Reptile Epicurean Delights with Nathan Thornburgh

The Distraction: A Defector Podcast

Defector Media

Sports, Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Food journalist and founder of the newly-revived website Roads & Kingdoms Nathan Thornburgh returns to the podcast after many many moons. Where’s he been this whole time? Well it turns out, lots of places! Drew & Roth get a rundown of Nathan’s favorite food places in the world, as well asp the surprising challenges involved in preparing an iguana for consumption. And of course, we’ll serve Nathan up a Funbag question, sourced farm-to-table from real Defector readers & Distraction listeners.

Do you want to hear your question answered on the pod? Well, give us a call at 909-726-3720. That is 909-PANERA-0!

Stuff We Talked About

Asking chefs for money
Tap a toe in Bosnia
George from Georgia
The weirdest marsupials
Professional dishwasher loading

Sponsors

- Blueland, where you can get 30% off your order during their Holiday Sale

- Storyworth, where you can get $10 or more off for the holidays

Credits

- Hosts: Drew Magary & David Roth

- Producer: Brandon Grugle

- Editor: Mischa Stanton

- Production Services & Ads: Multitude Podcasts

- Subscribe to Defector!

About The Show

The Distraction is Defector's flagship podcast about sports (and movies, and art, and sandwiches, and certain coastal states) from longtime writers Drew Magary and David Roth. Every week, Drew and Roth tackle subjects, both serious and impossibly stupid, with a parade of guests from around the world of sports and media joining in the fun! Roth and Drew also field Funbag questions from Defector readers, answer listener voicemails, and get upset about the number of people who use speakerphone while in a public bathroom stall. This is a show where everything matters, because everyone could use a Distraction. Head to defector.com for more info.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We're back. We're back. It's distraction. I'm thrilled. That's Roth. Are you doing Roth?
0:07.7	I'm good, man. I'm good. I'm going to take the listeners behind the game here. Drew. Drew did warn our guest to brace his ears because I shout at the beginning. And he did. And I still can say that from the look on Nathan's face, there really is no preparing for
0:26.7	we're back.
0:27.7	No.
0:28.2	Like being on the pod before doesn't matter.
0:30.5	By the way, Nathan is back because he's been on the cast before.
0:33.4	It's Nathan Thornburg of the now resurrected Rhodes and Kingdoms. Welcome, Nathan. Hallelujah. Thank you so much. I feel like it's Nathan Thornburg of the now resurrected Roads and Kingdoms. Welcome, Nathan.
0:39.0	Hallelujah. Thank you so much. I feel like it's a whole new pod since I came on the first time,
0:43.9	including having a producer who tells me to put headphones on so I can get John shouting right in
0:50.0	the middle of my cranium. Yeah, you want to feel it like he's standing right behind you,
0:55.3	but you didn't notice it until he started yelling.
0:57.5	That's the vibe that we're trying to cultivate.
0:59.0	Yeah, your internal seismograph should just be lots of peaks,
1:04.4	just very, very quick.
1:05.8	It looks like something on like a radio head album cover, very, very sharp.
1:10.2	Audio tackycardia.
1:11.6	Mission accomplished.
1:12.8	Let's start with Roads and Kingdoms, which went on hiatus after the death of
1:17.2	co-founder Anthony Bourdain.
1:18.9	That was seen 2018, I believe.
1:21.3	Road and Kingdoms is back now.
1:23.0	So can you tell us the story behind the publications revival?
	...

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