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

What’s this? A Sporkful episode on a Thursday??

Yes it’s true, today we’re launching a special series, called Ask Mimi.

In these episodes, taped live on stage, legendary food writer Mimi Sheraton offers advice on food and life to listeners and celebrity guests.

This is similar to the Stitcher Premium show we did earlier this year (also called Ask Mimi!), but these four episodes are totally new. Look for them every other Thursday between now and Thanksgiving.

This week, Mimi helps a young listener learn how to cope with a very opinionated mother-in-law. Fortunately, Mimi's got a lot of experience navigating sharp-tongued moms:

"My mother was a very critical woman and it used to annoy me. And only when I got much older, I realized that was her way of showing unconditional love," Mimi recalls. "She wanted to help, so the minute she looked at you she told you what you were doing wrong."

Plus comedian Maeve Higgins, who has never even smoked weed, asks Mimi about drugs. (Check out Maeve's new book, Maeve In America: Essays By A Girl From Somewhere Else!)

Also, Radiolab's Robert Krulwich needs Mimi's advice on becoming a grandfather. And Mimi trains her crosshairs on cinnamon raisin bagels.

If you want to hear more Ask Mimi, sign up for Stitcher Premium with code SPORKFUL. The first month's free and you get access to our whole back catalog plus much more Stitcher goodness, like all the concerts from Weird Al's last tour.

Interstitial music in this episode by Black Label Music:

- "Burley Cue" by Steve Pierson

- "Happy With You" by Ken Brahmstedt

- "Blues For Anniebelle" by Ken Brahmstedt

Photos: Vitor Hirtsch