Tracing The Path: The Connected 20th Century

In this episode of Tracing The Path, we find one family that takes part in three of the biggest Thanksgiving traditions . .  over 379 years. And we learn the exact moments Thanksgiving's history was created? Our adventure passes through a famous poem, a Christmas song, Sarah Josepha Hale, Teddy Roosevelt, the NCAA,  the Macy's Christmas Parade, molasses in pumpkin pie and somehow the amazing Allison Janney.

In this "after the episode" conversation we're looking at some of the Wow! moments from the Popeye story.  Did you know Superman couldn't fly in the first comic? We're talking about the amazing invention of the Rotoscope, Bluto vs Brutus, Captain Cook's tattoo discovery, story games vs points, Cab Calloway and much more.

The best selling video game of all time didn't come about by accident. There's an entire history that starts with playing cards and tattoos and corn cob pipes. The story crosses paths with the Ultrahand, Dennis the Menace, Thimble Theatre, Olive Oyl, Nintendo, Popeye, Fleischer Studios, William Randolph Hearst, Chester Illinois and Namco.

We're looking at some of the wow moments from the last episode, and in discussing it we got a chance to connect Fannie Farmer, the 1896 Boston Cooking School Cookbook's definition of a Cup, Peavey, Junior League Cookbooks, Boone & Erickson Morning Show on WCCO Radio, the East Bank & West Bank at the University of MN, and of course St. Anthony Falls.

What can a recipe tell us about American history? A lot more than what’s for dinner.

In this episode of Tracing the Path, we follow the American recipe from handwritten collections and community cookbooks to corporate test kitchens, radio programs, recipe contests, and the cards tucked inside kitchen boxes. Along the way, we’ll discover how recipes helped sell bananas, why suffragists published cookbooks, how a pincushion promotion helped create Betty Crocker, how Tupperware transformed the American kitchen, and how a second-place cake at the Pillsbury Bake-Off turned an obscure baking pan into an American icon.

Because a recipe doesn’t just tell you how to make something. Look closely enough, and it can tell you what Americans were buying, what technology they had, how companies marketed to them, how women were identified, and even what was happening in the country at the time.

It turns out you can teach a surprising amount of American history with just 1/2 cup.