For my Podcast Explorer project, I decided to look at race and religion in relation to food. When looking for podcasts, I started with the basis that I would do some sort of seafood based theme because I recently changed from pescatarian to full vegetarian, so that theme appealed to me. But as I went along, I found a far more interesting theme: race in food. Being a middle class white female, I never considered how race impacted my food choices and history, which made that topic very interesting. I chose the podcasts “Who is This Restaurant For? : Why Comic W. Kamau Bell Doesn’t Wear Hoodies To Restaurants” by Sporkful, “Repast” by Gravy, and “Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus” by Gastropod.
My first podcast, “Who is This Restaurant For? : Why Comic W. Kamau Bell Doesn’t Wear Hoodies To Restaurant”, talked about W. Kamau Bell’s experiences as a African American 6’2” male. He discussed how he was treated differently for being a black male in a mixed race marriage. In his experiences he talks about how he was physically “shooed” away from an outside restaurant, where afterword a town meeting was established to deal with the situation. He also talks about how he has his wife use her “whiteness” to deal with waitresses and servers while he uses his race and height to sway servers’ perspectives when dealing with uncomfortable or disagreeable situations. He also talked about how as a couple, he and his wife enjoy going to more urban environments to eat, because they don’t get stared at as much, or as he puts it, he doesn’t have to work to diffuse the situation as much. The hosts tried to communicate how race is still an issue in the food industry by talking to their guest about how his interactions made him feel about race relations in the United States. The style was a very casual conversation and the draw for listeners was the comedic air that their guest brought. This podcast raised questions for me about what expectations I had of my service at a restaurant versus people of other races.
When looking at the technical aspect of the podcast, it was well put together. There was no background noise. In the few moments of audio or musical additions to the podcast, the transition was seamless and the quality of the audio was excellent. The transitions between reflection by the host on the interview and the interview itself were so seamless, it felt that he was giving his analysis while talking to the comic. It was only till after they cut back to the interview that you realized the analysis was added in later. Overall it was very professional. Midway through the podcasts they even broke for commercial, and while the commercial was just them reading promos with different music, it was obvious that they were prerecorded and they sounded very professional. Different background music was used and the way the host spoke was different with different dissonance. Out of the three podcasts, this one was the most professionally put together, and you could tell that multiple people worked to make it possible.
“Repast” talked about the musical Repast which discusses the history of the African American waiter, Booker Wright, who gave an interview that changed the way Americans thought of segregation and black servitude. The podcast covered the major points of Booker Wright’s story while touching on the impacts it had on race relations and how the story was adapted to the musical. Booker Wright worked at a high end restaurant that served whites only. The wait staff was primarily black males that were expected to know the menu by heart and recite it with a smile. Wright was asked to interview for a NBC Documentary, Mississippi: A Self Portrait. During the interview he outlined what his daily responsibilities were and how he was treated. He went on from there to discuss how he needed to wear a mask, or a second face, to always be polite and smile, despite the obvious racism that was displayed. He voiced his dreams that his children wouldn’t have to deal with the situations that he had to. The podcast discussed how his interview personalized the black community too much for whites in the area to ignore. The podcast raised made me consider the extent we were taught about civil rights, and how much effort individual people had to put in to combat racism. In school you were always taught about large events, but no one ever discusses the individuals who didn’t do large things, but had many small effects on the country. They do not use any specific hook to draw in listeners, instead they choose to shock their audience by occasionally interjecting quiet interviews with loud clips from the musical for a jarring effect.
The music used was highly pertinent to the content because for the most part it came from musical and was either playing loudly with vocals, if it was being used to highlight some part of Booker Wright’s story, or as ambient background noise during interviews or points. The style of the podcast was highly professional with transitions between various interviews and musical clips.
