Sugar's Dark Shadow

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Your pantry's sweetest ingredient has an extremely bitter history. The sap-producing grass known as sugarcane has been grown and enjoyed by humans for at least 10,000 years, but it was only relatively recently that it went from a luxury to an everyday ingredient—a change that also triggered genocide, slavery, and the invention of modern racism. In this episode, how the Crusades got Europeans addicted to the sweet stuff, and how that appetite deforested southern Europe and kicked off the trade in enslaved Africans, before decimating indigenous populations in the New World and codifying racism into law. It's a dark story that involves Christopher Columbus' mistress, the early human rights advocate whose campaign to save indigenous people encouraged the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, and a trip to southern Louisiana, where we met Black sugarcane farmers to explore sugar's troubling legacy there. No sugar coating here: join us for the fascinating and horrifying history of this household staple. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Highland Kids all love that cane. It grows so clean and sweet. They eat it when it's freshly cut.
0:07.0	And then that's quite a treat.
0:10.0	Imperial sugar is quick dissolving. Imperial sugar is fine grain.
0:14.7	Imperial sugar is 100% gain pure cane.
0:18.7	These commercials from the 1960s advertising sugar cane are super cheery and fun and they make me think that
0:25.0	everything about sugar is unicorns and rainbows. That's good because you're
0:28.9	listening to Gasterpot the show that is all about unicorns and rainbows or you know food through the
0:35.5	lens of science and history. I'm Nicola Twilly and I'm Cynthia Graber and you
0:39.6	listeners probably won't be surprised that you shouldn't believe everything you hear on a TV
0:44.0	Ed. Sugar is sweet, but its history really is not.
0:47.5	This episode, we're telling the story of Sugar's Dark Side.
0:51.5	And although you might think you're familiar with some of the issues around Sugar,
0:55.2	this is a story you probably haven't heard. It involves the Knights Templar and their Crusades,
1:00.5	Christopher Columbus's mistress, and one of the world's first internationally famous human rights advocates.
1:06.0	Just before we dive into the story of Sugar, I have some exciting personal news for you.
1:12.0	My refrigeration book, which longtime listeners will know I have
1:15.1	been working on for literally years is coming out next month and I am beyond
1:20.7	excited for you all to read it.
1:23.4	It's called Frostbite, how refrigeration changed
1:26.0	our food, our planet, and ourselves.
1:28.8	And if you love Gaster pod, you'll love it.
1:31.3	Pre-ordering a book is pretty much the most helpful thing you can do to support
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.