my newsletter is back for 2026! starting with a personal essay about cooking lessons from bad boyfriends and good juice bars in the 2010s Toronto scene, and the way i learned to cook through meal kits (mostly) sarahduignan.substack.com/p/cooking-le...

being a podcaster with laryngitis is a cruel joke, 2026!!

How about a taste of summer in the bleak midwinter? UofGuelph's a finalist in the Homegrown Challenge, working on sustainable, AI-enabled vertical farming system to for year-round strawberries. And YES, that berry was that red. #Agriculture #Canada #Foodsky www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

all dressed chips getting more all dressed flavours is the weirdest type of nationalism

New episode out, and the last of 2025! I speak with Chef Cheng Lin of Shōta Omakase, exploring his commitment to sourcing ingredients that honour the traditional techniques and considerations of seasonality when selecting which fish to incorporate on the menu www.anthrodish.com/episodes/che...

This week I'm speaking with CEO and co-founder of Skipper Otto, Sonia Strobel, on community supported fisheries, the challenges facing the Canadian seafood industry, and how to increase consumer transparency and sustainable fishery management! #seafood www.anthrodish.com/episodes/soniastrobel

very excited to have Ren Navarro of B Diversity Group back on the podcast for her insights into the rise of non-alcoholic beverages. We talk generational perspectives, the difference between non-alcoholic and wellness beverage culture, & how hop water works! www.anthrodish.com/episodes/ren...

Food waste PhD researcher Emma Atkins talks about what influenced the shape of modern fridges, and how it’s not shifted too radically from its earliest icebox roots! Listen to the full episode on AnthroDish podcast #foodhistory #refridgeration #foodpodcast www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4cj...

how can stories of national and regional cuisines maintain the complexities surrounding the ways that ingredients have come to them? in Chop Chop, Ozoz Sokoh explores this in the Nigerian context. listen to the full episode on YouTube #nigerianfood #foodpodcast www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCkn...

i think it’s deeply irresponsible to be writing trend pieces on ingredients co-opted by Western eaters in ways that feel fluffy or “accessible." matcha, pistachio, quinoa are all culturally important foods being unsustainably sourced, and deserve a lens that looks at overconsumption & climate change

This week, I’m speaking with Ozoz Sokoh, a culinary anthropologist and author of Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria. We explore the stories of how ingredients came to be in Nigerian dishes and how Ozoz approaches exploring the histories cuisine across Nigeria. www.anthrodish.com/episodes/ozo...

a pet peeve: podcast guest pitches that throw an unrelated topic at me for "my consideration." i point it out, and often get a follow up "well we can talk about food too" - but if you didn't approach this already thinking about that angle, i know this conversation won't be enjoyable or meaningful

Interviewed Dr. Bryan Dale about his recent @foodstudies.ca journal article, interviewing farmers and alternative food organizations in Ontario and Québec. We discuss tensions between producers & consumers, the role of state interventions in food systems, & more! www.anthrodish.com/episodes/bry...

wrote about something i never do: my kids! specifically how humbling it’s been introducing solid foods to my son in comparison to my daughter, thinking about the cultural and nutritional elements that make this phase of life fascinating to me #infantfoods sarahduignan.substack.com/p/on-weaning...

This week on the podcast I speak with baker @katlieu.bsky.social on her new cookbook, 108 Asian Cookies! We discuss challenging misrepresentation of Asian ingredients through a celebration of their culinary adaptations in cookies and more! www.anthrodish.com/episodes/kat...

new podcast episode out today with Palestinian food writer Lama Obeid on preserving Palestinian cuisine through genocide, and the ways Palestinian food gets appropriated into something vaguely Middle Eastern in Western discourse #foodpodcast #palestinianfood www.anthrodish.com/episodes/lamaobeid

in this week’s newsletter, i’m exploring some of the policy, sociocultural, and religious aspects that funnelled into wellness culture from the 1950s onward (and yes, wellness as an ideology goes further back than you’d think!) sarahduignan.substack.com/p/healthism-...

is this the guy we want to be giving food future talks in canada? the multi-millionaire responsible for food price fixing schemes, unaffordable groceries he blames on general inflation while suppressing profit numbers, and endless other issues? hmm?!

This week on the podcast, I speak with Iranian-American writer and cook Anna Ansari about her new cookbook/memoir, Silk Roads, the history of food and ideas travelling along the Silk Roads, and why the apple isn’t so quintessentially American as people think. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdAO...

first interview of season 10! with Drs. Alex Ketchum and Megan Elias on their new co-edited book Queers at the Table. we talk about what it means to queer food (and restaurant/home cooking spaces) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxau...

this week on the newsletter, a travel log of food in france, and some reflections on north american convenience & food values #foodwriting #foodanthro #parisfood sarahduignan.substack.com/p/france-in-...

i don’t want to be in a timeline that’s excited about “clear and hydrating protein”

join us on 29 september for a meet-and-greet with the FFF gang! come and tell us what you'd like to see from us? how would you like to participate? how can we support your work, too? ask us questions or just chat with us. register via link in the newsletter, and my paid subs go for free 💞

tomorrow! registration still open!