The third podcast, “Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus”, was slightly different that the other two podcasts. Unlike the selections from Gravy and Sporkful, the podcast from Gastropod didn’t talk about African Americans in America. Instead this podcast talked about the history of citrus fruits around the world and specifically their transition into American and some current issues facing the citrus farming industry. They give a brief overview about how citrus fruits migrated from the Middle East and Northern African to Europe. From there they were popularly adopted by many European countries, most notably the Italians. The podcast then shifts to the use of citrus in the Italian community and how when Italians migrated over to American, they brought citrus fruits to America, where they needed large amounts of start up capital to cultivate citrus fruits. As a consequence, once a grower had a successful farm going, they often offered to “help” other growers in the area by letting them use their water, or other needed materials, in exchange for payment. This led to several families having lots of money and influence on the community, and eventually becoming the organized mob. The podcast helped me expand on my thought process of how food impacted different races in the United States. Obviously one could make guesses as to race relations involving the African American community, but this podcast opened up the subject to other areas as well, in this instance, Italian immigrants.
This podcast was by far the least professional of the three. The audio clips from interviews had various background noises, the promos were more like sloppy conversations, and the first few minutes of the podcast consisted of the hosts pleading with the audience to give them money. The musical choices used were decent, and used in the background of the interview, but the conversations between the hosts appeared very ham-handed. Most of the podcast followed the pattern of narration, interview, analysis, segway to another point.
The podcasts I selected covered an interesting area that I don’t believe we have covered much in class, how race impacts food and vice versa. Yes, there have been discussions involving race and food, like the migrant farmers in The Harvest/La Cosecha, but they look more at the cultivation of said food, and do not touch on the way that food Is distributed after being harvested. One could argue that we have covered post harvesting food production in Food, Inc. but it becomes too clinical when addressing how food is distributed and sold, it doesn’t cover the social aspect of food. These podcasts shed light onto how race and food combine to give different social interactions between people.
One major question that the podcasts brought up was, how much of Americas food choice was impacted by our melting pot culture? It is obvious that many things like religion and language preference were impacted from immigration, but few talk about how what we “typically” eat is based on the blending of multiple cultures and traditions. For example, until I listened to the “Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus” podcast, I had no idea Citrus played such a large role in the Italian culture. Meanwhile, podcasts like “Repast” told not only of the types of food brought to the south by slave trade, but of how this food was incorporated into society as well as the people they got it from.
Our food history is widely ignored in America. Throughout our past, new dishes and cultures were brought in and had to find their own niche in society. Food could be used to help people and provide a dialogue between groups, or it could be used to exclude people. Like the Italians that worked for Mafia bosses to pay for citrus farms, African Americans (in this case Booker Wright) worked for white men to get opportunities, like opening their own restaurant. Food was used as a way to both strong-arm people, and help bridge the gap between cultures.
My first podcast, “Who is This Restaurant For? : Why Comic W. Kamau Bell Doesn’t Wear Hoodies To Restaurant”, talked about W. Kamau Bell’s experiences as a African American 6’2” male. He discussed how he was treated differently for being a black male in a mixed race marriage. In his experiences he talks about how he was physically “shooed” away from an outside restaurant, where afterword a town meeting was established to deal with the situation. He also talks about how he has his wife use her “whiteness” to deal with waitresses and servers while he uses his race and height to sway servers’ perspectives when dealing with uncomfortable or disagreeable situations. He also talked about how as a couple, he and his wife enjoy going to more urban environments to eat, because they don’t get stared at as much, or as he puts it, he doesn’t have to work to diffuse the situation as much. The hosts tried to communicate how race is still an issue in the food industry by talking to their guest about how his interactions made him feel about race relations in the United States. The style was a very casual conversation and the draw for listeners was the comedic air that their guest brought. This podcast raised questions for me about what expectations I had of my service at a restaurant versus people of other races.
When looking at the technical aspect of the podcast, it was well put together. There was no background noise. In the few moments of audio or musical additions to the podcast, the transition was seamless and the quality of the audio was excellent. The transitions between reflection by the host on the interview and the interview itself were so seamless, it felt that he was giving his analysis while talking to the comic. It was only till after they cut back to the interview that you realized the analysis was added in later. Overall it was very professional. Midway through the podcasts they even broke for commercial, and while the commercial was just them reading promos with different music, it was obvious that they were prerecorded and they sounded very professional. Different background music was used and the way the host spoke was different with different dissonance. Out of the three podcasts, this one was the most professionally put together, and you could tell that multiple people worked to make it possible.
