Editor’s Desk: Introducing Forked, FERN’s new interview podcast

By Theodore Ross

Yesterday marked another first in FERN’s ongoing project to adapt to newer forms of media. We published the pilot episode of Forked, a new interview podcast series. I’m the co-host of Forked, along with Helena Bottemiller Evich, the founder and editor-in-chief of “Food Fix,” the best darn food policy newsletter going in this country right now. (If I do say so myself.)

On Forked’s first episode, “Among the MAHA moms,” Helena and I discussed the deluge of policy changes coming from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health & Human Services: the “stark ultimatum” he gave to major food producers to get dyes out of their products; his somewhat quixotic criticism of seed oils (“there is physically not enough avocado oil, beef tallow, and coconut oil to replace all of the seed oils in the food system,” says Helena); and the first (closed-door) meetings of the MAHA commission, attended by “MAHA moms,” or a group of very-online nutritionist and food advocates. As Helena put it, ”this was the busiest week that I can ever remember in food policy because of just how many things happened that were all kind of under the MAHA banner.”

To date, FERN’s audio expansion has focused on reporting and narrative. We’re proud of it, and we hope you’ll go to REAP/SOW, which is the home for all FERN audio, and follow us. It’s available at Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to get your podcasts. 

An interview show is a new venture, a new way for FERN to interact with concerned people like you, and we’re doing it because we think it’s the right way to understand what is happening to the food system right now. 

One difficulty of reporting on the Trump Administration is that so much happens very fast, some of it important, others less so. Daily news coverage is obliged to chase the news, documenting the latest development, and serving as the “first rough draft of history.” 

The approach with Forked is a little more measured. Helena’s specialty is informed analysis of what’s happening in Beltway politics on the food system and how it plays out for ordinary people. We get a little bit deep into the weeds of what’s happening and why. It’s fun and it’s factual.

We’re dipping a pinkie toe into the interview-format world of podcasting. I hope you like it, and that you’ll follow us. For now, Forked will come out once a month, so keep an ear out for it. We’d like to expand it, and we need your help to do that. Please consider making a donation to support this, and all the work we do at FERN.