It’s All About Food

This week on IT'S All ABOUT FOOD, Caryn Hartglass is recording from Costa Rica, trying to understand what keeps pulling her back. It starts with a closed valve, four toilets, and a few containers of water, and it opens into a bigger story about how precious water is, from drought and “water bankruptcy” worldwide to polluted tap water in the US. She'll take you to a remote pueblo and the land she bought in 2005. There, a clearing has grown into a forest, the pejibaye palm has fed people for thousands of years, and the work is physical enough that you fall asleep tired and wake up refreshed. Along the way she'll get into why she distrust the words “efficiency” and “convenience,” what a 1759 novel and a Turkish farmer with twenty acres teach about good work, and the fruit and vegetable drink she's still thinking about. Not knowing what’s next, Caryn is following her heart.

It’s Halloween, so we’re talking about what’s truly scary in our food. We start at the meat counter, follow kids from sports drinks to energy drinks like Ghost and Monster, read their labels ingredient by ingredient, and of course we’ll add in some fun, healthy Halloween treats.

Brenda Davis, RD, Vesanto Melina, MS, RD and Charlyn Black, MD, ScD, Plant-Powered Seniors, Nutrition Essentials and Easy Recipes for Adults 50+ Three internationally recognized experts in plant-based nutrition. An evidence-based guide from two leading registered dietitians and a public health expert. Discover how a well-planned plant-based diet supports strength, bone health, heart health, brain health, and everyday vitality after 50 — with practical food guides, simple recipes, and real-life strategies. Together, the authors have written more than 15 bestselling nutrition books and have over 100 years of combined professional experience helping people improve their health through evidence-based plant-based nutrition.

Jade Koyle is President at Grand Teton Ancient Grains, /www.ancientgrains.com, a family-owned and operated farm, and mill committed to restoring ancient grains to the family dinner table. Koyle’s mission is to restore the finest organically grown ancient foods from around the world into our modern lifestyles. One of those ancient foods is Einkorn, the most primitive wheat available on earth. Einkorn contains a different type of gluten than modern wheat. As sixth-generation farmers, Koyle and his family cultivate their farmland using proven organic and biological methods that build up the soil and pack nutrition into the foods they grow.

Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017. She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016). In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal for contributions to science and society.

Ellie is an animal communicator and healing expert who consults with people, animal rescues, and sanctuaries all over the world on how to save, heal, and treat their own animals. She founded The Gentle Barn in 1999, a nonprofit organization that rescues and rehabilitates not only dogs and cats, but horses, cows, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, emus, llamas, and donkeys. Ellie formulated her own “Gentle Healing” method, using a combination of animal communication, energy healing, holistic healing, holding therapy, and western medicine to heal animals no one else would take and had nowhere else to go. Ellie specializes in healing puppies with Parvo, calves from veal crates, and orphaned animals of all kinds. Ellie and her husband Jay Weiner have brought The Gentle Barn national and now have three Gentle Barn locations, in California, in Missouri and in Tennessee. The Gentle Barn is one of the largest and most beloved farm animal sanctuaries in the world. It is their goal to be the voice for…

Dr. Rudrani (Rani) Banik is a board-certified neuro-ophthalmologist. Dr. Banik runs a private practice based and is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Mount Sinai. Dr. Banik is also certified in Integrative Medicine. She focuses on the root cause of eye diseases and uses strategies based on nutrition, botanicals, lifestyle modification, and supplements. Dr. Banik’s expertise is often featured as an expert in her field, having appeared on Good Morning America, The New York Times, TODAY Online, and many more . She has been voted Castle Connolly Top Doctor and NY Magazine’s Best Doctor in Ophthalmology annually since 2017. Dr. Banik is the author of two best-selling books, Beyond Carrots – Best Foods For Eye Health A to Z and Dr. Rani’s Plant-Based Visionary Kitchen. She founded The Eye Summit™, the first online FREE educational event focused entirely on integrative strategies to protect and preserve vision.

Born in India, trained at the Institute of Culinary Education, Palak built her name winning Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay on Food Network. Her debut cookbook Food Is Love weaves plant-based, Indian-inspired recipes with the emotional language of food. Now, integrating principles informed by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) and clinical collaboration with healthcare professionals, she brings that same joy into a wellness practice that helps people actually stick to the way of eating their body needs.

Urvi A. Shah, MD, MS, DipABLM is a lifestyle medicine certified hematologist, oncologist and physician scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her research interests in studying the role of modifiable risk factors (diet, metabolism, and microbiome) in cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship with a focus on myeloma. She leads the NUTRIVENTION dietary intervention trials which is a series of 6 trials in patients with cancer and precancer states. Results from the first NUTRIVENTION trial have been published in Cancer Discovery. This is the first trial that showed that a high fiber diet improves key cancer risk markers and may delay progression to the cancer myeloma in patients with precursor plasma cell disorders. Dr. Shah has published first author papers in prominent journals such as Cancer Discovery, Blood, and Clinical Cancer Research amongst others and has been an invited speaker and session chair nationally and internationally. Dr. Shah has been supported by career development awards…

Randy Mosher is a food writer and creative consultant who teaches at the Siebel Institute of Technology brewing school. He is the author of five books, including Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink. He is currently a minority partner in two Chicago-area breweries. In this episode we discuss his new book, Your Tasting Brain: A Sensory Approach to Wine, Beer, and Other Pleasures, a scintillating invitation to enrich our culinary pursuits by understanding how our bodies turn a taste into flavor, emotion, and meaning.

