Sharon Van Etten is on the road now touring her seventh album, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory. But as much as she loves writing and performing music, she has considered a couple different career paths: therapist and sommelier! Sharon’s love of wine started in high school, when she was an exchange student living with a family in Spain. So host Rachel Belle interviews the founders of Open That Bottle Night, a couple of former Wall Street Journal wine writers who created an annual holiday to encourage people to open the special bottles of wine that no occasion seemed to be special enough for. Sharon says she doesn’t like to cook when she’s in a bad mood because the food always ends up tasting bad. Rachel calls up cognitive neurologist Dr Rachel Herz, author of Why You Eat What You Eat, who says food actually does taste different when you’re sad, angry, depressed or happy. Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle! Season 2 out now! Sign up for Rachel's new (free!) Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings! Follow along on Instagram! Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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32:04
The Leftovers with Josh Groban
This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Tony-, Emmy- and Grammy-nominated singer and actor Josh Groban. Josh is getting ready for a string of shows in Las Vegas, so host Rachel Belle presents him with the most ridiculous, over-the-top, calorie-packed dishes she could find on Vegas menus (obviously Guy Fieri is involved) and asks him to pick which ones he'd eat. Josh and Rachel bond over a childhood love of New Kids on the Block, and he admits to loving a very trendy Los Angeles treat from a very trendy Los Angeles market (that he is still a little embarrassed to order). Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle! Season 2 out now! Sign up for Rachel's new (free!) Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings! Follow along on Instagram! Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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9:22
Josh Groban: Chocolate Covered Gummy Bears
Is Josh Groban’s best song about baked beans? Two foods Josh Groban’s dad turned him onto as a child: pickled and smoked fish and baked beans. So when Bush’s asked Josh to write them a commercial jingle, he took it a step further and composed a semi-autographical baked-bean power ballad! He tells host Rachel Belle the whole story. Josh learned to cook during the pandemic and developed a soft spot for ugly, misshapen farm produce. So Seattle chef Becky Selengut joins the show to talk about her cookbook Misunderstood Vegetables. Becky wrote it after countless encounters with folks at farmers markets and the grocery store who didn’t know what to do with produce like rutabaga, celery root and burdock. And Josh shares his last meal, a combination of a favorite childhood treat and a hearty British dinner he fell in love with when he started dating his English girlfriend. Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle! Season 2 out now! Sign up for Rachel's new (free!) Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings! Follow along on Instagram! Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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35:10
The Leftovers with Danielle Chang
This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Danielle Chang, host of Lucky Chow on PBS. And Rachel Belle takes a very special field trip to Seattle’s Mixed Pantry, a beautifully curated specialty foods shop that exclusively sells Asian and Asian American-made products. On last week’s episode of Your Last Meal, Danielle told Rachel she never goes anywhere without a little vial of high-quality soy sauce in her purse. So Rachel popped into Mixed Pantry for a soy sauce tasting, a fun activity open to anyone who visits. The shop sells soy sauces from several countries, but the tasting centers around the five standard types of Japanese shoyu, owner Tak Kunimune’s specialty. You’ll learn the difference between mainstream commercial soy sauces and traditional barrel-aged ones; how Kikkoman came to be America’s go-to soy sauce; and Tak’s tips on what to cook with each one. Then, a lightning round with Danielle Chang! She shares her favorite Chinatown snack (she's a big fan of the neighborhoods around the world), the Asian dessert she always wants for her birthday and so much more. Season Seven of Lucky Chow premieres May 1 on PBS! Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle! Season 2 out now! Sign up for Rachel's new (free!) Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings! Follow along on Instagram! Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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17:25
Danielle Chang: Hot Pot
PBS's "Lucky Chow" host, Danielle Chang, has been using food as a tool to promote diversity since her family immigrated from Taiwan to Texas when she was 5, and she eventually turned it into a career! Danielle tells host Rachel Belle which condiment she always keeps in her bag and Your Last Meal listeners call in to confess what flavor enhancers they have sneaked into restaurants, movie theaters and doughnut shops over the years. First Beyoncé sang about having hot sauce in her bag, then Hillary Clinton talked about her spicy stash on the campaign trail. But Emmy-nominated journalist Myra Flynn says the habit of toting hot sauce started out of necessity with enslaved Americans. Season Seven of Lucky Chow premieres May 1 on PBS! Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle (Season 2 starts April 3!)! Sign up for Rachel's new (free!) Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings! Follow along on Instagram! Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.Support the show: http://rachelbelle.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
YOUR LAST MEAL is a James Beard Award finalist for best podcast hosted by National Edward R. Murrow award-winning reporter, cookbook author and Cascade PBS TV host Rachel Belle.
Each episode Rachel asks a celebrity (Greta Gerwig, Jonathon Van Ness, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Margaret Cho, Alton Brown, Isaac Mizrahi, Ani DiFranco, Iron & Wine, etc) what they would choose to eat for their last meal. Then she uncovers the history, science and culture of these dishes with everyone from the designer who created Lady Gaga's meat dress to the ice cream scientists at Ben & Jerry's.
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