People automatically assume that you're scolding them,

even if you're just kind of talking about, you know,

matter of fact things.

You know, people write to me about my newsletter all the time

being like, you make me very defensive. And it and it's like I didn't that wasn't my intention

but I don't know I'm sorry you feel that way and I don't know what to say about that because at the same time

it's just something has to give.

Hello and welcome to the War on Cars, the podcast where we believe that something has got to give.

I'm Sarah Goodyear.

The voice you heard there belongs to Alicia Kennedy, a food writer originally from Long Island who is now based in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Alicia has a weekly newsletter in which she writes about the way that food culture intersects with politics, media, labor rights, and climate change, which on the

surface might not seem like it has much to do with the war on cars. But it does

because what Alicia is doing in her work is really similar to what we do here at the

podcast. She tries to make the invisible visible. Alicia wants you to see the food world the

way she does. She shares recipes, sure, they're mostly vegan and

they are delicious, but Alicia also shines a light on how huge political and commercial

forces are constantly manipulating our emotions about food for their own profit,

with reckless disregard for the natural world and human health.

It's pretty much the same thing we see every day in transportation and urban planning.

We talked with Alicia about what electric cars have in common with lab meat

and how to deal with people thinking you're a joyless Puritan just because you don't want our society to go up in flames.

We'll get to that interview in a minute, but first a message from our sponsor,

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