The Pleasure Palate

A talk with podcaster Becca Katz. Plus, the first episode of her show about societal messages about weight and body image that are passed down through generations, and reclaiming pleasure in food.

Becca Katz is a reporter and audio producer based in Los Angeles. She’s currently working on Imperfect Paradise, Laist’s long form podcast investigating stories throughout California. She’s a graduate of USC’s Annenberg’s Journalism program. You can subscribe to Becca’s podcast, The Pleasure Palate, wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can follow The Pleasure Palate on Instagram. Email The Pleasure Palate Podcast at pleasurepalatepod@gmail.com

On this episode of the Oldster podcast (there’ll be more of these soon!), I talk with Becca Katz, a reporter and audio producer. On June 1st, Katz will launch her excellent eight-episode podcast, The Pleasure Palate, about the food and body image issues that are passed down between generations of women, in their families, and societally. It’s also about reclaiming our pleasure in eating and cooking, and living in our bodies.

At the bottom, below the paywall, paying subscribers get to hear the first episode of The Pleasure Palate right now, more than a week before the podcast’s launch.

Becca Katz

In that first episode, Katz and her sister discuss the effects their late mother’s severe eating disorders had on them, and also the ways they are learning to enjoy food and their bodies again. (Their mother died of a blood cancer in 2019.)

In each subsequent issue, Katz interviews women from different cultures about the generational, societal, and cultural attitudes toward food and body image that were passed down to them by those who came before them.

But the show is also focused on healing, and finding sensual pleasure again in eating and cooking. Katz cooks with her interviewees, and shares their recipes with listeners.

In her show notes, Rebecca writes:

This is a show about women and food. It's about the societal and generational messages we have been fed around body image and pleasure. And how we can reclaim pleasure in the kitchen ... and in our lives.

In this eight episode series, each episode I'll cook a meal with someone. You'll hear their specific struggles around food and body image, and how they're learning to heal.

Here’s a highlight quote from our interview:

…you learn a lot about how to relate to body image and pleasure and just your womanhood through your mom. When my mom passed away, I started reexamining all these things she had taught me about food and body image.

Listen to our conversation here:

Below is the first episode of The Pleasure Palate. The podcast officially launches on June 1st. There will be a total of eight episodes, one per week. The podcast is eye-opening and moving, and incredibly well done. I hope you enjoy it. - Sari