Michael Crupain's Wild Journey: From Neurosurgery, to Dr. Oz, to Cookbooks!

Mary Ann Esposito is a legend. She is the star of Ciao Italia, a PBS show she produces in New Hampshire. Syndicated nationally for 31 years, it's the longest running cooking show in America. She has written over a dozen books focused on Italian regional cooking, and at 81, she still leads cooking tours to Italy. Fascinating, feisty, and down-to-earth, I just love her. Let's have a listen.

Photo courtesy of John W. Hession.

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Michael Crupain is an MD, an MPH, a passionate wellness advocate, and a terrific cook. When we first met, Michael was at Consumer Reports, which he then left to become the medical director of the Dr. Oz show (wow!). And now after 7 years there, he's writing fabulous cookbooks!

Photo courtesy of Michael Crupain.

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Our guest today is Corky White, Professor of Anthropology at Boston University. Although her focus is on Japan, Corky has a deep and fascinating focus on food – both as an academic pursuit and as globe-trotting food lover. Today’s episode is just that. A global trot through Corky’s life, food, culture, and the impact of her own heritage on why food is so fascinating. Her newest book, written with her son, historian Ben Wurgaft, is "Ways of Eating." We’ll get to that too – and stay tuned to learn about her grandmother’s rolling pin! Let’s have a listen!

Photo courtesy of Corky White.

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Our guest today is one of my favorite members of the culinary elite: Martha Rose Shulman, an award-winning author of more than twenty-five cookbooks, including The Simple Art of Vegetarian Cooking, The Very Best of Recipes for Health, Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes from the World’s Healthiest Cuisine (named one of the 6 best vegetarian cookbooks of the last 25 years by Cooking Light Magazine), Mediterranean Light, Provençal Light, and Entertaining Light. For eight years she wrote the feature entitled Recipes for Health for the New York Times. She has over 1,500 recipes featured on the NY Times Cooking website. Her food combines pleasure and health, drawing largely from the cuisines of the Mediterranean, inherently healthy cuisines with big flavors.

Photo courtesy of Martha Rose Schulman.

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We talk -- or mostly listen -- to the remarkable Barton Seaver; recovering chef, prodigious advocate of all things seafood, TED talk alum, author of landmark books on American seafood (my favorite is For Cod & Country), and quite possibly the most eloquent speaker we've ever met!

Photo courtesy of Barton Seaver.

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A 14 year old Minnesota boy wanted a motorcycle. He got a job as a dishwasher and it launched a stellar culinary career. We talked with Mark about himself, his outlook on the future of restaurants, and where the CIA is headed next.

Photo courtesy of Mark Erickson.

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Have you ever wondered how a food delivery business gets going? All the logistics, and the headaches and uncertainty of matching farmers to food and the fresh food to your home? Erin Baumgartner is the CEO and Founder of The Family Dinner. While working as the Assistant Director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT, she left her job after a drink with her husband in a local bar made her believe that her back-of-the-cocktail napkin idea was worth betting on. Since then, she has received so many accolades and awards -- and is the presenter of an inspiring Ted Talk!

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Paul Sellew is the Founder and CEO of Little Leaf Farms. His "farm" occupies massive greenhouses in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and he expects that by 2026, he'll have 100 acres "under glass" and be able to offer sustainable crisp salad greens to over 50% of the American salad eating world. We'll all be crushing on Little Leaf's hydroponic and sunshine nourished salad greens. He's not the only one who believes in his success: Superstar Bono and his RISE Fund recently made a $300 million dollar investment in the company. That's a lot of arugula! Let's have a listen to Paul Sellew!

Photo courtesy of Adam De Tour for Little Leaf Farms.

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A Conversation with Frank Lowenstein of RARE. Rare is the largest non-profit you've never heard of, and for 50 years it has been focused on using Behavioral Change to nudge people towards Sustainability all over the world. Now, RARE comes to the US. Frank, a lifelong environmentalist, talks about what we can do at the individual level to mitigate climate change.

Photo courtesy of Frank Lowenstein.

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Joanna James is a filmmaker, non-profit founder, mom of three girls, and the daughter of Val James, who against all odds created a successful restaurant company. Joanna’s film entitled "A Fine Line" documents her mother’s struggles, and those of other well-known female chef-owners in the restaurant industry. It tells the story of the barriers, financial and personal, that women face in the food business. When I first saw the film, I understood it as a love letter to her mom. The film created shock waves, generating a lot of buzz upon release. Joanna is also the founder of MAPP Impact, a non-profit focused on mentorship and policy advocacy for women in the food & beverage industry.

Photo courtesy of Joanna James.

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