Episode #203 - Megan Marshall of Edible Chicago

This week, we’re sitting down with Megan Marshall, the publisher behind Edible Chicago, whose work starts from a simple but expansive belief: food is never just food. It’s access, labor, sustainability, culture, policy, pleasure, and community, all in conversation with each other. After years moving through food, hospitality, and food systems work, she took over Edible Chicago with a vision to broaden the city’s food conversation beyond chefs and restaurants. She comes to the studio to tell us about building a free print publication in a difficult media landscape, championing Chicago and the Midwest as essential parts of the national food story, and using storytelling to make people more aware of the systems behind what they eat. This week we talk: composting and city buy-in, why Chicago belongs at the center of the food systems conversation, the strange world of USDA checkoff program, why perfectionism may not be the point when it comes to building a more sustainable food culture -- and so much more!