Taking the Pulse

In his bestselling book The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman says we express love through physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts and quality time. The Unforked team says there’s a sixth love language: food. Host Samira asks how do we express love through cooking and eating? Folks from St. John’s, Australia, and Vancouver Michelle Zauner [ZONN-er] (Brooklyn, NY) - musician and author of Crying in H-Mart: A Memoir Keith Broni [BROH-nee] (Dublin, Ireland) - Deputy Emoji Officer with Emojipedia

Host Samira Mohyeddin asks how do you honour a beloved food tradition that’s steeped in the slave trade? Guests include Wendie L. Wilson, Halifax-based educator and artist; Michael Twitty, writer and culinary historian; and Sonja Boon, professor of Gender Studies at Memorial University

Websites like Yelp and Google Review were exploding just as dedicated undercover restaurant critics all but vanished from Canada’s major papers. Host Samira Mohyeddin asks what do we lose and what do we gain when anyone can become an online restaurant critic? And whose opinion should we trust? Guests include Amy Pataki, retired food critic for the Toronto Star and Corey Mintz, writer and food reporter.

Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children’s relationship to food. Host Samira Mohyeddin asks what does it really mean to raise a “healthy” eater? Guests include Levi Garber, Unforked producer; Virginia Sole-Smith, journalist and author of The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America; and kids in Sackville, New Brunswick.

Farmers’ markets have an earthy pastoral allure, offering urbanites a connection to the countryside. Host Samira Mohyeddin asks what do we miss when we look at the farmers’ market through rose-coloured glasses? Guests include Andreas Zinn, farmer, co-owner of Zinn Farms in Manitoba; Rebecca Tucker, author of A Matter of Taste: A Farmers' Market Devotee's Semi-Reluctant Argument for Inviting Scientific Innovation to the Dinner Table; and Joshna Maharaj, chef, writer and activist

They fuelled empires and continue to shape politics to this very day. Host Samira Mohyeddin asks what’s the real story behind lentils? Guests include filmmaker Richard Fung; food journalist Vikram Doctor; and Murad Al-Katib (a.k.a. “The Lentil King”), President and CEO of AGT Foods.

Host Samira Mohyeddin asks why is beef such a provocative food all around the world? Guests include Roshini Nair, itinerant Unforked producer; Vikram Doctor, food journalist; and Matt Baram, Edmonton-born comedian.

Host Samira Mohyeddin asks why did people start hating on MSG and how are some people pushing back? Guests include Ian Mosby, award-winning author and historian; MiMi Aye, British-Burmese food writer, cookbook author and host of The MSG Pod; and Chris Tunstall bartender, mixologist, and co-owner of A Bar Above in San Diego. Tune in on CBC Radio One, Monday at 9:30am (10am NT) and Saturday at 11am (11:30am NT)

Host Samira Mohyeddin asks why people get so fired up in claiming certain foods as their own. Case in point: hummus. Guests include: Tracy Michael, 4th-generation Lebanese-Canadian in Stratford, PEI; Comedian Nour Hadidi; Laila El-Haddad, Palestinian social activist and co-author of The Gaza Kitchen; and Dafna Hirsch, Sociologist at the Open University of Israel

Host Samira Mohyeddin speaks with Indigenous people across Turtle Island who are asserting autonomy through food. Guests include Leigh Joseph, ethnobotanist and member of the Squamish First Nation; Rich Francis, Chef of the Seventh Fire Hospitality Group, finalist on Top Chef Canada and member of the Tetlit Gwich'in and Tuscarora Nations; and Bertha Skye, cook who competed in the 1992 World Culinary Olympics and member of the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation.