One Real Good Thing with Ellie Krieger

If you think nutritious, affordable, environmentally-friendly food is a right for all, there are things you can do, large and small, to move the needle in that direction. In this episode Mark Bittman, a leading voice in global food culture and policy for more than three decades, discusses why taking food seriously is a key mindset shift that can really make a difference.

Bittman has written thirty books, including the How to Cook Everything series, Food Matters, and two books in 2021: Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food from Sustainable to Suicidal, and Bittman Bread: No-Knead Whole Grain Baking for Every Day. He spent three decades at The New York Times, where he created “The Minimalist” and his 2007 Ted Talk, “What’s wrong with what we eat,” has been viewed five million times. He is a fellow at Yale and is on the faculty of Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, and has won numerous awards for both journalism and books. Bittman is currently the editor-in-chief of The Bittman Project, which sponsors a newsletter, website, and the podcast “Food, with Mark Bittman.” 

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“Movement is powerful medicine!” says Aimee Cox, anthropologist, Yale professor, dancer and instructor for The Class’s Pleasure Your Self series. She explains how tapping into the pleasure of movement by acknowledging and honoring what feels good to your body, can not only inspire you to be more active, it can impact just about every aspect of your life. 

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The amount of natural light in our homes can profoundly affect our feeling of well-being. Licensed therapist and interior designer Anita Yokota explains why, and she shares easy design strategies for optimizing light in your home, no matter where you live. She also reveals the answer to the number one question she gets: “What is the perfect white paint color?”

Anita Yokota’s background as both a licensed therapist and interior designer makes her uniquely attuned to how the home environment affects emotional health. Since beginning her blog in 2016, her relatable, positive energy and intuitive eye for great design have attracted a large and passionate audience. Her book Home Therapy: Interior Design for Increasing Happiness, Boosting Confidence, and Creating Calm comes out in December 2022.

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You don’t have to give up your cultural foods to be healthy. In fact, including them is one of the healthiest things you can do. In this episode, Jasmine Westbrooks and Ashley Carter, two registered dietitian nutritionists who founded EatWell Exchange, a nonprofit that teaches low socioeconomic communities how to grow their own food, cook foods in a healthier way, and become more educated about their cultural foods share why this is so important and how to make it happen in your life.

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Tamar Haspel calls herself a “crappy gardener” but she’s here to tell us it’s totally do-able to go outside and get what she calls “first hand food,” by foraging, fishing, gardening and more. She shares why doing so can be so transformative, and gives us easy ways to start, no matter where you live.

Tamar writes the James Beard Award-winning Washington Post column Unearthed, which tackles food from every angle: agriculture, nutrition, obesity, the food environment. She’s also written for Discover, Vox, Slate, Fortune, Eater, and Edible Cape Cod. Her new book about gleaning dinner from the world around you is TO BOLDLY GROW: Finding Joy, Adventure, and Dinner in Your Own Backyard. 

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Emma Poole, Ellie’s personal favorite yoga instructor, infuses her classes with intuitive movement, storytelling, and wisdom from her own experience and practice. Ellie was deeply affected by the thoughts Emma shared during class one day about being “kinder than you need to be.” Regardless of whether you are into yoga, it’s a notion which seems quite simple on the surface, but it can have a huge ripple effect in your life and in the world around you.

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Farmer Lee Jones, from the Chef’s Garden in Ohio, which his family has owned for decades and supplies produce for the best chefs in the country, encourages us to enjoy whole plant eating, from the root to the fruit. After listening to this you will be inspired to make the most of those often tossed-out carrot tops, broccoli stems, Brussels sprout leaves and more. He also enlightens us about regenerative agriculture and why he uses it on the farm. 

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Eric Kim, New York Times staff writer and columnist for The New York Times Magazine spent a year cooking with his mother Jean for his book Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home. He and Ellie discuss how writing down family recipes can enrich your life in profound ways, and the (often funny) challenges that can arise in the process. 

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Alex Guarnaschelli, host of Supermarket Stakeout and Alex Versus America on Food Network, cookbook author, and Executive Chef of Butter in New York City, shares quick food fixes to help us recover from common cooking mistakes and inspire more confidence in the kitchen.  

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Internationally recognized nutrition expert and author of Zero Waste Cooking for Dummies, Rosanne Rust, RDN, reveals how to get three amazing meals out of one by taking advantage of dishes she calls “food waste heroes.” 

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