Podcast episodes, transcripts, interviews, and related content.
Foodthink Says In November 2021, Foodthink interviewed Bānóng and Shíbā, two musicians from the band Wayina, during the Harvest Festival in Guangzhou. This formed the inaugural episode of the “Food Talk” podcast. Moreover, during the early days of the “Food Talk” podcast, Bānóng generously composed the opening and closing themes…
The World Health Organization’s recent assessment suggesting that aspartame may be carcinogenic has sparked widespread debate, prompting a renewed focus on the use of sugar substitutes in processed foods. In this episode of Food Talk, we are joined by Lulu, a PhD candidate in Cardiology at Fuwai Hospital, Peking Union…
In this episode of *Food Talk*, we welcome back an old friend, Sun Shan. She previously worked with several charitable organisations, including the Shanshui Conservation Centre. These days, she runs her own farm in Canada. Far from the idyllic notion of spending every waking moment in nature, ecological conservation work…
In this episode of Food Talk, our hosts welcome back an old friend: Shu Meng, PhD in Sociology from Cornell University. Drawing on her widely read article, “The Bigger the Fridge, the Worse the Food? The Food System in Middle-Class American Fridges”, we delve into a pressing question: why does…
Nestled among the trendy restaurants and cafés on the bustling Phoenix Hui retail street along Beijing’s Eastern Third Ring Road is a greengrocer named “Jishi”. If you’ve ever walked past it, you might have been drawn in by its unpretentious shop window and displays. In this episode, we take you…
In 2022, the phrase “科技与狠活儿” (roughly “tech and ruthless additives”) captured the public imagination. Through the dramatic demonstrations of social media influencers, consumers once again began scrutinising the additives hidden in everyday foods—not the unequivocally harmful and illegal substances like Sudan Red or plasticisers, but those “technically legal, yet frankly…
In this episode, the host of Food Talk travels to Tongxiang in Zhejiang province, following Yu Jiangang—a young returnee—as he visits the village where he was born, grew up, and has now settled back into. Together they explore the village’s final acre of Hangzhou white chrysanthemums, uncovering the biodiversity and…
In Europe and Japan, there is a long tradition of educating children through nature and agriculture. Every year, primary school pupils are taken by their schools into the fields to learn how to sow seeds, tend crops, and prepare food. From the classroom to the great outdoors, and from spring…
This episode was recorded in the Alxa desert in Inner Mongolia by Qihua, Foodthink’s researcher for climate change and ecological smallholder farming, together with two guests. Recorded at the end of August 2022, the three of them sat beneath a large tree in a Tengger Desert oasis. In the background,…
This episode was recorded in the deserts of Alxa, Inner Mongolia, by Qihua, who oversees climate change and small-scale ecological farming research at Foodthink, alongside two guests. At the end of August 2022, the three sat beneath a large tree in an oasis within the Tengger Desert. You might catch…
