US consumers enjoy access to a veritable cornucopia of meat. We consume an annual average of more than 220 pounds of chicken, pork, and beef per person—one of the highest rates of carnivory in history. What makes it possible is a factory-like model of meat production that took root in Midwestern stockyards in the late 19th century and boomed after World War II. For decades, the transnational meatpacking giants that dominate US production have been exporting this model to countries across the globe. But it's not all about just widely available burgers, tacos, and nuggets. What are the model's downsides—the...
Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
Nov 13, 2026 · 36:45
Episode 3 7 of Unconfined , in which Iowa water scientist and Big Ag critic Chris Jones reflects on his hard-fought, grassroots-driven, ultimately unsuccessful bid to win Iowa's…
Oct 28, 2026 · 32:39
Episode 36 of Unconfined , in which Sam Myers, the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, reviews some of the unintended consequences affecting…
Sep 23, 2026 · 49:56
Episode 35 of Unconfined , in which journalist Eric Schlosser reflects on the 25th anniversary of his landmark book, Fast Food Nation .
Aug 26, 2026 · 44:21
Episode 34, in which food system scholar Raj Patel sees through the tangle of problems ensnaring the industrial food system to a better future.
Jul 29, 2026 · 35:22
Episode 3 3 of Unconfined , in which public health influencer Jessica Knurick speaks plainly about MAHA tactics and Secretary Kennedy 's qualifications.
Jun 30, 2026 · 1:08:54
Episode 3 2 , in which five panelists discuss the potential of regenerative agriculture and biological models to help address climate change.
May 28, 2026 · 53:59
Episode 31 of Unconfined , in which, M anaging Attorney of the Antimonopoly Counsel, Basel Musharbash makes the case that the companies that dominate our food and agriculture…
Apr 29, 2026 · 56:03
Episode 30 of Unconfined, in which journalist Ted Genoways recounts the unlikely story of how some of the world's most vulnerable people took on a giant meatpacking company in…
Mar 31, 2026 · 39:41
Episode 2 9 of Unconfined , in which poultry rancher Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin reflects on the intersection of the food system and federal immigration enforcement .
Feb 25, 2026 · 32:45
Episode 2 8 of Unconfined , in which journalist Tom Philpott reflects on a story he wrote about cancer rates in Iowa .
Jan 28, 2026 · 46:31
Episode 2 7 of Unconfined , in which a CLF dietary maven and a CLF policy wonk deliver the goods on RFK Jr.'s new dietary guidelines
Dec 10, 2025 · 42:32
In this episode of Unconfined , Brent Kim breaks down the pros (meh) and cons (many) of manure digesters and the expanding biogas industry, which has been billed as a climate…
Nov 11, 2025 · 50:01
In this episode of Unconfined, author Mariah Blake and former organic farmer Adam Nordell tell the dark tale of how the highly toxic, long-lived class of chemicals called PFAS…
Oct 7, 2025 · 41:22
In this episode of Unconfined , r eporter Helena Bottemiller Evich and Theodore Ross of the Food and Environment Reporting Networ k, co-hosts of Forked podcast, tease out the…
Sep 23, 2025 · 30:49
In this episode of Unconfined , Leo Horrigan tells us about his new book and all the ways we could us e microbes to regenerate healthy soil , sink carbon, and grow more…
Aug 26, 2025 · 38:12
In this episode of Unconfined , Michelle Hughes despairs over federal funding freezes for land - access programs and rebounds with an optimistic vision for the long-term future…
Jul 15, 2025 · 1:06:25
In this episode of Unconfined, author Michael Grunwald and host Tom Philpott grapple with the future of food in a warming world.
