Food Heritage Podcast (Matarvspodden) offers insight into various research fields

The food and heritage podcast Matarvspodden has received funding for another season and the planning and recording are in full swing. Several of the episodes will be connected to the new anthology Matarvets trådar, which will be published after the summer.

The first episode of the season (episode 16 published May 30) however, was recorded live at this year's Science Festival in Gothenburg. The episode features Lisa Haeger in conversation with archaeologist and heritage researcher Maria Persson and marine biologist Maria Bodin, University of Gothenburg, discussing cross-border food and food traditions.

- The theme for this year's Science Festival was "Borders" and foodways post a well suited subject. Historically, we have both created and challenged boundaries when it comes to food, says Jenny Högström Berntson, producer of Matarvspodden. We have had to challenge the limits due to lack of food or the environment we live in. Also, curiosity has been pushing the exploration of limits, also when it comes to food and eating habits. In this episode where a marine biologist and an archaeologist met, foodways, borders and border crossing were the common thread, but with examples from different times and places.

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- What we eat and don't eat is strongly culturally conditioned, tied to norms in our time and in our culture. Much of our contemporary foodways have literally arrived here by crossing borders, by immigration or by tourism. Consider examples like pizza and tacos, which a few decades ago were something new and borderline-crossing in Sweden but now is ordinary meals. We have always crossed the boundaries of the traditional, out of compulsion or curiosity as Jenny says, and our food heritage has therefore changed and developed. I think the podcast episode can inspire the listener to consider food as cultural heritage and how what we eat, and don't eat, is part of a long history, says Maria Persson, archaeologist and heritage researcher, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg.

This season, new podcast episodes will cover topics such as Jewish foodways, Pommac, food in museums, food and identity, gastronomic trends and much more. It spans subjects as ethnology, religion, museology, marine biology, tourism, languages, history and archaeology.