Fran Costigan, Your Oven is Lying to You! Are Veggies Safe to Eat? Long-time friends catching up on the news. Fran Costigan, culinary instructor, cookbook author, pastry chef, consultant, and the Director of Vegan Pastry at Rouxbe Culinary School, is internationally renowned as the authority on vegan desserts. Professionally trained, Fran was a chef in both traditional and vegan pastry kitchens before moving into teaching over 25 years ago. Her unapologetically luscious confections lack nothing — except dairy, eggs, white sugar, and cholesterol. Fran’s vegan desserts are appropriate for everyone who loves dessert, whether or not dietary restrictions are an issue. She developed and leads the 90-day Essential Vegan Desserts Course at Rouxbe, the world’s leading online Culinary School, where she mentors international students of all skill levels, from beginners to professionals. Fran’s cookbook, Vegan Chocolate Dessert: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts, is available in German, French…

Kirk Charles is on a mission to get America in tip-top shape. A NASM Certified Personal Trainer since 2010 with over 13,000 sessions under his belt, Kirk credits 30+ years of plant-based eating for his success. In 2021 he founded Fit Beyond 40, coaching the mature generation through exercise and plant-based nutrition. He's the author of two books, a former Men's Health columnist, and creator of Bike America, a 1,000-mile annual ride promoting cardio health. Kirk is a Rutgers graduate based in Montclair, New Jersey. More at https://www.kirkcharles.com/.

This episode looks at four food stories through one lens — who decides what counts as "good" food. It covers how hot dogs are made and their real cancer risk, plus vegan and carrot-based alternatives; the Coney Island eating contest and what it says about our relationship with unhealthy food; a critique of the National Food Museum's diet scorecard, which penalizes skipping dairy/fish and eating more produce; and Europe's falling meat consumption alongside its fight over labeling plant-based "burgers" and "sausages."

The podcast explores the gap between Costa Rica’s celebrated green reputation and the more complicated reality on the ground, using two personal observations as entry points: noticing less organic food in stores than 20 years ago, and experiencing a water shutoff in San Isidro. It traces the history of organic agriculture in Costa Rica — how it boomed in the late 90s but was largely export-driven, leaving little for local consumers — and explains how agroecological farming and domestic markets are now quietly growing as alternatives. It confronts the uncomfortable fact that despite its environmental image, Costa Rica is one of the world’s heaviest pesticide users per hectare, driven by industrial pineapple and banana monocultures. The water crisis is unpacked through four layers: climate variability and El Niño, aging infrastructure, growing demand, and policy gaps. A livestock segment examines how cattle ranching drove massive deforestation historically, how it still occupies over a third of the country’s…

Caryn is in Costa Rica and talks about her 21-year journey which started with buying property in the rainforest and wanting to have a farm.

Élise Desaulniers is an author, consultant and independent researcher based in Montréal. From 2017 to 2022, she was Executive Director of the Montreal SPCA. She has published several essays on food ethics and animal rights — including Je mange avec ma tête, Vache à lait (translated into English as Cash Cow) and Le défi végane 21 jours — translated into several languages. In 2015, she received Quebec’s Grand Prix du journalisme indépendant in the Opinion category for an essay on feminism and antispeciesism. In 2022, she became an anonymous (non-directed) kidney donor and has since been actively involved in advocating for organ donation. She serves on the board of directors of the Kidney Foundation of Canada (Quebec branch) and on the Advanced Donation Steering Committee of Canadian Blood Services. She is an editor at L’Amorce and writes regularly on Substack. Her Wikipedia entry covers part of her work. Together with Éline Bonin (Patate & Cornichon), she is co-spokesperson of the Festival végane de Montréal.…

You're paying 25% more for groceries than you were before the pandemic — and that's probably permanent. But the reasons behind each item in your plant-food cart are completely different. Droughts, wars, tariffs, TikTok, and corporate profits: we follow the money, all the way from the farm to your register.

This episode features Caryn Hartglass and Gary De Mattei covering three big cultural flashpoints through an uncompromising, no-nonsense lens. Billie Eilish's viral callout of meat-eaters — her blunt Instagram post, the predictable backlash, and what the ugly comments reveal about where we are as a society. A look at Suffs, the Broadway musical bringing the women's suffrage movement back into the spotlight, and the hard-fought history behind the 19th Amendment and its connection to the animal rights movement. From there, the conversation shifts to the Equal Rights Amendment — still not enshrined in the Constitution over a century after it was first introduced, despite hitting the 38-state ratification threshold. After a discussion on rejuvenation and recharging when tired and frustrated with the long game of activism, they conclude with a segment on addiction, culture, and marketing. No softening, no sponsors to protect, just honest talk.

TITLE: Melanie Joy, PhD, Practice Integrity Melanie Joy, PhD, is a Harvard-educated psychologist, international trainer, and author of eight books, including the award-winning Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, Beyond Beliefs: A Guide to Improving Relationships and Communication for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Meat Eaters, and How to End Injustice Everywhere. She is the eighth recipient of the Institute of Jainology’s Ahimsa Award, which was previously given to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Her work has been featured by media outlets around the world, and she is also the founding president of the nonprofit organization Beyond Carnism. You can learn more about her work at carnism.org. Melanie has also recently published her debut novel, A Half-Hearted Death Wish. The book reflects the same values of compassion and awareness that underpin her other work, and it weaves in powerful themes of justice, connection, and empathy.

TITLE: Gardening: Nature Always Finds a Way In DESCRIPTION: Caryn Hartglass and Gary De Mattei discuss their 2026 container gardening experiences on their NYC terrace, focusing on persistent wildlife challenges (squirrels and pigeons) and the broader context of food security, organic farming, and glyphosate's ongoing legal and health controversies. The conversation emphasizes the importance of home gardening as food prices rise and agricultural systems face mounting pressures.