This is a time of celebrating food and giving thanks to the people who grow it, catch it, and prepare it. That’s why today we are bringing you an episode we first aired back in May of 2023.

Food connects us to our past, to our memories, to each other, and to the world around us. It’s powerful. But food systems–from how we grow or catch things to how we transport them –are also incredibly complex. As climate change increasingly impacts the world, we are seeing some of the first effects of that through our food.

So we’ve been wondering… How can we keep enjoying the food we love to eat without hurting the ecosystems it comes from? And how can we support the people who make a livelihood producing that food? Today on Sea Change, we meet some amazing chefs to help us answer those questions. First, we go into the kitchen of Top Chef finalist, Isaac Toups, to learn how he connects cooking with activism for saving the coast. And then we speak to a group of chefs who are just as passionate about what they put on our plates as they are about protecting the place we live…from the wetlands of Louisiana to the entire planet.

A special thanks to Chef Isaac Toups, Chef Dana Honn, Chef Erik Nunley, and Chef April Bellows.

For more information about the Chef’s Brigade: https://www.chefsbrigade.org

We hope you enjoy this episode, and we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.

This episode was hosted by Halle Parker and Carlyle Calhoun. Carlyle Calhoun is our managing producer. The sound designer for this episode is Maddie Zampanti and our theme music is by Jon Batiste.

Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. To help others find our podcast, please hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

You can reach the Sea Change team at seachange@wwno.org.