All Things Pizza

There are lots of teenagers across America who love pizza. But Carolina Williams took this passion to the next level, by submitting a college essay to Yale about her obsession with ordering delivery from Papa John’s. She got accepted to the Ivy League school and her essay went viral, even attracting the attention of Papa John himself. Carolina joins the podcast to discuss this surreal experience.

For decades, members of the US military have relied on MREs (meals ready to eat) for sustenance while in combat. At a military research facility outside of Boston, work is constantly being undertaken to develop new dishes and meals for soldiers, which recently led to the debut of an MRE pizza. On this episode, we are joined by Michelle Richardson and Julie Smith -- two food technologists who both played pivotal roles in the development of this new dish.

Writer Jenny Zhang joins the All Things Pizza podcast to take us on a journey to China -- where her and her grandmother forged a special bond over the most unlikely of foods: pineapple pizza from Pizza Hut. Jenny shares a heartwarming story that she wrote for Eater earlier this year, and we discuss some of the topics that she reflects upon in the piece.

On the premiere episode of the All Things Pizza podcast, I sit down with Brooklyn's own Paulie Gee. Paulie left his corporate job to pursue his passion around pizza which led him to open his namesake pizzeria in Greenpoint, Brooklyn back in 2010. He now has a number of outposts around the country, in addition to a new slice shop in Brooklyn. We'll discuss his hat collection, the opening of his new pizzeria, and his love for the Yankees. Plus we'll talk about how he comes up with the creative names for his pizzas, how he helped with the launch of Mike's Hot Honey, and how often Paulie looks at Yelp reviews of his pizzerias.