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This month on Around theTable, I am chatting with LauraCarlson, producer and host of the podcast The Feast. In other posts this month,we’ll read about many different experiences and methods for teaching with recipes.Here, Laura will tell us about her idea for incorporating food and recipes intoher teaching, and how that turned into a popular podcast and unexpected career path.Whenyou started The Feast, you were also on the faculty in the Department ofHistory at Queen’s University at Kingston. What sparked your interest inpodcasting about food while working in Academia? Has teaching influenced yourapproach to podcasting about food history?The idea for TheFeast was born out of my experience in teaching history and classics at Queen’sUniversity. At the time, I was experimenting with different types of sources inmy syllabi as well as new formats for student research projects andpresentations. I had also been incorporating food into my medieval historycourses; students loved it, but there wasn’t an opportunity to do more withinthe course I was teaching. I had been a fan ofpodcasts for a long time and I was interested in using podcasts as another sourcetype for students to examine how medieval history and food was being used anddiscussed in the non-academic sphere. Beyond that, I also thought podcasts hadincredible potential as a medium to communicate research and spark dialogue,but also to find interesting and immersive ways to talk about history and food.Because podcasts are free, the medium offered a fantastic way of reachingbeyond the university community. Although I listenedto several food and history podcasts, none had struck the right tone thatbalanced research (engaging with sources, current research, experiments in thekitchen, etc.) with what I saw as a natural format for storytelling. That wasreally my goal in starting The Feast: a podcast focused on food history that Icould feel comfortable assigning my students as part of a syllabus, but onegeneral enough that anyone could listen to an episode and enjoy and (hopefully)learn something about a historical topic through the medium of food. You strike agreat balance between academic and popular in your show; it is a comfortablespace for listeners with all degrees of training and interest in the topics. Youalso have something to offer to listeners interested in a wide array ofchronological and geographical areas. How do you decide on your topics, and wheredo you like to go for sources and guest experts?Thank you! How wefigure out what will make a good Feast episode really depends; over the years,we’ve taken so many different approaches to coming up with show ideas and howto research. Many of the early shows came out of areas or topics I was alreadyinterested in or already knew there was source material for. For example, oneof our earliest shows was about medieval pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago inSpain. As the Feast developed, story and episode ideas really started to comefrom everywhere and anywhere. I’ve been able to collaborate on several episodeswith other food historians and even some former history students of mine fromQueen’s; one former student was even an associate producer on an episodefocusing on Swedish cuisine in North America,inspired by her own family history.A dish prepared on The Feast from an ancient Roman recipe: hypotrimma with honey spelt biscuits.Inspiration for newepisodes will often start with a single source and build out from there (forexample, our episode on Alexander Dumas’ fooddictionary). We’re also always inspired when we hearabout other great food history projects or often when we’re travelling. Myfamily is based in Arizona, for example, so it was always important to me tohighlight some Arizona food historyin the episodes. The same is also true for Canadian food history(as I now have a home in Toronto). I know this is a big topic, but would you mind sharing a little about how one starts a podcast? What technology basics should you know before getting started, and what kinds of things can you learn along the way?It’s one of the mostoften stated phrases in the podcast industry that “Anyone can have a podcast.”And, to a certain extent, that’s true. In terms of equipment and technicalknow-how, it can be very simple. Back in 2016, I started The Feast on a MacbookPro laptop using pre-loaded Garageband software with a Blue Yeti microphone huddledin the closet of my condo. We just started trying things out to see what workedas far as mic technique, writing scripts to be read aloud, and understandingwhat went into having a show. As we got deeper into making the show andpodcasting became a larger part of my life (and now my full-time job!), I wantedto learn more about equipment and technique. One of the previous setups for recording The Feast.So many onlineresources and new equipment have made it very easy for anyone to make apodcast. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of resources devoted to helping yourecord, edit, and publish your podcast online (like Transom.org,AIR,and NPR).With so manyresources available, I’d tell any potential podcaster not to get discouraged bytechnology or equipment. What’s more important is a strong concept to a show:why are you starting the show? What is its audience? Length and durability are alsoimportant to consider. Can you think of what your first 10 episodes can beabout? What about your first 100? Is your idea focused but flexible enough sothat you and your audience will still be interested in the subject in a fewyears? Also, it’s also veryimportant to set up a reasonable time commitment to your podcast. If you wantto have an interview show, you might spend an hour interviewing a guest, butfive hours editing the interview, two hours putting up a show page, an hourposting about it on social media. It really adds up. Consider what’s areasonable amount of time you can devote to your show on a regular basis.Has working on The Feast influenced your otherresearch interests and recent projects?100%! Ithas been a fantastic way of learning about subjects and periods, not to mentionresearch folks are doing all over the world.Laura Carlson leading a food tour in Toronto.Forexample, since I was living in Toronto at the time, I really wanted to do anepisode of The Feast that focused on Toronto food history. But it took me quitea while to find the right angle for an episode. We stumbled upon this greatobscure piece of history about the two department stores in Toronto that facedeach other for over 100 years. Both of them opened these opulent dining roomsat the same time. And both were very proud of their chicken pot pie recipes. Iloved doing this episode because it meant I could focus on Toronto history. Butit also inspired me to submit to lead a public history walking tour through thecity agency, Heritage Toronto, about the history of food and dining in the city.I have also been able to use a lot of the research that Idid for Feast episodes that didn’t make it into the final cut to other articlesor even other podcasts. I’ve also used some of our episodes, such as ourholiday special on historyof egg nog episode, for inspiration for other podcasts, like one about thehistory of the orange in North America on America’sTest Kitchen’s podcast, Proof.&#160; I also now work full-time as a podcast producer, both pitching stories to food podcasts such as Proof but also working with folks like NPR and Bloomberg to edit and produce popular podcasts. I also even teach food media at local colleges in Toronto. I’m also in the middle of writing a book on some of the topics inspired by Feast episodes. I continue to be surprised how many opportunities podcasting opens. What began as a side project to teaching history has become a diverse and rewarding but entirely unexpected career path.Thanks, Laura, for chatting with me! You can follow Laura and The Feast on Instagram and Twitter @lauramcarlson and @Feast_Podcast, or on Facebook @thefeastpodcast. You can also reach Laura by email. If you’d like to feature a project, scholar, or institution on Around the Table, please email Sarah Kernan.