Other People's Podcasts: Q&A with John Paap and Patrick Kelly.

Discover how they structure and research their episodes.

Lynn Hill

and

The History of Fresh Produce

Apr 13, 2025

Q - Hello, John and Patrick. Can you please tell us about yourselves and your podcast?

A - We are produce industry veterans with a combined 35+ year experience in the trade of fruits and vegetables. The History of Fresh Produce is a show under the AGLife Media umbrella. The show brings forward familiar historical events but through the lens of fruits and vegetables. It also traces specific crops from their origins throughout their entire history until today to allow listeners to fully appreciate the journey these crops took to be on our plates today.

Q - What inspired you to start your Podcast?

A - Not many people understand why we eat what we eat today and how certain fruits and vegetables came to be what they are, let alone the role they played in wars, religions, empires, and more. As passionate produce people with a love of history, we wanted to bring those stories to the forefront.

Q - How did you choose your podcast’s niche or theme

A - We love history and produce, and didn't see any other shows out there touching on this topic.

Q - How do you plan and structure your episodes?

A - We meet at least monthly to organize our episode schedule and to identify topics we want to research and share. We then spend at least 2 weeks (if not longer) extensively researching the topic we want to do a story on. This involves reading books, articles, speaking to experts, etc.

Q - How do you choose your guests, if you have any?

A - If we feel there is a topic that is well beyond our expertise or we absolutely love a book that was written on the subject, we will reach out to that author/expert to see if they'd be interested in telling that story with us on the podcast. We've had some amazing guests including Giles Milton, @Dan Saladino, Mike Twitty, etc.

Q - What has been your memorable or impactful episode so far?

A - There's been too many! But we really enjoyed our Olympics series last year where we put out 13 episodes highlighting two countries from each continent (+ France, the host nation) participating in the games. Each episode looked at a unique story about that country in history involving fresh produce.

Q - Are there any dream guests or topics you would love to feature?

A - We'd love to have a few different guests on at some point in the future including Tom Holland (historian and cohost of The Rest Is History) to discuss the role of produce in the Roman Empire and William Dalrymple (historian and cohost of Empire) to discuss the role of produce in the history of the Indian subcontinent. Both of these shows and people have greatly inspired us and the show we've put together so it would be very rewarding to have them on. As for topics, we're planning to do an epic multi-part series on the history of apples. We're not quite sure yet how long it will be but given the popularity and rich history of this one fruit, it's bound to be a long one!

If you want access to bonus episodes, discounts on books, ad-free listening, etc. consider signing up to The History of Fresh Produce Club at The Produce History Podcast.

Discover more about John and Patrick