The invention of refrigeration transformed how we eat, what we eat, and when we eat it, sometimes in mind-boggling ways.

You know, you hear about Silicon Valley guys doing all these bananas things to try and live longer,

injecting themselves with the plasma of young boys, etc.

This is so much weirder.

It's Thursday, August 1st, but you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm John Dankowski.

During this scorching hot summer, I'm especially thankful for the ice cream I can pull out of the freezer or going

into the fridge for a cold beer all thanks to the innovations of refrigeration.

It's fundamentally changed our lives for better and sometimes worse a new book looks at how

frostbite how refrigeration changed our food our planet and ourselves tracks the

science and history behind refrigeration I talked with frostbite author Nicola Twilly who also

co-hosts a podcast, Gasterpot. Nicky, welcome to Science Friday. Thank you for having me.

Okay, so what is about refrigerators

that made you want to write a whole book about them?

Well, I mean, Americans are obsessed with refrigerators.

We open them apparently on average 117 times a day, which I think has to have

gone up since that study was done because it was pre-Covid. And now with all the work at home,

yeah I spent a lot of time telling people about this book and being like,

no, no, refrigerations much cooler than you think.

But oohm.

But oohch.

Exactly.

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