66: On Craft Beer's Diversity Problem with Ren Navarro

February 11, 2020

“You go into bars and it’s basically the United Nations of drinkers, so it was really interesting to see that the sales force [of craft beer] wasn’t as diverse. It has changed over time, but it’s still got a long way to go. And I think that was kind of the start of Beer.Diversity.”

— Ren Navarro

When you think craft beer, what - or who - is most likely coming to mind? It's an industry that is so often dominated by straight white dudes, but that doesn't mean it needs to stay that way. My guest this week, Ren Navarro, is working on improving diversity in beer. Navarro is one of the most well-respected members of the Ontario beer industry, and has worked for years as the face of breweries within her respective sales regions and uses her fervent love of craft beer to bring it towards more diverse audiences.

Navarro is on the front-lines to initiate change both in and out of the industry. Using her perspective as a queer black woman within the industry, she has talked extensively about diversity in craft beer through her company, Beer.Diversity. Ren’s goal is to educate, enlighten, and make craft beer approachable for a more diverse audience. Additionally, Ren is the co-founder and former co-organizer of the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies, which is a Toronto-based monthly beer event that provides a safe and relaxing atmosphere for female-identified people.

Today she’s on the show talking about her work through Beer.Diversity and we explore the culture around craft beer in Ontario. She highlights some ways in which breweries and the industry are starting to shift towards more diverse audiences, and the ways in which diversity makes for better beer and better working environments. Can't wait for you to listen, Ren was the most fun to interview!

Learn More About Ren:

This episode was sponsored by Beekeeper’s Naturals, the company on a mission to make healthy your new normal using bee-based products. To save 15% on your first order, use the code ANTHRODISH at checkout!

65: Telling the Stories of Immigrant America Through Our Place Cookware with Shiza Shahid

February 4, 2020

“So ultimately for us [at Our Place], wellness means just cook more. It’s not being preachy or deductive… just cook more and with people that you love and care about. It’s the amount of disconnection we’re experiencing that is perhaps the thing that is leading us furthest away from being well. ”

— Shiza Shahid

This week’s episode is truly such an honour and treat for me to share with you all, as the guest this week is Shiza Shahid. Shiza is someone who is an incredible inspiration, a force for positive change in the world, and a woman who knows how to creatively shake up the status quo in business ventures so that they can be rooted in community building and diversity.

Shiza is already known as the co-founder of the Malala Fund, as well as NOW Ventures, but she’s on the show today to share some exciting details her latest venture, the direct-to-consumer cookware company Our Place. Hospitality is sacred in Shahid's native Pakistan and feeding someone is an expression of love. Shiza brings her home country’s passion for hospitality into all of her business ventures. She has a strong desire to leverage philanthropy, entrepreneurship, technology, and the media to drive scalable social impact in business. Our Place, her e-commerce brand, is making unique cookware rooted in the modern multi-ethnic American kitchen, cofounded with Amir Tehrani and Zach Rosner, further embodies this passion.

Our Place sets itself apart from its competitors by focusing their efforts on sustainable packaging, non-toxic non-stick coating on their signature Always Pan free of Teflon and PFAs. The brand launched in September 2019 with its Essentials Collection at Hank's Mini Market in South LA in partnership with the LA Food Policy Council to end food deserts in the region. Their following collections focus on unsung cultural traditions such as Nochebuena and Lunar New Year and give back to the communities they source their products from.

Whether it's artisans in Oaxaca, MX or female-owned and operated factories in China - Our Place's main focus is doing things better, better for the environment, better for the community and better for their workers. Shiza shares today how Our Place came to be, the way her relationship with kitchen and culture influenced how she runs the business – from the product development to how it’s shared and styled.

Learn More about Shiza and Our Place:

Our Place Website
Instagram: @ourplace
Instagram: @shiza
Facebook: @fromourplace
Twitter: @ourplace

64: Growing Real Meat Without Animals to Revolutionize Dinner with Paul Shapiro

January 27, 2020

“We can have a world in which we divorce meat-eating from animal slaughter, and where people can continue to eat the foods that they love with a far lower footprint than the foods today make.”

— Paul Shapiro

Today marks the kickstart to our 5th season! I don’t want to give too much away about this season, but so far we’re really digging into questions around meat and identity and also branching out into the very fun topic of beverages, which we haven’t covered much before! But that’s all the spoilers I’ll give.. I’m very excited.

To start our exploration of meat, we’re looking into the future of it – and questioning how we define it in the era of climate change and sustainability efforts. My guest this week is Paul Shapiro, who is the author of the bestselling book Clean Meat: How Growing Meat without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World through Simon and Schuster. He is also the CEO of the Better Meat Company, a four times TEDx Speaker, and the host of the Business for Good Podcast, all while being a long-time leader in food sustainability.

