The Food That Built America

The HISTORY® Channel

It takes bold visionaries risking everything to create some of the most recognizable brands on the planet. The Food That Built America, based on the hit documentary series from The HISTORY® Channel, tells the extraordinary true stories of industry titans like Henry Heinz, Milton Hershey, the Kellogg brothers and Ray Kroc, who revolutionized the food industry and transformed American life and culture in the process.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Our Editor's Take

The Food That Built America podcast examines the origins of iconic American food brands. Hershey's, Pizza Hut, and Dairy Queen are some brands spotlighted in the show. Fans of American history and pop culture may love this podcast. The series shows the grit and creativity of pioneers in the American food industry. Listeners will hear the stories behind America's most-loved restaurants and snacks. These popular brands have brought millions of people together in culinary oneness. They also transformed American life and culture. The culinary show is the podcast version of the popular History Channel show of the same title.

Sean Braswell and Jonathan Hirsch have both been hosts of the podcast. Sean hosted the first season of The Food That Built America. The writer/producer has also hosted other podcasts, including Flashback and The Thread. Hirsch hosts most of the episodes of the second season.

On the show, hosts narrate the stories behind various iconic food brands. The podcast outlines the failures and successes of the people behind big-name brands. It pays homage to brands like Coca-Cola, Kellogg, and McDonald's. Listeners will learn how some of the popular products were accidental innovations. The podcast details the lives, struggles, and successes of food revolutionaries. Debbi Fields, Orville Redenbacher, and Milton Hershey are some pioneers discussed on the show.

These bold visionaries developed products and businesses that changed America. The Food That Built America does a great job of chronicling their lives and successes. The podcast has interesting excerpts of interviews with food historians, professors, and foodies. What would America be like without these ubiquitous brands? Both history fans and food lovers may find the show informative and entertaining.

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INTRODUCING: The Food that Built America

INTRODUCING: The Food that Built America

It takes bold visionaries risking everything to create some of the most recognizable brands on the planet. The Food That Built America, based on the hit documentary series from The HISTORY® Channel, tells the extraordinary true stories of industry titans like Henry Heinz, Milton Hershey, the Kellogg brothers and Ray Kroc, who revolutionized the food industry and transformed American life and culture in the process. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

In the mid-50s, a San Bernardino man named Glen Bell is fixated on McDonald’s. His own burger stand is in shambles, and he’s trying to bounce back. When he looks around, though, he realizes Mexican food is gaining popularity, but that most Americans are afraid of anything that strays from their bland palettes. That’s when he realizes: A taco is really a burger in a shell. With a few fits and starts, Taco Bell is born. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Popcorn may very well be the oldest snack food on the planet, but for much of its modern history it was something to be consumed in movie theaters or at fairgrounds - not at home. No truly national brand existed and it was far from the convenient snack it is today. But in the 1950s, Orville Redenbacher believed science could launch popcorn forward, making him a household name. His thousands of hybridizing experiments innovated popcorn down to its genetic code, resulting in a more flavorful pop twice the size of anything the world had seen before. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let Them Eat Snack Cake

Let Them Eat Snack Cake

Nowadays, grocery stores and gas stations are filled with Little Debbie products. In the 1950s, though, snack cakes were just gaining popularity, when a Chattanooga couple took a risk, scrapping big pies in favor of debut snack cakes instead. their company, Little Debbie, now dominates 54% of the snack cake industry with over $890 million in sales. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cookie Fortunes

Cookie Fortunes

In the mid 1970s, a woman who wants to be more than just a housewife, is tired of living in her husband’s shadow. Armed with her phenomenal cookies, Debbi Fields seeks out an unlikely spot for her unlikely business - a cookie shop named Mrs. Fields in a shopping mall...run by a woman with no experience. With her husband’s credit on the line, she starts her journey to build a $450 million dollar cookie juggernaut. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the mid-60s, a single perfume salesman finds himself struggling to meet women to date. So, he goes to the bar to complain to the bartender about his predicament. That’s when the salesman has an idea: What if you made your own co-ed bar? What ensues is a quest to make bars coed and fun, and TGI Fridays is born, revolutionizing the idea of sit-down dining and bar culture. Now, the business has 303 locations in the United States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Dish Best Served Soft

A Dish Best Served Soft

In Illinois, a father and son working in the wholesale ice cream mixing business have an idea. Convinced that ice cream tastes better fresh before it’s fully-frozen, what if they could create a machine that could dispense it while it’s still only semi-solid? Their names are John and Alex McCullough. By 1940 the McCullough’s open their first store, naming it Dairy Queen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Post-World War Two, a food entrepreneur sees promise in a new business. In 1948, William Rosenberg notices two of his offerings selling better than anything else: donuts and coffee. So, he takes a risk, opening a shop with his brother-in-law that will sell just two items. The store, Open Kettle, offers a whopping 52 kinds of hand cut donuts. After a few bumps along the road, Dunkin Donuts is born, and Rosenberg finds a way to dominate the donut business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

