Social & External
From New York City to the farmlands of the Midwest, there are 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., yet one dish in particular has conquered the American culinary landscape with a force befitting its military moniker—“General Tso’s Chicken.” But who was General Tso and how did this dish become so ubiquitous? Ian Cheney’s delightfully insightful documentary charts the history of Chinese Americans through the surprising origins of this sticky, sweet, just-spicy-enough dish that we’ve adopted as our own.
The 2016 Reebok CrossFit Games were a grueling five-day, 15-event test to find the fittest man and woman on Earth. "Fittest on Earth: A Decade of Fitness" follows the dramatic story of the top athletes who qualified and competed and offers an inside look at what it takes to be among the world's elite athletes, both in training and on the competition floor. The CrossFit Games challenge competitors to perform intense physical tasks, but the hardest part is sometimes mental. Athletes often learn the details of the events only minutes before they begin, and everyone handles the pressure differently. Which of these fierce competitors will rise to the top and earn the title of Fittest on Earth?
We all love food. As a society, we devour countless cooking shows, culinary magazines and foodie blogs. So how could we possibly be throwing nearly 50% of it in the trash? Filmmakers and food lovers Jen and Grant dive into the issue of waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of their own fridge. After catching a glimpse of the billions of dollars of good food that is tossed each year in North America, they pledge to quit grocery shopping and survive only on discarded food. What they find is truly shocking.
Malaysia's multiculturalism is unrivaled throughout Southeast Asia and is reflected in its cuisine. Roving foodie Merrilees Parker begins her journey on the Malaysian peninsula with the native Orang Asli people of Kelantan She then heads off to the stunning Islamic East coast to cook a rich curry using freshly caught mackerel. In the ancient spice capital of Melaka, Merrilees cooks up a storm with fiery Laksa soup in the style of the Nyonya. In the Cameron Highlands, 5,000 feet above sea level, there is a notable English influence. The island of Penang is Merilees' next stop then she visits the capital, Kuala Lumpur, one of the fastest growing cities in Southeast Asia.
Merrilees Parker travels to Japan to learn about its unique food culture. She begins her journey in Tokyo, at Tsukiji, the world's biggest fish market. Master chef, Romeo teaches her how to make the ultimate sushi, an art that takes years to master. Then it's off to a ramen museum, where you can try various regional styles of the noodle soup. Escaping the city, Merrilees takes the bullet train to Matsusaka where she visits a farm that produces the most expensive beef in the world. She also visits Kyoto and Mount Fuji for the annual Summer Fire Festival to gorge herself on wonderful street food.
With the world increase in spillover diseases from animals Scientists trace outbreaks such as the Zika and Ebola viruses which have the potential to infect humans.
In Ramen Heads, Osamu Tomita, Japan's reigning king of ramen, takes us deep into his world, revealing every single step of his obsessive approach to creating the perfect soup and noodles, and his relentless search for the highest-quality ingredients.
A documentary that exposes the shocking truths behind industrial food production and food wastage, focusing on fishing, livestock and crop farming. A must-see for anyone interested in the true cost of the food on their plate.
Why wheat, one of the staple food of humanity, is becoming a poison for a growing number of people today ? An investigation on the emergence of a new gluten-free products market. And yet, the real cause of this sudden tsunami of grain intolerance remains a mystery. How come all of a sudden, many of us no longer support cereal, highly nutritious in protein? Have recent changes in our eating habits triggered the epidemic? Is wheat not the good old grain we've been eating for 10,000 years? Scientists, activists and committed farmers are trying to uncover the truth on the real qualities of industrial foods.
The film interweaves the personal accounts of polio survivors with the story of an ardent crusader who tirelessly fought on their behalf while scientists raced to eradicate this dreaded disease. Based in part on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky, Features interviews with historians, scientists, polio survivors, and the only surviving scientist from the core research team that developed the Salk vaccine, Julius Youngner.
In an era of activism, filmmaker Connor Luke Simpson enters the world of Fat Acceptance, a provocative social movement that is seeking to change the negative perception of obesity. Is everything we know about obesity wrong, or, will this movement just become a footnote in the history books?
An organic farmer in Maine sets out to transform the prison food system. Seeds of Change captures the intersecting stories of life-long farmer Mark McBrine and several incarcerated men as they harvest their own meals from a five-acre prison garden unlike any other.
Why are so many people wheat-intolerant or sensitive to wheat? And why is wheat linked to so many modern-day health problems, when it has been a staple of the human diet for thousands of years? In this documentary, a nutritionist interviews 14 experts, to understand how wheat has changed since it was first cultivated, how these changes could be affecting human health, and how people can break a dietary cycle that could be making them sick.
A documentary film that takes us on a scientific and spiritual journey where we discover that by changing one's perceptions, the human body can heal itself from any disease.
A look at man's relationship with Dirt. Dirt has given us food, shelter, fuel, medicine, ceramics, flowers, cosmetics and color --everything needed for our survival. For most of the last ten thousand years we humans understood our intimate bond with dirt and the rest of nature. We took care of the soils that took care of us. But, over time, we lost that connection. We turned dirt into something "dirty." In doing so, we transform the skin of the earth into a hellish and dangerous landscape for all life on earth. A millennial shift in consciousness about the environment offers a beacon of hope - and practical solutions.
Featuring Michael Pollan and based on his best-selling book, this special takes viewers on an exploration of the human relationship with the plant world — seen from the plants' point of view. Narrated by Frances McDormand, the program shows how four familiar species — the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato — evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication.
Food in the 21st century has become much more than “meat and potatoes” and canned soup casseroles.” Chefs have gained celebrity status; recipes and exotic ingredients, once impossible to find, are now just a mouse click away; and the country's major cities are better known for their gastronomy than their art galleries. This food movement can be traced back to one man: James Beard. His name graces the highest culinary honor in the American food world today—the James Beard Foundation Awards. And while chefs all around the country aspire to win a James Beard Award, often referred to as the “culinary Oscars,” many of those same chefs know very little about the man behind the medal. Respected restaurateur Drew Nieporent summed it up when he said, “Everybody knows the name James Beard. They may not know who he is, but they know the name.”
With nutritionally-depleted foods, chemical additives and our tendency to rely upon pharmaceutical drugs to treat what's wrong with our malnourished bodies, it's no wonder that modern society is getting sicker. Food Matters sets about uncovering the trillion dollar worldwide sickness industry and gives people some scientifically verifiable solutions for curing disease naturally.
In the cobalt mining areas of Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), babies are being born with horrific birth defects. Scientists and doctors are finding increasing evidence of environmental pollution from industrial mining which, they believe, may be the cause of a range of malformations from cleft palate to some so serious the baby is stillborn. More than 60% of the world’s reserves of cobalt are in the DRC and this mineral is essential for the production of electric car batteries, which may be the key to reducing carbon emissions and to slowing climate change. In The Cost of Cobalt we meet the doctors treating the children affected and the scientists who are measuring the pollution. Cobalt may be part of the global solution to climate change, but is it right that Congo’s next generation pay the price with their health? Many are hoping that the more the world understands their plight, the more pressure will be put on the industry here to clean up its act.
From the UFC Octagon in Las Vegas and the anthropology lab at Dartmouth, to a strongman gym in Berlin and the bushlands of Zimbabwe, the world is introduced to elite athletes, special ops soldiers, visionary scientists, cultural icons, and everyday heroes—each on a mission to create a seismic shift in the way we eat and live.
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