You’re Invited!: Mystery and Mindfulness at Dinner

Buckle up, snowflake. Get ready for a TOTAL EVISCERATION of all things soy. That’s right, on this episode of From the Pantry, we’re dropping a LOGIC BOMB on the Myth of the Soyboy. We’ll be talking PHYTOESTROGENS, FAKE NEWS, and why this particular soy-themed insult gained such popularity over the last few years. Join producer Sam Gerardi as he wades through the bro science muck to get some answers.

Over the past six months, our team, as well as, the rest of the country, have experienced a lot of grief and heartache. As we grapple with how to navigate these losses - whether it’s a loved one or the threat to our freedoms - something that has always helped us cope is food, and its connections to community and each other. This shared experience brought us into conversations about how food can act as an intimate and integral part of mourning. The stories in our Season 17 finale include a visit to a temple to explore how food, ritual and memory come together, a talk with a death doula, the recipes that remind us to connect with the ones that are still here– as well as a few familiar ones from seasons’ past. Stick around to the end of the episode for a special little conversation between Hosts and Executive Producers H Conley and Taylor Early, a love note if you will, to Meat and Three and the community of storytellers that have contributed to the airwaves over the past seasons.

In the third and final episode of The Cult of Chef, producer Hannah Chouinard turns to those trying to reform food service, and those trying to keep it the same. She makes the case that the media’s failure to cover reform organizations and workers’ rights has hampered efforts to improve working conditions, and strengthened the position of actors who benefit from the status quo. In conversation with Reem Assil and Stephanie Luce, she urges journalists and writers to reflect on whose perspectives they prioritize, and consider who they want to align themselves with as we move into an unpredictable political future.

In this episode, we uncork a different kind of wine story—one rooted in joy, land, and legacy. From a biodiverse vineyard in the Midwest to a Black-owned Prosecco brand in South Carolina, we meet the innovators reshaping the wine world on their own terms. You’ll hear from Krista Scruggs of ZAFA Wines, Justin Wages of Don Luchi Prosecco, sommelier LaShea Delaney, and Cecilia Cuff of Bronzeville Winery, as they share what it means to cultivate not just grapes, but community. Together, they’re building ecosystems—on the land and in the industry—that defy tradition and reimagine who wine is for.

In episode two of The Cult of Chef, producer Hannah Chouinard digs into the reality of workplace abuse in food service and argues that focusing on the people in positions of power comes at a cost to everyone else who makes a restaurant run. Through interviews and features from Julia Moskin, Reem Assil, and Saru Jayaraman, she finds that the media’s disinterest in workers’ issues has enabled abuse. She calls on journalists and writers to expand their ideas about what makes a compelling story, noting that toxic systems are bad for everyone, including the chefs they privilege.