During World War II, the Soviet city of Leningrad was surrounded, cut off from food supplies for nearly two and a half years. People were desperate: they ate boiled leather, machine oil, toothpaste, and wallpaper paste just to stay alive. But, in the center of the city, a group of botanists spent their days surrounded by food that they refused to touch—nuts, seeds, and even a basement full of potatoes—even as several of them starved to death. The seeds for which these scientists were willing to sacrifice their lives formed the collection of the world's very first seed bank: a library of crop varieties that contained the genetic diversity future generations of plant breeders have relied on to feed the world. In this episode, the story of the almost unimaginable bravery that lies behind the food we eat today.

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Dry January may be over, but, for many people, drinking less alcohol or none at all is an increasingly common choice year-round. And, unlike in the past, when dealcoholized options were few and far between—and had a well-deserved reputation for tasting bad—there’s now a booming market for non-alcoholic beers, wines, canned cocktails, and even spirits for the so-called "sober curious." But how do they get the booze out of our favorite tipples—and why is hard to keep the flavor? Gastropod is here to investigate! Join us for the history of breakfast beer, worker’s wine, and Welch’s Prohibition-era roots, as well as the science behind the “spinning cone” technology that revolutionized the world of non-alcoholic beverages. Plus: our hosts and a few brave volunteers put their taste buds on the line to find out which of these new drinks is worth swapping for the hard stuff, and which they wish they'd left on the shelf.

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(Guest episode) On September 18, 1998, an unusual ad ran in USA Today — a company called John's Estate Sales was looking to buy a moon rock. But the phone number on the ad didn't lead to, say, a store front in a strip mall. Instead, the phone number belonged to Special Agent Joe Gutheinz at NASA.

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(Guest episode) Matt wants to know how to tell if he’s being scammed by his dentist. To find the answer, we open up the surprising history of dentistry, ask why it seems so different from internal medicine, and drill down on why dental insurance doesn’t really feel like insurance. Explain It To Me's host Jonquilyn Hill talks with journalist Mary Otto and Dr. Lisa Simon, DMD, MD, to find the answers.

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Just in time for the holidays, Ask Gastropod is back with a plate full of listener questions for your listening delight! You came to us with mysteries both large and small, both ancient and eternal, and, honestly, all totally fascinating. Such as: What is up with ranch dressing, and how did a bottled salad dressing invented by a plumber and owned by a cleaning products company become *the* flavor of America? What did Europe's oldest human mummy, found frozen in the Alps, eat before his mountain trek—and why could no one find his stomach for twenty years? And, in news you can use this holiday season, why does a “food coma” make you drowsy and slow after a big holiday meal? We’ve got the answers to all of these fabulous listener queries in our latest installment, featuring murder in the Alps, a bathtub full of ranch, and more sea slugs than you might expect. Enjoy!

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Taste is the oldest of our five senses, and yet perhaps the least understood. It's far more complicated than salty versus sweet: new research is dramatically expanding our knowledge of taste, showing that it's intimately connected to obesity, mood, immunity, and more. In this episode, we get into the science of how taste works, why we taste what we do, and what makes supertasters unique. And finally, we hack our taste buds—for fun, but, in the future, maybe for health, too. (encore)

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What’s the coolest flavor of the holiday season? It's peppermint, obviously, and it’s showing up in everything from coffee to chocolate and cookies to ice cream right now. But while standing in line for a peppermint mocha is a standard feature of the holiday season today, there was a time when this garden-standard herb was seen as so special—even powerful—that it made three American entrepreneurs rich enough to be crowned the "Peppermint Kings." This episode, the story of the forgotten American mint monarchy, plus the fascinating science behind why mint cools your tongue and maybe really does cure all. Join us to jingle all the way through peppermint heists, the surprising link between mint essence-peddlers and the abolition movement, and the true stories behind your favorite mint candies—including the disputed origins of the iconic candy cane.

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Next week, the US celebrates the dishwashing Olympics—also known as Thanksgiving. But how best to tackle the washing-up after the big meal can cause as much conflict as your uncle’s hot takes at the table. Do dishes get cleaner when they’re hand-washed or run through the dishwasher? Which is better for the environment? Are those convenient little detergent pods poisoning our oceans with microplastics? And who do we have to thank for that most glorious of inventions, the dishwashing machine? This episode, we’ve got answer to all these crucial questions and more, as we dive into the sudsy story of dishwashing through the ages and across cultures. Listen in now to make the most mundane household chore 100 percent more fascinating, guaranteed.

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They're added to breakfast cereal, bread, and even Pop-Tarts, giving the sweetest, most processed treats a halo of health. Most people pop an extra dose for good measure, perhaps washing it down with fortified milk. But what are vitamins—and how did their discovery make America's processed food revolution possible? On this episode of Gastropod, author Catherine Price helps us tell the story of vitamins, from Indonesian chickens to Gwyneth Paltrow. (encore)

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The Klamath River on the California-Oregon border was once the third largest salmon river in the continental U.S. There were so many fish, indigenous histories claim that you could cross the river walking across their backs—which made the peoples who lived in this remote, beautiful region some of the wealthiest in pre-colonial North America. But, for more than a century, salmon have been shut out of the Klamath: thanks to multiple hydroelectric dams that blocked the river, these fish couldn’t reach miles of cold, clear waters where they historically spawned. Their population plummeted to the point where even catching salmon for traditional ceremonies was banned, to help the few remaining fish survive. In just the past couple of months, however, the dams have come down, thanks to a scrappy coalition of local tribes, commercial fishermen, and environmental groups who spent decades fighting to free the Klamath—and bring the salmon home. Listen in this episode for the epic tale of the largest dam removal project in history—but also for the much bigger story of why these fish matter, and what it will take to make the Klamath their home again.

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Today, a half century after Neil Armstrong took one small step onto the surface of the Moon, there are still just ten humans living in space—the crew of the International Space Station. But, after decades of talk, both government agencies and entrepreneurs are now drawing up more concrete plans to return to the Moon, and even travel onward to Mars. Getting there is one thing, but if we plan to set up colonies, we'll have to figure out how to feed ourselves. Will Earth crops grow in space—and, if so, will they taste different? Will we be sipping spirulina smoothies and crunching on chlorella cookies, as scientists imagined in the 1960s, or preparing potatoes six thousand different ways, like Matt Damon in The Martian? Listen in this episode for the stories about how and what we might be farming, once we get to Mars. (encore presentation)

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