Desperation Pie with Sarah Archer
4/28/20261 hr 26 min
What would you do for a desperation pie? Kitchen correspondent Sarah Archer is here to talk with Sarah about the American food trends that marked the 20th century and how they related to the political and cultural changes of a nation in need of constant culinary inventiveness. They discuss the specialties of the barren Depression Era, the food-related propaganda and rationing of the wartime years, the meteoric rise of post-war disposability, the premade mixes and “exotic” dishes of midcentury housewives, and the special tastes of Soviet Cold War diplomacy. Throughout the episode, they discuss the messages these eras transmitted to the women in charge of the kitchen and draw parallels to our new era of trad wife cooking and carnivore dieting. Digressions include the unique features of Star Trek aliens, why cottage cheese is the Cher of foods, and how ironing sheets can be a potent tool for procrastination.
More Sarah Archer:
https://www.sarah-archer.com/
Design for Dreaming 1956 appliance fantasy film: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/design-for-dreaming-1956/
Midcentury Menu exhibition at the MFAH: https://www.mfah.org/art/exhibitions/midcentury-menu-dining-in-the-atomic-age
Meals with a Foreign Flair: https://archive.org/details/mealswithforeign00desm
Edited + Produced by Miranda Zickler:
http://linktr.ee/mirandatheswampmonster
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSarah Marshall· Host0:00
Your Honor, my client, you could kill him by putting a scratch and sniff sticker at the bottom of a pool. [upbeat music] Welcome to You're Wrong About April Madness, where we talk about American legal history and where the only brackets we're seating are flower beds. Oh, boy. [laughs] And with me today is Princess Weekes. Princess, hello, how are you doing?
Princess Weekes· Guest0:35
I'm doing so well. I'm so happy to be here, and I love you, so this is great. Happy April, everyone.
Sarah Marshall· Host0:42
I love you, and I love April. I feel, 'cause we're both April birthdays- Yep ... we're just talking about sort of the chaos of this month inevitably, 'cause I think it's when the energy that springtime gives to people, at least in places where it, like, hits you hard and you get more daylight hours and stuff, we, like, suddenly have more energy and then we, like, do a lot of stuff with it.
Princess Weekes· Guest1:03
[laughs] And you crash more because your body is still adjusting.
Sarah Marshall· Host1:07
Yeah.
Princess Weekes· Guest1:07
Like, the we- like, today it's 80 degrees.
Sarah Marshall· Host1:09
Right, you, you misjudge.
Princess Weekes· Guest1:11
Yeah, like, today's 80 degrees in New York. Yesterday it was 50. Like, that's very different.
Sarah Marshall· Host1:16
[laughs] Yeah. You're like, "What if I keep walking forever?"
Princess Weekes· Guest1:19
Yeah.
Sarah Marshall· Host1:19
You know?
Princess Weekes· Guest1:20
Forever ever.
Sarah Marshall· Host1:21
[laughs] You're also one of the few people I can think of who I know you would appreciate my observation that it's hard to say, like, "Well, time for my long walk,"