In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki discuss the history of veganism in light of an eviscerating review of the new plant-based menu at the New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park.
Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
- Innovative fine dining restaurant Eleven Madison Park has earned mixed reviews for its newly vegan menu. Natalia cited historian Adam Shprintzen’s book The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of An American Reform Movement, 1817-1921.Niki cited the 1971 book Diet for a Small Planetalong with Aymann Ismail’s Slate piece on the complications that plant-based pork substitutes present to Muslims and Amirah Mercer’s Eater essay on how she found empowerment in the history of Black veganism.
In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:
- Natalia commented on the latest season of the NBC series This Is Us.
- Neil shared his column for The Week, “Big Brother’s Historic Black Victory Shows the Future of Reality TV.”
- Niki discussed her column for CNN, “Britney Spears’ Bid for Freedom Comes at a Crucial Moment.”


![A lantern slideshows four overlapping illustrations of the Earth depicting its tilt at different time periods in the past, present and future. Dates represented are 13000 BC, 5544 BC, 1921 AD, 2296AD. Handwritten in blue ink at bottom left corner of plate is the text 'G53 CLW [illegible] Aug '22'.](https://i0.wp.com/publicseminar.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Wragge_Earth.jpg?fit=768%2C749&ssl=1)










