Food feeds us in many ways. It feeds our bodies, it feeds our souls, and sometimes, it can feed our egos. Culinary travel is an excellent way to learn and experience the world. In some cases, the economic impact helps to sustain industries that empower communities around the world. But when food becomes a status symbol, when its perceived “prestige value” is used as a merit badge that proves that we’ve “been there, eaten that,” the impact of culinary travel can take a dark turn.

This week on Power Dining I chat with my good friend Matt Hershberger. He’s an author, stay-at-home dad, and the writer/podcaster behind Better Strangers here on Substack. We actually met while we were both working as travel editors and have seen firsthand the impact media has on influencing culinary travel and the power the industry has on communities around the world.

In this episode, we talked about lessons we learned on our own travels and over the course of our careers, what happens when food becomes a status symbol, and how media and social media can fuel a phenomenon that’s called “prestige value.”

The Power Dining Podcast digs into the power structures, power moves, and power dynamics in the world of food. Every other week a new guest joins host, Kae Lani Palmisano, in a conversation about how the complex relationships we have with food, its impact on us and the world, and the unexplainable beliefs about food we just can’t seem to shake.

For more subscribe to Power Dining on Substack. Paid subscribers will get access to extended interviews, bonus episodes, and more. You can watch each episode on YouTube.

Matt HershbergerBetter Strangers Substack: betterstrangers.substack.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@betterstrangersbooks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthershberger/Kae Lani PalmisanoSubstack: powerdining.substack.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kaelanisays Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaelanisays/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaeLaniSaysYouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxfNwsFbKTnxUd23yEeSfvNv2Or4c8Yq_

When most of us think of fermented foods, we think of pickles. Maybe, for some of us, beer, wine and other distilled beverages or sourdough bread come to mind, but for the most part, our minds wander to all of the things we could possibly pickle, like in that “WE CAN PICKLE THAT” sketch from Portlandia.

But to Julia Skinner, food historian, fermentation specialist, teacher and social science researcher, ferments are a time capsule that not only preserves time and place, but also culture. Her latest book, Our Fermented Lives A History: How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures & Communities, explores humanity’s history of wrangling up bacteria to feed communities, preserve foods, provide nutrition and how generations of cultures around the world have been able to maintain their culinary traditions through “cultivating culture” (both biologically and anthropologically).

Follow Julia Skinner on Substack over at Root Kitchens, @RootKitchens on Instagram and @BookishJulia on Twitter. And be sure to follow me, Kae Lani Palmisano at @KaeLaniSays on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.

The Power Dining Podcast digs into the power structures, power moves, and power dynamics in the world of food. Every other week a new guest joins host, Kae Lani Palmisano, in a conversation about how the complex relationships we have with food, its impact on us and the world, and the unexplainable beliefs about food we just can’t seem to shake.

For more subscribe to Power Dining on Substack. Paid subscribers will get access to extended interviews, bonus episodes, and more. You can watch each episode here on YouTube.