From the cavernous Chinatown restaurants where carts of dumplings are wheeled around, waiting to be pointed to and picked up like an eager single teenager at the prom, to foie gras, flank steak and braised duck chins, dim sum is a changing force in Chinese cuisine in this country. Dim sum takes years to master, seconds to eat, and contains within its tapioca wrapper the history of waves of Cantonese immigration. Ed Schoenfeld, restaurateur, Chinese food aficionado and owner-operator of Red Farm ...
Aug 12, 2016•31 min•Ep. 403
Now that you're equipped with a variety of new egg recipes , today's Please Explain will answer all of your egg-buying questions! Omega-3, Free Range, Cage Free, Organic… What do these labels mean? Why do eggs come in different colors? Why don’t you have to put farmers market eggs in the fridge? Here to answer all these questions and more is Cathy Erway, Serious Eats contributor and author of The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove . She also blogs at Not Eating O...
Aug 05, 2016•30 min•Ep. 402
This week’s Please Explain is all about trails - from the ancient nomadic paths that travelers relied on for survival, to modern hiking trails that help us find our way in the wilderness. Robert Moor began writing his book, On Trails: An Exploration, while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2009. He’ll talk about animal trails (ants, buffaloes, elephants), long-lost Cherokee trails, and discuss the colonial origins of American hiking trails.
Jul 29, 2016•35 min•Ep. 401
With many people still trying to come to terms with the news from Orlando, Baton Rouge, Falcon Heights, and Dallas, the conversations around gun control, racial profiling, and police tactics, are front and center. But one element missing from these conversations is concrete data, largely because the federal government does not collect it. For this week’s Please Explain, we are going to discuss the data behind the high profile shootings in the news: how it’s being collected, and what it reveals. ...
Jul 22, 2016•35 min•Ep. 400
Sometimes it's impossible to avoid an argument. That's why on today's Please Explain, we're learning how to make a convincing case with Stanley Fish, law professor and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His latest book, Winning Arguments: What Works and Doesn't Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the Courtroom, and the Classroom , is a guide to using wit, observation, logic and rhetoric to win the toughest arguments, whether at the work...
Jul 15, 2016•27 min•Ep. 399
Dolphins have long been regarded for their remarkable intelligence and social skills. When the dolphin genome was first sequenced in 2011, scientists learned that the beloved aquatic mammals are even more like us than we previously thought. This week's Please Explain is all about dolphins, their remarkable intelligence and their relationship to humans, with journalist Susan Casey, author of Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins. She embarked on a two-year gl...
Jul 08, 2016•24 min•Ep. 398
We’re untangling the science and cultural history of hair on this week’s Please Explain with a leading expert on the fascinating fiber, Kurt Stenn, the author of Hair: A Human History . He served for over 20 years as a Professor of Pathology and Dermatology at the Yale University School of Medicine, in addition to working as the Director of Skin Biology at Johnson & Johnson where he helped found a biotech startup on hair follicle regeneration. He’ll talk about the evolutionary history of hai...
Jun 24, 2016•34 min•Ep. 397
After the shooting in Orlando, and mass shootings in the past, there is intense focus on mental illness, and questions of whether mental illness can be linked to mass shootings. On this week's Please Explain, David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner of 20 years, will discuss mental illness and emotional anxiety, and explain how certain stimuli can capture our attention, and even control our actions. Dr. Kessler’s latest book is “Capture: Unraveling the Mystery of Mental Suffering.” He'll reveal ho...
Jun 17, 2016•29 min•Ep. 396
For the past 2000 years, paper has been the essential object that fuels education, art, commerce, dissemination of ideas… and the list goes on and on . In his new book, Paper: Paging Through History , the bestselling author of Cod and Salt , Mark Kurlansky writes, “Studying the history of paper exposes a number of historical misconceptions, the most important of which is this technological fallacy: the idea that technology changes society. It is exactly the reverse. Society develops technology t...
Jun 10, 2016•32 min•Ep. 395
New research reveals that some birds rival primates in terms of intelligence, according to science writer Jennifer Ackerman. She joins us for today's Please Explain, which is all about birds and their remarkable intelligence! Her new book The Genius of Birds uncovers little-known facts about the powerful bird brain. She traveled the globe for her research -- from laboratories in Barbados and New Caledonia, to the mountains of central Virginia. Do you have questions about birds? Send us your ques...
Jun 03, 2016•31 min•Ep. 394
Spring is finally here, and we're kicking off the growing season with a Please Explain that’s all about urban agriculture and city gardens! Find out the best ways to maximize your green space - whether it’s a window box, rooftop plot or a community garden. We’ll also look at the city’s growing rooftop-farm movement, discuss public garden spaces and find out why rooftop gardens are an ecological necessity in our urban landscape. Joining us is Annie Novak, co-founder and head farmer of the nation’...
May 20, 2016•34 min•Ep. 393
The English language is spoken by millions of people around the world, and despite that fact, it remains relatively fluid. Because it’s so adaptable, who knows what the future will hold in store for English? On today's Please Explain, we’ll attempt to find out with Simon Horobin, Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Magdalen College. He's the author of How English Became English: A Short History of a Global Language . We’ll also learn how moder...
May 13, 2016•32 min•Ep. 392
Has technology destroyed our ability to have meaningful face-to-face conversations? What happens when we look up from our phones and try to communicate? On today's Please Explain, media scholar and MIT professor Sherry Turkle reveals how our relationship with technology has harmed our ability to empathize. She's also the author of the bestselling book Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age. Do you have questions about technology and modern conversation? Send us your questi...
Apr 29, 2016•33 min•Ep. 391
Charter schools have been growing in popularity over the past few years in communities across the country, most notably in New York and Washington, D.C. Advocates say they're the solution to failing inner city schools, while critics argue they're corporatizing public education. We have a lot of questions about charter schools, and on today's Please Explain we'll talk find out how they began, how they're funded, as well as some of successes and failures of the system. Dr. Michael Fabricant, a pro...
Apr 22, 2016•27 min•Ep. 390
President Obama said last month that our Supreme Court, "is supposed to be above politics, not an extension of politics. And it should stay that way.” But has the Court ever been non-partisan in practice? Is it even possible for nine justices to stay out of politics? In light of the contention over Merrick Garland's Supreme Court nomination, we're looking at the politics of the Supreme Court on today's Please Explain. Jeffrey Toobin, staff writer at The New Yorker , senior legal analyst at CNN a...
Apr 15, 2016•33 min•Ep. 389
What is folk music? Spanning genres, geographical locations, and eras in time, it’s the music of the people. Although American folk music has been around for a long time, you could say it had its biggest explosion in the 1960s in Greenwich Village. In fact, New York has experienced a bit of a folk revival in recent years. On today's Please Explain, we're exploring folk music with Eli Smith, the co-founder of the Brooklyn Folk Festival , the banjo player for The Downhill Strugglers and the former...
Apr 08, 2016•28 min•Ep. 388
There's a whole world of magical creatures out there, and on today's Please Explain we're unraveling the truth behind cryptozoology, which may or may not be a pseudoscience. Loren Coleman, one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, an honorary member of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club and director of the International Cryptology Museum , joins us to discuss creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Joe Gisondi, a professor of journalism at Eastern Illinois University...
Apr 01, 2016•35 min•Ep. 387
The presidential primaries are in full swing, and that leaves us with a lot of questions about the intricate rules, politics and process of choosing our next president. What’s the difference between a primary and a caucus? Delegates and superdelegates? Why do political parties even have conventions? For these answers and more, we turn to Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of The Slate Group, host of the “Trumpcast” podcast on Slate.com and author of The Bush Tragedy. Do you have questions about our...
Mar 25, 2016•30 min•Ep. 386
If you thought that dinosaurs were extinct, think again. According to a new exhibit at The American Museum of Natural History, birds are a form of living dinosaur! The myriad evolutionary connections between birds and dinosaurs are apparently found in bird bone structure, flight mechanisms, feathers and nesting patterns. We now know more than ever about these common traits thanks to new technologies like CT scanners, synchrotrons and advanced computer modeling that paleontologists have used to e...
Mar 18, 2016•32 min•Ep. 385
Mark Zuckerberg, the 31-year-old co-founder, chairman and CEO of Facebook, recently announced that he and his wife plan to donate 99% of their wealth - approximately $45 billion - to charity. On today's Please Explain, Michael Hobbes, a freelance writer who also works for a human rights NGO, talks about how philanthropy is changing, from the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations, to Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg's altruism . Do you have questions about philanthropy? Send us your questions in a c...
Mar 11, 2016•31 min•Ep. 384
Tax season is here which means that it’s the best time of the year for phone scams, financial fraud and identity theft. On this week’s Please Explain, identity theft expert Steven Weisman tells us all about the most common scams and how to avoid them. He’ll also offer ways to protect yourself against identity theft. He’s the author of several books on the topic, including Identity Theft Alert , and writes the “Scamacide” blog. He’s joined by Beth Finkel, the NY State Director of AARP, who offers...
Mar 04, 2016•29 min•Ep. 383
Kurt Vonnegut once gave this piece of creative writing advice: "First rule: Do not use semicolons... All they do is show you've been to college.” There's no question that punctuation elicits strong feelings. On today's Please Explain, linguist David Crystal teaches us how to correctly use punctuation, and gives us a history of why we punctuate the way we do. His latest book, Making a Point: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation , completes his trilogy of books on the English language. Do ...
Feb 26, 2016•34 min•Ep. 382
While some may cringe at the thought of eating brains, sweetbreads, also known as offal, are celebrated in many cuisines around the world. On today's Please Explain food writer Robert Sietsema and butcher Brent Young of The Meat Hook , tell you all you'll ever need to know about buying, preparing and eating offal. They'll also share the best local restaurants offering exciting offal options. Do you have questions about offal? Send us your questions in a comment below, or let us know on Twitter o...
Feb 19, 2016•35 min•Ep. 381
Processed foods tend to have long lists of ingredients that add flavor, color and texture, along with preservatives to extend shelf life. On today's Please Explain, we'll take a close look at the most common food additives, from xanthan gum to MSG. Photographer Dwight Eschliman and author Steve Ettlinger created a detailed visual guide in Ingredients: A Visual Exploration of 75 Additives and 25 Food Products , and they'll help take the mystery out of the ingredients list. Charles Mueller, clinic...
Feb 12, 2016•31 min•Ep. 380
Over the past few years, tacos have risen from humble street food (and Americanized fast food) to trendy options at a growing number of restaurants. A staple of Mexican cuisine, they’ve been adopted by different cultures and are even showing up on brunch and dessert menus. On this week’s Please Explain, Chef Alex Stupak, owner of the Empellón restaurant group, and food writer Jordana Rothman, will tell us how to make fresh tortillas, salsas, moles, as well as traditional and modern fillings. The...
Feb 05, 2016•30 min•Ep. 379
The depths of winter make this the peak of sauce season. Whether you love the classic comfort of tomato sauce or a rich, fragrant curry, on today's Please Explain we're sharing the secrets of sauce and answering your questions! Chef James Peterson, author of the award-winning book Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making , will take us through all the sauces, from traditional French hollandaise and béchamel, to Italian Osso Buco and North African Harissa sauce. Do you have questions about...
Jan 29, 2016•33 min•Ep. 378
Cast iron cookware has been around for centuries, but many modern cooks are intimidated by it. How do you clean it? What can (and can't) you cook in it? Should you season it? In this week's Please Explain, Julia Collin Davison, the executive food editor at America’s Test Kitchen and author of the forthcoming book Cook it in Cast Iron: Kitchen-Tested Recipes for the One Pan That Does It All (Cook's Country) , and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Managing Culinary Director of Serious Eats and author of The Foo...
Jan 22, 2016•32 min•Ep. 377
With the rise of independent distilleries and specialty cocktail bars, it's safe to say that whiskey is having a moment. But for many curious tasters and adventurous drinkers, there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding whiskey and its incarnations. In our latest Please Explain, Heather Greene, whiskey sommelier and author of Whiskey Distilled: A Populist Guide to the Water of Life , talks about the history, and the many cultural variations of whiskey, along with tips on tasting, pairing and serv...
Jan 15, 2016•25 min•Ep. 376
There are trillions of microbes inside of you. They can make you sick, but many of them keep you alive.
Jan 08, 2016•33 min•Ep. 375
Everyone gets a little paranoid sometimes, but with politicians and presidential candidates lobbing warnings about the threat of terrorism left and right, it can be hard to know when to stop worrying. But as psychologist and author David J. LaPorte explains in his book, Paranoid: Exploring Suspicion from the Dubious to the Delusional paranoia can take on many forms and wriggle its way into even the most trusting minds. On this edition of Please Explain, LaPorte answers your questions on the psyc...
Dec 18, 2015•33 min•Ep. 374
