The Food Chain

Ep 1401 Horse: A Genetic Ride Back to the Beginning

Before the horse we walked everywhere, and it was a downright slog to get there.  But 4,750 years ago, a mutant gene began working its way through the horse herds of the Eurasian Steppes.  Then, about 800 years ago, Genghis Khan raced those horses throughout the World to conquer one and all.  And so we ask:

Have you ridden a horse?

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Ludovic Orlando, Molecular Archaeologist, Founder of Anthropology & Genomics Institute, and Author of Horses: A 4,000 Year Genetic Journey Across the World, for a conversation about the search for the World’s first horses.

Topics include how the search for the World’s first horses was conducted; where the most likely birth place of the horse was found; and how the evolution of the horse was directed by the various needs of people.

Ep. 1400 HONEY BEES V. VAMPIRE MITES

The fight is on for one-third of the food we eat.  On one side is a ferocious vampire mite, on the other side is human ingenuity.  The battleground is Apis mellifera – the Western Honeybee.  This fight leads us to ask:

 

Can human ingenuity save the honey bee and our food?

Ep 1278 Eating out of Mental Dystopia

Michael Olson hosts Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, Co-Author, The Better Brain

The Golden State of California appears to be losing its collective mind.  You can see evidence of that loss on the streets of San Francisco, and that leads us to ask:

Can we eat our way out of mental dystopia?

Topics include how San Francisco uses bureacracy to care for people who can’t care for themselves; how the bureacracy’s efforts always seem to exacerbate the problem; and whether nutrition might prove to be the real solution to society’s mental dystopia.

Ep 1250

 7-11 BEGETS TRADER JOE'S
Michael Olson with Benjamin Lorr, Author, The Secret Life of Groceries

It is a $700 billion dollar a year business, and Americans spend about 2% of their lives shopping in them.  Their story leads us to ask:

How did 7-Eleven give rise to Trader Joes?

Topics include the transformation of food into Store Keeping Units (SKUs); the transformation of general stores into supermarkets; and the story of how 7-Eleven gave rise to Trader Joes.

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Ep 1322 Building a Better Bee

Caroline Yelle, Owner & Queen Bee, Pope Canyon Queens

I happened to be watching a honey bee working over a lemon tree blossom on the 19^th of July, when I realized that it was the first honey bee I have seen this year.  That leads me to ask…

 

Can we breed a bee that can survive us?

Nutrition for Dystopia

The Golden State of California appears to be losing its collective mind.  You can see the evidence of that loss on the streets of San Francisco, and that City-by-the-Bay leads us to ask:

 

Can we eat our way out of dystopia?

Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, Co-Author, The Better Brain: Overcome Anxiety, Combat Depression, and Reduce ADHD and Stress with Nutrition  

Ep 1398 Food Fight: Large Farms V. Small Farms

The Food Chain Radio Show - Podcast with Michael Olson hosts Richard J. Sexton, Professor Emeritus, Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of California Davis & Author of Food Fight: Misguided Policies, Supply Challenges, and the Impending Struggle to Feed a Hungry World

In 1973, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz told the nation’s farmers to, ”Get big or get out!”  Many farmers did get big or got out.  That leads us to ask:

Are the nation’s small farms worth saving?

Topics include why Earl Butz, and most of the nation’s ag economists, would tell the nation’s farmers to get big or get out; how the economic principal of economies-of-scale provides the impetus for getting big or getting out; and whether the nation’s small farms are worth saving?

Ep. 242 Hr. 1. China Now 25.6.26

China Now:  Friend or Foe?  War or Peace?
Hosts Michael Olson & Nan Su 

• China tells Brazil Xi Jinping Will Miss Brics Summit in Rio
• Annual reshuffling of PLA Generals
• Putin will visit Beijing and join Xi Jinping for military marching on 9/3.
• CCP to curb fentanyl precursors
• Chinese gangsters arrested for shipping fentanyl precursors