Renowned American molecular biologist, nutritionist and health advocate Marion Nestle joins host Chloe Aftel to discuss the ways that politics, industry, and food production have created the health crisis and distrust in science that now dominates our news cycles. Throughout the years, Nestle has written countless articles on these topics and has won a number of awards for her writing, including The American Public Health Association’s Food and Nutrition Section Award for Excellence in Dietary Guidance, The James Beard Literary Award, and a Harry Chapin Media Award for Best Book. They discuss Nestle’s education and career, as well as her body of work regarding her research into Food Politics and nutrition. Nestle’s research shines a light on how the intersection of socioeconomic and scientific influences impact food choice, public health, and food safety, emphasizing the role that marketing plays into these discussions. 


Highlights:

• Nestle talks about her career in education and how many advances in health have taken place over the course of her lifetime, as well as ways the general public's view on health and food has shifted over the years
• Nestle brings informed focus to how our culture’s current food system is designed to prioritize profit over public health, leading to food insecurity and a reliance on food that has been heavily processed
• How to trust science when there are active efforts from the current U.S. administration to erase and delegitimize scientific findings from previous decades
• Aftel and Nestle additionally discuss how to get involved and the importance of advocacy plus being a part of local politics

Biographies:

Marion Nestle is an award winning author, molecular biologist, and health advocate. She received her Bachelors in bacteriology from UC Berkeley in 1959, as well as a Ph.D. in molecular biology and a MPH in public health nutrition. She went on to teach at NYU, where in 1996 she co founded the university’s Food Studies program in collaboration with food consultant Clark Wolf, paving the way for other universities to introduce food science programs into their curriculum. In 2013 she received the Healthful Food Council’s Innovator of the Year Award and the James Beard Leadership Award, as well as the Public Health Association of New York City’s Media Award the following year. She has written and received critical acclaim for several of her books, including Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics, and her 2022 memoir Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life In Food Politics. Her research primarily focuses on Food Politics with an emphasis on the ways in which food choice, food safety, and public health are impacted by both scientific and socioeconomic influences.

Chloe Aftel has spent her career working in commercial photography, photojournalism, and film. She’s an established name in modern photography with work featured in The New York Times, Mother Jones, Playboy, Dazed & Confused, Vogue Germany, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue, and more. Aftel has photographed victims of sexual violence, reported on COVID 19's impact on the trans community, and gained access as the first reporter in COVID wards of the West Coast’s hardest-hit hospitals. She has covered underground abortion providers, the impact of gender pronouns on daily life, and clergy abuse. Aftel's first book, Outside & In Between, is an award-winning anthology covering gender non-conforming people across the United States.

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