Podcasts for Kitchen Inspiration

Chewing

Lunar New Year food and Lexington Betty Smokehouse

Hosts Monica Eng and Lousa Chu talk about Monica's "get well" soup for her father who was recovering in the hospital. It combines Chinese, Korean, and Jewish cooking traditions. Then they discuss Lunar New Year food traditions and a new Chicago restaurant. Every episode of Chewing digs into ingredients, immigrant foodways, street food, and something to tie in the kitchen.

Toasted Sister Podcast

Miss Navajo - “From the corral to the table”

Navajo journalist Andi Murphy reports from the Navajo Nation Fair, where contestants from the Miss Navajo pageant compete in slaughtering, butchering, and cooking sheep. It's surprisingly appetizing (if you can handle descriptions of animal slaughter). This episode includes interviews from the former and current Miss Navajo Nation and the Navajo National president about the importance of sheep and other traditional food.

Be My Guest with Ina Garten

Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci, the actor, director, mixologist, and TV host, visits Ina Garten, cookbook writer and TV host, at her Long Island home. Ina makes oysters Rockefeller, and Stanley makes them both martinis. Sure, it's sort of a celebrity love fest, but it's so fun to hear two foodies delight in food, drink, and good company.

Upper Middlebrow

“Maxing Out the Turtle Budget,” or Axel Gabriel’s Babette’s Feast

Ok, this one is EarBuds curator Jesse Dukes’s podcast, but he can't imagine anything that will make you want to cook more than watching and then hearing a conversation about a 1985 Danish film centered on a French woman who cooks a delicious meal for a village of Danish puritans. Hosts Jesse and Chris Bagg discuss how the filmmaker suggests a middleground between the hedonistic aristocratic society of Paris, and the austere and occasionally severe Danish village. This is part of a six-part series on "Foodie Films.”

As We Eat

Much Ado About Sioux: (Re)discovering America’s Indigenous foods with Chef Sean Sherman

In every episode, hosts Kim Baker and Leigh Olson pick a cookbook or recipe and explore it's socio-cultural history. In this episode, they consider Chef Sean Sherman's The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, a cookbook that surfaces and celebrates Sioux cuisine and ingredients.

Left Over, an investigative podcast from LWC Studios, reveals the toxic politics in the American public school lunch system. Award-winning journalist Jessica Terrell dives into the experiences of lunch workers, students, families, caretakers, and community organizers while examining the problematic views surrounding poverty and unchecked racial inequality. Listen here.

The health and wellness of Latinas is crucial to the health and wellbeing of the U.S. economy. In 100 Latina Birthdays, reporters in Chicago investigate the health and lifetime outcomes of Latinas in the United States from birth to age 100. In season 1, the stories that unfold center Latinas during their perinatal journeys, childhood, adolescence, and up until age 20. Listen here.

Hearsay

Each episode, join our multigenerational hosts Jessica, Hilary, and Lark as they discuss how gender, power, and the law impact pop culture.

From the early days of MTV to the latest TikTok discourse, they’re here to debrief each other on what’s happening in their own corners of the Internet — and learn more about what it means for society as a whole.