070 The History of Whaling

The History of American Food · Jan 4, 2023 · 35m

This week one of my cats makes his debut in sound design. His playing about in the closet makes me it seem as if I have Very Strong Feelings about trends in rich people food.

But mostly this is a look into the past of large-whale eating on a global scale up until about the 18th century. There are also surprises around how long it took Europeans to agree that whales are not fish. The pre-modern relationship to fat comes in to play - when you are most of your own heating source for most of the day, consuming fat has a different purposefulness.

And I spend a fair amount of time sorting out why…