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Book Talk: Nicky Twilley on Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves
October 31, 2024 @ 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

The Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT is excited to welcome Nicky Twilley, KSJ project fellow ’21, for a talk on her new book Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves.
Today, nearly three-quarters of everything on the average American plate is processed, shipped, stored, and sold under refrigeration. It’s impossible to make sense of our food system without understanding the all-but-invisible network of thermal control that underpins it. In Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves, Twilley reveals the often-overlooked impact refrigeration has had on our health and our guts; our farms, tables, kitchens, and cities; global economics and politics; and even our environment. From the invention of the hoodie to Irish independence, refrigeration has transformed what we eat, where it’s grown, how it tastes, and, most importantly, how good it is for us and for the planet. In this deeply researched and reported dive into the most important invention in the history of food and drink, Twilley takes readers on a tour of the cold chain from farm to fridge, visiting off-the-beaten-path landmarks such as Missouri’s subterranean cheese caves, the banana-ripening rooms of New York City, and the vast refrigerated tanks that store the nation’s orange juice reserves.
Nicola Twilley is co-host of the award-winning Gastropod podcast, which looks at food through the lens of history and science, and which is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with Eater. Her first book, Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, was co-authored with Geoff Manaugh and was named one of the best books of 2021 by Time Magazine, NPR, the Guardian, and the Financial Times. She is a contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of Edible Geography. She lives in Los Angeles.
Space is limited. Please contact Learning and Events Coordinator Claire Sadar if you are interested in attending.
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