🏆Best of Foodie Pharmacology, Season 5

I take a look back at our top podcast episodes of 2023! Plus, a special book giveaway opportunity from one of our podcast guests!

Five Seasons of the Podcast

It’s hard to believe that five seasons have already passed since I first launched the Foodie Pharmacology with Dr. Cassandra Quave podcast in collaboration with producers Rob Cohen and Christine Roth in the Spring of 2019! What started as a science communication tool aimed at sharing lessons from my college classroom to a broader audience has now organically expanded to reach tens of thousands of folks across the globe! Indeed, over the past 12 months, we have had listeners tune in from an incredible 117 countries! Our largest audience is in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Malta, Taiwan, Japan, Netherlands, Morocco, and Spain.

According to Listen Notes Global Rank, Foodie Pharmacology “is one of the top 2% most popular shows out of 3,227,675 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score (the estimated popularity score)”

Best of Season 5

This year, we aired 41 new episodes! Our guests included top scientists, chefs, fermenters, foragers, authors, and TV celebrities! Here is a list of the top five most downloaded shows (audio version) from Season 5:

1. Psychedelic Medicines for Depression with Dr. Charles Raison

2. Adventures in Foraging with Alexis Nikole Nelson

3. A Gardeners Guide to Botany with Dr. Scott Zona

4. Echinacea and the Incredible Synergy of Plants with Dr. Nadja Cech

5. Fermentation Journeys with Sandor Katz

Best of All Seasons

Since our launch in 2019, we have aired 176 episodes and the show has been downloaded by listeners more than 165,000 times! Here is a list of the top 10 most downloaded episodes since 2019:

1. Nutritious Food for Healthy Skin with Jennifer Fugo

2. Fiber Fueled with Dr. Will Bulsiewicz

3. Fungal Nutrition with Jeff Chilton and Bill Chioffi

4. Probiotics, Gut Health, and the Microbiome with Dr. Rheinallt Jones

5. Addiction & the Gut-Brain Axis with Dr. Vanessa Sperandio

6. Famine Foods with Dr. Paul Minnis

7. Psychedelic Medicines for Depression with Dr. Charles Raison

8. Adventures in Foraging with Alexis Nikole Nelson

9. A Gardeners Guide to Botany with Dr. Scott Zona

10. Gifts from the Irish Coast! Seaweeds and Abalone Aquaculture with Cindy and Sinead O’Brien

In addition to rolling out our episodes via classic podcast (audio-only) platforms, we also share the video format of our episodes on the YouTube Podcast channel platform on the Teach Ethnobotany Channel. Here is a list of our top 10 episodes with the most video views:

1. Everyday Ayurveda with Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya

2. Pickles, sauerkraut and the gut microbiome with Dr. Andrew Flachs

3. Life Below Zero with Sue Aikens

4. Fiber Fueled with Dr. Will Bulsiewicz

5. Fabulous fungi and pharmacognosy with Dr. Nicholas Oberlies

6. Precision Nutrition with Dr Sarah Berry

7. Fresh Banana Leaves with Dr. Jessica Hernandez

8. Kratom with Dr. Christopher McCurdy

9. Ethnobotany of wild foods in British Columbia with Dr. Nancy Turner

10. The Henbane Theory of Berserkers with Dr. Karsten Fatur

New to the show? Subscribe online

The podcast is available for free anywhere that you stream podcasts. Here are just a few examples of places where you can subscribe:

• Apple Podcasts (leave us a starred review here if you enjoy the show!)

• Podbean

• Spotify

• Amazon Music/Audible

• Google Podcasts

• iHeart Radio

• Listen Notes

• Podchaser

• PlayerFM

You can also subscribe to the video version of the show at the Teach Ethnobotany channel on YouTube.

There are many ways to support the show!

Foodie Pharmacology has been an enduring passion project that has grown organically and by word of mouth! This has been out of necessity as we haven’t worked with commercial sponsors (hence, no marketing budget). You can help us spread the word about the podcast by:

• Sharing your favorite episodes with your friends or on your social media platforms.

• Following us on social media [at]foodiepharma on: Instagram, TikTok, X, or Facebook.

• Leaving us a rating on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show.

Here are a couple of ways you can help us cover the costs of episode production:

• Buy me a coffee ☕️

• Order some fun swag! We have t-shirts, totes, coffee mugs, and more on our merch website!

Don’t Miss this Book Giveaway!

Our last episode for Season 5 is with Jennifer Jewell. Jennifer has a lovely new book out: What We Sow. She’s offering three signed copies of her book in a giveaway! To place your entry in the giveaway, simply head over to this post on Instagram and write a short note about why you love seeds! We’ll be selecting winners week, so get your entry in soon!

What’s new in Season 6?

The podcast team is working on a fabulous lineup for Season 6! We’ll be off on break for the rest of December and the podcast will be back with new weekly episodes beginning January 8th! Until then, happy holidays!

Yours in health, Dr. Quave

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Cassandra L. Quave, Ph.D. is a scientist, author, speaker, podcast host, wife, mother, explorer, and professor at Emory University School of Medicine. She teaches college courses and leads a group of research scientists studying medicinal plants to find new life-saving drugs from nature. She hosts the Foodie Pharmacology podcast and writes the Nature’s Pharmacy newsletter to share the science behind natural medicines. To support her effort, consider a paid or founding subscription, with founding members receiving an autographed 1st edition hardcover copy of her book, The Plant Hunter.

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Available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and e-book formats!