August 2023 Staff Recommendations
Read on to learn what our staff members are reading, watching, and listening to this August!
Book Pick: How the Other Half Eats: The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America by Priya Fielding-Singh, PhD
Ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh offers a critical analysis of nutritional inequality in America through the lens of race, social class, and health. Readers take a seat at four family dinner tables from varying socio-economic classes, to explore how and why each family eats the way they do. From Amazon, “By diving into the nuances of these families’ lives, Fielding-Singh lays bare the limits of efforts narrowly focused on improving families’ food access. Instead, she reveals how being rich or poor in America impacts something even more fundamental than the food families can afford: these experiences impact the very meaning of food itself.”
TV Series Pick: The Fosters by Freeform, streaming now on Hulu
Freeform’s The Fosters is an American family drama that delves into the realities of adoption and foster care for both foster parents and their children. Originally airing from 2013-2018, this show focuses on a couple raising their biological son, adopted twins, and two foster children, all while both maintaining demanding careers. Each episode tackles pressing social issues, including those of gender, race, sexuality, and homelessness. The over-arching theme is one of acceptance and the notion that family is truly what you make it.
Podcast Pick: Notes from America with Kai Wright, When Barbie Stopped Being White
Despite the diverse range of Barbie dolls portrayed in Greta Gerwig’s new Barbie movie, Mattel didn’t produce a Black doll named Barbie until 1980. This podcast episode discusses how much power one doll, or the absence of one doll, can have in the lives of children in society. Mattel’s first Black designer, Kitty Black Perkins, shares her experience designing dresses for the well-known Barbie doll and her influence on the creation of the first Black Barbie.