Jun 24, 2025 · 1:02:22
In this episode of Unconfined , author Brea Baker teases out the 20 th century's great dispossession of Black farmers, and reports on a budding revival of African-American…
May 27, 2025 · 38:12
In this episode of Unconfined , James Skeet waxes philosophical on European-style, settler-oriented, colonialism-informed agriculture and re-imagines an agricultural practice…
Apr 29, 2025 · 41:01
In this episode of Unconfined , author Austin Frerick discusses the barons who dominate US food production, including an Iowa farm couple who spun enormous, manure-spewing hog…
Mar 25, 2025 · 38:57
In this episode of Unconfined , Marion Nestle reveals the food industry's recipe for cooking up academic nutrition research that serves its interests—not yours.
Feb 20, 2025 · 24:56
In this episode of Unconfined , two leading experts , Meghan Davis and Erin Sorrell , take us from farm ing communities to policy circles to explain how bird flu spreads, who is…
Jan 22, 2025 · 56:49
In this episode of Unconfined , three experts help us sort through the new administration's agenda and try to figure out what it all might mean for food policy. Claire Kelloway ,…
Dec 3, 2024 · 32:16
In this episode of Unconfined , World Food Prize winner Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted explains how biodiversity, local resources, and saying "no" to pricy pesticides helped cut…
Nov 12, 2024 · 40:57
In this episode of Unconfined , Dave Love explains oyster farming , why it's impossible to industrialize it, and how oysters offer benefits ranging from amino acids to storm…
Oct 8, 2024 · 38:16
In this episode of Unconfined , veteran journalists Douglas Frantz and Catharine Collins expose what lies beneath those rosy salmon filets that grace our supermarket seafood…
Oct 1, 2024 · 40:14
In this episode of Unconfined , Philip Loring discusses practical ways for fishers, grocers, and consumers to contribute to the repair and restoration of global fisheries.
Sep 9, 2024 · 43:33
In this episode of Unconfined , author and life-long fisherman Paul Greenberg makes the case for eating more wild-caught U.S. seafood — and much less factory-farmed shrim p and…
Jul 10, 2024 · 46:26
In this episode of Unconfined , Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin tells us about Tree Range Farms, a poultry ecosystem alternative to the industrial food animal production model that…
Jun 11, 2024 · 51:44
In this episode of Unconfined , the formidable husband-and-wife team of David Montgomery and Anne Biklé draw on their deep experience as environmental scientists, gardeners, and…
May 14, 2024 · 57:29
In this episode of Unconfined , the Center for a Livable Future's food system correspondent Leo Horrigan walks us through the world of biological farming, the soil food web, the…
Apr 9, 2024 · 56:12
Debbie Berkowitz has been at the center of the vexed effort to ensure a safe workplace for poultry workers since her time as a union workplace-safety advocate in the early 1980s.…
Mar 12, 2024 · 40:25
The Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks agriculture as the third most dangerous industry to work in, after construction and transportation. In this episode of Unconfined , North…
Feb 13, 2024 · 55:33
Every year, the average U.S. consumer polishes off about 100 pounds of chicken—the highest rate of any large country, and twice the level we consumed as recently as 1985. As our…
Feb 13, 2024 · 11:25
Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle exposed inhumane working conditions in the meatpacking industry, as well as disgusting details about the meat itself. Decades later,…
Jan 16, 2024 · 47:59
Unconfined Podcast with Guest Chris Heaney Back in the 1990s, a University of North Carolina epidemiologist named Steve Wing pursued what was then a novel idea: to find out the…
Dec 12, 2023 · 36:48
Unconfined Podcast with Guest Patty Lovera As we continue our series on the bio gas boom in CAFO country, food policy expert Patty Lovera walks us through the costs and benefits…
Nov 14, 2023 · 52:29
Unconfined Podcast with Guest Sherri White-Williamson In the opening three episodes of Unconfined, we're focusing on a topic that's generating a lot of excitement among meat…
Nov 13, 2023 · 2:23
Introducing Unconfined, the Podcast About Industrial Farm Animal Production. Unconfined Podcast US consumers enjoy access to a veritable cornucopia of meat. We consume an annual…
Listen in the Podli app 🎧
Follow your favourite podcasts, listen offline and in the car with CarPlay and Android Auto, and always pick up where you left off. Free to try.
Your podcast? Get the Podli badge for your site
