From KCRW, I'm Evan Klyman, and this is good food.

Spam. Love it or hate it, just the word conjures up visceral memories.

It should be noted that it's a particular skill to get it out of the can to begin with.

You know, you sort of have to shake it and bend it and fold, and it makes that little, like,

thwack sound when you're sort of successful. Here in the U.S., the ham in the can has fallen out of favor, but it continues to be a

pantry staple elsewhere in the world. In spam, a global history, Dr. Kelly A. Spring calls it a

classic immigrant success story, the backbone of multiple war efforts, and a crucial

instrument of American diplomacy over the last hundred years. Hi, Kelly. Hi, Evan. Thanks so much

for having me. It's great to be here. Oh, we're glad to have you. So tell me a bit about what

inspired you to take this deep dive into the world of spam.

Have you always been a fan?

Did you grow up with it?

Oh, yeah, that's a good question.

It's a long story.

We had it as children.

So, you know, it's very useful because it's sort of in a can and you can sort of take it very easily.

So we would go camping. And sometimes

we would have it camping. So my parents would kind of cook it up, like fried up on an open fire on a, you know, a pan or something. And I didn't like it. You know, my sister and I would eat it. And we didn't really like it. And so I wasn't really interested in as a kid, which is interesting given that I've just written a book about it.

I studied my PhD and I looked at British food restaurants. I wasn't really interested in as a kid, which is interesting given that I've just written a book about it.

I studied my PhD and I looked at British food rationing and gender.

And so I'm interested in like World War II food rationing.

And so spam is very big in that.

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