{"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":"Protein, Pyramids, and Politics: The Forgotten Stories and Controversial Science Behind Government Dietary Advice","slug":"protein-pyramids-and-politics-the-forgotten-stories-and-controversial-science-behind-government-dietary-advice","published_at":"2026-04-07T17:34:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737/protein-pyramids-and-politics-the-forgotten-stories-and-controversial-science-behind-government-dietary-advice","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP8790437632.mp3?updated=1775583537","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP8790437632.mp3?updated=1775583537","summary":"ICYMI, our old friend the food pyramid has been flipped on its head. The Trump administration recently issued new dietary guidelines that it says will \"revolutionize our nation's food culture.\" It's a bold claim—but since when has the government been in the business of telling us what to eat in the first place? How does it know how much of each nutrient will keep us healthy, and why are all the different forms of this advice—the Recommended Daily Allowances or RDAs, those Daily Values on food packaging nutrition labels, and the ever-shifting food pyramid—so confusing, and even contradictory? This episode, we're going back to the beginning to make sense of it all, with some help from pioneering women scientists, horses in obstacle courses, and, of course, Dick Van Dyke. Grab your climbing gear and join us to scale the food pyramid, wade through the swamp of alphabet soup acronyms, and, finally, figure out what this all has to do with what ends up on your plate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices","meta_description":"ICYMI, our old friend the food pyramid has been flipped on its head. The Trump administration recently issued new dietary guidelines that it says will \"re…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3300,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/gastropod-946737/episodes/protein-pyramids-and-politics-the-forgotten-stories-and-controversial-science-behind-government-dietary-advice/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/gastropod-946737/protein-pyramids-and-politics-the-forgotten-stories-and-controversial-science-behind-government-dietary-advice.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}