Meet Saffron, the World’s Most Expensive Spice

Meet Saffron, the World’s Most Expensive Spic...

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SNAP To It! Why Food Stamps Matter To All of Us—And Why They're Under Threat

SNAP—the federal assistance program better known as food stamps—helps put food on the table of nearly one in eight Americans today. But, as new legislation is phased in over the coming months, more than half of those people are expected to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits. ...  Show more

When is a Pancake Not a Pancake?

We aren't afraid to ask the big questions here at Gastropod, such as: what exactly is a pancake? If you think you know the answer, prepare to have your mind blown. It turns out the sweet, syrup-covered stack of American breakfast fame are far from the only members of the pancake ...  Show more

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Pourquoi le safran est-il aussi cher ?
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Le safran est une épice extraite de la fleur d’un crocus. On l’obtient par déshydratation de ses trois stigmates rouges. Il est originaire du Moyen-Orient, plus particulièrement de l’Iran, et fut cultivé pour la première fois dans les provinces grecques, par la civilisation mi ...

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Why are spices delicious?
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CrowdScience listener Kristine from Wisconsin in the USA wants to know why herbs and spices taste so good to so many of us. She’s intrigued to know if there's evidence that herbs and spices can keep us healthy.

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Adam Rogers, "Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern" (Houghton Mifflin, 2021)
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From kelly green to millennial pink, our world is graced with a richness of colors. But our human-made colors haven’t always matched nature’s kaleidoscopic array. To reach those brightest heights required millennia of remarkable innovation and a fascinating exchange of ideas betw ...  Show more

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On this week’s episode of A Taste of the Past, host Linda Pelaccio takes listeners on a vivid and far-ranging journey across time and space on the ancient spice trades with Dr. Gary Nabhan. Talking about his new book, “Cumin, Camels, and Caravans, A Spice Odyssey,” Gary draws on ...  Show more