The Sporkful

Summer is winding down, so it's time for one last trip to the beach. Here's how to pair your snacks with the smell and taste of salt water. Plus, we debate potluck etiquette for hosts and guests. Today's sponsors: Go to Daily-Harvest.com and enter promo code "SPORKFUL" to get three free items in your first box. Go to SpiceIslands.com/Sporkful for spice facts and recipes.

Dan and his wife Janie are both white and Jewish, both raised in the NY area. In many ways it's an easy fit. But not so much with food -- Janie grew up kosher and Dan didn't. In part four of Your Mom's Food they talk about navigating food tension in their relationship and ask Janie's mom how she feels about the choices they've made. Today's sponsors: Go to SunBasket.com/Sporkful to get 50% off your first order. Go to SpiceIslands.com/Sporkful for spice facts and recipes.

The TV host's Afro-Cuban mom and Irish-Australian dad got married when interracial marriage was still illegal in parts of the US. She talks about how their different cultures came together on the dinner table, why staying connected to Cuban food was so important to her mother, and how she feels now that it's too late to learn her mom's recipes. Today's sponsors: Go to SunBasket.com/Sporkful to get 50% off your first order. Go to www.casper...

When a meat-and-potatoes white girl falls in love with an Indian vegetarian, what food will be their food? And how will their families feel about their choices? Today's sponsor: Go to SunBasket.com/Sporkful to get 50% off your first order.

How do parents who adopt kids from other countries use food to connect their children to their birthplace? And what happens when those kids grow up and feel like it wasn't enough? This is part one of a new series on race, culture and food called Your Mom's Food. It's about the complications that come up when we pass our cultures on from one generation to the next. We'll have three more parts in the next two weeks. Today's sponsors: Shop at Modcloth...

The MSNBC host nerds out on cocktails, debates lime wheels vs. wedges, and speculates about what the bartenders in heaven are like.

Food Network star Jet Tila’s parents opened the first Thai market in the US in 1972. Now he’s trying to introduce people who aren’t Asian to the foods he grew up with. He tells the story of protecting his family’s store during the LA riots and explains why he considers himself more a businessman than a chef. 

Psychologist Charles Spence explains that "taste" is influenced by many different factors -- from the background music in a restaurant to your own DNA and even the shape of your spoon. Plus, Dan and his daughter recreate one of Charles' experiments when they give out free ice cream in the street.

Food writer David Leite talks about how bipolar disorder affects what he cooks and eats. Plus he and Dan bond over the difficulties of being neurotic party hosts.

Tim "Eater X" Janus talks about how being a competitive eater affects your dating life, how much money these guys actually make, what happens when people on the circuit try to cheat, and how he taught himself to like hot dogs so he could compete in the most famous eating contest of all.