{"podcast":{"title":"Gastropod","slug":"gastropod-946737","podcast_index_feed_id":946737,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/VMP6255701211","website_url":"https://gastropod.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/97d6d85e-e320-11eb-be6b-3ff4d7cb8782/image/3af290d77dd48789f45dcd5a93483cd1.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley","episode_count":292,"summary":"Food with a side of science and history. Every other week, co-hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley serve up a brand new episode exploring the hidden history and surprising science behind a different food- or farming-related topic, from aquaculture to ancient feasts, from cutlery to chile peppers, and from microbes to Malbec. We interview experts, visit labs, fields, and archaeological digs, and generally have lots of fun while discovering new ways to think about and understand the world through food. Find us online at gastropod.com, follow us on Twitter @gastropodcast, and like us on Facebook at facebook.com/gastropodcast.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T08:18:35.860140+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737"},"episode":{"title":"America's Forbidden Fruit and Forgotten First Soda: Ask Gastropod","slug":"america-s-forbidden-fruit-and-forgotten-first-soda-ask-gastropod","published_at":"2026-07-07T19:43:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737/america-s-forbidden-fruit-and-forgotten-first-soda-ask-gastropod","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP3936493914.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP3936493914.mp3","summary":"Fan favorite Ask Gastropod is back, and we’re celebrating the season by solving a pair of trans-Atlantic mysteries! First up: if you have a purple candy in Europe, it’s nearly guaranteed to be flavored with a tart little berry called blackcurrant—while the same color candy in the US is almost always grape. One intrepid Gastropod listener wanted to know: why the difference? We’ve got the story of how a tree so important it was on early Americans coins inspired the botanical witch hunt that made a delicious fruit illegal this side of the pond—and how to try the fabulous flavor we're missing out on! Plus, lager and ale lovers around the world would be deeply confused by the warmly spiced soda that Americans call “root beer.” So where did this non-alcoholic beverage come from, what are these mysterious roots, and why is it called beer? It’s a tale of tea, teetotalers, and a ubiquitous ugly baby—and because we at Gastropod will put our stomachs on the line to get to the truth, we attempted to brew the original recipe to taste it for ourselves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices","meta_description":"Fan favorite Ask Gastropod is back, and we’re celebrating the season by solving a pair of trans-Atlantic mysteries! First up: if you have a purple candy i…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3012,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/gastropod-946737/episodes/america-s-forbidden-fruit-and-forgotten-first-soda-ask-gastropod/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737/america-s-forbidden-fruit-and-forgotten-first-soda-ask-gastropod.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}