(dramatic music) - Welcome to "Crosscut Now," the show that takes you beyond the breaking news, goes deeper on the issues you care about, and brings awareness to stories affecting communities.

I'm Paris Jackson.

In today's episode, we're doing something different.

And in the spirit of giving, we're bringing you a Thanksgiving special.

We're catching up with one of the newest faces to join Cascade PBS, award-winning reporter Rachel Belle, host of the podcast "Your Last Meal."

It's a James Beard Award finalist for Best Podcast.

She asked celebrities like Jewel, Margaret Cho, Bill Nye, and many others, what they would choose for their last meal.

I sat down with Rachel Belle to talk about her very popular podcast and her new Thanksgiving episode.

- Welcome, Rachel.

Thank you for joining us today.

- Thank you so much for having me.

My first time on your show.

- Oh my God, - I'm honored.

- This is amazing.

- I know!

- Now, you are one of the newest faces for Cascade PBS, and you're joining the podcast lineup and you have a James Beard Award nominated podcast, "Your Last Meal," tell us all about it.

- Okay, so "Your Last Meal," has been around for a while.

It's been around for seven years, but yeah, like you said, I'm new with Cascade PBS.

I interview celebrities about their last meals, and then based on what we talk about, I bring on other experts to talk about the history or the science or the culture.

So for example, when I had the fashion designer Betsy Johnson on, we were thinking, where do fashion and food intersect?

And so we ended up having the designer who created Lady Gaga's infamous meat dress for the VMAs, we had him on to talk about how he made the dress.

- Right.

- And he called his family's butcher in Argentina, and interestingly, they said the best meat to sew with was skirt steak, so that's- (Paris imitating rimshot) Yeah, I know, and we were like, what?

- Is that true?

Yeah.

Okay.

- And how would you know that?

Just sewing skirt steak on clothing?

- Maybe the Argentinian butchers have a sense of humor and they just recommended that, but it worked out apparently.

- Right, right.

- Yeah.

- Now, speaking of Betsy Johnson, tell us some of your favorite guests.

- Yes, the most popular episode is William Shatner, who is completely out of his mind in the best way, like very funny, have had Greta Gerwig, who, of course recently directed "Barbie," Jack Johnson and Jewel and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Let's see, John Waters, the director.

He was a favorite.

He chose a single leaf of arugula for his last meal, which- - Oh, why a single leaf?

- I wanna interject and say that despite the name of the show, it is not morbid at all.

It's just supposed to be a catalyst for conversation and talking about food.

It's kind of like a universal, you know, topic to bring people together, but I can't really control how people perceive the last meal, so John Waters, he wants his one leaf because he wants to be a tidy corpse.

You can just kind of think about that yourself.

- Take it as you will.

- Yes, take it as you will a lot people choose more sentimental things usually.

- So, I mean, we're talking about food where a holiday is just upon us, it's knocking on our door, you have a Thanksgiving special coming up.

Tell us kind of what that's about, 'cause you're saying it's a celebrity potluck.

How so?

- Yeah, so this is the first time we've done an episode like this.

I thought it would be fun to dig into a bunch of past episodes where guests have talked about kind of holiday adjacent foods, and then have this potluck.

So Martina McBride, the country star, she's going to be bringing the salad.

This is a salad without a single vegetable, because she's from Kansas, it's called The Fluff Salad.

- Fluff?

I've never heard of it.

And I was like, when you told me about a fluff salad, I was like what is that?

- Yeah, I won't give it all away 'cause people have to listen, but I will tell you two of the ingredients, which are Cool Whip and easy cheese, or like a jar of pimento cheese, so it's a very Midwestern.

- Okay.

Okay.

- Salad.

And then Greta Gerwig, she talks about her dad's stuffing, Zosia Mamet, who starred in "Girls" and "The Flight Attendant," we debate canned cranberry sauce versus homemade cranberry sauce, and then what do you think is the most controversial dish of Thanksgiving?

- I wanna say it's either stuffing or dressing.

- Oh.

- Or sweet potatoes versus candy yams.

- Ding, ding, ding.

It's the marshmallow sweet potato casserole, so we talk about that, 'cause I think that's a love it or hate it, and then we finish up with Christopher Kimball, who is from "Milk Street" and America's Test Kitchen.

He talks about apple pie.

- Oh, love it.

- Nobody chose turkey for their last meal because it's not that good, right?

Do you like Turkey?

- It depends on how you have your turkey.

I like smoked turkey.

- Yes, that is the best.

That's all I will eat.

- I think a lot of people think it's dry 'cause it's probably not cooked right, so we bring in a food historian to talk about why do we eat turkey?

Like that's what happens on this podcast, is there's so many things that you just do, you go through the motions, we eat Turkey on Thanksgiving, we put salt and pepper on every table.

So I kind of try to ask why, like why did salt and pepper become this little couple that's always together?

And like, why do we eat turkey?

You know, we could be eating anything else.

It actually came up that it could have been raccoon at one point in history.

We could have that every year, so... - If that's what you like, I mean... - Don't yuck their yum.

(both laughing) So yeah, there's like some past episodes being revisited, and then a little bit of new content.

Reggie Watts, who's a comedian and musician, that's a little bit of new content.

He comes in and talks about what his Thanksgiving was like with an immigrant family, with an immigrant parent, like kind of the mix of classical American food, and his mom was from France, so yeah, it's a different episode.

- Mashup of sorts.

- Yeah, mashed potatoes of sorts.

- What's your favorite?

- Mashed potatoes.

- Oh, yeah.

Hey, I teed that up perfectly for you.

- You did, I know.

What's your favorite?

- You know, I love something that my great aunt makes and it's called Hot Water Cornbread.

It's like a hush puppy, but it's like cornbread and it's like a little nugget of- - Just like a little cornbread nugget?

- It's kind of this size or so, and it's so good.

And that's one of my favorites, and smoked turkey.

- I like to know the family traditions, the things that are a little bit different.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

You could read, you know, a hundred interviews or watch a hundred interviews with a celebrity, but you don't always learn these kind of personal intimate things, and food does that.

Everybody eats, obviously, but food can be so sentimental or not, I mean, people come on and they have, you know, all kinds of stories.

I mean like sad, weird, funny, I mean, it just really spans.

So I think if you're someone who is interested in food, if you like celebrity interviews, there's a lot of food history, if you wanna know how things are made.

My goal is to give you something to talk about with your family at the dinner table.

You know, awkward Thanksgiving with your family, here's a topic.

- Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all the details about "Your Last Meal" and what's to come for the Thanksgiving special.

- Thank you so much for having me on, and if people wanna listen, you can find "Your Last Meal" on every podcast app or go to yourlastmealpodcast.com.

- Perfect.

Happy Thanksgiving.

- Happy Thanksgiving.

- Yay.

- Yay.

Enjoy your Hot Water Biscuit.

- Hot Water Cornbread.

- Rolls.

(both laughing) (soft music) - I'm Paris Jackson, thank you for watching "Crosscut Now," your destination for nonprofit northwest news.

Go to crosscut.com for more.

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