Reading/Listening Round-up: Drinks and Conversation
A virtual cocktail party for readers and podcast/radio lovers, plus an invitation to join my book club
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First things first: I’m thrilled that my friends at Nautilus are hosting an Our Fermented Lives book club, which includes all kinds of goodies:
over 60 pages of never before seen bonus content from my book
free access to online culinary classes
a space for community with fellow book lovers
an exclusive Q&A with me about the book
And more!
I would be utterly thrilled to have you join us!
I love a good themed reading round up. Having someone send me a list of things they like, that I might like too, is such a gift. And especially in an age where there's such an information overload that it's easy for me to miss something I might really love.
This round up is like a virtual cocktail party (and indeed, includes a listen about dinner parties and cocktail parties): All about the drinks and conversation.
Here are some of my favorite recent conversations, and some favorite writing on drinks, to help spark your curiosity and your conversations this week.
And, as always, I want to hear what you're reading, too!
Conversation
Talking with a skilled interviewer about my writing and research is such a joy. The act of thinking about my work in new ways, and being asked to explore those thoughts in conversation, is one way I learn and appreciate my subject matter more deeply, but also my own mind and how I approach and understand a given topic.
I've had some very fun conversations lately, including this deep dive conversation with Kate Kavanaugh that explores the many facets of my work with such care and attention (I also love that she titled it "Becoming a Bridge"). Her show is truly a treasure.
Some other recent favorites:
This conversation on the Colin McElroe Show all about dinner parties (where I argue they aren't dying, but how we think about hosting has changed), and which includes fellow Atlanta-area food writer Nandita Godbole.
This wide-ranging and very fun conversation with fellow Dr. Sarah Duignan, where we dive into all kinds of ferment-related conversations, but especially focus our attention on community.
And finally, this wonderful talk on Deep Roots Radio, also focused on connection, fermentation, and community. I love how each of these asked me to go deep into my knowledge banks but also to synthesize and share ideas in new ways. And I love the hosts of each of these shows, who really take the time to ask some thoughtful, and thought-provoking questions of their guests.
Drinks
I'm starting off this reading list not with alcohol but with the most important drink on the planet: Water. And in particular, thinking about the terroir of water and the unique taste it imparts to food: I like thinking about how our concepts of place and flavor might shift when a shifting, moving substance is used as their basis.
Alicia Kennedy's piece on natural wine, and on insecurity, food trends, and meatless eating, is a great example of how she uses a single ingredient or subject as a lens through which to explore larger cultural phenomena, and how insecurities and our food perceptions shift our experience of food and what it will do to us:
"What the insurgent “coolness” of either of these things does to people is make it seem as though one must fully buy-in or reject them. There is no way to participate, apparently—no way to drink a glass of Czech pet-nat or eat a dish that is animal-product-free—without fully embracing some sort of ideology that would radically alter one’s worldview or self-perception, like when dudes order a cocktail usually served in a coupe but ask for it in a “masculine glass.” This is all childish and incurious, but when has that ever stopped anyone?"
Also related to drinking history and culture, though to beer: This fun article on firkins (11 gallon casks for beer), which covers their history and current revival.
And finally, this piece on the tunnels underneath my former home of Iowa City, once used to make and to transport beer.
What's your favorite read, or your favorite conversation topic (or a fun fact or cool story you bust out at dinner parties?) Let me know in the comments!