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.

Hi, it's Lynn Rosetta, Casper, and you're listening to The Splendid Table, the show for people who love to eat.

Our program is produced by American Public Media and brought to you by Super Target.

Well, today it's the food and the truth of the Texas Cowboy.

We talk with Rob Walsh.

Now, he's author of the Texas Cowboy Cookbook. Rob digs into the

cowboy myth. Now, he says Texas rewrote its history to enshrine that cowboy hero. And as for

cowboy grub, well, beans and biscuits barely tell the story. It's a flash in the pan with

improvisational cook, Sally Schneider. She's got a new way to

fry. John Willoughby of Gourmet Magazine talks the kind of things to check out while you're on the road,

those exceptional foods that only exist on their home turf. The first food writer to win a Pulitzer

prize, Jonathan Gold, brings us his picks for books to take to the lake.

And in the second half of the show, we're going to be opening the lines for your calls.

You can reach us at 800, 537-52-52.

So let's begin the way we do every week with Jane and Michael Stern.

They write the road food column in Gourmet Magazine.

Jane, Michael, I heard you were in seaside, Oregon.

That's where James Beard, you know, the great food authority, used to hold his cooking classes.

Yes, indeed.

He was raised there in a boarding house not far away from the place that we love in Seaside, Oregon,

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