Mara Fleishman is the co-founder and CEO of the Chef Ann Foundation, which has reached more than 19,000 schools, 35,000 school food professionals, and nearly 6 million students in its work to replace ultra-processed food with fresh, scratch-cooked meals. Before that, she spent a decade at Whole Foods as their global director of partnerships. We talk about what school food actually looks like now versus what it looked like a generation ago, why the biggest barrier to change is not budget but workforce, and how the Chef Ann Foundation is building purchasing cooperatives that connect small districts directly to local farms. Mark also has some thoughts on MAHA.

Dan Jacobs is the chef and co-owner of DanDan and EsterEv in Milwaukee and a runner-up on Season 21 of Top Chef. Mark and Kate talked with him about navigating a progressive illness in a physical profession, why Milwaukee’s restaurant scene might be the best kept secret in American food, the advocacy work that came out of the pandemic, and what it means to build a team that actually takes care of each other.

Shirley Chung is a Top Chef finalist, French Laundry veteran, and José Andrés darling. In 2024, she was diagnosed with stage four tongue cancer, and it changed her life. Shirley talks about the diagnosis she almost missed, the treatment that saved her tongue, and what it felt like to slowly, painstakingly relearn how to taste.

Toya Boudy is back, and she talks to Kate about rebuilding after everything falls apart, and about Malinda Russell, a free woman of color who published a cookbook in 1866 and packed it with everything her community might need to survive. Toya believes Russell came to her for a reason.

New Yorker writer Hannah Goldfield talks to Kate and Mark about “intentional drinking”; how, right now, it feels like everyone is taking a stance on where we land on the drinking spectrum; how bars and restaurants are making drinking (and not drinking) easier to navigate; and mini cocktails.

Baker Paola Velez talks to Kate and Holly about why and how she started Bakers Against Racism and how its influence and warmth has spread—and continues to spread; ad-libbing baked goods and feeling passionate about getting others confident enough in the kitchen to do it, too; and how romance played a factor in her career choice.

The prolific writer talks to Kate and Mark about why her mom told her not to learn how to cook (and how the kitchen is now her happy place), the big problem with mainstream veganism (and the food that ended her vegan journey), and using food and cooking to manage loss.

Liz Carlisle, Aubrey Streit Krug, and Leah Penniman talk to Kate and Mark about why perennial foods should be seriously considered as part of the solution to the climate crisis; what real support for perennial agriculture would look like; and the changes they’ve seen in the young farming community in the past 30 years.