What even are GMOs? What even is processed food? (PODCAST E5)

On this episode, we explain and debate GMOs and processed foods. I'll also touch upon prepping the perfect vegan meal for non-vegans, maintaining nutritional and daily workout goals and more on the latest episode of The Adam Ragusea Podcast .
00:08 What even are GMOs? Have any foods NOT been genetically modified in some way?
11:14 What even is processed food?
12:10 How do you minimize waste in the kitchen?
15:01 How do you keep to your nutrition and exercise goals for fitness?
18:52 A vegan dish to impress non-vegans?
21:26 Failure of the week — getting angry at people for being upset
25:46 How do you cope with embarrassment?
31:17 Combination microwave-convection "speed" ovens?
33:32 Have your feelings about Billy Joel changed since you made that podcast about him?

[nygreenguy]

Adam, Ive worked with the team that created a transgenic chestnut tree. It seems the tree, even though its a GMO is a little less political and serves as an entry point for opening peoples mind on GMO. If you want to talk to someone on the team, I may be able to introduce you.

[tharinduweerasekara]

I really like the the introspection in the episode today and I appreciate you sharing your feelings about your children. Please dont feel that you must have a guest on every episode, tbh I think this is my favourite episode upto now. Thanks for uploading

[Preetzole]

Adam, i just want you to know that i am a college student who does exactly as you described and just watches your videos for ideas. I never follow recipes exactly anymore, and you (plus Kenji) are the reason i had this philosophy change. I went from strictly cooking by the book, to a more flexible style of cooking where i kinda just throw things in and follow the general techniques. I also rarely ever measure things anymore, and my cooking has honestly improved because ive loosened up. It feels like in the movies when the professional who takes their job too serously learns to have fun, and their work ends up improving.

[brandonmccaskey]

Adam, I needed to hear the middle interlude about empathy and understanding others today. I appreciate this podcast, looking forward to listening in the future!

[LiquidZulu]

The opportunity cost argument as it pertains to GMO's (i.e. thinking about what impacts the alternatives have) is a very important one that is missed by many commentators on the subject. I am glad that Adam is incorporating it here.

[paulburt]

On this guest-less podcast, I caught and enjoyed your "NPR timing" -- learned from a previous life -- so much more. Here's one vote to keep it up.

[arieldahl]

One of the interesting reactions to ‘GMO bans’ is that scientists first figure out what gene modifications they are interested in via GMO and trials, and then when they have their intended target- they naturally merge strains and grow them (double checking the genes to make sure to take the best options for reaching the target) and repeat until they get there.

Why play by ear which ones to mix, if you can check the genes for the intended traits?

[matnovak]

Just wanted to say that I appreciate that these podcasts are on your channel. I know you were doubting if it's a good idea but I don't care about podcasts enough to have a pod app, but I still want to catch up on yours whenever I can

[swedneck]

Thank you for putting your recipes in the description even though it's not fun, it's incredibly helpful to have that written reference instead of having to constantly rewind and play videos, especially for making sure you have all the ingredients.

[Appleguy]

I always skip right to the fail of the week, and this week’s was very well said. Seriously perspective-altering advice. Thanks Adam!

[swedneck]

On the healthy foods thing, not only does staying active make you crave junk food less, but i also make sure to find healthy foods that i find pretty much as enjoyable as junk food.
For example it turns out that loose fried eggs (in LOTS of butter, basically basted in it) on toast with black pepper, salt, chopped leek, and some lemon juice is unironically one of the best things i have ever tasted.

I also feel that it's very hard to actually make unhealthy food at home, so if i want something like pizza i just make it from scratch and i'm quite satisfied that it's fine.

[purplegill]

*CW/TW: Childhood pain/trauma*

22:17 This may be an odd thing to admit online, but holy shit hearing someone say that out loud is massively comforting. I suffer from a, from what me and my doctor can tell, memory disorder that causes my brain to not be able to tell when memories occurred in the timeline of my life. This causes memories from my childhood to be just as strong, detailed, and most importantly potent as memories I just had within the last few minutes. One of the most horrific symptoms of having this disorder is I have _incredibly_ strong memories starting as early as 18 months. To the best of my abilities, in working with family members along with my doctors, we have been able to confirm these were accurate and not just believable recreations my head made up over the years. The reason this tends to be horrifying, and it's admittedly hard for me to type this, is that I do remember times where I was an infant/very young child and I remember the reasons I would cry so much. Sometimes it felt like someone was stabbing a needle into me for hours on end when later we find out it was just an errant thread in my blanket or a hair that got stuck. Or it would be times where I would have a nightmare at age two and be up all night and only remember the anger and exhausted sympathy my parents would have despite how awful their work schedules were just to keep a roof over our heads. Sometimes it's even just the horrifically long boring days I would spend at day care or in my crib not being able to do _anything_ and practically losing my mind from that. I remember distinctly how badly I wanted to say what was wrong to my parents but literally was being imprisoned in my own mind where the very attempt at asking for help through my cries would only cause my parents to hurt even more. I still deal with the trauma associated with this to this day but therapy has largely changed my life in this regard.

