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Food has the power to shape our futures.
In her 2024 talk, food ethnographer Jun -Jo Lee decodes the rich meaning behind what we choose to eat, how it connects us to the past, and how the pallets of younger generations can point a way to tomorrow, after the break.
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And now our Ted Talk of the day.
We all eat, but have you considered what you eat is more than taste, trends, and nutrition?
What we think is good to eat reveals our modern hungers, our deepest desires, and greatest needs for self -improvement, for connection.
Also dreams of our future.
Kids are our future, right?
So try a square pizza with some chocolate milk and maybe a fruit cup to taste the future.
A school lunch reveals our values as well as the modern complexities of food.
How we're eating is eating up our worlds.
I'm Jun -Jo Lee, a food ethnographer.
Tell me what's good to eat, so I can see who you're becoming.
And if I know who you're becoming, I'll know what you'll be eating.
Food is my portal to understand generational changes and to track early signals.
Join me to decode Gen Z, born 1997 to 2012.
How they talk about food is unlike any generation I've studied before.
My approach is simple.
I ask, what's delicious to you?
What feeds your life?
Like any relationship, it begins with attraction.
It's founded on respect, and it's 95 % listening with great care, and can be done over a shared meal or snack.
Why do I care so much about this work?
Because I almost lost my own Gen Z -er, my son, Lou.
He'd stop talking to me by middle school.
And in 2018, I got the call.
Mom, I'm not doing so well.
I need help. And the only thing I had to save my son was my work, my ethnography.
You see, I used to be a tiger mom.
I thought being a mom meant to tell my son who to become, what to do.
I never asked him who he was, what he wanted.
He told me, you exhaust me.
You think I'm in your head.
And he asked me, why don't you just treat me like you're ethnography, not your son?
Ethnog me, mom. And in that moment, my heart broke.
But I did it. I ethnogged my own son.
I asked him, what's your unforgettable bite, your tricky mouthful?
How does it feel to be in the world?
And he told me, I feel like I'm just learning to surf on the edge of crashing into the waves and plunging into the water and not being able to breathe or know if I'm up or down.
But maybe someday, I'll get good at surfing.
Gen Z, like blue, are open, fluid, clear by default.
They are globally connected, hyper self -aware, and data -based.
They are feeling everything.
Digital devices are nourishing.
Digital is also disorienting.
Gen Z are our power users of the future, learning to ride the waves of a chaotic era.
And now back to the episode.
Gen Z, like Luis, entered adulthood, tagged by a global pandemic, learning in solitary confinement and living on a terminal timeline.
I asked Luis, how does the world taste?
And he said, spicy.
Climate tastes a lot spicier than it used to.
It's demotivating when people are telling you, dude, all the carbons already in the atmosphere are at irreversible levels.
You know money -hungry people aren't going to stop being money -hungry.
Luis is the first Serabia to attend Stanford University, and for Luis, life is as simple and as complex as tacos.
He told me, I'm so proud my culture created something so delicious.
For Luis, tacos are family, tacos are friends, tacos are hope.
Gen Z are carrying hot sauce in their backpack to make bland, no -change food palatable.
There are hot sauce to tell us.
They're just at the starting line.
It's not the finish line for them.
And they're more than hot sauce.
Olivia is a future food systems entrepreneur.
I asked her, how are you learning to care more about food?
And she told me, well, I'm zero waste -ifying for my fancy scraps pop -ups, and this weekend, I'm volunteering at a Cabbage 3 -Way Workshop so I can learn how to make kimchi, pao zai and sauerkraut.
Gen Z like Olivia are learning to care more about what they eat and don't eat.
Waste hurts. Waste is a resource out of place.
And Gen Z are resources determined to find their place in well -functioning cultures, and it's not easy.
It hurts not to be creative.
Gen Z are kimching their way through our hot messes, fermenting and upcycling more delicious and nutritious worlds.
So, Blue is my love story of more care, reconnecting, and curing our separation.
Earlier this year, I S -nogged Blue again.
What's the flavor of trust?
Flavor is, seems more of a life.
What is the flavor of change?
Flour. Because things, things decay, they change flour.
I'm just trying to make the most out of the present moment.
You can't really predict how things are going to change.
Instead of planning out, like a very specific life trajectory, just kind of go with what happens.
Good love for you, Blue.
Love you too, Mom. Can you ask me a question?
Ask me anything. What's your salad dressing recipe?
Let's root for our kids, all our kids, to make it to shore.
Gen Z are our hot sauce, our kimchi are mentors of new ways.
They have challenged me, inspired me, and helped me become a better human and a better mom.
You can be a food ethnographer too.
It's not that hard.
Here's how. Start by asking, what's your flavor of home?
What makes you go, mmm?
What makes you go, hmm?
How are you learning to care more about food in your life?
We all eat, so we all have the power to shape our future.
What do you feel is good to eat?
And how can we make more of that?
Thank you. I'm Elisa Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Autumn Thompson, and Alejandra Salazar.
It was mixed by Christopher Faizi -Bogan.
Additional support from Emma Tomner and Daniella Valarezo.
I'm Elise Hugh, I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed.
Thanks for listening.
