Culture
video
The ancient world
What wine vessels reveal about politics and luxury in ancient Athens and Persia
16 minutes
video
Food and drink
From set-up to close, a day at the farmers market is a whirlwind sensory feast
10 minutes
video
Biology
Dazzling timelapse shows how microbes spoil our food – and sometimes enrich it
22 minutes
essay
History
Freedom from liquor
Ken Burns’s account of prohibition tells a popular story of booze in America. The historical record is far more sobering
Mark Lawrence Schrad
video
Ecology and environmental sciences
Producing food while restoring the planet – a glimpse of farming in the future
7 minutes
essay
Human rights and justice
Breakfast with the Panthers
It wasn’t all young men and guns: the Black Panther Party’s programs fed more hungry kids than the state of California
Suzanne Cope
essay
Poverty and development
A fairly fed world
Last year, 200 million children did not get enough to eat, yet it would be cheap and easy for the world to feed them all
Sharman Apt Russell
essay
Ethics
We must not own animals
We will never truly advance our ethical relationship with other animals until we stop treating them as chattels for use
Gary L Francione
video
Biography and memoir
Meet Haddon Salt – the would-have-been Colonel Sanders of fish and chips
9 minutes
essay
Ethics
Why you should eat meat
Not eating animals is wrong. If you care about animals, then the right thing to do is breed them, kill them and eat them
Nick Zangwill
essay
Food and drink
The chocolate route
The humble cocoa bean’s journey from its Amerindian origins to worldwide dominance is a lesson in the power of trade
Irene Fattacciu
essay
Food and drink
The food wars
Vitamins or whole foods; high-fat or low-fat; sugar or sweetener. Will we ever get a clear idea about what we should eat?
Amos Zeeberg
essay
Bioethics
Don’t farm bugs
Insect farming bakes, boils and shreds animals by the trillion. It’s immoral, risky and won’t resolve the climate crisis
Jeff Sebo & Jason Schukraft
video
Subcultures
Dented cans, ugly fruit – it’s all tasty (and free) if you’re willing to get your hands dirty
21 minutes
essay
Food and drink
Drunks and democrats
Violent, lively and brash, taverns were everywhere in early colonial America, embodying both its tumult and its promise
Vaughn Scribner
video
Food and drink
Making sauerkraut is a spiritual matter for the ‘fermentation fetishist’ Sandor Katz
12 minutes
video
Anthropology
The uncanny allure of the annual Cajun crawfish festival in Louisiana
10 minutes
video
Chemistry
Dramatic close-ups capture something percolating and exploding – but what is it?
5 minutes
essay
Economic history
Tea and capitalism
The China tea trade was a paradox: a global, intensified industry without the usual spectacle of factories and technology
Andrew Liu
idea
Food and drink
The ‘organic child’ ideal holds mothers to an impossible standard
Kate Cairns, Norah MacKendrick & Josée Johnston
video
Sports and games
Grab bags, café raids and booze – how Tour de France cyclists refuelled in the 1960s
3 minutes
idea
Illness and disease
Despite their dangers, pro-anorexia forums have much to teach us
Tom Wooldridge
essay
Food and drink
Homo gluttonous
Humans have evolved with little resistance to abundant, easy food. Will we gorge ourselves and our planet to death?
Louise Fabiani
video
Economic history
Before ‘government cheese’ was a punchline, it was an experimental economic plan
7 minutes