Sauced in Translation with Howie Southworth

My guest today is Spencer Laudiero. Spencer and I went to high school together in New Jersey and this is the first time we have spoken since. Now, before you young guns find that weird, this was well before social media, cell phones, hell even before language was developed. I found my way to California, yada yada yada, and Spencer eventually found his way out there, too, only to take over where I left off. I'm kidding. Spencer is an acclaimed animator, writer and director who has worked with projects the likes of, Looney Tunes, Robot Chicken, The Ricky Gervais Show and Family Guy. I love his work, so you can say that we've been connected over those inter-teletubes since we went to dust-bowl school. Anyway, Here's our chat.

My guest today is Kathy McCabe. Springing from an award-winning membership website she launched in 2002, Kathy has been non-stop producing Dream of Italy in writing, podcast and public television form with entertaining results. What makes Kathy's work to inspire fulfilling Italy travel unique is the promise of the whole package: Where to go, who to meet, what to see, where to stay and what to eat. Kathy's drive to do this deep dive into Italy began by seeking her great-grandfather's birthplace, and has empowered her to create her own intimate relationship with the country - with all of us along for the ride. Kathy adores food, and her show proves it. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Kaiser Kuo. Kaiser is one of my favorite broadcasters as the co-host of the Sinica Podcast on SupChina News. It was through that prismed window that I virtually met him as an international policy guy, the model intellectual expat, a Silicon Valley-meets-Beijing rock star, a sword-enthusiast and moreover, the guy you wanted to be when you grew up but never knew it. To put icing on this particular cake, Kaiser has divided his life between the US and China, and to my calculations, there is no better way to optimize one's culinary self. Indeed, I have been a guest on The Sinica Podcast talking about this very thing. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Badr Benjelloun. Badr is a rennaissance man, professional expatriot, a Morrocan magic man, and serial entrepreneur. In Beijing alone, from the mid-oughts until a year ago, he planted deep roots as a musician, IT guru, mixologist, chef and restaurateur. Wow. That's a mouthful. Speaking of food. Badr is one of my favorite Instagramers and images of his food creations reflect this diverse set of affinities. Oh, and he moved to Italy during a global pandemic. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Frankie Huang. Frankie is a freelance writer and artist with a list of by-lines that far exceeds the length of this podcast, but the short list is notable, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian and The Daily Beast is where I would start. It is within these gilded pages that Frankie shares her rather personal and poignant take on topics such as culture, identity and feminism. Perhaps most importantly, however, and yes I'm biased, she is also a lover of food. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Ali Khan. Having grown up a foodie and eventually blogging about it into his adulthood, Ali has been the host of two fantastic shows within the Food Network universe: Cheap Eats which sends him around the country with a tight daily budget to deliciously find breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack; and a few seasons of The Spring Baking Champioship, which as it sounds, is an entertaining confection contest replete with requisite twists and turns akin to other cooking competition shows. Indeed, Ali isn't only my first guest who literally travels for food for a living, but he should probably be hosting this particular episode. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Caris Vujcec. Caris wears many, many hats professionally, actor, director, producer, modern creator in the purest sense. Where I became familiar with her on the festival circuit through her award-winning female spy-thriller: The Pepper Project and the follow-up Pepper: Ricochet, you are most likely to know her from the Law & Order universe in which she has played detective Louise Campesi since 2007. Not that her experience on and off-stage and screen isn't phenomenal, but it's her Sicilian-Croatian lineage that piques my interest the most. With any luck, I'll get to the bottom of this gelato for breakfast thing once and for all. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Jonathan Cane. If you've been a fan of reality television in any capacity in the last two decades, on some level you have Jonathan to thank. He's played the role of TV development executive or producer for the likes of Discovery, MTV, A&E, Travel Channel, Bravo, oh man the list goes on. His keen reality sensibilities have created award-winning series on which you've likely been hooked and probably binged. But, before we blame Jonathan for our collective sloth and the Kardashians, listen up. He's currently playing the role of food hero. Jonathan has shifted into the role of Creative Director for Food Allergy Research and Education, otherwise known as FARE, a nonprofit organization that focuses on empowering individuals with allergies to live safe and productive lives. So, wanting to see folks eat well is something we share. That and we were both clever enough to earn a degree at NYU. Here's our chat.

My guest to day is Kevin Harrington. Kevin is a faculty administration staffer at Harvard University in the department of stem cell and regenerative biology. Which is hilarious, so Kevin is also a stand-up comic. I kid. He's made a career out of splitting his time between the sciences on one plane and comedy, improv, and voice-over work on another. In fact, the way we became familiar was me becoming a fan of a very creative cross-over called the Hadron Gospel Hour, a radio-comedy cum podcast in which he played Higgs-B, a higgs-bozon particle - or the god particle. That can give a guy a complex. And he loves food. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Charles Day. Charles is the Editor-in-chief of Physics Today, arguably the most important magazine in the world dedicated to the physical sciences. I am producing this episode *primarily* to make amends to the larger field of physics. You see, in an ironic twist, UC Santa Barbara is both home to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and my alma mater - A place where I avoided taking anything to do with physics, even if it meant becoming that one guy who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science. I kid. Charles has degrees in both physics and astronomy, and he even worked for NASA for a spell. Perhaps more important than any of this, Charles is a fellow writer and gastronome who adores traveling to eat, and he's a friend. One with whom I've shared some fantastic dinners and the search for perfection in the kitchen. I hear he's got a thing for Japan, too. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Stephanie Bonner. Stephanie is the modern model of a scrappy content creator living and hustling through New York City. Highly trainer actor, part-time director, aspiring writer, promising producer, life-long goof-ball. One can easily search her up on IMDB for the laundry list of acclaim and accomplishments, but to my mind, the most important tidbit comes from Stephanie's own website, which notes that she can often be found, quote “dancing around the kitchen pretending to be the host of her very own cooking show.” Now that strikes a chord. Here's our chat.

