Introducing “Bite,” Our New Podcast About Food Politics

For people who think hard about their food.

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In each biweekly episode, we’ll interview a writer, scientist, farmer, or chef to uncover the surprising stories behind what ends up on your plate.

Earlier this winter, an essay on the food and culture website First We Feast laid out some complaints about contemporary food journalism: “Food media has felt, for lack of a better word, soft,” editor Chris Schonberger wrote. To find investigative reporting on food issues, readers must look outside the “food media” bubble. As legendary culinary writer Ruth Reichl told Schonberger and company: “If you’re interested in the politics of food, you can go to Mother Jones or something.”

Indeed, Mother Jones has delved into food and agriculture’s thornier topics for decades. We’ve taken full advantage of our tagline of “smart, fearless journalism” to expose the nut industry’s voracious thirst, observe fast-food’s sway on nutrition policy, illuminate the environmental toll of snacks’ excessive packaging, and examine the industry cover-up of sugar’s health risks. And now, we’re excited to take this knack for no-bullshit reporting to a brand new medium: Bite podcast.

Bite is a podcast for people who think hard about their food. In each biweekly episode, my co-hosts Tom Philpott and Kiera Butler and I will interview a writer, scientist, farmer, or chef to uncover the surprising stories behind what ends up on your plate. We’ll help you digest the major food news of the week. We’re interested in how your food intersects with other important topics like identity, social justice, health, corporate influence, and climate change.

Don’t worry—we’ll have some fun, too. We’re happy to indulge in some full-on foodie-ism from time to time. (Check out our recipes for wine-braised short ribs and cranberry salsa.) We’ll reflect on the weirdest things our guests have eaten as of late. And we’ll try to solve your food mysteries—especially if you get in touch with us on Twitter or Facebook, or by sending an email to bite@motherjones.com.

Subscribe to Bite on iTunes or via our RSS, and get ready for our first episode, which will drop very soon. We hope you’re hungry.

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Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

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