Episode 21: The All-American Hot Dog
For well over a century, the hot dog has been the quintessential dirt cheap, flavorful, all-American meal — a kind of meaty blank slate on which to slather your regional preferences, like slaw, chili, relish or onions. But can a person who cares about what they’re eating and the impact their food has on the environment — and animals, and meatpacking workers — eat a hot dog in good conscience? How about four or five hot dogs…every day? In this episode, we speak to a writer who did just that, all to tell us the story — good, bad and ugly — of this handheld feast.
Available wherever you listen to podcasts.
"I wanted to understand the production of a hotdog, I wanted to understand what made it American, and I really loved, and was simultaneously frustrated by the marketing story behind the hot dog, because the answer about what makes a hot dog American is: nothing, basically nothing,...It is not very American at all."
Episode guest:
Jamie Loftus
Jamie is a writer, stand-up comedian, podcast host and actor based in Los Angeles. She is the creator of several one-woman shows and podcasts, as well as a book, “Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs.”
FoodPrint resources:
Additional resources:
- “Hot Dog: A Global History” by Bruce Kraig
- Video: “How It’s Made: Hot Dogs”
- Video: “Joey Chestnut beats Takeru Kobayashi to win 2007 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest”
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Top photo by ehrlif/Adobe Stock.