Nicola Twilley

1 week ago | thepodcastplayground.com | Cynthia Graber |Nicola Twilley

GastropodBananageddon! Say Goodbye to *the* Banana, and Hello to the Weird and Wonderful World of Bananas, PluralYes, it’s true: the banana we know and love is going the way of the dodo bird. An incurable strain of the fungal Panama disease known as TR4 is currently wiping out tens of thousands of acres of banana plantations, from Malaysia to Australia and Mozambique to El Salvador. But what’s bananas is that this has all happened before! Is history doomed to repeat itself?

3 weeks ago | thepodcastplayground.com | Cynthia Graber |Nicola Twilley

GastropodGoing Bananas: How a Tropical Treat Became the World's Favorite FruitIn 1870, a strange fruit arrived on the docks in New Jersey, starting an industry that would change the world. That fruit was a banana, and, although it was a staple food in tropical regions, most Americans had never tried one. Today, a century and a half later, even the most depressing gas station, corner store, or hotel breakfast buffet in the land has bananas on offer.

1 month ago | thepodcastplayground.com | Cynthia Graber |Nicola Twilley

GastropodDo We Really Have Beer to Thank for the First Writing and Cities? Humanity’s love affair with beer goes *way* back: 5,000 years ago, the civilization that arose in Mesopotamia invented writing, and one of the very first things they wrote about was… beer! But where was beer itself invented?

2 months ago | thepodcastplayground.com | Cynthia Graber |Nicola Twilley

GastropodSeed Oil Scare: The Curious Case of CanolaIf you’ve been hearing that canola is a killer, you’re not alone. It’s one of the so-called “hateful eight” seed oils: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. says it’s among the most deadly things you can eat, and Joe Rogan agrees. But is it true? This episode, we get to the bottom of the debate over the plant formerly (and still, in some places) known as rapeseed.

2 months ago | thepodcastplayground.com | Cynthia Graber |Nicola Twilley

GastropodNutrition Advice Decoded: What Foods Are Actually Good For Us, What Should We Avoid, and Why Is It All SO Confusing? Are eggs going to give you high cholesterol, or are they the base of a great protein-rich meal? Will coffee give you cancer, or will it help you live longer?  If you’re confused about what nutrition science has to say about which foods are healthy and which are not, you’re not alone.