5 Food Podcasts to Listen to While You Wait for the Next Episodes of “What You’re Eating”

Our podcast “What You’re Eating,” now has 15 episodes under its belt, all designed to help you understand the impact of different foods — like chicken, eggs, shrimp, plant-based burgers and more — on the environment, animals and people. We are currently on a short hiatus while we prepare a new batch of episodes; in the meantime, we thought you might like these food podcasts that the FoodPrint team has been enjoying.

They’re all quite different but what they have in common is that, after listening to any of them, you will understand more about where your food comes from and think more critically about the systems that determine what we eat and why.

Ghost Herd

A true crime podcast — true economic crime — that teaches about the food system as it tells the story of one cattle-producing family’s grift and demise. It’s narrated by the Washington-based agriculture reporter Anna King, who has been covering the story since it broke, and looks into cattle farmer Cody Easterday’s creation of a 265,000 herd of cattle that existed only on paper, and paints a picture of PNW’s large-scale agriculture, including lessons about livestock production, cattle feed, cattle futures, and the challenges and precariousness of farming.

Hot Farm

In this four-part series, the Food and Environment Reporting Network looks at climate change and agriculture by forefronting farmers, who are hugely impacted by climate change and who are also in a position to implement practices that might help mitigate climate change. In a population that may or may not believe that climate change is a problem — or that it is spurred by human activity — and who consider it “a political issue,” what drives them to “change how farmers farm?”

Earth Eats

Based out of Indiana, with an occasional focus on its local region, this show explores many different facets of the food system. It includes “conversations about food culture, food justice and sustainable food systems.” You can hear a whole episode on palm oil, learn about canning and food preservation, dig deep into migrant labor or the environmental impacts of CAFOs. It’s a diverse array of intersecting issues and, like “What You’re Eating,” it even includes episodes with practical advice for how to garden, cook and eat.

Podcasts from Whetstone Radio Collective

Last spring we covered the launch of this podcast mini empire and highlighted some of its shows, which present “a multitude of global viewpoints on food.” If you’re familiar with Whetstone magazine, the shows will feel familiar: thoughtful, focused on culture, and including a bit of poetry and art. We highly recommend Setting the Table, which focuses on African American culinary traditions, farmland ownership, food and civil rights and the future of Black food.

Pressure Cooker

This podcast, hosted by two food journalists who are also moms, is for parents who sometimes feel like they’re failing at the very basic human responsibility of feeding their kids. It centers around two questions: how did feeding kids become so complicated and why do we always feel like we are failing at it? It looks at issues like the family meal, digs into whether you can teach your kid to like vegetables, and explores the origins of kid favorites like dino chicken nuggets and boxed mac and cheese.