“Repast” talked about the musical Repast which discusses the history of the African American waiter, Booker Wright, who gave an interview that changed the way Americans thought of segregation and black servitude. The podcast covered the major points of Booker Wright’s story while touching on the impacts it had on race relations and how the story was adapted to the musical. Booker Wright worked at a high end restaurant that served whites only. The wait staff was primarily black males that were expected to know the menu by heart and recite it with a smile. Wright was asked to interview for a NBC Documentary, Mississippi: A Self Portrait. During the interview he outlined what his daily responsibilities were and how he was treated. He went on from there to discuss how he needed to wear a mask, or a second face, to always be polite and smile, despite the obvious racism that was displayed. He voiced his dreams that his children wouldn’t have to deal with the situations that he had to. The podcast discussed how his interview personalized the black community too much for whites in the area to ignore. The podcast raised made me consider the extent we were taught about civil rights, and how much effort individual people had to put in to combat racism. In school you were always taught about large events, but no one ever discusses the individuals who didn’t do large things, but had many small effects on the country. They do not use any specific hook to draw in listeners, instead they choose to shock their audience by occasionally interjecting quiet interviews with loud clips from the musical for a jarring effect.
The music used was highly pertinent to the content because for the most part it came from musical and was either playing loudly with vocals, if it was being used to highlight some part of Booker Wright’s story, or as ambient background noise during interviews or points. The style of the podcast was highly professional with transitions between various interviews and musical clips.
The third podcast, “Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus”, was slightly different that the other two podcasts. Unlike the selections from Gravy and Sporkful, the podcast from Gastropod didn’t talk about African Americans in America. Instead this podcast talked about the history of citrus fruits around the world and specifically their transition into American and some current issues facing the citrus farming industry. They give a brief overview about how citrus fruits migrated from the Middle East and Northern African to Europe. From there they were popularly adopted by many European countries, most notably the Italians. The podcast then shifts to the use of citrus in the Italian community and how when Italians migrated over to American, they brought citrus fruits to America, where they needed large amounts of start up capital to cultivate citrus fruits. As a consequence, once a grower had a successful farm going, they often offered to “help” other growers in the area by letting them use their water, or other needed materials, in exchange for payment. This led to several families having lots of money and influence on the community, and eventually becoming the organized mob. The podcast helped me expand on my thought process of how food impacted different races in the United States. Obviously one could make guesses as to race relations involving the African American community, but this podcast opened up the subject to other areas as well, in this instance, Italian immigrants.
This podcast was by far the least professional of the three. The audio clips from interviews had various background noises, the promos were more like sloppy conversations, and the first few minutes of the podcast consisted of the hosts pleading with the audience to give them money. The musical choices used were decent, and used in the background of the interview, but the conversations between the hosts appeared very ham-handed. Most of the podcast followed the pattern of narration, interview, analysis, segway to another point.
The podcasts I selected covered an interesting area that I don’t believe we have covered much in class, how race impacts food and vice versa. Yes, there have been discussions involving race and food, like the migrant farmers in The Harvest/La Cosecha, but they look more at the cultivation of said food, and do not touch on the way that food Is distributed after being harvested. One could argue that we have covered post harvesting food production in Food, Inc. but it becomes too clinical when addressing how food is distributed and sold, it doesn’t cover the social aspect of food. These podcasts shed light onto how race and food combine to give different social interactions between people.
One major question that the podcasts brought up was, how much of Americas food choice was impacted by our melting pot culture? It is obvious that many things like religion and language preference were impacted from immigration, but few talk about how what we “typically” eat is based on the blending of multiple cultures and traditions. For example, until I listened to the “Museums and the Mafia: The Secret History of Citrus” podcast, I had no idea Citrus played such a large role in the Italian culture. Meanwhile, podcasts like “Repast” told not only of the types of food brought to the south by slave trade, but of how this food was incorporated into society as well as the people they got it from.
Our food history is widely ignored in America. Throughout our past, new dishes and cultures were brought in and had to find their own niche in society. Food could be used to help people and provide a dialogue between groups, or it could be used to exclude people. Like the Italians that worked for Mafia bosses to pay for citrus farms, African Americans (in this case Booker Wright) worked for white men to get opportunities, like opening their own restaurant. Food was used as a way to both strong-arm people, and help bridge the gap between cultures.