Alton Brown has spent years demystifying cooking on his Food Network show Good Eats. Now he's brought his same wit and insight to the page with Food for Thought, a collection of essays exploring everything from childhood memories to the cultural power of cuisine. As he embarked on a nationwide book tour, Brown joined The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie in February to talk about the forces shaping how, and what, we eat.
In this conversation, Brown reflects on growing up in the 1960s, when Saturday morning cartoons and sugary cereals were his first taste of consumer culture. He makes a case for curiosity as the most powerful human trait, laments that food competition shows have made cooking something to be won rather than shared, and discusses government food regulations, the decline of home cooking, and the rise of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic.
