Over the past six months, our team, as well as, the rest of the country, have experienced a lot of grief and heartache. As we grapple with how to navigate these losses - whether it’s a loved one or the threat to our freedoms - something that has always helped us cope is food, and its connections to community and each other. This shared experience brought us into conversations about how food can act as an intimate and integral part of mourning.

The stories in our Season 17 finale include a visit to a temple to explore how food, ritual and memory come together, a talk with a death doula, the recipes that remind us to connect with the ones that are still here– as well as a few familiar ones from seasons’ past.

Stick around to the end of the episode for a special little conversation between Hosts and Executive Producers H Conley and Taylor Early, a love note if you will, to Meat and Three and the community of storytellers that have contributed to the airwaves over the past seasons.

Further Reading:

To learn more about David Sutton’s work on Food Anthropology, check out his book Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory.

To discover more about Azul and their offerings, check out their instagram @mariposxhealing or their website Mariposx healing

Curious about how food and grief intersect ? Check out Grief at the Table, Holiday Edition, Support from Voices of Color, A digital zine exploring how personal and familial losses are experienced during the holiday season and how to process our grief in community.

For more information about Burmese Food, visit Burmalicious by Suu and Mimi Aye’s blog for recipes, links to cookbooks, and more.

This episode of Meat and Three was lovingly reported by Hieu Huynh, Jessie Nicely, Zariel Grullón, Maya Okindo, and Taylor Early.

Our lead producer on this episode was Hieu Huynh, with support from Taylor Graham, Kiki Canuto, Bean Metcalf, and Ash Tyler.

Meat and Three is produced by H Conley and Taylor Early.

Our audio engineer for this episode was Sam Gerardi.

Keep Meat and Three on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate.

Meat and Three is powered by Simplecast.

Music Licenses:

Downtown Serenade by Jahzzar - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/Viikinsaari/Downtown_Serenade_1409

Skywalkers by bobby lee - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/orakhal/single/skywalkers/

Old Age by HoliznaCC0 - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/holiznacc0/only-in-the-milky-way-part-1/old-age/

In this episode, we uncork a different kind of wine story—one rooted in joy, land, and legacy. From a biodiverse vineyard in the Midwest to a Black-owned Prosecco brand in South Carolina, we meet the innovators reshaping the wine world on their own terms. You’ll hear from Krista Scruggs of ZAFA Wines, Justin Wages of Don Luchi Prosecco, sommelier LaShea Delaney, and Cecilia Cuff of Bronzeville Winery, as they share what it means to cultivate not just grapes, but community.

Together, they’re building ecosystems—on the land and in the industry—that defy tradition and reimagine who wine is for.

Further Reading:

Interested in reading Natalie Baszile’s book, We are Each Other’s Harvest, pick it up here.

Follow ZAFA Wines new chapter on their webpage, Instagram, and sign up for their newsletter.

Read more about Dr. Elaine Ingham’s soil web research and regenerative farming.

Live in South Carolina, North Carolina, or Tennessee? Check out Don Luchi’s Prosecco.

If you're in LA, grab a bottle from LaShea’s selection at Carla’s Fresh Market.

In or visiting Chicago? Check out Bronzeville Winery and their Wine Collective.

We are all about making the wine industry accessible. If you are a BIPOC winemaker and/or interested in breaking into the wine industry? Check out these resources given to us by our interviewees: The Hue Society, Wine Unify, The Roots Fund, Black Wine Professionals, and The Veraison Project.

This episode of Meat and Three was reported by Ash Tyler and Kiki Canuto.

Our lead producer on this episode was Ash Tyler, with special editorial support from Zariel Grullón, Jessie Nicely, and Maya Okindo.

Meat and Three is produced by H Conley and Taylor Early.

Our audio engineer for this episode was Sam Gerardi.

Keep Meat and Three on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate.

Meat and Three is powered by Simplecast.

In episode two of The Cult of Chef, producer Hannah Chouinard digs into the reality of workplace abuse in food service and argues that focusing on the people in positions of power comes at a cost to everyone else who makes a restaurant run. Through interviews and features from Julia Moskin, Reem Assil, and Saru Jayaraman, she finds that the media’s disinterest in workers’ issues has enabled abuse. She calls on journalists and writers to expand their ideas about what makes a compelling story, noting that toxic systems are bad for everyone, including the chefs they privilege.

The Cult of Chef is written, produced, and edited by Hannah Chouinard. It is hosted by the one and only Taylor Early.

Cover art for The Cult of Chef is designed by the incredible Michael Hampton. For more art, comedy, and silliness, you can find him here.

You can find Julia Moskin’s work for the New York Times here.

To find out more about Reem Assil, you can check out her website, here.

Read her op-ed on the toxicity of chef culture here.

Listen to Saru Jayaraman talk fair wages on ShiftWork here.

Be sure to check out the rest of the series, which you can find here.

For more information about wage theft and how the tip credit came to be, you can download the full report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics here.

Learn about connections between racism, misogyny, and the tipped sub-minimum wage, you can read studies here, here, and here.

If you’re looking for a more personal take on these connections, you can find Michelle Alexander’s op-ed on the topic here.

To read Teófilo Reyes’s statement on the impacts of Trump administration policy on food workers, you can find it here.

