago25:48

25:48

In this episode, first aired in 2012, we have two stories of brains pushed off-course. We relive a surreal day in the life of a young researcher hijacked by her own brain, and hear from a librarian experiencing a bizarre and mysterious set of symptoms that she called “gravitational anarchy.” Special thanks to Sarah Montague and Ellen Horn, as well …

1
This Memphis Restaurateur Thrives On Chaos (Live) 41:57

3M ago41:57

41:57

Dan is live on stage in Memphis with famed local restaurateur Karen Blockman Carrier! Karen grew up Orthodox Jewish in Memphis, and she wanted to be a painter. But after a chance meeting with a caterer in a smoke-filled bathroom stall in New York City, she decided to focus on food. Karen shares the twists and turns of her life, from a disastrous da…

1
Reheat: Two Call-In Smorgasbords 46:44

3M ago46:44

46:44

We're revisiting two "Call-In Smorgasbord" episodes from 2011, which were all about settling scores, issuing opinions, and learning about your kitchen innovations. In part one, we tackle a debate between an engaged couple, both philosophers, who want help answering the existential question: "Is it soup?" In part two, we take calls from a couple of …

1
Forever Fresh 28:44

3M ago28:44

28:44

We eat apples in the summer and enjoy bananas in the winter. When we do this, we go against the natural order of life which is towards death and decay. What gives? This week, Latif Nasser spoke with Nicola Twilley, the author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. Twilley spent over a decade reporting about how…

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