Happy birthday to our brilliant expert, Dr. Sarah Duignan, the amazing Medical Anthropologist! May your day be filled with fascinating insights, joyful connections, and celebrations that are truly good for the soul. Here's to a fantastic and healthy birthday! @anthrodish.bsky.social

i don’t talk about my post six concussion symptoms often anymore, but i so deeply wish there was more to be done for long term brain injuries, it can be so debilitating and infuriating some days

i find it hilarious that we’re now here in wellness culture, where poop is used as undeniable metric of health. as someone who got weird looks when i did podcast interviews on farting and digestion 6 years ago

people still out here mixing up free speech and hate speech huh

this week on the newsletter, a field log of a disappearing canadian chocolate. on factory labour, snack historians, bloggers who track old candy labels down, and dubious statements from international corporations! sarahduignan.substack.com/p/a-farewell...

funny how it’s exclusively white peoole doing the devils advocate whataboutisms around charlie kirk. really telling on yourself, he profited off of his racism and sexism and anti-trans agendas.

very excited to speak at the Graduate Food Studies Association's Edible Dialogues series Sept 23! looking at the connections between food anxieties and health moralities, which feels all the more relevant these days. #foodstudies #foodanthro link to register (free!): yorku.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Interesting, as always, read by @anthrodish.bsky.social on masculinity in so-called “ancestral eating” practices. I feel like trophy hunting culture taps into this dynamic, as well.

back to the newsletter after watching the liver king’s untold special on netflix, and exploring what it means to pursue “ancestral eating” practices in relation to 21st century masculinity extremes and performances. #foodwriting #ancestraldiet sarahduignan.substack.com/p/of-cabbage...

Officially opening up pitches for guesting on season 10 of AnthroDish Podcast, the show about food, culture, and identity 💛 Please see the photos below for specifics on how to pitch yourself as a guest! I am not able to take all pitches, but please reach out and share widely! #foodpodcast

the anxiety i have before i release a call for guests never goes away — but excited to prep for season 10!

when it comes to media making up excuses about housing affordability, little treat is to gen z as avocado toast is to millennials #avocadotoast #littletreat

MBOKO!!! so exciting to watch, feels so deeply meaningful having my new-to-tennis daughter watch and take notes on what women can do with the game 🎾

i am only just feeling like i have a good foundation for strength training one year postpartum, this baby really did a number on me. but the messaging about bouncing back quicker feels so out of control, it’s been a minefield trying to navigate it and not let my thoughts go bad #postpartum

i expected a lot in the process of applying for Irish citizenship (i qualify through my Irish-born grandparents), but i didn't expect to cry so much!

realizing today i work in two wildly different spaces: the academic one where AI is critically discussed with warnings about its impact to the planet, and the corporate one where we’re getting an AI named brant or something to be our concierge without blinking an eye. the whiplash is real

one of my icks is how many old mills in ontario get magically turned into expensive spas, lofts, and distilleries

up on the newsletter this week is an exploration of food dye bans, concerns, and why it’s a much more complicated scenario than what RFK jr thinks when it comes to which are allowable in canada versus not #fooddye

last night while my daughter was at a birthday party, i got a call from the party parent. naturally, i assumed she broke her arm. nope, he was wondering how strict my “no watching SpongeBob squarepants” rule was 😅

it exhausts me that if i post about an obnoxiously expensive montessori daycare that serves “seasonal breaded chicken” (chicken nuggets) being the only likely option for toddler care when i’ve spent 14 months on 52 other care waitlists, I’m offending the rich kids that went to montessori

how bad do we think liver king smells irl

'This... AnthroDish Transcript is with Carolyn Davenport-Moncel. Carolyn is an American expat and Chicago native, who wears many, many hats as a writer, entrepreneur, digital marketing professional, mum of two, and Souper-in-Chief at Simply Souperlicious...' sarahduignan.substack.com/p/anthrodish...

made a pact with one of my writing besties to try for more rejection this year and feeling very into this approach

i really dislike how flattened experiences of mothering are on the internet, how it’s “always” miserable and that only certain women are afforded a literary crisis about it, so wrote through my frustration: sarahduignan.substack.com/p/nightbitch...

my daughter loves to say she’s breaking into her school’s computer system at home, and i don’t have the heart to tell her she’s just logging into her google classroom

love when tech owners who run glucose measuring wellness apps are the ones getting interviewed about protein and other food trends over those that have cultural & historical insights into appetite and food stories #proteinmania