That last voice, that's an actor playing a real-life botanist who once set sail on the

good ship bounty. Before everything went to Hell in Handbasket, the bounty, the real lifeship

of Mutiny on the bounty fame, it was heading out to sea to get hold of this life-sustaining

tree. So last episode, as you may recall, we were in Hawaii, and we liked it so much we decided

to stay, at least for another episode. We of course are Gastropod, the podcast that looks

at food through the lens of science and history. I'm Nicola Twilly, and I'm Cynthia Graber.

In this episode, we're going to get to know one of the other canoe crops, one of the foods

that Polynesians brought to Hawaii and that helped feed native Hawaiians for hundreds and

hundreds of years. But this one is a crop that also has a dark history elsewhere in the

world, as well as a starring role alongside the coconut in the Mutiny on the bounty. We're

talking about the breadfruit, which is a fruit, but is also sort of bread-like, but also

can be a pudding. Oh, that coming up? Plus how the breadfruit could be the tree that really

might save the world. Gastropod is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership

with Eater. Mike Opkinorth is the director of the Kahano Botanical Garden. It's at the

southern tip of Maui, and it's the most lush and tropical spot on the island. We're in

the heart of the breadfruit collection here at Kahano Garden. 150 varieties, over 300

trees, from throughout the Pacific, over 30 islands, consists of what it took to put this

collection together. Before we went to Hawaii, I had never seen a breadfruit

tree, but once you've seen one, you'll see why experts like Diane Ragoni call it an

extremely handsome tree. Diane is basically the world's number one breadfruit expert. She's

director emeritus of the Breadfruit Institute at the Botanical Garden. They have a gray

shrunk, a large trunk and many, many branches, and dark green, just very beautiful leaves that

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