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Our American Stories

How Fast Food Took Over America

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6817 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, fast food wasn’t always part of the daily routine. At one point, it was a wild idea. Quick meals without waiters or tables? Unheard of. Adam Chandler, author of Drive-Thru Dreams, explains how it all began. What started with roadside stands and milkshakes grew into an industry that now touches nearly every corner of American life.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an IHeart podcast.

0:04.5

Adventure should never come with a pause button.

0:07.1

Remember Movie Pass?

0:08.4

All the movies you wanted for just nine bucks?

0:11.1

I'm Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet.

0:13.9

And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told.

0:17.4

Starting with Stacey Spikes, the black founder of movie pass who got pushed out of the company

0:21.6

he built.

0:22.8

Everybody's trying to knock you down and it's not going to work and no one's going to like it.

0:27.3

And then boom, it's everywhere.

0:29.3

And that was that moment.

0:30.7

Listen to there are no girls on the internet on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

0:34.7

You know, or wherever you get your podcast.

0:48.2

And we continue here with our American stories.

0:55.3

Pulling up at your favorite drive-thru and grabbing a quick familiar meal is a part of everyday American life.

0:57.9

But this idea was once unheard of.

1:03.7

So how did fast food and drive-through restaurants come to be such appealing and significant aspects of American culture?

1:06.2

Here is Adam Chandler, author of Drive-Thru Dreams, A Journey Through the Heart of America's Fast Food Kingdom,

1:13.9

with the full history and evolution of fast food in our country.

1:22.4

The history of fast food is a fascinating one, in part because it really is the history of America. You can look back 100 years. That's basically when fast food is a fascinating one in part because it really is the history of America.

1:28.3

You can look back a hundred years.

1:30.3

That's basically when fast food started as we know it in Wichita, which is where we have the birth of White Castle.

...

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