Dan Pashman revisits food science with Kenji López-Alt and rotating live comedy guests.
The Sporkful treats food as a way into bigger human questions. Across interviews, live episodes, reheated favorites, and reporting from Beijing and Tokyo, Dan Pashman follows sausages, bagels, allergies, beer foam, holiday meals, and restaurant politics wherever they lead.
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The Sporkful is hosted by Dan Pashman, who built the show around close, often obsessive attention to food details as a way into larger stories about people. Formats vary widely: one-on-one interviews with food scientists and chefs, solo-reported narrative episodes, live shows recorded before audiences at venues like San Francisco's Swedish American Hall and Brooklyn's Bell House, and recurring game segments such as 'Two Chefs and a Lie,' where working chefs and comedians try to fool Pashman with a fabricated food story. Food writer and Serious Eats alum Kenji López-Alt appears repeatedly as a recurring guest, discussing recipe writing, restaurant ownership, and cooking science. Other guests include working chefs (Curtis Duffy, Doug Sohn), journalists, and food-world figures tied to a specific story, alongside comedians who join the live panel and game episodes. Subject matter ranges from lighter fare, like beer serving techniques or Easter candy debates, to heavier reporting on restaurant labor exploitation and tick-borne meat allergies. Episodes are frequently rebroadcast under a 'Reheat' label, pulling older interviews and listener-requested segments back into rotation. The show is produced with SiriusXM Podcasts and regularly credits Pashman's other food-world projects, including the cascatelli pasta shape. Listeners who enjoy food writing that connects technique to bigger cultural or political questions, rather than straightforward cooking instruction, are the core audience. Episode length runs roughly 20 to 45 minutes, and the tone shifts between investigative, comedic, and narrative depending on the segment.
Made for: Listeners interested in food as a lens on science, culture, and industry, not primarily recipe-seekers or restaurant critics.
What sets it apart: Combines solo narrative food journalism, recurring food-science interviews, and live audience game segments in one feed, rather than sticking to a single interview or review format.
3x James Beard Award winner. Named one of TIME's 100 Best Podcasts Of All Time. We obsess about food to learn more about people. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. Hosted by Dan Pashman, inventor of the viral pasta shape cascatelli.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The Sporkful turns culinary curiosity into clear, lively accounts of the people, pressures, and histories gathered around food.
Dan Pashman treats food as a way into the choices, histories, and social pressures gathered around a meal. The Sporkful moves comfortably between live conversation and reported narrative: Kenji Lopez-Alt reflects on abandoning claims about the "best" recipe, a roundtable…
Dan Pashman can turn matzah complaints or meat allergies into your next dinner-table obsession.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A warm Chicago food story about Hot Doug's, four-hour lines, Cubs jokes, and why one sausage counter became pilgrimage material.
Dan Pashman's reheated conversation with Doug Sohn, the Hot Doug behind Chicago's legendary Hot Doug's, is really about how a sausage counter could inspire four-hour lines and, when its closing was announced six months ahead of time, something close to pilgrimage.
A meat allergy mystery turns food, fear, and tick geography into an intimate public health story.
Amy Pearl's sudden alpha-gal syndrome turns a food show into a medical mystery, and The Sporkful handles it with a useful mix of appetite and unease.
Kenji Lopez-Alt turns food science into a thoughtful conversation about expertise, culture, and knowing when not to say best.
In this live Sporkful conversation from San Francisco, Dan Pashman revisits Kenji Lopez-Alt's long shift from recipe problem-solver to a cook more wary of declaring any dish finished.
A live Sporkful roundtable turns food news into a sharp conversation about kitchen pressure, labor, and power.
The Sporkful takes its live Salad Spinner format to the Bell House in Brooklyn, with Dan Pashman turning food news into a roomful of arguments about taste, power, and work.
A warm holiday-food doubleheader where matzah, salt water, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and ham become culture through appetite.
The Sporkful turns a Passover and Easter reheat into a loose, funny study of holiday food as habit, memory, and appetite. Dan Pashman comes in defending matzah, praising Cadbury Creme Eggs, and treating the discovery of spiral-cut ham like a minor personal landmark.
