This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

For many of us, the holidays come with an ample serving of family drama. But that's fine by comedian Amy Sedaris.

"Whenever there's a fight, we all just get excited. We're a fantastic audience for it," she said. "You just eat it up and then you divide up and...you play both sides. It's great."

But comedian Mo Rocca, host of the Cooking Channel show My Grandmother's Ravioli, has a very different approach to dealing with family strife at holiday gatherings:

“Life is not a movie of the week,” he says. “The best you can do it manage situations, and you should feel proud about that.”

This week on The Sporkful, we're talking about how to survive and thrive on Thanksgiving -- from what to cook and drink (while you're cooking) to hosting and, of course, family diplomacy.

Most of all, we want to help you keep your eyes on the prize (food!) and stay on mission (eating!). Everything else is just gravy.

Speaking of that -- we ask food science guru Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats about the best way to cook a turkey. Kenji favors dry rubbing over brining -- and he brings the science to explain why. (Here's his recipe.)

Plus, we talk Thanksgiving for vegetarians with Slate's L.V. Anderson. She shares her recipe for cornbread stuffing, and together we try to unite carnivores and vegetarians with one of my trademark meatless dishes: the Veggieducken.

And New York Times food editor Sam Sifton joins me to debate stuffing versus dressing and the merits of napkins folded into birds. Sam also tells me the one thing you could do at his house at Thanksgiving that he'd consider a grievous insult.

Stay tuned later this week for a special bonus episode of The Sporkful -- think of it as my Thanksgiving gift to you! Radiolab's Robert Krulwich tells us the story of the time a turkey fell in love with his wife. And I'll attempt to cook with On the Media's Brooke Gladstone -- to disastrous effect.

Check out ALL of The Sporkful's Thanksgiving recipes:

- Kenji Lopez-Alt's butterflied roast turkey with gravy

- Sam Sifton's Roasted Cauliflower with Anchovy Bread Crumbs

- L.V. Anderson's vegetarian cornbread stuffing, adapted from Slate, where she is food and drinks editor

- Brooke Gladstone's go-to cracker pudding (with video)

- Rosie Schaap's Autumn Bonfire cocktail

- My Veggieducken (with video)

This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!

This is a rebroadcast of an earlier episode.

Photos: FlickrCC/vandenn; Matthew Septimus; J. Kenji López-Alt / The Food Lab on Serious Eats; and courtesy of Cooking Channel