Best Lisa Irby Podcasts (2025)

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Seed Oils Are The Latest Battle In The Cooking Fat Wars 38:36

Play Pause

3d ago38:36

38:36

In America, the cooking fat you use — lard, butter, shortening, oil — has long been a signifier of health, virtue, and class. What is about fat that gets us so riled up? Reporter Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong looks at four battles over cooking fats in America over the last 150 years, starting with lard vs. Crisco, all the way to our current panic over seed…

1
What Should Be The Last Cheese On Earth? (Reheat) 33:32

5d ago33:32

33:32

This week we’re reheating two call-in episodes from 2015. First: Two Sporkful listeners call in to debate the best way to make enchiladas: flat (lasagna style) or rolled. Can Dan's advice restore peace and save Enchilada Party Night? Next up: Adam and Jonathan in L.A. call in to debate a dystopian future with only one cheese and to explain why ched…

1
What’s It Like To Cook With A Brain Injury? 32:34

10d ago32:34

32:34

How does a traumatic brain injury affect the way you cook and eat? Filmmaker Cheryl Green, who has a brain injury, satirizes her own experiences in the kitchen in a short video called “Cooking With Brain Injury.” This week Dan talks with Cheryl about what it means to live with an invisible disability, how it affects her cooking, and why asking for …

1
Hosting Thanksgiving With Amy Sedaris (Reheat) 25:38

12d ago25:38

25:38

Amy Sedaris offers advice on dealing with family members who are drunk or confrontational at the holidays. Plus, Robert Krulwich (formerly of Radiolab) on the time a turkey fell in love with his wife. This episode originally aired on November 21, 2014, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Kristen Meinzer, and Anne Saini. The Sporkful team now includes …

1
The Last Meal Roy Wood Jr. Made For His Father 35:00

17d ago35:00

35:00

Roy Wood Jr. has long used humor to discuss topical issues and get at deeper truths. As a correspondent for The Daily Show, and now as the host of Have I Got News For You on CNN, he brings his own unique sensibility to political comedy. In his new memoir, The Man Of Many Fathers, he goes deep on his complicated relationship with his father, and the…

1
In The Test Kitchen With Dan Souza & Lisa McManus 51:35

19d ago51:35

51:35

Today we’re bringing you a conversation Dan had on the new podcast In the Test Kitchen, from America’s Test Kitchen. Hosts Dan Souza and Lisa McManus welcomed Dan into their Boston studio to dive deep into the world of pasta design, exploring what makes a perfect noodle and how texture, sauce-holding power, and mouthfeel come together in the ultima…

1
What Is Colorado Style Pizza? 44:37

24d ago44:37

44:37

We all know the classic regional pizza styles: New York, Chicago, Detroit. But Colorado? If you haven’t heard of that one, you’re not alone. Paul Karolyi, a reporter and executive producer of City Cast Denver, spent six years trying to uncover the story of how Colorado style pizza was invented, and why more people don’t know about it. This week we …

1
Phil Rosenthal Has A Menu Strategy (Reheat) 32:46

26d ago32:46

32:46

Wherever Phil Rosenthal goes, he wants to eat — which explains the name of his Netflix show, Somebody Feed Phil. He travels the world with wide eyes, an empty stomach, and a bottomless supply of delight at the people and food he encounters. And before Somebody Feed Phil and his new podcast Naked Lunch, Phil created the hit sitcom Everybody Loves Ra…

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How Did Tony Shalhoub Learn To Play A Chef On Screen? 32:55

1M ago32:55

32:55

Tony Shalhoub is an actor whose roles skew towards the quirky and neurotic — and his characters’ quirks often come out through food. In the classic 1996 film Big Night, Tony plays an uncompromising Italian chef whose Jersey Shore restaurant is on the brink of failure. In the TV show Monk, he plays a detective with OCD who has many strong opinions a…

1
A Comprehensive Candy Treatise For Halloween (Reheat) 25:38

1M ago25:38

25:38

This week we're talking about a number of key candy issues with special guests in time for Halloween. You'll hear from a Colorado-based Eater whose highly comprehensive candy treatise is on our blog and a candy blogger who has a Kit Kat eating technique that is bound to cause sustained widespread controversy or at the very least an significant upti…