You can find even more info on issues impacting the lives of food service workers on ROC United’s website, here.

More information on One Fair Wage lives here.

You can read about the impacts of ending subminimum-tipped wages here and here.

Read an overview of challenges to mental health in food service here.

For more pointed critiques, you can find a piece on the late Bernard Loiseau here, and a profile on late chef Benoit Violier here.

If you’re a hospitality worker struggling with mental health, you can get in touch with no-cost counseling through Southern Smoke here.

To get in touch with a suicide and crisis hotline, you can call 988 or visit their website here.

An extra special thank you to Joey Freeman, Roan Shea, Safieh Moshir-Fatemi, Sarah Gabrielli, and Alex Groher-Jick for all their help on this arc.

In this episode, we’re breaking format, and serving you up an audio-documentary-style entree. Our producer, Hieu Huynh takes us to her home state of Georgia, where she’s examining how water spinach has become a unifying force for the Vietnamese community – a symbol of resilience, adaptation, and the ongoing negotiation between cultural heritage and the environment.

Though not as well-known as bok choy or chinese broccoli, this vegetable is a staple in many Asian cuisines, and in Vietnamese cooking in particular.

It’s also on the USDA’s noxious plant list… and is considered a “plant pest” in Georgia.

In true Meaty fashion, Hieu’s exploration into this complex relationship of power, identity, and privilege, ultimately asks, “What happens when upholding foodways comes into conflict with the laws of the land?”

Further Reading:

Learn more about community activist Le Doan and her work with the Vietnamese American Community of Georgia here

Read about Dr. Sarah Kuebbing’s work with the Yale School of the Environment here

Discover State Representative Marvin Lim’s work with the Asian American community in Georgia here

Keep up-to-date on the progress made by Prof. Timothy Coolong and the University of Georgia’s School of Agriculture here

Want to cook water spinach? Check out these recipes!

This episode of Meat and Three was reported by Hieu Huynh

Our lead producer on this episode was Hieu Huynh, with support from Bean Metcalf, Maya Okindo, and Taylor Graham.

Meat and Three is produced by H Conley and Taylor Early.

Our audio engineer for this episode was Sam Gerardi.

Keep Meat and Three on the air: become an HRN Member today! Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate.

Meat and Three is powered by Simplecast.

In this episode of The Cult of Chef, producer Hannah Chouinard examines America’s love affair with chefs. With HRN regular Andrew Friedman, she dives into the history of the celebrity chef, and discusses how food media idolizes those at the top – to the detriment of industry workers.

The Cult of Chef is written, produced, and edited by Hannah Chouinard. It is hosted by the one and only Taylor Early.

Cover art for The Cult of Chef is designed by the incredible Michael Hampton. For more art, comedy, and silliness, you can find him here.

You can find more data on the food service labor force here.

For more info on issues impacting the lives of food service workers, check out research from ROC United, here.

To read more about the emergence of the celebrity chef, grab a copy of Andrew Friedman’s book, here.

An extra special thank you to Joey Freeman, Sarah Gabrielli, Roan Shea, Safieh Moshir-Fatemi, and Alex Groher-Jick for all their help on this arc.

From the Pantry is a limited series developed by HRN’s Director of Education and Creative Development Taylor Early, focusing on illuminating HRN’s two-fold mission of educating community members in response to a changing world and cultivating the next generation of food media leaders. This series is made up of four narrative arcs researched, scripted, and produced by one of alumni fellows. Each fellow pulled concepts, ideas and conversations from HRN’s archive (the pantry) and created stories that explore the personal significance and broader cultural meaning of what they found.

In episode 3 of Rice Revelations, Producer Sasha DuBose (they/she) takes us into the kitchen to make bread. Sasha’s bread baking experience makes the historical knowledge she learned in the previous two episodes become tangible. As they’re in the kitchen convening with the ancestors and saying “chile” more times than anyone could count, she hopes that listeners feel inspired to find themselves in their ancestral foods, whatever that may mean for them.

Rice Revelations was conceptualized and produced by Sasha DuBose. You also heard from the beloved Taylor Early at the top of the episode.

The Rice Revelations Logo is designed by Sasha’s sister, Kennedy DuBose.

Craving your own slice of Carolina Gold Rice Bread? Check out Anson Mills’ recipe here.

Learn more about the history of rice bread and how some Southern bakers are bringing it back here.

Learn more about the legacy of African American bakers here.

Sasha’s okra stew recipe can be found here

From the Pantry is a limited series developed by HRN’s Director of Education and Creative Development Taylor Early, focusing on illuminating HRN’s two-fold mission of educating community members in response to a changing world and cultivating the next generation of food media leaders. This series is made up of four narrative arcs researched, scripted, and produced by one of alumni fellows. Each fellow pulled concepts, ideas and conversations from HRN’s archive (the pantry) and created stories that explore the personal significance and broader cultural meaning of what they found.

Music Licenses:
Blue Feather by Kevin MacLeod - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Classical_Sampler/Blue_Feather/

J. S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 by Kevin MacLeod - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Classical_Sampler/Brandenburg_No4-1_BWV1049/
Äitienpäivä '22 by Brylie Christopher Oxley - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Brylie_Christopher_Oxley/rational-limits-1/aitienpaiva-22/

Divertissement by Kevin MacLeod - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Classical_Sampler/Divertissement/