Just...I guess knowing that there's someone out there with an audience who so succinctly explained the feeling that not only the parents have but also the baby gives someone like me solace in knowing that I'm not as powerless as I usually feel when topics of crying babies and in turn parenting comes up. When I've tried to tell people I trust in the past about my condition they would brush it off as false memories, claim I'm making it up, or the worst claiming that if I had consciousness of what was going on then I should have been easier on my parents and not cried as much. Thanks for unintentionally offering the other side of the story Adam. You gave me a sense of comfort that 8 years of therapy was never really able to achieve.

[taejaskudva]

Thank you for your Failure of the Week segment. I feel like you were talking directly to me about one of my failures from today, and though obviously I talked with my partner about it, it's reassuring to be reminded most parents face the same struggle.

[RustyShackleford-]

Love this presentation. Started with some deep level info on GMO and had an oddly philosophical finish. Absolutely loved this!

[JakeEpooh]

Anyway, you were born to be a YouTube-er and podcaster, my brother. You're scary good at these formats. I hope you are as successful as you want to be for as long as you want to keep doing it, man.

[mackenziedrake]

This is the first of your podcasts that I've caught. I enjoyed it immensely, and the part about Billy Joel and creative work is very true. We can add depth, but something fresh and new is hard to do, if it can be done at all. A friend and I have been chatting about being 20. He's about 40, while I'm 63. It's hard for me to remember, let alone re-experience, what it was like to be me then. He's found the same thing, with different layers. I am reminded of Leonard Cohen. Hallelujah evolved over time, and it's timeless, but it's still much the same song no matter how it's layered, though the first time and the last time he sang it are vastly different due to perspective and sound equipment developments.

[SometimesStarWars]

I wish my dad had been more like you, to understand where your anger is coming from, and knowing its wrong to direct it at your child.
His anger really messed me up in a way you never really get over, so long as it is within our power children should never go through that.
It is our job as parents to make sure our children arent just fed and clothed but HAPPY and HEALTHY. Not as punching bags for our stress and frustrations.
Kindness and compassion are skills that require work, but it is work that is vital for healing yourself, and loving others

[bcaudell]

The "coping with embarrassment/failure" answer is absolutely fascinating to me... I'm in software engineering, and we make it an absolute must-do to talk about mistakes so that we can collectively learn from them. I'm 26 and flourishing enough in my young career that I can have some leadership roles on my team, and I make it a point to discuss failures with them. If they're my own failings then I embrace them, apologize, explain how they came to be, and what steps can be taken to prevent them in the future. For the failings of others, I do the exact same thing, except that I leave out the name of the person whose mistake it was, because putting someone else on a blame pedestal isn't a good leadership act. My rambling point, though, is that my team and I have a culture and shared understanding that failures need to be confronted to be learned from, which is in stark contrast to your worldview. Dunno which one is better (probably varies by career), but I find the discrepancy fascinating.

[barinebold]

Adam,
I used an early generation speed oven briefly but long enough to experiment with it and get a handle on how it cooks. I think the use case for a speed oven isn't as a faster replacement for an oven, it's a massive quality improvement over a microwave.

You're not going to replace your oven with it but for times when you're grabbing something like a frozen pot pie or last night's pizza you can get oven-like results with a lot less time. I took the time to tweak the settings (recipe) so I could hit a button and get a nice crispy browned-crust pot pie in about 10 minutes. It's much better quality than the microwave because it can brown evenly and without massively overcooking and it didn't take an hour to cook so I could grab one for a quick lunch break or after work before heading out for the night.

[simoncleret]

If you want to talk to someone who actually knows how to genetically modify things, I'd recommend The Thought Emporium here on YouTube. Not only does he genetically modify stuff, he walks you through the process and even makes stuff open source.