Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand. Marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time from startups to scale ups online in person, and on the go. Shopify's made for

entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.

Hey, it's Francis. A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to randomly run into Padma Lakshmi on the street.

I'm just pretty mad. What a life. It actually wasn't so random because we were both heading to a pop-up by this fantastic Sri Lankan chef named Sam Four, who lives in Kentucky. But anyway, Padma told me awesome news. She was filming the second season of her show, Taste the Nation. Now, that show was one of my favorite shows of all last year,

so to celebrate the great news, we're bringing back the interview I did with her about it. Have a

listen.

I'm Frances Lamb, and this is The Splendid Table from APM.

If, like many people, you only know Padma Lakshmi as the host of Top Chef, you know the one who says,

please pack your knives and go, then you may think of her basically as, you know, just this glamorous,

globe-trotting food critic.

And for a dozen years, she's made herself a fixture in food media through that show.

But now, she's embarked on a different challenge.

A new kind of show for her, and in some ways, for our food media.

She's the host of Taste the Nation, a series on Hulu where she travels the United States,

you know, ostensibly to dig into burritos and hot pots and kebabs,

but really using it as a chance to show us much more about the worlds of the cooks of these foods.

She is, and this is where I feel so different.

She's a gracious guest, not a swashbuckling adventurer, and the vibe of the show,

which is really about sharing and real listening, feels so important in this moment.

We talked for an hour about her show, her journey growing up as an immigrant in Queens,

how hard it is to compete on Top Chef, and why she's a little embarrassed about one of the books she's written.

It was such a pleasure to get to spend time with Padma and her mind.

...