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We'd Like to Teach The World to Slurp: The Weird and Wonderful Story of Ramen's Rise to Glo

Savory, chewy, and, above all, slurp-able, a delicious bowl of ramen is one of the triumphs of Japanese cuisine. That's also a bit odd, because, for most of Japanese history, heavy, meaty, wheaty nood

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First Foods: Learning to Eat (encore)

How do we learn to eat? It may seemlike an obvious question, but it's actually quite acomplicated process. Who decided that mushed-up vegetables were the perfect first food—and has that always been th

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All Aboard the Tuna Rollercoaster! Join the King of Fish for a Wild Ride that Involves Erne

A bluefin tuna can grow to the size of a car, weigh twice as much as a grand piano, swim as fast as a running lion, and keep its muscles at human body temperature even in the ocean's coldest depths. I

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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

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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

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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

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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 to deliver a future in which we can enj

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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 these perfect packages are a source of both wonder and cur

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Good Shit: How Humanure Could Save 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

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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

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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

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You've Lost That Hungry Feeling

Whether it's via TikTok or the morning news, you’ve probably heard the recent hype (and hand-wringing) about new prescription weight-loss medications with names like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. The

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Fish & Chips: Uncovering the Forgotten Jewish and Belgian Origins of the Iconic British Dis

Fish & chips: a golden hunk of battered cod, accompanied by thick-cut French fries, lightly sprinkled with malt vinegar, and wrapped up in a as British as cricket, cream teas, the cl

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What Connects Bones, Bird Poop, and Toxic Green Slime? Hint: Without It, Half of Us Wouldn'

It’s the 13th element on the periodic table, it glows in the dark, and it spontaneously combusts if it gets any hotter than 80 degrees Fahrenheit; little surprise, then, that phosphorus is known as “t

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All the Feels: How Texture Makes Taste

The squish of bananas, the squeak of mushrooms, the pop of a grape: for some people, these textures are a delight—but for others, they’re a total nightmare. Texture plays a huge role in how we experie

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The Fruit that Could Save the World

Can bread really grow on trees? This episode, meet the all-star, super productive, gluten-free carbohydrate of the future. Did we mention it's also delicious? How can one fruit—that's

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Meet Taro, the Poke Bowl's Missing Secret Ingredient

When Polynesians first arrived in Hawai'i some 1,500 years ago, they found islands that were lush, nearly devoid of anything to eat. Luckily, those sailors had packed a very special sn

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Always Coca-Cola: Coca, Kola, and the *Real* Secret Formula

Coca-Cola's red and white logo is so iconic that supposedly nine out of every ten people on Earth know it on sight. Nearly of Coke are sold a day, enough for one out of every four p

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Here Comes Truffle

This episode, join us on a hunt for buried treasure at a super-secret location in North Carolina. We follow a million-dollar dog wearing adorable slippers, and then get down on our knees, butts in the

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Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus (encore)

A slice of lime in your cocktail, a lunchbox clementine, or a glass of OJ at breakfast: citrus is so common today that most of us have at least one lurking on the kitchen counter or in the back of the

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The End of the Calorie (encore)

For most of us, the calorie is just a number on the back of the packet or on the display at the gym. But what is it, exactly? And how did we end up with this one unit with which to measure our food? I

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Champagne Wishes: The Tastes of Celebration

We pop it at weddings and pour it for the holidays, gift it to congratulate and sip it to celebrate—but, if we're being honest, Gastropod will seize any occasion to drink champagne. In the second epis

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Caviar Dreams: The Tastes of Celebration

Yachts, private jets, caviar, champagne—all standard ingredients in the lifestyles of the rich and famous. But, every so often, at parties and special occasions, we mere mortals get to live large and

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What Is Native American Cuisine? (Encore)

Pasta, sushi, tacos, samosas, and pad thai: In the U.S., enthusiastic eaters will likely be able to name traditional dishes from a wide variety of cuisines around the world. But most of us couldn't na

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That Old Chestnut: A Nutty Tale, of Love, Loss, and Reconnection

Just a little over a hundred years ago, eastern forests were studded with what was called America's perfect tree: 100-foot giants with rot-resistant wood, which filled the woods ev

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Prescription Dinner: Can Meals Be Medicine?

We've all heard that what you eat affects your health—but doctors prescribing dinner? It's real: Medically tailored meals are specifically designed to treat conditions such as kidney disease, diabetes

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Trouble in Paradise: Coconut War Waters and Coconut Oil Controversies

Whether enrobed with chocolate in a candy bar or sucked up through a straw on the beach, coconut has become shorthand for the good life: clear blue waters, white sand beaches, and an ocean breeze. But

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Does the Western Megadrought Mean the End of Cheap Cheese and Ice Cream?

Imagine a summer's day without the jingle of the ice-cream truck, a pizza without its bubbling layer of melted cheesy goodness, or even a bowl of cereal without milk. It’s a shocking prospect, for sur

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Lunch Gets Schooled (encore)

Across the United States, school lunch is being transformed, as counties and cities partner with local farms to access fresh vegetables, as well as hire chefs to introduce tastier and more adventurous

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What Do Aliens Eat? Food in Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Whether you’re an adorable, candy-loving alien, a lost hobbit, a Federation starship captain, or the King in the North, you still need to eat. This episode, Gastropod is exploring the weird and wonder

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Guest Episode: The Umami Mama by Unexplainable

Gastropod is excited to present this guest episode of Unexplainable. For thousands of years, there have been four basic tastes recognized across cultures. But thanks to Kumiko Ninomiya (a.k.a. the Uma

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Gut Feeling

A bluefin tuna can grow to the size of a car, weigh twice as much as a grand piano, swim as fast as a running lion, and keep its muscles at human body temperature even in the ocean's coldest depths. I3