Fed with Chris van Tulleken Podcast
How chicken got big. Chris van Tulleken unwraps the forces that shape what we eat. This is how we changed chicken and chicken changed us.
Fed with Chris van Tulleken is a new food podcast, investigating the entangled web of forces that shape what ends up on our plates. In the first series, Planet Chicken, Chris digs into the story of one of the most widely eaten meats on earth - to try to get to the truth of why we eat so much of it, and what that means for the birds, for us, and for the planet.
If there's one thing Chris knows, it's what he should and shouldn't be eating.
He's across the dangers of ultra-processed foods: those nutritionally empty snacks that fill our supermarket shelves and entrance our kids. And at the same time, he's confident he knows what we should be eating: good, old fashioned whole food - recognisable ingredients, no mysterious additives, no harmful rubbish.
Something like a nice wholesome roast chicken, perhaps? In fact, in the van Tulleken household that's a family favourite.
But recently, Chris has been getting asked more questions - by neighbours, people on the street, even government ministers: and he's realised there's a massive gap in his food knowledge.
Sure, he knows what happens in our bodies once that delicious gravy-drenched chicken dinner passes our lips: but what about everything that comes before that? Where it's from, how it was reared, how it was processed? Can he say what toll the process of getting that chicken from farm to plate might've have taken on the animal, the environment, the nutritional content?
Because in a world where so much food comes via an industrialised, globalised food system; where we're subtly influenced at every turn by advertising and price tags; and where ALL food choices ultimately come with a cost of some sort - how much do any of us really know or want to know about the consequences of our dinner?
Episodes to download
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Hay Festival Special—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Last Tuesday
Chris van Tulleken in conversation with Leyla Kazim, at Hay Festival 2024.
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8. Beyond the Bird—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 18 Dec 2023
Dr Chris van Tulleken wrestles with the thorny issue of animal slaughter.
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7. Big Chicken—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 11 Dec 2023
Dr Chris van Tulleken ponders the global cost of keeping the world in wings.
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6. The Fast Food Trap—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 4 Dec 2023
Dr Chris van Tulleken gets a taste of a guilty pleasure: sinful yet delicious fast food.
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5. Fine Print—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 27 Nov 2023
Dr Chris van Tulleken asks if we can trust what's on the label when it comes to food.
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4. The Ethical Consumer's Dilemma—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 20 Nov 2023
Dr Chris van Tulleken asks whether we can raise a chicken that's good for the planet.
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3. U OK Hen?—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 13 Nov 2023
Dr Chris van Tulleken explores what it takes to make a chicken happy.
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2. A Chicken and Egg Story—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 6 Nov 2023
How human innovation turned chicken from backyard bird to multi-billion dollar industry.
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1. The Invention Of Chicken—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 30 Oct 2023
Dr Chris van Tulleken discovers how we changed chicken, and how chicken changed us.
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Introducing Fed with Chris van Tulleken – Planet Chicken—Series 1: Planet Chicken
Mon 23 Oct 2023
How chicken got big. Dr Chris van Tulleken unwraps the forces that shape what we eat.