From a moisturizer made of beef fat, to bartenders hating on Gen Z, to tariffs, a lot happened this year. (How do you get away with stealing 100,000 eggs and a truckload of Guy Fieri’s tequila?) We cover the biggest and strangest food stories of 2025 in our Salad Spinner Year in Review! Helen Rosner, staff writer at The New Yorker, and Yasmin Tayag, staff writer at The Atlantic, join us to discuss all these headlines and more — and we inaugurate our brand new Silver Spork Awards!

Subscribe to Helen Rosner’s newsletter, The Food Scene, and check out her story, “I’m Donut ? And The Allure Of The International Chain.”

Listen to Yasmin Tayag’s podcast, How To Age Up, and check out her story, “Can Jollibee Beat American Fast Food At Its Own Game?”

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Kameel Stanley, and Jared O'Connell, with production help this week by Morgan Johnson.

Interstitial music in this episode by Black Label Music:

• "Lucky Strike" by Erick Anderson
  
• "Electro Italy" by Nicholas Rod
• "Dreamin"  by Erick Anderson
• "Twenty99" by Erick Anderson
• "Dilly Dally" by Hayley Briasco
• "Lucky Strike" by Erick Anderson

Photo courtesy of iStock.

Right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. Get all your favorite podcasts, more than 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, and live sports coverage with the SiriusXM app.