1
What Makes Dorie Greenspan’s Recipes So Good? 34:22

1M ago34:22

34:22

Ask folks in the world of food and cookbooks, “Who writes the best recipes?” and you’ll hear one name more than any other: Dorie Greenspan. "Dorie does rock solid recipes," says Chandra Ram, who judges the prestigious IACP Cookbook Awards. So what's Dorie doing that makes her recipes better than others? This week, we travel to her home in Connectic…

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How Did Staying Hydrated Become A Thing? (Reheat) 36:53

1M ago36:53

36:53

To say that hydration is an invention is only a slight exaggeration. Water bottles have become a crucial accessory — a status symbol. How did that happen? This week we bring you an episode from our friends at the Slate podcast Decoder Ring. They investigate how bottled water transformed itself from a small, European luxury item to the single larges…

1
How Does Paul Hollywood Dunk His Cookies? 43:35

1M ago43:35

43:35

On The Great British Bake Off, Paul Hollywood is known for his tough but fair judgments, his piercing blue eyes, and his handshake, which he offers to a contestant only when they really impress him. But before he was ever a TV judge, he was a baker. When he first started doing TV appearances, it was nothing more than “icing on the cake” of his baki…

1
Nadiya Hussain, From “Great British Bake Off” To Elbows Out (Reheat) 33:11

2M ago33:11

33:11

When Nadiya Hussain competed on The Great British Bake Off in 2015, it seemed like all of Britain — from self-proclaimed #Nadiyators to the prime minister — was rooting for her. Since then, she’s hosted TV shows, written best-selling books, and become a household name in the UK. But the transformation we focus on in this conversation is the one tha…

1
Why Would You Put A Recipe On Your Gravestone? 30:33

2M ago30:33

30:33

Rosie Grant was already obsessed with cemeteries when she came across her first gravestone recipe. The headstone was carved into the shape of an open cookbook with a cookie recipe on it. Rosie made the cookies, posted about it on TikTok, and overnight she became the gravestone recipes lady. She tracked down dozens more gravestone recipes, meeting t…

1
Can I Wipe My Oily Hands On My Legs? (Reheat) 35:27

2M ago35:27

35:27

We open the phone lines to settle your most contentious food disputes this week. Eliza wants to wipe her oily hands on her bare legs — is her boyfriend Connor right to object? Then, Natalie thinks she’s entitled to half of what her husband Josh cooks, even though he’s generally hungrier. What’s the fairest way to divvy up meals? To answer these que…

1
What's In Taylor Swift's Signature Cocktail? 47:18

2M ago47:18

47:18

Are chicken tenders having a renaissance? Are lit candles in restaurants worth the risk of a few people’s hair catching on fire? And when Taylor Swift designs a signature cocktail…what’s in it? We cover all these questions and more in this edition of the Salad Spinner — our rapid-fire, roundtable discussion of all the biggest and buzziest food news…

1
How Ketchup Got Its Name (Reheat) 37:52

2M ago37:52

37:52

Ketchup started as a far different product from what’s on the shelves today. A lot of its evolution can be traced to an early government agency and a group there called “The Poison Squad” that tested the safety of different chemicals -- by eating them. We hear that story. Then a linguist explains why the name “rocky road” actually makes the ice cre…

1
What Can McDonald’s Tell Us About Black America? 34:26

2M ago34:26

34:26

Growing up as a Black kid in Chicago, Dr. Marcia Chatelain says she learned more about Black history from McDonald’s than from her fancy prep school. Now, she’s a professor of Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, Dr. Chatelain explores the role that Mc…

1
Celebrating Shabbat At Wendy’s (Reheat) 26:28

2M ago26:28

26:28

Shabbat — the Jewish Sabbath – begins every Friday at sundown with a meal. But in all the years that Jews have been having Shabbat dinner, there’s no record in the rabbinic texts of it happening at the fast food chain Wendy’s. Until, that is, a group of seniors in Palm Desert, California, made it their weekly tradition. This week Dan joins in on th…

