Masters of Social Gastronomy: Cults! (Online)
Taught by Sarah Lohman and Jonathan Soma
Sarah Lohman is a culinary historian and the author of the bestselling books Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods and Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. She focuses on the history of food as a way to access the stories of diverse Americans. Endangered Eating was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Amazon’s Editors, Food & Wine, and Adam Gopnik on the Milk Street podcast. It was a finalist for the Nach Waxman Prize for Food & Drink Scholarship and winner of the Ohioana Library Book Prize for Nonfiction. Lohman’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and NPR. Lohman has lectured across the country, from the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC to The Culinary Historians of Southern California
Soma was born in the South, is what someone from the North would say. He co-founded the Brainery, is the sciencey half of Masters of Social Gastronomy, and plans on getting married to Waffle House. In his more droll moments he is a tragic sellout to higher ed as a professor of data journalism at Columbia University's journalism school.
See more @dangerscarf
This month, the Masters of Social Gastronomy want you to JOIN OUR CULT! We're investigating the often bizarre connections between food and America's cults.
America in the mid-nineteenth century is thought of as a time of repression, but it also birthed a legion of free-thinking, free-lovin', agrarian societies. These utopian societies were often focused on building a better world through food. But as inexperienced farmers, many of these gatherings led to disaster: when the time comes to pick your cult, will you be smithing flatware to make a buck or subscribing to a radical vegetarian diet?
If the past just does't do it for you, you're also welcome to try out a few more recent options. Whether you'd rather throw sugar out the window and body-shame til the End Times or go all-in on the Kool Aid, the twentieth century has plenty of options for you!
Culinary historian Sarah Lohman and resident food scientist Jonathan Soma are the Masters of Social Gastronomy. Each month, they fearlessly take on a curious food topic, breaking down the history and science behind what we eat.
This show is our season finale! We'll be back (online) in September. Attend in May for your chance to submit a show idea for the fall; if we pick your idea, we'll send you an MSG T-Shirt!
