Author Danielle Dreilinger tells us the surprising history of home economics. We hear about its origins as a scientific movement that wanted to change the world and find out how it brought us Betty Crocker, astronaut food and the Rice Krispies treat. Plus, listeners share their Home Ec memories, lessons and tales of disaster. Also on the show: Kim Severson of the New York Times explores the rise of hydroponic farming, we get a lesson in Palestinian home cooking from Nadia Gilbert, and we learn a Filipino recipe for chicken soup.

This episode is brought to you by MasterClass.

Questions in this episode:

"I live in western Wisconsin, where I own and operate a small vegetable farm. We are lucky to have many small farms and producers in our area. One such business produces organic pumpkin seed oil. I am not very familiar with this type of oil, so I'm eager to get recommendations. How should I use it?"

"Why is it that when I bake muffins, sometimes they stick to the paper cups and other times they don’t?"

"When I visit my Grama Zelda in North Dakota, I can count on one thing: candied crab apples with Red Hot candies. However, she calls them “Frozen Spiced Pickles." Can you help explain why this process may or may not be considered pickling?"