1
What’s A Jewish Tavern And House Of Learning? 33:58

2M ago33:58

33:58

Josh Foer and Rabbi Charlie Schwartz set out to create a new kind of Jewish space, one that would be welcoming, thought-provoking, delicious, and even cool. The result is Lehrhaus — a Jewish tavern and house of learning. This week Dan visits Lehrhaus in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he takes a tour of their “magical Jewish objects,” checks out t…

1
Is The Future Of Bourbon Female? (Reheat) 35:31

3M ago35:31

35:31

Bourbon's growing popularity is changing an industry with deep roots in Kentucky. We travel there to learn what that means for one of the oldest and one of the youngest bourbon masters. This episode originally aired on January 14, 2019, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini, edited by Gianna Palmer and Emma Morgenstern, and mixed by the Re…

1
Why Does Cracker Barrel Keep Making People So Mad? 34:39

3M ago34:39

34:39

A few weeks ago, Cracker Barrel announced it was changing its logo — removing the old man in overalls and the barrel, updating the font, and removing the words “Old Country Store.” Longtime Cracker Barrel fans went nuts, decrying the “sterile” look. Conservative commentators tied the change to a “DEI regime” and called the new logo “woke.” Even the…

1
How To Host Your Own Porkapalooza 23:13

3M ago23:13

23:13

This week, we’re ringing in fall tailgating season with a barbecue, featuring three different cuts of pork: ribs, pork chops, and bratwurst. The grillmaster in charge of it all is Jimmy Tchinnis, owner and executive chef at Swallow Kitchen and Cocktails and L’uccello Pizza and Italian Fare in Greenlawn, NY. Jimmy started out cooking in high-end res…

1
Soju, Snacks, And Ramen: How To Party Like A Korean 33:44

3M ago33:44

33:44

This week’s show is a raucous Korean-style night out, all on a weekday afternoon. Dan heads to Orion Bar in Brooklyn to learn how to drink like a Korean with Irene Yoo and Peter Kim. Irene is the owner of Orion Bar and author of Soju Party, a book of drink and food recipes that’s also a guide to Korean drinking culture. She shows Dan some drinking …

Lisa Irby Podcasts

1
The Sporkful

Dan Pashman

1
The 2 Create a Website Podcast

Lisa Irby

1
Seed Oils Are The Latest Battle In The Cooking Fat Wars 38:36

1
What Should Be The Last Cheese On Earth? (Reheat) 33:32

1
What’s It Like To Cook With A Brain Injury? 32:34

1
Hosting Thanksgiving With Amy Sedaris (Reheat) 25:38

1
The Last Meal Roy Wood Jr. Made For His Father 35:00

1
In The Test Kitchen With Dan Souza & Lisa McManus 51:35

1
What Is Colorado Style Pizza? 44:37

1
Phil Rosenthal Has A Menu Strategy (Reheat) 32:46

1
How Did Tony Shalhoub Learn To Play A Chef On Screen? 32:55

1
A Comprehensive Candy Treatise For Halloween (Reheat) 25:38

1
What Makes Dorie Greenspan’s Recipes So Good? 34:22

1
How Did Staying Hydrated Become A Thing? (Reheat) 36:53

1
How Does Paul Hollywood Dunk His Cookies? 43:35

1
Nadiya Hussain, From “Great British Bake Off” To Elbows Out (Reheat) 33:11

1
Why Would You Put A Recipe On Your Gravestone? 30:33

1
Can I Wipe My Oily Hands On My Legs? (Reheat) 35:27

1
What's In Taylor Swift's Signature Cocktail? 47:18

1
How Ketchup Got Its Name (Reheat) 37:52

1
What Can McDonald’s Tell Us About Black America? 34:26

1
Celebrating Shabbat At Wendy’s (Reheat) 26:28

1
What’s A Jewish Tavern And House Of Learning? 33:58

1
Is The Future Of Bourbon Female? (Reheat) 35:31

1
Why Does Cracker Barrel Keep Making People So Mad? 34:39

1
How To Host Your Own Porkapalooza 23:13

1
Soju, Snacks, And Ramen: How To Party Like A Korean 33:44