Serious XM Podcasts.

So, Samin, this is the second time that you're joining us here in the Sporkful.

No, it's more than that.

Well, I'll tell you why it feels like more.

Well, we did the, because I did the pasta thing and we did one.

Oh, right, right, right, right, sorry. And we did one, you lost it. We re-recorded it. Well, we did the, because I did the pasta thing and we did one.

Oh, right, right, right, right. And we did one, you lost it.

We re-recorded it. Yes, that's. And then we did the pasta one. So you've been on three times, but you have, oh, and you enwishing. And then we do cookies? You're just like, sorry. You're erasing me from history. This is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each

week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. Now, one quick note

before we get started, it's that time of year, friends. I want to hear your New Year's food

resolutions for 2026. Send me a voice memo with your first name,

location, and tell me what food you resolved to eat more of in the new year and why. Send that voice

memo to hello at sporkful.com and you just might hear it in our year-end show when I will also be

revealing my New Year's food resolution for next year. All right, let's get into it. This week on the show, I'm talking with Samin Nasra. As you heard, she's been on the show many times, four, to be exact. The first time, we did a long-form interview, and we really hit it off, became friends. So she was the one I called when I needed help naming my pasta shape,

Cascatelli. And we've stayed in touch over the years. I even went to her house a few years back. So now that she got a new book out called Good Things. I wanted to have another nice long chat to catch up. Now first, a quick recap of Samin's backstory, which we covered the first time she was on in 2018. She's from San Diego. Her parents came to the U.S. from Iran.

And being the child of immigrants, Samin said that from the time she was young, she always felt a lot of pressure, both from her family and from the outside world. Here she is during that first appearance on our show. I felt like I was always in two worlds. Like going to school, I wanted to be a good student. I wanted to

make my parents happy. I wanted to make them proud. And I wanted to succeed. So I worked really hard.

And I did my best to sort of fit in. And I figured I sort of told myself the story that if I worked

really hard and sort of succeeded, that maybe nobody at school would notice, wouldn't notice

that I wasn't just like everyone else.

That feeling that success would fix these issues followed Samin into adulthood.

She worked her butt off, getting into the food industry in college.

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