My guest today Alex Dent. Alex is a professor of anthropology at the George Washington University in DC. He is a celebrated teacher and researcher who's taken deep dives into intriguing topics like violent response to digital piracy and Brazilian rodeos as a physical manifestation of country music. As it happens, Alex takes the resulting related energies and pours them into being a vocalist and guitarist for the DC punk band, Weird Babies. Alex and I are brothers in culinaria. As the unrelated person with whom I've eaten and cooked the most since our kids met in day care 13 years ago, Alex has fed my kitchen alchemy as much as I've fed his. Being a decades-deep non-meat eater, Alex has served as my vegetable protein guru as well. Recently we blended my obsession with Brazilian feijoada bean-sausage stew and his obsession with everything Brazil, his second home. We arguably created the world's first acceptable vegetarian feijoada. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Megan McCormick. For several years, Megan was one of the spectacular presenters on a series that went by a variety of names depending on where you were watching in the world: Globe Trekker, Pilot Guides or Lonely Planet TV, which of course, was associated with the popular travel guides. If you've enjoyed Andrew Zimmern for his culinary bravado, Anthony Bourdain for his fates-be-damned intellect or Rick Steves for his academic frugality, you watched Megan to see how much fun and enlightening it could be to roam the globe. She was last featured on a series called Sea Nation, in which she dropped off the hamster wheel to shift that fun to island hopping. But, most related to our favorite topic, if you've not seen Megan dive into Sichuan hotpot, replete with tongue-numbing peppercorns, you've not lived. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Linda Pelaccio. Linda is the host and producer of A Taste of the Past on the Heritage Radio Network. On the show, with a variety of academics, writers and other food folks of note, she explores history through the lens of food. A culinary historian by trade, Linda has dives into sundry topics such as Winston Churchill's personal chef, the industrialization of meat, foodways of the Basque region of Spain, and the origins of the coconut. She's even had me as a guest talking about Chinese street food. Can you imagine? Linda was also one of the early producers with the TV Food Network and therefore in my perspective, instrumental in how we consume culinary video programming today. Not for nothing, but I will also say that I was a big fan of Food network's early stuff. Thanks, Linda. Here's our chat.

My guest today is Monica Eng. Monica is the co-host of the Chewing podcast, along with Chicago Tribune reporter Louisa Chu. Get it, CHU-ENG? Brilliant. Having also spent years at the Tribune, Monica is currently a reporter with Curious City in Chicago on public radio's WBEZ with a primary focus on food, culture, health and the environment. Needless to say, she's been rather busy. Apart from fantastic and timely topics and interviews on their podcast  - yes, go subscribe NOW - Monica and Louisa have this regular segment on Chewing called Will She Eat It, in which they challenge one another to sample seemingly absurd foods and drink. Oreo Spam Burgers, Chinese Baijiu, Sweet Steak Sandwiches, Filipino duck embryos, uh, you get the picture. I've been a guest of theirs twice and thank goodness they keep that ritual to themselves! Here's our chat.

My guest today is Chef Martin Yan. The name is certainly a household one among people of my generation, and that of my folks. Yan Can Cook began to grace our 4 X 3 televisions in the 1980s and we learned that if Yan can cook, so can we. He was my first culinary hero and his entertaining flair with a cleaver was an inspiration. His Chinese Cooking For Dummies was the first cookbook I owned, and his message to the larger world that Chinese cuisine was accessible undoubtedly led to my first thoughts on moving China. He has authored dozens of books, won numerous awards ranging from an Emmy to James Beard, and is still a highly regarded Master Chef known the world around. More important than all of that, Martin is just a fun guy with whom I've been personally familiar for 13 years. Here's our chat.

My guest this week is Greg Matza. If you don't recognize the name, you're in that special column of folks that is about to realize that you should know that name.  He's my brother from another mother, the Milli to my Vanilli, the Humperdink to my Engelberg. Long story short, he and I started our creative partnership at a staff retreat ahead of our first summer working for the Family Vacation Center at UC Santa Barbara. Family camp. And i do mean CAMP. He or I started singing Hey There from Pajama Game and the other joined in from across the room and that was our first collaboration in entertainment. Since then, we've produced 2 plays, 4 cookbooks, 3 web series, 1 film and dozens of unfinished works of brilliance. Sure, he's a successful Silicon Valley salesman and his common law father in law, father in common law? Oh whatever, just won the nobel prize in economics. But, at the end of the day,  he is my oldest friend, one with whom I share 23 years of travel stories. Man do we eat well. Here's our chat.