The Salt Wars

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2016

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Salt is a magical substance. It reduces bitterness, enhances sweetness, boosts flavor, and preserves perishable foods. Without it, we would die: the human body can’t make sodium, but our nerves and muscles don’t work without it. It was considered rare until quite recently, so it’s hardly surprising that, throughout history, salt has been the engine behind empires and revolutions. Today, there’s a new battle in the salt wars, between those who think that we eat too much of it and it’s killing us—and those who think most of us are just fine. Join us for a serving of salt, seasoned with science, history, and a little politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	There are times where I've sort of been like a crisis.
0:03.8	It's 20 degrees and I have to go down to the beach to get water right now,
0:07.0	or when I was dealing with the bottom of my trunk being corroded because I'd
0:11.0	spilled too much salt water in it over a few months.
0:14.7	Things like that, it was like, why the hell am I doing this?
0:16.6	I can just buy salt.
0:18.3	I've made a lot of stuff at home, but I've never thought of making my own salt.
0:24.1	But now you can.
0:25.5	That's just one of the secrets of salt we'll be getting into this week.
0:28.5	If you're listening to Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science
0:32.3	in history, I'm Nicola Twilly, and I'm Cynthia Graber.
0:35.1	And this week we are all about what has historically been worth its weight in gold.
0:39.5	But today you can buy it at the grocery store for just a couple of bucks.
0:42.4	But that's the whole history of salt.
0:44.5	People making a big fuss about an edible rock.
0:47.4	I mean, salt was behind empires, wars, revolutions, Indian independence, Venetian palazzo's, drilling
0:54.6	for natural gas.
0:56.0	It's all built on salt.
0:57.6	And today people are still making a huge deal out of salt.
1:00.6	But now it's all about how much we should be eating.
1:03.6	Scientists and public health officials are trying to get us to eat way less salt.
1:07.1	Plus, don't forget all the foodies with their artisanal hand-made salt.
	...

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.