{"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":"Feel the Beet: The Most Fascinating Woman You've Never Heard Of","slug":"feel-the-beet-the-most-fascinating-woman-you-ve-never-heard-of","published_at":"2026-05-05T14:56:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737/feel-the-beet-the-most-fascinating-woman-you-ve-never-heard-of","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP4399065560.mp3?updated=1777993253","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP4399065560.mp3?updated=1777993253","summary":"For those who like its earthy flavor, the humble beet can do a lot for a salad or a soup. But could it help end slavery? In the 1800s, one woman believed it could—and she wasn't just any old woman. This episode, meet Lydia Maria Child, who wrote the first children's periodical magazine, the first New England historical novel, and one of America's first successful self-help books—all before she turned thirty, in an era where women were still considered property. This episode, we've got the fascinating story of why she bet big on beets, as well as how, more than a century later, Wolfgang Puck and Martha Stewart paired this much maligned vegetable with goat cheese to spark today's beet renaissance. Meanwhile, for the haters among us: is it possible to de-beet the beet, and get rid of that earthy flavor altogether? Listen in now as we meet the astonishing Lydia Maria Child, in the curious tale of the beet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices","meta_description":"For those who like its earthy flavor, the humble beet can do a lot for a salad or a soup. But could it help end slavery? In the 1800s, one woman believed…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2692,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/gastropod-946737/episodes/feel-the-beet-the-most-fascinating-woman-you-ve-never-heard-of/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737/feel-the-beet-the-most-fascinating-woman-you-ve-never-heard-of.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}