In our newest episode of Strange Coordinates, hosts Topher Burns and Robert Balog unpack the brown paper packet that conquered coffee shop counters worldwide: Sugar in the Raw. We trace the 10,000-year history of sugarcane — from ancient medical claims that sugar could "clear spots on your cornea" or cure colds if smoked, to the infamous 1965 scandal where the sugar industry secretly paid Harvard scientists to blame heart disease on fat, single-handedly launching the global low-fat craze.

Show notes:

The Illustrated History of How Sugar Conquered the World

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

A bittersweet family history

What Is Turbinado Sugar?

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Show art & design by Chris Allen

Editing & Video editing by Patrick Elmore: https://www.patrickelmore.co/

Marketing by Billy Silverman

Episode music by Blue Dot Sessions