Why Are Kids Dipping Cookies in Ranch, Are Food Comas Real, and What's Inside the Mummy's Stomach?

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2024

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Just in time for the holidays, Ask Gastropod is back with a plate full of listener questions for your listening delight! You came to us with mysteries both large and small, both ancient and eternal, and, honestly, all totally fascinating. Such as: What is up with ranch dressing, and how did a bottled salad dressing invented by a plumber and owned by a cleaning products company become *the* flavor of America? What did Europe's oldest human mummy, found frozen in the Alps, eat before his mountain trek—and why could no one find his stomach for twenty years? And, in news you can use this holiday season, why does a “food coma” make you drowsy and slow after a big holiday meal? We’ve got the answers to all of these fabulous listener queries in our latest installment, featuring murder in the Alps, a bathtub full of ranch, and more sea slugs than you might expect. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, my name is Josh Gosliski. I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I have a question for you about ranch, ranch dressing. I'm curious about why it's so popular and where it comes from.
0:17.1	So hi, I'm Laura calling from Salt Lake City, Utah, and my question for Gastropod is,
0:24.0	what is a food coma? And is there anything I can do about it once I have one other than taking a nap?
0:32.6	Gastropod listeners are a curious bunch, and we say that in the fondest possible way. Because we ourselves
0:39.7	are endlessly curious. That's why we launched Gastropod. We love hearing your questions, too,
0:44.7	and this episode we're here with some answers. Gastropod is, of course, the podcast that
0:49.3	looks at food through the lens of science and history. I'm Nicola Twilly. And I'm Cynthia Graber,
0:54.0	and our end-of-the-year gift Cynthia Graber. And our end of the year
0:54.9	gift to you is the answer to some of the mysteries that have been keeping you up at night. Like,
0:59.5	why is everyone dipping everything in ranch dressing these days? And also, what is ranch? Plus,
1:05.6	some seasonally appropriate science, what's actually going on biologically when you eat too much at a holiday
1:12.5	meal and fall asleep drooling on the couch? And finally, another seasonally appropriate topic.
1:18.2	It's not quite a snowman, it's an ice mummy, or rather, Utti the Iceman. We've got the story of
1:23.9	what's in his stomach, what that tells us, and why it took scientists two full
1:27.9	decades to find his stomach in the first place. But before we dive headfirst down these fascinating
1:33.2	rabbit holes, we've got a request for you. Gastropod is just me, Cynthia, and our producer,
1:38.8	Claudia, we are a tiny team, and we work really hard to bring you every single episode.
1:43.8	And when we say really hard,
1:45.8	we mean it. We read books and scientific papers and we find people to talk to and figure out
1:50.3	how to tell their stories. There is a huge, huge amount of behind the scenes work that you don't see,
1:55.4	but I can promise it is always going on. And to make that work possible, we need funding.
2:00.5	We make some money from advertising and we have grants from a couple of generous foundations is always going on. And to make that work possible, we need funding.
	...

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