On today’s episode we tackle a future that was once a staple of science fiction: food pills.

Instead of shopping and cooking and sitting down to eat meals together, we all simply pop our nutritional pills and move along with our lives. How feasible is this, really? Where did the idea come from? And what does the rise and fall in the popularity of the idea say about our changing relationships to food, culture and politics?

Full transcript available in site.

Guests:

• Annalee Newitz, science journalist and science fiction author, co-host of Our Opinions Are Correct
• Charlie Jane Anders, science fiction author, co-host of Our Opinions Are Correct
• Helen Rosner, food correspondent for the New Yorker
• Rob McGinley Myers, writer and podcaster
• Katie Gordon, associate professor of psychology at North Dakota State University and co-host of Jedi Counsel Podcast
• Mike Rugnetta, producer of Reasonably Sound
• Soleil Ho, food writer, co-host of Racist Sandwich, host of Popaganda

Further Reading:

• Why We Don’t Have Food Replacement Pills
• The Enduring Appeal of a Meal in a Pill
• Meal in a Pill: A Staple of Science Fiction
• TV Tropes: Food Pills
• Futuristic Foodways: The Metaphorical Meaning of Food in Science Fiction Film
• Nutrition Q&A: Pros and cons of Soylent
• What Soylent tells us about Silicon Valley
• Why do we eat lunch at our desks? Because capitalism
• The Efficiency Argument for Capitalism
• How to Appeal to Dude Investors? Tell Them Your Start-up Is for Men.
• Food tech is just men rebranding what women have done for decades