Our common nature is a musical journey with Yo-Yo Ma and me, Ana Gonzalez, through this complicated country.

We go into caves, onto boats, and up mountain trails to meet people, hear their stories, their poetry, and of course, play some music, all to reconnect to nature, and get closer to the things we're missing.

Listen to Our Common Nature from WNYC, wherever you get podcasts.

Hey, I'm Frances Lamb, and this is Splendid Table Select, our mini podcast on the stuff that makes

us better cooks and eaters.

Our presenting sponsor is Bob's Red Mill.

They're an employee-owned company that's offered organic, gluten-free, stone-ground products

for decades, and they're experts at making healthy taste amazing.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which, growing up

in New Jersey, I thought was the Italian thing, but it turns out it's more of an Italian

American tradition, and it's basically unheard of in most parts of Italy.

So what are actually Italian holiday feasts? Well, America's Test Kitchen has collaborated

with National Geographic on a book that digs into regional Italian food. It's called Tasting

Italy, a culinary journey. And Sally Swift talked with Jack Bishop. Have a listen. Hey, Jack,

happy holidays. Happy holiday, Sally.

So you have a secret life that I think a lot of people don't know about.

I mean, not only are you the mastermind or one of the masterminds behind America's Test Kitchen, but you're Italian.

Oh, God, I was really worried. What secret life was she going to reveal? So that one, yes, my mother's maiden name is Pizzarillo. My great-grandparents emigrated from Calabria in the South, roughly about 120 years ago. But the best cook in my life was my Italian grandmother. And you've written some

beautiful books about Italian food, which I'm not sure people know about, including one that I love

called pasta A. Verdera. But you are now back with a book that you've done in collaboration with

National Geographic. It's called Tasting Italy, where you have basically broken recipes down by regions, and you have managed to somehow only pick 100 recipes, which must have been really hard.

Yeah, our original list started with 400, so we wanted to tell the story of Italy through its regions with photographs and essays from National Geographic and then recipes where you'd go

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