Based out of Sacramento, California with his wife Toni Okamoto Shapiro, Paul bases a lot of his work on finding common ground with folks across agricultural and tech industries while looking at the future of clean meat. He asks the question what if we could have our meat and eat it too? I know when I first heard about clean meat, I just assumed it was a plant-based alternative to animal meat… but it’s not! It’s real, actual meat that’s grown (or brewed?) from animal cells, as well as other clean animal products that ditch animal cells all together and are simply built from the molecule up… Wild, right?

Paul’s book Clean Meat really captures the tales of the innovators and investors that are racing to commercialize the world’s first real animal products that are grown without animals. And today, we’re diving into what a world with cell-based clean meats might look like, the moral and ethical discussions surrounding the products, the responses from industries, and breaking down the idea of what “natural” foods are and can be. It’s such a fascinating world that I knew very little about going into this conversation – I can’t wait for you to listen and learn from Paul!

Learn More from Paul:

63: Solo Episode Season 4 Wrap-Up with Special Guest!

December 17, 2019

Wrapping up an amazing season 4 with a solo episode this week - I reflect on some of the major themes and responses we got to episodes, and share a bit more on the personal side of things, particularly some lessons I've learned this fall about reconnecting to and through food. Plus there's an extra special guest on the show today... my daughter!

We will be back with all-new episodes for season 5 on January 28th - until then, be sure to follow us along on social media and feel free to share ideas and guest recommendations that you'd like on the show. This show is made for you - so if you feel like we're missing voices and perspectives, we'd love to hear more about it!

Thank you all for listening and joining us this year. It's always such a joy to be able to create these episodes and build a community of people that are invested in food sustainability, sovereignty, and challenging broken systems. See you in 2020!

62: The Power of Bee Propolis with Carly Stein of Beekeeper's Naturals

December 9, 2019

I’m really excited about this week’s topic, because I find the connections between bees and humans such an interesting one, and we’re talking today about the power of bee-based medicines. My guest this week is Carly Stein, who is the founder and CEO of the wellness brand Beekeeper’s Naturals – whose mission is to improve the health of humans and bees alike. As a beekeeper and tireless advocate for the preservation of the waning global bee population, Carly is dedicated to using her company as a platform for making a difference and was recently recognized as a game-changing entrepreneur on the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 list.

The mission of Beekeeper’s Naturals is to revamp your medicine cabinet – they rely on plant extracts and potent nutraceuticals from the beehive for their products – using ingredients like royal jelly, propolis, and bee pollen to craft solutions for everyday health issues – like brain fog, low energy, and scratchy throats. We speak today about the fascinating cultural history behind using bee-based ingredients in medicines in Europe and how her company fosters both human health but also bee population health. She’s got such an important and unique perspective on North American wellness, and I’m excited to share this with you!

For those who are interested, Carly’s team also sent over a discount code for you to use if you’d like to check out Beekeeper’s Naturals products! Enter ANTHRODISH15 at checkout for 15% off your purchase.

Learn More About Beekeeper's Naturals:

Website: https://beekeepersnaturals.ca/

Instagram: @beekeepers_naturals

61: Women on Food - Exploring Gender, Race, and Power in Food Writing with Charlotte Druckman

December 2, 2019

Have you ever read a book you just couldn’t put down, and dreamt that you’d be able to chat with the author to steep a little bit more in their perspective? This week’s episode is a bit of a dream come true in that sense for me! I’m speaking with Charlotte Druckman all about her newest book, Women on Food. Based out of New York City, Charlotte is a journalist, food writer, and the creator of Food52’s Tournament of Cookbooks (aka the piglet). She is also the author of Skirt Steak: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat and Staying in the Kitchen, and Stir, Sizzle, Bake, and coauthor of Anita Lo’s Cooking Without Borders.

Women on Food unites the radical, diverging female voices of the food industry in an urgent, moving, and often humorous collection of essays, interviews, questionnaires, illustrations, quotes, and more. When reading the book before the interview, what was most striking was the energy that came from it – she’s not afraid to challenge conventions of what we think “good” food writing should be, and she’s actively redesigning the spaces in which we read and think about food through her anthology. In our interview, we explore some of the patterns she saw around the themes of power, race, and gender within each piece, and explore the process she went through writing some of her own original pieces within the book.

Before we dive into the interview, I wanted to share with local Toronto listeners that Charlotte will be in town this THURSDAY December 5th for a chat with Jenn Agg at VSP Consignment. I have the details posted below: