Pressure Cooker
José Andrés Media
Feeding a family is among the most basic of human responsibilities. So why do we so often feel like we’re failing at it? On Pressure Cooker, veteran journalists Jane Black and Liz Dunn dish out empathy and common-sense strategies for busy parents navigating manipulative marketing messages, impossible cultural expectations, and little people with big personalities as they try to set their children on a healthy path for life. Sales and Distribution by Lemonada Media https://lemonadamedia.com/
Fan Fave: The Twisted History of School Lunch Part 2
After the cheesy gut bombs of the Reagan era, we’ve arrived at the “hopey changey” era of school lunch. Michelle Obama put school lunch on the front page and ushered in upgraded nutrition standards. But the battles didn’t end there. In this episode, Jane and Liz unwrap the future of school food with concrete tips on how parents can make a difference. And, as promised, If you'd like to follow along and find out what we'll be doing in Pressure Cooker's next act, please submit your email address a
Aug 21, 2024 • 27:14
The Twisted History of School Lunch: Part 1
For those unfamiliar with the inner workings of the school lunch program, it is puzzling, even maddening: Why is it so hard to offer tasty, nutritious food at school? In this episode, Jane and Liz dig into the history of the school lunch program to unveil how we got to where we are today. It’s a surprisingly twisted tale involving desperate farmers, skittish military generals, shortsighted bean counters, pizza lobbyists, and a network of underground caves…filled with cheese. Sales and distribut
Aug 1, 2024 • 30:42
Red Light, Green Light: Our Biggest Do’s and Don’ts For Feeding Kids
In this final installment of Pressure Cooker (at least, for now!) Jane and Liz reflect on lessons learned over the course of more than fifty episodes. From political activism to picture-perfect bento lunches, our hosts break down which habits listeners should consider leaning into – and which ones you should let go of. Although we’re hitting ‘pause’ on the podcast for now, we’ve got lots of ideas brewing for the future of Pressure Cooker. If you’d like to stay in the loop on news and updates,
Jun 26, 2024 • 40:54
Fan Fave: Can you teach a kid to eat vegetables?
We're resurfacing this Pressure Cooker "classic" that attempts to answer the perennial parental question: Why isn’t my kid eating green beans or zucchini or, for that matter, any food that isn’t beige? One theory holds that, with the help of the right bribe, you can teach kids to like anything. And so Jane dragoons her 10-year-old daughter Lucy into an experiment to see if she can learn to accept her most dreaded food: tomatoes. Jane and Liz talk to Julie Mennella, a taste scientist at the Monel
Jun 19, 2024 • 28:44
The Truth About Why American Kids Drink So Much Milk
If you’ve had a child in America anytime in the past, oh, 80 years, there’s one message about what to feed them that has been impossible to ignore: MILK! Kids need lots of milk to grow big and strong. Or do they? On this week’s episode of Pressure Cooker, Jane and Liz journey back through history to uncover when and why milk came to be seen as an essential part of a healthy child’s diet. Then, our hosts interview Sophie Egan, the Director of the Stanford Food Institute and the author of the 20
Jun 5, 2024 • 44:46
The Panic over Ultra-Processed Foods; What You Need to Know About the Latest Dietary Devil
Headlines about the dangers of “ultra-processed” foods – a category that includes Doritos and Twinkies but also protein bars, plant-based milks, and maybe your favorite yogurt or sandwich bread – are suddenly everywhere. But what makes a food ultra-processed, and what’s driving the concern about their role in the diets of both children and adults? On this episode of Pressure Cooker, Jane and Liz break it all down with Dr. Chris Van Tulleken, a professor at University College London and the autho
May 22, 2024 • 48:32
Fan Fave: In Praise of Kitchen Shortcuts
It's Mother's Day. And like a lot of other moms, we're rebelling against the ideals of the "good mother." So we're bringing back a Pressure Cooker classic. In this episode, Jane and Liz challenge the idea that society’s ills can be solved by each of us spending more time in the kitchen, sing the praises of convenience food, and talk to the authors of the 2019 book Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems, and What We Can Do About It. We close out the show by sharing the dinner
May 15, 2024 • 36:26
The Wild Wild West of Food Marketing to Kids: What the Kids are Doing…And What You Can Do About It (Pt. 2)
Digital food marketing is ubiquitous. But what do teens and tweens see on their devices. And are the kids alright? In Part 2 of our deep-dive into food marketing, a Pressure Cooker investigation takes listeners deep inside some of the most closely guarded spaces in American life today– teenagers phones – and proposes strategies to stop the scroll. Further Resources: Food Marketing Literacy 1 (from University of Calgary) Food Marketing Literacy 2 (from University of Calgary) FTC: Protecting K
May 8, 2024 • 48:35
The Wild Wild West of Food Marketing to Kids: From Tony the Tiger to Tiktok (Pt. 1)
A generation ago, food marketing to kids was found mostly in two places: Saturday morning cartoons and the cereal aisle. No more. Children are now targeted throughout the grocery store, on billboards, product placements and, most dangerously, on digital media. Jane and Liz talk to Jennifer Harris of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health and Charlene Elliot of the University of Calgary to understand how the problem has exploded, in particular for tweens and teens, who are now believed to be
Apr 24, 2024 • 31:09
Fan Fave: How Picky Eating Took Over America
Half of all parents of young children say they have at least one picky eater in their household: a state of affairs that strikes many moms and dads stuck serving up the same half dozen foods on repeat as highly unnatural. With the help of Jennifer Traig, the author of Act Natural: A Cultural History of Misadventures in Parenting, Jane and Liz explore when, and why, picky eating emerged as a common trait among children – and what you can do to stop it. #pickyeating #feedingkids #parenting Sales
Apr 10, 2024 • 39:09
Listen Now: Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
We’re dropping in your feed to let you know that Julia Louis-Dreyfus has returned for Season 2 of her award-winning podcast, Wiser Than Me™! Each week, she has funny, touching, personal conversations with iconic older women who are brimming with the kind of unapologetic attitude and wisdom that only comes with age. Julia sits at the feet of some extraordinary teachers this season and of course her 90-year-old mom, Judy. Tune in to laugh, cry and get wise. All Hail Old Women! You’re about to h
Mar 31, 2024 • 51:30
Christina Tosi on Sprinkling Tang on Toast, Avoiding Sugar Meltdowns, and Mastering the Art of Dining Out with Toddlers
Christina Tosi is the chef and creative force behind Milk Bar: a dessert brand that she launched in 2008 in Manhattan’s East Village, and has grown to include almost a dozen shops, a brisk mail order business, and a line of cookies, ice creams, and other treats for sale at grocery stores nationwide. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, and the host of the Netflix show Bake Squad, Christina is also a mom of two. In this episode, Jane and Liz talk with Christina about all things Milk Ba
Mar 27, 2024 • 35:38
Your Burning Questions Answered!
We spend a lot of time thinking about the stress of feeding kids. But what keeps YOU, our listeners, up at night? This week, Jane and Liz answer questions from the Pressure Cooker mailbag: Does 10 minutes at the table “count” as family dinner? Is Costco really cheaper? (Here’s a really useful article we discuss on the show which compares Costco vs Stop & Shop.) What on earth do you feed a kid who hates sandwiches? And more…See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mar 13, 2024 • 32:47
Listen Now: Archetypes with Meghan
Introducing Archetypes, a refreshing and dynamic podcast where Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, dives into the labels that try to hold women back. During these intimate and candid conversations with guests from around the world, we discover how these archetypes impact our everyday lives in ways big and small. With experts and historians, Meghan also uncovers how we got here in the first place – unearthing the origin of words such as ‘diva’, ‘slut’, ‘the B word’, ‘hysterical’, and many more, and as
Mar 10, 2024 • 58:29
The Sporkful’s Dan Pashman on Pasta, Parenthood and the Ultimate PB&J
Dan Pashman is host of the insanely popular podcast, The Sporkful, inventor of a primo pasta shape, cascatelli, and author of a new cookbook, Anything’s Pastable, a book that makes a persuasive case for eating pasta for dinner every night of the week. And as if that isn’t enough to tune in, Dan’s also a dad of two who has successfully found ways to weave the pleasures of food into family life. Interested in his new cookbook, you can pre-order at the link above. The Sporkful is also running a fa
Feb 28, 2024 • 32:23
Brooding with Kathryn Jezer-Morton
Kathryn Jezer-Morton is a pHd sociologist and the brains behind The Cut’s popular parenting newsletter, Brooding: Deep Thoughts on Modern Family Life. Brooding is not an advice column; it’s a collection of smart, funny, topical essays that interrogate what it means to be a parent today, and how we got this way. In this episode of Pressure Cooker, Jane and Liz chat with Jezer-Morton about some of their favorite Brooding essays, hitting on topics like vacation food rules, snack drawers, and “pouch
Feb 14, 2024 • 39:23
Why Food Allergies Are Everywhere, and How to Prevent Them
Peanut butter sandwiches were once the go-to brown bag lunch. But since the 1990s, food allergies in children have tripled. Jane and Liz plunge into the research that explains (finally) why this is happening and talk to Dr. Ruchi Gupta of Northwestern University about new recommendations for how to help prevent allergies in our kids. Additional resources The Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research: Dr. Gupta’s center with links to a ton of peer-reviewed articles and advice Food Allergy and R
Jan 31, 2024 • 50:04
A Pressure Cooker Guide for Climate-Smart Cooking
What can any one person do to fight climate change? Paul Greenberg, author of The Climate Diet: 50 Simple Ways To Trim Your Carbon Footprint, joins Liz and Jane to home in on achievable ways that you can make a difference in your kitchen. Further Reading: Rowan Jacobsen’s great piece on the fantasy of plastic recycling Liz’s Wall Street Journal GREAT piece on reducing food waste Jane’s Washington Post interview with Dana Gunders, author of the Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook Bill McKibben: The U
Jan 17, 2024 • 40:43
We Need To Talk About Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating, the popular new anti-diet philosophy, recommends serving candy with dinner and letting kids eat whenever and whatever they want. Is this hands-off approach the best way to escape toxic diet culture? Or … is intuitive eating just another food fad? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 3, 2024 • 46:32
Melissa Clark: On Respecting Kids’ Tastes and the Ultimate Lentil Soup
If you don’t know Melissa Clark, have we got a treat for you. She’s a food columnist for the New York Times and the author of 48 (!!) cookbooks, including one made for this show: “Kid in the Kitchen.” On this episode, Melissa joins Jane and Liz to talk about respecting kids’ tastes, when to give up control, and the secret to her viral lentil soup recipe. Books featured in this episode: Kid In The Kitchen by Melissa Clark Dinner in an Instant by Melissa Clark Recipes featured in this episode: Ea
Dec 20, 2023 • 33:21
A Parents’ No-Fail Holiday Gift Guide
Kids can be cruel, the old saying goes. And there is no time that is more true than when they dismiss or all out reject your carefully chosen holiday gift. And so … here’s Pressure Cooker to the rescue with a winning collection of stories and food-themed holiday gifts for kids of all ages. Links to our favorites below: For Reading: Who Ate What: A Historical Guessing Game for Food Lovers What Happens When You Eat Madame Pamplemousse and her Incredible Edibles For Cooking: American Girl: Aro
Dec 6, 2023 • 27:14
Fan Fave: SUGAR. How much is just right?
Candy, cookies, cake galore…welcome to the holidays! If you find yourself struggling with where to draw the line on sweets during the festive season, you are not alone. To help out, we’re reupping an old episode we love: an interview all about kids and sugar with Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine. Listen in to find out whether you really need to worry about holiday sugar benders, and what you can do to sensibly manage your little ones’ sugar intake all year round.
Nov 29, 2023 • 33:19
Fan Fave: Hell is Other People
Just in time for the holiday season, we’re resurfacing one of our favorite episodes about all the conflicts that bubble up when other people get involved in feeding our kids. Jane and Liz enlist the help of Carolyn Hax, the Washington Post’s legendary advice columnist, to help solve listeners’ issues with interfering, overbearing, and lackadaisical relatives who make feeding our kids more stressful than it should be. Sales and distribution by Lemonada MediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy
Nov 21, 2023 • 33:54
Thanksgiving SOS with Caroline Chambers
Caroline Chambers is a guru to parents trying to get dinner on the table. And now, Caroline joins Pressure Cooker to troubleshoot the ultimate (and most exhausting) meal of the year: Thanksgiving. On this episode, she offers essential “dos” like “edit the meal to no more than five dishes” and a lot of sanity-saving “don’ts” to keep you in the holiday spirit. Plus, Caro gave us her recs for truly great recipes to try this year. Enjoy: TURKEY: Cover in salt, smoked paprika, and brown sugar. Le
Nov 8, 2023 • 37:19
Bee Wilson on The Secret of Cooking
Turns out the secret of cooking has nothing to do with hacks and recipes. It is, according to British author Bee Wilson, about overcoming all the parts of daily life that get in the way of making it pleasurable. Bee joins Jane and Liz to discuss her new book, The Secret of Cooking, and her pioneering research on how to successfully convince children to try and like new foods. Sales and distribution by Lemonada MediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 25, 2023 • 38:38
Feed This, Not That: The Battle Over Baby Led Weaning
When it comes to feeding infants their first foods, American parents are divided into two camps: those who favor spoon feed their infants purées and those who adhere to “baby led weaning,” which encourages babies to feed themselves. If this doesn’t seem all that complicated or controversial…think again. Who’s right? Liz and Jane talk to Amy Bentley, a professor at NYU about how we have fed babies through the ages, and to Dr. Krupa Playforth about the latest science to understand why it has come
Oct 11, 2023 • 38:37
Dietitians Behaving Badly
Influencer dietitians are all over social media – and their advice about feeding kids isn't always as impartial as you might think. On this week’s episode, Liz and Jane talk to Ananad O’Connor, the lead reporter on a newly released investigation by the Washington Post into the surprising financial ties between Big Food and registered dietitians on Instagram and TikTok. Sales and distribution by Lemonada MediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 27, 2023 • 35:15
Listen Now: I Need To Ask You Something
We are dropping in your feed to share Lemonada Media's newest series, “I Need To Ask You Something." This unique 10-part series bridges the gap between the things we need to say and the words we’re afraid to hear. Each week, trauma therapist Dr. Monica Band sits down with a young person and their parent, friend or partner to help them create a blueprint for building stronger relationships while healing out loud. Created in partnership with The Jed Foundation. In the series premiere, you'll hear
Sep 25, 2023 • 46:18
Can a Bot PLEASE feed the kids?
Artificial intelligence can write term papers and computer code. It helped someone win the lottery. But could it succeed at the ultimate task: Meal planning for demanding children? Pressure Cooker takes on the challenge with the help of a special guest. Want to try this at home? We have a cheat sheet for how to create customized, easy dinners with ChatGPT. Plus, a Pressure Cooker-tested ChatGPT written recipe that your kids will love: Lettuce Wraps with Sesame-Ginger Pork. Sales and distributio
Sep 13, 2023 • 41:40
Fan Fave: The Secret History of the Dino Chicken Nugget
Welcome new listeners. We’re highlighting one or our favorite episodes: The Great American Food System makes chicken nuggets that look like hearts, dinosaurs even Baby Yoda. And why not? Last year, American families spent more than $200 million on frozen nuggets in novelty shapes. In this episode, Jane and Liz talk to Scott Friedman, whose family invented the dinosaur chicken nugget, and explore why dino nuggets—and all sorts of fun-shaped foods—might deserve a little more respect. Sales and dis
Sep 6, 2023 • 23:29
Is Motherhood Sustainable?
Listen in on a live podcasting event on the future of motherhood. This week, Jane is joined by the Better Life Lab’s Brigid Schulte, journalists Helena Dyer Andrews, Julianna Goldman and Daniella Senior of the Colada Shop to discuss what’s not working for moms in America today and how we can work together to make change. If you’re fired up after the conversation, here are a few organizations to follow or get involved with: Moms Rising, the Better Life Lab, the Center for American Progress, the
Aug 30, 2023 • 47:08
Tamar Adler On Making Leftovers Your Muse
For years, cook and writer Tamar Adler’s kitchen overflowed with leftovers: stale bread, leftover buttermilk, potato chip crumbs. Her mission was to figure out what to do with all of them. Her new book, The Everlasting Cookbook: Leftovers A - Z, has the answers. In this episode, she troubleshoots how busy parents can rethink leftovers – it’s a meal with half the work already done! – plus offers advice on how not to let a picky child get under your skin. Sales and distribution by Lemonada MediaSe
Aug 16, 2023 • 34:52
Momfluencers and Why We Scroll
On Instagram, mommy influencers abound, offering recipe inspiration, parenting hacks…and advice on which non-stick pan or organic snackbar will definitely, finally make you feel like the mother you always thought you would be! On this episode, Jane and Liz talk to Sara Petersen, the author of the new book “Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture” about the multi-billion dollar business of momfluencing, and why we’re so drawn to watching performances o
Aug 2, 2023 • 33:00
The Truth About Children’s Vitamins
Americans spend almost a billion dollars each year on children’s dietary supplements: a category which, today, includes not just daily multivitamins but an increasingly exotic array of gummies aimed at promoting immunity, digestion, mood, and sleep. Liz and Jane unspool the history of our national obsession with vitamins with the science journalist and Vitamania author Catherine Price – then talk to pediatrician and educator Dr. Krupa Playforth, aka The Pediatrician Mom, to get to the bottom of
Jul 19, 2023 • 46:43
Fat Talk with Virginia Sole-Smith
“Do I look fat in this?” This is the phrase that parents fear more than most any other. And yet, how many parents raised in the diet crazed 1980s and ‘90s have never said this themselves. As a nation, we are pathologically afraid of fat. And this, argues Virginia Sole-Smith is making us, not thinner or healthier, but fatter and sicker. Jane and Liz go deep with Virginia on her new book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, about how fatphobia affects children and how you to rethink co
Jul 5, 2023 • 45:48
What's the Matter with Snacking?
Three meals, good. Extra snacks, bad. Or so they say. With the help of Professor Marion Nestle, Jane and Liz dig into the cultural history of snacking to find out why parents believe they should limit snacking and whether that advice still stands in a 24/7 world. Sales and distribution by Lemonada Media.See omny.fm/listener for privacy information.
Jun 21, 2023 • 45:36
Happy Birthday to Us! What We’ve Learned in a Year of Reporting on Kids and Food
Twenty-six episodes down and still so many things to discover about why feeding kids is so absurdly complicated! Jane and Liz reflect on how a year of reporting did–and did not–change how they feed their kids, and, essentially, how they feel about their success. We're always planning future episodes. So if you have ideas you want to share with us, stories from your own kitchens, crazy things your kids said, nodding questions -- send a voice memo or email to: email@hellopressurecooker.fm
Jun 7, 2023 • 38:17
Kenji Lopez-Alt on Bringing Science but Not Insanity into the Kitchen
Some people will go to any length to cook the best version of pizza, ribs–you name it. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is their culinary hero. The best-selling cookbook author and New York Times recipe columnist has earned a cult following putting the scientific method to work for home cooks. On this week’s episode, Kenji talks about how he really cooks at home for his kids and how he managed to get the only kid in the world who loves to eat fish heads. For more inspiration, check out two of Kenji’s favorite
May 24, 2023 • 27:10
How to Get Your Kids To Behave in Restaurants
Going to restaurants with kids is…not always fun. So how do we set the table for success? Jane and Liz talk to Roberta Schomberg, a child development expert who worked for many years with Fred–that’s Mr. to you--Rogers, and Daniel Post Senning, the great-, great-grandson of Emily Post who offers up tactical wisdom on how to teach good table manners to your kids.
May 10, 2023 • 31:47
Living On The Veg: An Everything Guide to Eating Less Meat
One-third of Americans are trying to eat less meat. And yet…U.S. meat consumption per capita is at an all-time high. What gives? Turns out shifting your family’s diet is really (really) hard. On this episode, Jane and Liz talk to Jenny Rosenstrach, author of “The Weekday Vegetarians” for ideas on how to eat less meat overall and to accommodate kids who choose to skip meat. Trying to eat less meat yourself. Check out these additional resources: Dinner a Love Story Substack: Lots of ideas for me
Apr 26, 2023 • 39:42
In Praise of Kitchen Shortcuts
Is scratch cooking really all it’s cracked up to be? In this episode, Jane and Liz challenge the idea that society’s ills can be solved by each of us spending more time in the kitchen, sing the praises of convenience food, and talk to the authors of the 2019 book Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems, and What We Can Do About It. The hosts close out the show by sharing the dinner shortcuts they love. As promised, here are Pressure Cooker’s picks for time-savers you can feel
Apr 12, 2023 • 36:06
Nature or Nurture: How Much Control Do You Have Over What Your Kids Eat -- and Don’t?
Same house. Same parents. Same food. And yet kids have vastly different tastes and interest in food. Is it something you’re doing? Or do genes control what our children will eat? Liz and Jane speak with Dr. Alison Fildes, a British geneticist, to try to untangle what’s nature, what’s nurture and how science can liberate you at the dinner table.
Mar 29, 2023 • 26:18
Burned Out On Being the Family Cook? Eve Rodsky Is Here to Help.
Since publishing her New York Times bestseller Fair Play in 2019, Eve Rodsky has become a leader in the movement to rebalance the domestic chore burden, which has historically fallen mostly to women. In this episode, Jane and Liz chat with Eve about her Fair Play system, how it came to be, and real strategies to help parents better work together to tackle the daily grind of feeding kids.
Mar 15, 2023 • 40:25
Should You Stop Feeding Your Kids Boxed Mac and Cheese? (Part 2 of 2)
We know kids love it. But is boxed mac and cheese a healthy, and safe, meal for kids? In partnership with ParentData, Brown economist Emily Oster’s newsletter, Jane and Liz untangle the pros and cons of our kids’ beloved day-glo orange pasta. Alert: Emily Oster fans! Until March 31, Emily is offering Pressure Cooker listeners 20% off subscriptions to ParentData. For more information, visit www.parentdata.com/pressurecooker
Mar 2, 2023 • 30:20
How Boxed Mac and Cheese Became the Ultimate Kid Food (Part 1 of 2)
Kraft. Annie’s. Kids adore boxed mac and cheese. But how did this Depression Era “innovation” become America’s go-to kids food? Join Jane and Liz as they track the story from the days of Yankee Doodle and the 1893 World’s Fair to the modern Kraft juggernaut that sells more than 1 million boxes of day-glo orange cheesy pasta every day.
Feb 15, 2023 • 31:27
Why dietetics is so white, and what to do about it
About 20 percent of American children are obese and the rates are disproportionately high among Black and Latino children. But parents seeking help for their children often have a hard time getting good advice. The dietetics industry is overwhelmingly white and industry education has, heretofore, focused on foods prized in European cultures. Deanna Bellany Lewis, co-founder of Diversify Dietetics, joins Jane and Liz to lay out the problem and potential solutions. For interested parents, two re
Feb 1, 2023 • 31:02
Jamie Oliver on the ‘psychological warfare’ of feeding kids
Jamie Oliver is a global celebrity chef at the helm of a media empire. And yep, even he struggles to feed his five kids without complaints. On this episode, Jamie discusses how to maintain your confidence, NOT to be a short order cook and shares his no-fair kid-approved recipe. Check out his new (awesome) book, One: Simple One-Pan Wonders, which is designed specifically to minimize dishes. You won’t be sorry.
Jan 18, 2023 • 27:05
Sugar: How much is just right?
Sugar is America’s number-one dietary villain. And kids…LOVE it. So how much sugar really is okay? Jane and Liz dive into the complicated question with Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine to find out how much you need to worry about snacks, birthday party binges, and how to sensibly manage your little ones’ sugar intake.
Jan 4, 2023 • 34:00
The Truth about Cooking with Kids
Admit it. That vision that you have of baking with your children doesn’t always pan out. Instead of creating powerful memories, it’s often just a mess. So this week Jane and Liz are asking and answering whether the pros of cooking with kids really outweigh the cons–and how you can make cooking with your kids a pleasure this holiday season.
Dec 14, 2022 • 32:21
Are hormones in our food fueling early puberty?
Get ready: This week, we’re talking about everybody’s favorite, totally NOT cringe-inducing or awkward topic: puberty. Because kids today--and girls, in particular--are going through it earlier than they used to. Why is it happening? And what, if anything, do the hormones in milk and meat have to do with it? On this episode, Jand and Liz talk with Dr. Louise Greenspan, who led one of the landmark studies about the timing of puberty in girls and co-authored a popular book about it called The New
Nov 30, 2022 • 26:26
Operation Lunchbox: How to win at packing lunch without losing your mind
Color-blocked bento boxes? Bunny-shaped sandwiches? There are a lot of books that claim to have solutions to the tedium of packing school lunch. But are they realistic? Jane and Liz tested them out–so you don’t have to. We review four new books and dig up the tips and tricks that actually make packing lunch less tedious and maybe–maybe?--even fun.
Nov 16, 2022 • 30:21
Beating Inflation, Deliciously
OMG! Prices are insanely high. What foods have jumped the most and which are still affordable? Jane and Liz talk about what’s up and what’s down, when rising food prices might slow, then challenge the amazing chef Edward Lee to share creatively cheap weeknight lunches and dinners that kids will gobble up. (Hint: our favorite is a warm, honey-butter sweet potato.)
Nov 2, 2022 • 34:58
It’s Not You, It’s Your Recipes
So many recipes out there are billed as “fast” or “easy.” But are those labels deserved? The shopping. The chopping. The cooking. The cleaning. It leaves a parent wondering: Is it just me, or is none of this, actually, easy? On this week’s episode, Liz and Jane talk to Caroline Chambers, author of the popular newsletter What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, to take on the myth of easy weeknight cooking: What it gets wrong, and how to break up with 15-minute recipes that actually take
Oct 19, 2022 • 39:59
The Twisted History of School Lunch: Part 2
After the cheesy gut bombs of the Reagan era, we’ve arrived at the “hopey changey” era of school lunch. Michelle Obama put school lunch on the front page and ushered in upgraded nutrition standards. But the battles didn’t end there. In this episode, Jane and Liz unwrap the future of school food with concrete tips on how parents can make a difference.
Oct 5, 2022 • 28:05
The Twisted History of School Lunch: Part 1
For those unfamiliar with the inner workings of the school lunch program, it is puzzling, even maddening: Why is it so hard to offer tasty, nutritious food at school? In this episode, Jane and Liz dig into the history of the school lunch program to unveil how we got to where we are today. It’s a surprisingly twisted tale involving desperate farmers, skittish military generals, shortsighted bean counters, pizza lobbyists, and a network of underground caves…filled with cheese.
Sep 21, 2022 • 30:55
Feeding Tricks You Can Feel Good About
On this episode, Liz and Jane talk to Jennifer Anderson, the guru behind Kids Eat in Color, an Instagram account that has become a go-to for literally millions of parents. Anderson is a nutritionist and a mom who is successfully changing the conversation about how to feed kids with tips and tricks for persuading kids to try new foods, right-sized portions, saving money, and how to talk about a balanced diet.
Sep 7, 2022 • 30:30
The Secret History of the Dino Chicken Nugget
Hearts. Dinosaurs. Baby Yoda. SpongeBob. The Great American Food System makes chicken nuggets in all these shapes and more. And why not? Our kids eat loads of them. Last year, American families spent more than $200 million on frozen nuggets in novelty shapes. In this episode, Jane and Liz talk to Scott Friedman, whose family invented the dinosaur chicken nugget, and explore why dino nuggets—and all sorts of fun-shaped foods—might deserve a little more respect.
Aug 24, 2022 • 24:53
Hell is Other People
“It takes a village,” as the saying goes. Well, here’s the ugly flip side of that concept: an episode all about the conflicts that bubble up when other people get involved in feeding our kids. Jane and Liz enlist the help of Carolyn Hax, the Washington Post’s legendary advice columnist, to help solve listeners’ issues with interfering, overbearing, and lackadaisical relatives who make feeding our kids more stressful than it should be.
Aug 10, 2022 • 33:30
How Picky Eating Took Over America
Half of all parents of young children say they have at least one picky eater in their household: a state of affairs that strikes many moms and dads stuck serving up the same half dozen foods on repeat as highly unnatural. With the help of Jennifer Traig, the author of Act Natural: A Cultural History of Misadventures in Parenting, Jane and Liz explore when, and why, picky eating emerged as a common trait among children – and what you can do to stop it. This episode is brought to you by Haven's K
Jul 27, 2022 • 39:29
Emily Oster: The Problems with Food Studies
Brown University economist Emily Oster has emerged as one of today’s hottest parenting gurus, thanks to her ability to cut through the noise and offer sensible ways to interpret conflicting advice on raising small humans. Oster joins Jane and Liz for a deep dive into the flaws and limitations of the research out there on feeding kids, with the goal of helping parents avoid the whiplash of conflicting trends and headlines. This episode of Pressure Cooker is brought to you by Haven's Kitchen and i
Jul 13, 2022 • 32:54
Lessons from the Infant Formula Debacle
Four months after a nationwide recall of baby formula, this crucial food remains widely out of stock--and parents remain desperate. In this episode we talk to Katie Kennedy, a mom who drove 800 miles to buy the specialty formula her daughter needs to survive, and to Helena Bottemiller Evich, who did the most definitive reporting into how the crisis occurred–and how it might be resolved. The interviews are both heart-wrenching and sadly instructive on how America treats mothers and children. (Hel
Jun 29, 2022 • 36:56
Can you teach a kid to eat vegetables?
Why isn’t my kid eating green beans or zucchini or, for that matter, any food that isn’t beige? It’s a headache for so many parents. One theory holds that, with the help of the right bribe, you can teach kids to like anything. And so Jane dragoons her 10-year-old daughter Lucy into an experiment to see if she can learn to accept her most dreaded food: tomatoes. Jane and Liz talk to Julie Mennella, a taste scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center to learn just what it takes to make kids eat
Jun 15, 2022 • 28:45
How important is family dinner?
You’ve read the headlines: kids who sit down to dinner nightly with their parents are healthier, better adjusted, and less likely to smoke, drink, and abuse drugs. But the reality is that many – if not most – American families struggle to break bread together on a regular basis. Those who do, especially with young children, might find it surprisingly…torturous. Jane and Liz dig into the research to discover whether the link between family dinner and children’s wellbeing is truly so well establis
Jun 1, 2022 • 25:55