Cookbook Author or Restaurant Chef? (with Padma Lakshmi)

Choice Words with Samantha Bee

Lemonada Media

Comedy

4.3 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Television host and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi joins Sam to talk about her new show, America’s Culinary Cup and how she’s a triple threat on it serving as creator, executive producer, and host. She reveals if she brought anyone from Top Chef with her, why it is important to set the contestants up for success, and why we crave shows where we can witness expertise. Padma talks about ten years of working with the ACLU, why her book is the antidote to Stephen Miller, and what it will take for food consumers to understand the effects of immigration raids on the food ecosystem. They commiserate on the problems of food waste and “day old” food laws, the newly inverted food pyramid, and engaging in estrogen wars with your teenage daughters. Plus they delve into why Padma really doesn’t think of herself as a chef, her comedy career and why there’s nothing better than a live audience. Keep up with Samantha Bee @realsambee on Instagram and X. And stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Hassam Minhaj here from the Hassam Minhaj doesn't know podcast, among other things. And I hate the smell of rotting food almost as much as I hate wasting it in the first place. Thankfully, now I have Mill. Mill is a food recycler that is odorless, guiltless, and completely effortless. See, I've always wanted to reduce my food waste. It is one of the easiest ways for an individual to make a big impact on the environment. But I just cannot stand the mess of a compost bin in the kitchen. But with
0:27.4	mill, all you do is dropping your scraps and you let it go. It works quickly and quietly turning
0:32.3	your food, even small bones, into nutrient-rich grounds. Now I take out the trash way less, yet my kitchen smells
0:39.2	way better, and I don't have to feel guilty when my zucchini gets moldy. Plus, it looks cool.
0:45.1	Yeah, this trash can alternative is so fly. People keep asking me, where I got the giant Alexa?
0:50.7	It's chic and savvy, but you have to live with Mill to really get it.
0:54.8	Good thing, you can try it risk-free for 90 days right now and get $75 off with code
1:00.3	HMDK. Visit mill.com slash HMDK.
1:03.6	That is mill.com slash HMDK.
1:10.4	Hey there, it's Julia Louis Dreyfus.
1:13.2	I'm back with a new season of Wiser Than Me, the show where I sit down with remarkable older women and soak up their stories, their humor, and their hard-earned wisdom.
1:25.3	Every conversation leaves me a little smarter and definitely more
1:29.2	inspired. And yes, I'm still calling my 91-year-old mom, Judy, to get her take on it all.
1:36.9	Wiser than me from Lemonada Media is out now, wherever you get your podcasts.
1:47.3	I can't believe this world.
1:49.6	Okay, look, can you believe it has been almost a year
1:53.9	since the White House Correspondence dinner hired and then fired,
1:58.6	Amber Ruffin.
1:59.8	Everyone just clutched their pearls and screamed,
2:03.0	Ah, censorship, freedom of the prize.
2:06.8	Bump, bomp, bomp, bomp.
2:08.6	So, yeah.
	...

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