12 Food Podcasts That Fuel Our Commutes

The launch of these Shop-exclusive waxed canvas Georgetown Totes from Red House got us thinking about how much we want to carry them to work—which got us thinking about our commutes, which got us thinking about podcasts.  

Each day, most of us here at Food52 take the train to and from the office and our various corners of New York. These commuting hours, about one hour each way, are a precious and fragile thing: There you are, jostling against a battalion of groggy strangers, a coffee in one hand and an umbrella or a shopping bag or a yoga mat in the other—reveling in the bizarre social code of New York, in these two whole hours of “alone time.” How do we spend it? People-watching—and with our headphones on, listening to podcasts.

No surprise here, but so many of our favorite podcasts are food-related (including, of course, our own podcast, Burnt Toast!). Here are 12 of the food podcasts (and food-themed podcast episodes) that carry us between the test kitchen and our home kitchens:

Homesteady: Baking Bread… White, Wheat, and Sourdough, and does it save money?

Is baking bread yourself worth it? This episode of Homesteady, a homesteading podcast, does a handy cost analysis (and taste test).

The Food Seen: Episode 239: Chris Fischer of Beetlebung Farm

We’re big fans of Beetlebung Farm, a farm on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachussetts. On this episode of the Radio Heritage Network show, The Food Seen, the host Michael Harlan Turkell asks farmer Chris Fischer about the farm and its new, eponymous cookbook. 

More: We talked with Beetlebung's Chris Fischer about how to cook like a farmer.

Gastropod: Extreme Salad and Crazy Potatoes

Gastropod approaches food topics with one eye on science and the other on history. In this episode, the focus is potatoes and salad greens, and what we do and don't know about them. It's a much weedier, more colorful history than you might expect. 

Sporkful: Breaking the Ramadan Fast in a Cab at 50 MPH

Sporkful is a “podcast for eaters” from WNYC, New York’s public radio station. In this episode, host Dan Pashman breaks the daily Ramadan fast with two cab drivers and asks what the holiday means to them.

This American Life: Episode 484: Doppelgängers

In the first segment of this episode of This American Life (a storytelling podcast by Chicago Public Media), the producers investigate whether the calamari we eat in restaurants is of fishy origins—or of porcine.

Spilled Milk: Episode 125: Granola

Molly Wizenberg (of Orangette fame) and Matthew Amster-Burton pick one thing (like rhubarb, Indian junk food, or, here, granola), snack on it, and chat. It's like having lunch with pals.

Eat Your Words: Episode 231: New York in a Dozen Dishes

Eat Your Words is another Heritage Radio show, hosted by New York blogger and cookbook author Cathy Erway. She talks to authors (cookbook and otherwise) about food. In this episode, she and food critic Robert Sietsma talk quintessential New York foods.

More: Robert Sietsema guides us in our quest for New York's best black-and-white cookie.

Gravy: Episode 16: Fried Chicken: A Complicated Comfort Food

Gravy is the podcast of the Southern Foodways Alliance. In this episode, host Tina Antolini talks fried chicken—its excellence, its history, and its complicated social and cultural symbolism. 

Splendid Table: Episode 560: Sedaris Family Dinners

Host Lynne Rossetto Kasper talks to David Sedaris, who describes how his father always ate dinner in his underwear. It’s not to be missed. Plus, a hardcore punk-rock vegan, flatbread over a fire, and how to pair beer and cheese.

Eater Upsell: Episode 3: Anita Lo vs. the Sea Creature That Refused to Die

Anita Lo, chef of New York City's Annisa, tells Eater's Helen Rosner and Greg Morabito about the time she learned to fish off of Pier 40 in Manhattan, caught an enormous skate that just would not die, and had to "dispose of the body" à la Goodfellas. 

America’s Test Kitchen: Episode 415: The Man Who Mistook Oysters for Chocolate: Exploring the Rare Medical Condition of Synesthesia

Christopher Kimball, the guru behind America’s Test Kitchen, explains and explores synesthesia, a medical condition in which senses cross-associate so that one might associate a person or a sound or a color with a flavor, sound, or smell. 

And Eat It Too!: Episode 11: Happy as a Clam

And Eat It Too! explores the origins of English-language food idioms. On this episode, they debate clams, whether clams are happy bivalves, and what “happy as a clam” could really mean.

We couldn't forget our own podcast. Catch up on episodes of Burnt Toast here.

What are your favorite food podcasts (or food-themed episodes)? Share them below so we can add them to our playlists.

Photo of bread by Erin McDowell; photo of oysters by Linda Pugliese; all others by James Ransom