Food Futures

On this episode of the Food Futures podcast, we speak to street vendors from Plaza Tonatiuh in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park and community organizer Brian “Leo” Garita about their fight for a share of public space. We’ll also have a conversation with urban planning scholar, Ryan Devlin, who studies street vending and design solutions for vendors.

In mid-May of this year, Olivia Maher posted a simple tiktok in her kitchen describing a meal she dubbed “Girl Dinner”— low effort meals consisting of a smorgasbord of ingredients scavenged from the fridge, freezer, and pantry. What started as a quick video has turned into a viral trend with thousands of videos using the Girl Dinner hashtag set to songs that have been made to accompany the trend. Now, in August, it seems that Girl Dinners are here to stay. In an internet culture where trends cycle faster than ever, what is it that has made this one so ubiquitous? With the release of Greta Gerwig’s sensational Barbie Movie, and the seasonal staples of “Hot Girl Walks”, and “Hot Girl Summer”, a renewed embrace of a feminine identity online seems to have set the stage for the still-growing internet trend. The ethos of Girl Dinner removes the pressure to produce high-labor and aesthetically pleasing meals, and instead embraces indulgence and cravings which result in an oddly satisfying weirdness to the plates presented on social media. Olivia Maher, creator of the Girl Dinner, and Mold Magazine’s Madeleine Young discuss all things Girl Dinner in this episode of Food Futures.

Lesbian bars were disappearing at an alarming rate. But might we be entering a renaissance of the sapphic space? Journalist Meghan McCarron and bar owners Emily Bielagus and Mara Herbkersman of The Ruby Fruit are on the podcast to discuss.

Erewhon, the buzzy LA-based grocery chain, Erewhon, is known for selling things like 20$ smoothies with hyaluronic acid and 30$ jugs of oxygenated water. It's understandably earned its viral reputation as “America’s Most Expensive Grocery Store.” But it might come as a surprise to recent customers and haters alike, that the health-food store actually has its roots in a mission of world peace. MOLD's Senior Editor, Isabel Ling discusses with Ludwig Hurtado on this episode of the Food Futures podcast, revealing the untold story of how this grocer got from Boston to Beverly Hills. Read Isabel's full story for MOLD here.

More and more restaurants are beginning to experiment with NFT membership programs, where token-holders can get that coveted VIP treatment at their establishments. The writer, Terry Nguyen⁠ comes on the Food Futures podcast to discuss whether NFT's will change the dining industry as we know it. Nguyen is a writer, critic, and poet who currently works as a senior staff writer for Dirt, a Web3 media company. Before that, she wrote about consumerism, technology, and pop culture for Vox.

What's so bad about using a gas stove? And is the Biden Administration really putting a ban on them? In order to understand why gas stoves have become such a contentious topic in the news, we reached out to Rebecca Leber. She’s a senior reporter at Vox, where she covers climate change. She’s been reporting about gas stoves long before they were making headlines, so she helps us understand what people have been getting wrong about the topic. She also gives us some realistic tips about how to go electric.

Whether you’re the target audience or not, you’ve probably come across one of The Liver King's videos before. He's infamous online for posting videos of himself eating raw meat. Now, he's come under fire because it’s been revealed that he actually uses steroids in order to achieve the physique that he touts as a result of his diet. On this episode of the Food Futures podcast, we’re joined by writer Jack Bachmann, who wrote an essay for MOLD Magazine about the Liver King. We talk about the ways that Raw meat diets are about a lot more than just food. Read Jack's full essay here: http://bit.ly/3kEKpsB

Alicia Kennedy is a food writer based in Puerto Rico. On this episode of the Food Futures podcast, she joins the show to discuss ways we can mitigate climate change through eating. Read Alicia's piece for MOLD reflecting on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations: http://bit.ly/3Hd4vSA

On this episode of the Food Futures podcast, artist Meech Boakye joins to discuss AI artwork and the world-building capacities and limitations of DALL-E 2.

How can we create more resilient communities and food systems in rejection of the capitalist obsession with infnite economic growth? Jamie Tyberg is a community organizer in New York City whose work centers around decolonization. On today’s episode, researcher and baker, Lexie Smith is in conversation with Jamie outlining the vision of degrowth as it relates to the future of food and agriculture. Read a version of this Q&A here: https://thisismold.com/degrowth/degrowth-lexie-smith-jamie-tyberg-food-systems Food Futures is a podcast from MOLD Magazine. Credits: Producer: Ludwig Hurtado Associate Editor: Isabel Ling Editor in Chief: LinYee Yuan Cover art illustration by Cynthia Alfonso for MOLD Magazine.

On this episode of Food Futures, we speak to artist and writer Adriana Gallo, about preppers, preservation, rotting food, and much more. Her latest essay for MOLD is called "Cooking for the end of the world."

Rice is life. For our debut episode, we speak to Momoko Nakamura, aka the Rice Girl, a woman on a mission to bring naturally farmed Japanese rice to the rest of the world. In Japan alone, there are over 200 varietals of rice grown throughout the country—from the snowy northern islands to the Ryukus with their subtropical climate. Through her rice subscription service, she sources directly from farmers and educates rice lovers on the traditional Japanese seasonal calendar by delivering 24 sub-seasons of hand-selected rice.