Point of Origin – Details, episodes & analysis

Hello Point of Origin fans, your host Stephen Satterfield here! I want to tell you about Whetstone Radio Collective, a brand new podcast venture from Whetstone Media now streaming. Whetstone Radio is like nothing else in the food podcast space and touches thematically on similar topics from Point of Origin—from politics, to culture, to global gastronomic histories, and of course, as always, centering on human empathy. With more in-depth conversations and more space to explore origins— and with unique cinematic and musical production—we think WRC is something really special and we have a strong feeling you’re going to think so too. 

We have some incredible shows for you. Climate Cuisine, from Taiwanese American journalist Clarissa Wei, takes a journalism-style look at the way the climate crisis is fundamentally shaping our relationship with food. Fruit Love Letters, from chef Jessamine Starr, is like a valentine to all your favorite fruits. This spring, writer Debra Freeman will invite you to a seat at The Table, an insightful show about Southern foodways. If you’ve been missing Point of Origin, I encourage you to check out some of the programming at Whetstone Radio Collective, search for the individual shows by title on your favorite podcast platform, and continue to discover the immense power food has on our collective/communal lives.

Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/whetstone-radio/id6442689915

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Point of Origin friends this is our last episode of the season and a very special one to capstone the season. Today we’re talking about justice in food systems, its absence within those systems and the circumstances that lead to lacking. Now, maybe you've heard heard of the term “food desert” as a means of describing these circumstances, but food apartheid is more forceful, more succinct and frankly, more accurate language. 

To discuss the importance of language specificity when discussing food justice, we have just the right guest to speak on it, the same person who coined the term, Bronx resident and activist Karen Washington. We also chat with Mr. Bryant Terry, award-winning author, chef in residence of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, and long-time food justice activist. And finally we close with author, educator and anthropologist, Dr. Hanna Garth. We compare and contrast food systems in the US and Cuba, and the ways in which each system undermines their respective constituents, and how, ultimately, systemic racism endures in both.

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Most people have heard of ouzo from Greece, pastis from France or Italian sambuca but few know that they're all derived from the mother spirit, arak - the oldest spirit in the world. Nader Muaddi, a Philadelphia-born Palestinian, is working to change that while restoring arak to it's former glory. Join us as we launch season 3 of Point of Origin, in conversation with journalist Lyric Lewin as she travels to Muaddi's distillery and learn what makes this milky distillate unique.

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Food is, and always has been, political. If that wasn’t clear before, the events of 2020 have revealed this truth in spectacular fashion. So this season, we’re diving deeper, learning about the nomadic roots of the Fulani people and the cultural significance of the mat, we travel to Palestine to taste the milky distillate, arak. And then to La Palma in the Canary Islands to drink local wine froma woman winemaker, while considering the industry’s male dominance. We’re questioning the morality of eating meat, the politics of language and why we don’t say food dessert, but rather, food apartheid.This season we’re bringing you into the policies thatinfluence and shape our food system. And along the way drinking coffee with you while discussing its African origins. From the makers of Whetstone media, it's PoO S3. on September 23! I’m inviting you to travel with me, your host Stephen Satterfield, for another tour of the world of food worldwide.

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Recent media attention surrounding native indigenous foodways has brought to light what a decolonized diet means. This is in part thanks to individuals like Sean Sherman, the Sioux Chef, places like the Ohlone Cafe in Berkeley, Ca, Andi Murphy the host of Toasted Sister podcast and Brit Reed who works at Tulalip clinic. Through their work, and the work of many other indigenous people, they are revitalizing and bringing attention to the precolonial foods of their local indigenous tribes.

On this episode of Point of Origin from Whetstone Magazine we explore how can we truly honor indigenous foodways, without it becoming the new, then forgotten trend? And why land and gathering are essential to indigenous foodways. Learn more about this episode.

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Over last 20 years, there is perhaps no name more important in the world of contemporary dining culture than Chef René Redzepi and his restaurant, Noma. After two decades, many of the same people who helped create the phenomenon are asking: Does the movement need to live to continue or die? On this episode of Point of Origin from Whetstone Magazine, we speak with Jeff Gordinier, author of "HUNGRY: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World." 

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Did you know that the coconut is one of the only seafaring, self-propagating crops? Or that most of the world’s olive oils are produced in Spain, but end up blended, imported then exported, far from their country of origin? How about the fact that organized crime infiltrated the Italian food system for decades? Climate, locality and even human welfare by way of Fairtrade have all seeped into the consciousness of many well informed and capable shoppers. But, when it comes to the complexities of the commodification of our food, what facts do we consider when we grocery shop? We explore on this episode of Point of Origin from Whetstone Magazine.  

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Diasporic foodways looks at the ways identity and food evolve in new home countries. Join Whetstone Magazine’s Point of Origin podcast as we speak with Asleigh Shanti, Aarohi Narai, and the team from Third Culture Bakery on the power of diasporic foodways. 

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Just days before her second restaurant was set to open, we spoke to Bay Area-based chef and restaurateur Reem Assil. We discussed her feelings on the precipice of opening, but also, about the industry at large. Her answers about the state of the restaurant industry would prove painfully ominous. What they revealed are some of the pitfalls of the industry prior to its COVID-19-related collapse and underscores some of the challenges it now faces in rebuilding. 

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In part 2 of our series on natural wine we delve deeper into the what makes the term natural wine controversial, why the qualifier alludes us and if natural wine is trend or here to stay. In part episode of Point of Origin from Whetstone Magazine, we’re joined by New York based sommelier Amanda Smeltz, who currently works as a wine director at both ESTELA and Cafe Altro Paradiso, who breaks down the cultural significance of natural wine.

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