A street-level Sporkful report on China-Japan tension, told through markets, tourism, and roast pork.
Dan Pashman uses a seafood dispute as the entry point for a quieter story about China and Japan, where official tension keeps running into everyday appetite.
A funny Sporkful reheat about beer service, packaging gimmicks, and the strange theater around the pour.
The Sporkful turns beer service into the kind of everyday argument it does best: foam, cans versus bottles, glassware, and the small rituals that make drinking feel more considered than it probably needs to be.
A Beijing meal opens onto China's restaurant boom through family memory, appetite, and a few well-placed surprises.
The Sporkful uses Dan Pashman's trip to Beijing to tell a compact history of a restaurant culture that, by the show's account, barely existed in private form 40 years ago.
Des Moines mornings with bite-sized arguments.
Business, culture, and power in motion.
Milwaukee food news with bite and butter.
Tiny food stories, treated seriously.
Fast opinions, warm chaos, be normal.
Philadelphia food, reported one kitchen at a time
A listener asks, so Dan pulls the story back out.
Amy Pearl misses eating without fear.
Kenji López-Alt is back onstage with Dan Pashman at San Francisco's Swedish American Hall.
Live from the Bell House in Brooklyn, Dan Pashman turns the Salad Spinner into a stage roundtable, with Judy Gold ready to pounce on a food take.
Matzah gets defended.
"We had an opera situation here." Dan Pashman uses a Beijing-and-Tokyo trip to follow how tense China-Japan politics spill into food and tourism.
Beer foam gets its day in court.
China's restaurant scene is young.
Dan Pashman interviews Padma Lakshmi about her experiences eating on television and her cultural food memories.
This episode explores Somali cuisine, its historical influences, and cultural significance through an interview with a food documentarian.
Host Dan Pashman explores the cultural and personal significance of Ramadan through interviews with Muslims about their fasting and eating experiences.
Dan Pashman discusses the annoyance of food photography and promotes an upcoming live show about bagels.
Dan Pashman introduces a live episode of The Sporkful from Los Angeles, where the show explores food to understand people.
This episode explores how a Mexican restaurant and market in St.
A taco can be read.
A criminal confesses to hiding a second set of accounting books that led to his downfall in a major fraud case.
This episode explores how dietary differences, including religious restrictions and personal preferences like frugality and stomach sensitivity, affect a marriage.
A Muslim writer reflects on growing up with food rules and what it means to challenge them as an adult.
February 15th brings The Simpsons' 800th episode, so Dan pulls a Sporkful trip out of the deep freezer and heads back to the writers' room.
Aruba, quince, Walmart, Walden, JPMorgan Chase.
A former inmate shares a story about how prison ramen and a meal with older inmates tested his trustworthiness and survival in prison.
Dan Pashman reminisces about the early days of The Sporkful and discusses the relaunch of the podcast Mike and Tom Eat Snacks.
Dan gets ambushed.
Dan Pashman interviews comedian Tom Papa about his food memories and the cultural significance of eating.
Dan Pashman interviews food stylist Elle Simone Scott about the art and quirks of making food look perfect for photography.
Dan Pashman interviews legendary chef Jacques Pepin about his cooking philosophy, instructional videos, and 90th birthday celebrations.
Dan Pashman takes listener calls about family food disputes, starting with a debate over when to eat movie theater popcorn.
Host Dan Pashman interviews French reporter Samia about her first experience with American movie theater popcorn, exploring cultural differences in eating habits.
Dan Pashman and guests discuss the year's biggest food stories, including pressure cooking pasta, tariff impacts, and a salad spinner year-in-review segment.
Dan Pashman promotes a pasta sale and invites listeners to share New Year's food resolutions.
Dan Pashman introduces a live episode with Robert Krulwich and Amy Sedaris discussing Thanksgiving, holiday eating, and entertaining tips.
This episode explores Asheville, North Carolina as a food destination, highlighting its local farms, chefs, and culinary scene.
Dan Pashman explores how a group of seniors celebrates the Jewish Sabbath at a Wendy's, examining the intersection of tradition, community, and fast food.
Host Dan Pashman visits Lair House, a Jewish tavern and house of learning in Somerville, to explore how food and debate shape Jewish identity and community.