The World Is Your Oyster: How Our Favorite Shellfish Could Save Coastlines Worldwide

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If we at Gastropod were asked to name a perfect food, the oyster would be at the top of our list. Oysters are pretty much always our answer to the question of what we'd like to eat this evening—but are they also the answer to the slow-motion disaster of disappearing coastlines worldwide? Join us this episode as we discover how this magical mollusk contains a pearl of hope in the fight to counter rising sea-levels, prevent erosion, and buffer storm surges everywhere from hurricane-hit New Orleans to New York City's flood-prone fringes. But be prepared: you just might join the ranks of the oyster obsessed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So this is the Nature Conservancy Reef. I think it's almost two miles now and you can see it sticking up.
0:10.0	The tide's so low that we're having trouble getting close to it. But you can see all that growth on them.
0:17.0	Oysters, that's oysters.
0:20.0	I'd never seen oysters growing out in the wild. This was exciting. I was this
0:26.0	close to hopping in and harvesting them myself. We love oysters here at
0:30.5	gastropod and gastropod is what you're listening to. We're the
0:33.7	podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history. I'm
0:36.5	Nicola Twilly. And I'm Cynthia Graber and we were on a boat floating
0:40.0	only a few feet away from a man-made oyster reef, not just because we really do love to eat
0:44.9	oysters, it's true we do, but because we wanted to know why groups around the country are
0:49.3	spending millions of dollars to create new homes for these tasty buy valves.
0:53.2	Oysters are always the answer to the question of what to eat, but are they also the answer
0:59.0	to some of the biggest problems facing coastal cities today?
1:02.2	This episode we consider the oyster, why Americans used to be in love with it,
1:06.2	how we kind of fell out of love,
1:08.2	and why reigniting that passion is not only good for us,
1:11.3	but also might help save the world.
1:13.2	This episode is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the public understanding
1:17.8	of science, technology, and economics, and by you are fabulous listener supporters.
1:23.0	Gastropod is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with Eater.
1:27.0	This episode of Gastropod is brought to you in part by the Delta Sky Miles
1:35.6	Reserve American Express card. One of the great pleasures in life is traveling,
	...

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