Our New Studio: My Kitchen

It's DAY TWO of our status as an internally displaced broadcast - we're in a borrowed studio because ours was flooded over the weekend.

Not exactly flooded - that's too dramatic - the roof or something leaked and water leaked into our control panel. We didn't think it would be cute if our engineer or director got electrocuted during the broadcast, not to mention if the board went out altogether. So we're hanging out in the Talk of the Nation studio and other venues until we can get back in our house.

And speaking of our house. We actually recorded a part of today's program in mine. We needed a kitchen ... and I have one. So the Mochas and chef George Stella talked about cutting down on the refined sugars and fats and getting our families and ourselves on the path to eating right. It might have been obvious that the kids were all coming home from school while we were recording the segment. Aminah was in my lap, and William was racing up stairs to do who knows what (he needs his space) and Cheli brought her little girl Caroline. It was a family affair. Once we coaxed him back down, William TORE up the turkey burgers AND the lettuce and tomato garnish. What a strange kid. Have you ever met a toddler who liked salad? Aminah couldn't be bothered. And Caroline was more interested in playing princess with Aminah (who could blame her).

Speaking of families, I was AMAZED to see George Stella's before and after pictures, his story of how he and his family got obese and how they got fit as a family was nothing short of inspiring. Now let me say up front I do recognize that any story like this - collapsed as it is in 15 minutes or so minutes - is going to make it sound easier than it really is. Stella weighed 467 pounds at one point, his son weighed 305 at 15 years old. The whole family was obese, and ill. At one point, Stella's weight made it impossible to work in his chosen profession. How often do you learn that a man who once cooked at Tavern on the Green (a KEY celeb spot in New York's Central Park's - scene of celeb weddings and business lunches and who knows what else) had to go on food stamps and disability because he couldn't stand up long enough to work the full day. And then ... he turned it around. Now I recognize that a lot of hard hard work went into that and that everybody's circumstances are going to be different. Many people live far from good grocery stores, they lack transportation, they don't have a good grasp of nutrition. All that can be true. But what we can tell you is that it can be done and he is proof.

But it would be ethically as well as journalistically irresponsible not to tell the other side of the food story - the story of too little, as well as too much. Food prices are skyrocketing around the world and that means that some people are not eating, and they are angry, and that anger has implications for the rest of the world. Why is this happening, who is most affected, what can be done about it? That was the subject of the rest of the program.

And if the price hike is affecting your wallet - and surely it is - some tips for using coupons to cut costs.

We'll await the results of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary - that's today. So no coverage of (domestic) politics today while the voters are still going to the polls.

Happy Earth Day.

Michel Martin

1:53 PM ET | 04-22-2008 | permalink