150 years ago, German immigrants in the Midwest write the history of beer in America. A recently shipwrecked steamboat captain - Captain Frederick Pabst - buys a local brewery, becoming the largest producer in the city. The crisp American lager we know today is born. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Submarine Warfare

Submarine Warfare

Sixty years ago, sandwiches were finger food, not a whole meal, and certainly not sold as fast food. But when three high school friends encounter a sub sandwich, they realize it’s the perfect fast-food alternative. As they navigate advertising, business, and menus, they create Blimpie, and reshape the way Americans think about lunch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the 1950s, one of the biggest companies in the world - Procter and Gamble - decides to enter the chip business. A chemist for P&G designs a strong, saddle-shaped chip and a revolutionary container to ship them in, and Pringles are born. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nabisco, the most popular cookie company, is born when an ill-fated partnership leads Adolphus Green to revolutionize packaging and create one of the most iconic cookie and cracker companies ever. But when his former partners strike back with their own invention, Green retaliates with the help of milk chocolate titan Milton Hershey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Game of Chicken

A Game of Chicken

In the 1970's, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s is far ahead of the competition. But when a burger chain called Burger King poaches his third-highest ranking executive, Don Smith, it's war. Smith re-engineers the emerging rival, and in an unprecedented move, Kroc brings on a world renowned chef to develop the chicken nugget. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

William Wrigley, whose name will later adorn sports stadiums and buildings, first stumbles upon a new product that will kickstart a revolution across industries. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the turn of the 20th century, James Kraft challenges thousands of years of cheese-making tradition and forever alters the dairy industry with his new cheese innovation: processed cheese. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

King of Burgers

King of Burgers

In the 1950s, two Florida visionaries start Insta-Burger King, a burger stand that will become Ray Kroc and McDonald’s biggest rival, re-inventing their kitchen's equipment into the pioneering flame broiler. Over the next two decades these two iconic restaurants will duke it out, launching the flame-broiled burger that will shape the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Announcing: The Food That Built America Season 2

Announcing: The Food That Built America Season 2

The Food That Built America is back, and believe it when we say it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Season two will take you behind the scenes of sandwich squabbles, histories of beer, and origin stories of our favorite snacks. We'll explore the rivalries, runaway successes, and tremendous failures of the biggest names in food and drink and the legacies they left behind. New episodes of The Food That Built America premiere on April 6th wherever you listen to podcasts. And for even more iconic food moments, tune into The HISTORY® Channel for a new season of The Food That Built America TV show, premiering on Sunday, February 27 at 9 PM ET. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Introducing: Hope, Through History Season 2

Introducing: Hope, Through History Season 2

Welcome back to a new season of the C13Originals critically acclaimed Hope, Through History documentary limited series. Narrated and written by Pulitzer Prize Winning and Best Selling Historian, Jon Meacham, Season Two explores some of the most historic and trying times in American History, and how this nation dealt with the impact of these moments, and how we came through these moments a more unified nation. Season Two, presented by C13Originals, in association with The HISTORY Channel, will guide you through the Battle of Gettysburg and its impact on the future of the country, the relationship between FDR and Churchill and America’s slow walk to war, the plan for AIDS relief, the sinking of the Lusitania and events impact on the future of America, and Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights Act. As Winston Churchill once remarked, “The future is unknowable, but the past should give us hope”—the hope that human ingenuity, reason, and character can combine to save us from the abyss and keep us on a path, in another phrase of Churchill’s, to broad, sun-lit uplands. Welcome to Season Two. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Colonel Sanders’ First Stand

Colonel Sanders’ First Stand

During the Great Depression, a Kentucky businessman named Harlan Sanders started selling fried chicken out of the tiny kitchen inside his gas station. He launched a product that would become an American staple and make him a brand icon: Kentucky Fried Chicken. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Great Chocolatiers

The Great Chocolatiers

With his iconic milk chocolate bar, Milton Hershey transformed an exotic luxury into an affordable indulgence for millions of Americans. Then he went to war with an upstart rival - Frank Mars, creator of legendary bars like the Milky Way, Snickers and Three Musketeers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chips That Took Over the Snack World

The Chips That Took Over the Snack World

In different corners of the country in the 1930s, ambitious entrepreneurs Charles Elmer Doolin and Herman Lay launched two products — Fritos corn chips and Lay’s potato chips — that would revolutionize the way Americans snack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.