The Food That Built America

The Food That Built America

It takes bold visionaries risking everything to create some of the most recognizable brands on the planet. The Food That Built America, based on the hit documentary series from The HISTORY® Channel, tells the extraordinary true stories of industry titans like Henry Heinz, Milton Hershey, the Kellogg brothers and Ray Kroc, who revolutionized the food industry and transformed American life and culture in the process. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

Taco Bell

July 13, 2022 • 26 mins
In the mid-50s, a San Bernardino man named Glen Bell is fixated on McDonald’s. His own burger stand is in shambles, and he’s trying to bounce back. When he looks around, though, he realizes Mexican food is gaining popularity, but that most Americans are afraid of anything that strays from their bland palettes. That’s when he realizes: A taco is really a burger in a shell. With a few fits and starts, Taco Bell is born.

Mark as Played

Pop Stars

July 6, 2022 • 21 mins

Popcorn may very well be the oldest snack food on the planet, but for much of its modern history it was something to be consumed in movie theaters or at fairgrounds - not at home. No truly national brand existed and it was far from the convenient snack it is today. But in the 1950s, Orville Redenbacher believed science could launch popcorn forward, making him a household name. His thousands of hybridizing experiments innovated popc...

Mark as Played

Let Them Eat Snack Cake

June 29, 2022 • 22 mins
Nowadays, grocery stores and gas stations are filled with Little Debbie products. In the 1950s, though, snack cakes were just gaining popularity, when a Chattanooga couple took a risk, scrapping big pies in favor of debut snack cakes instead. their company, Little Debbie, now dominates 54% of the snack cake industry with over $890 million in sales.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy ...

Mark as Played

Cookie Fortunes

June 22, 2022 • 23 mins
In the mid 1970s, a woman who wants to be more than just a housewife, is tired of living in her husband’s shadow. Armed with her phenomenal cookies, Debbi Fields seeks out an unlikely spot for her unlikely business - a cookie shop named Mrs. Fields in a shopping mall...run by a woman with no experience. With her husband’s credit on the line, she starts her journey to build a $450 million dollar cookie juggernaut.

Mark as Played

Chain Reaction

June 15, 2022 • 36 mins
In the mid-60s, a single perfume salesman finds himself struggling to meet women to date. So, he goes to the bar to complain to the bartender about his predicament. That’s when the salesman has an idea: What if you made your own co-ed bar? What ensues is a quest to make bars coed and fun, and TGI Fridays is born, revolutionizing the idea of sit-down dining and bar culture. Now, the business has 303 locations in the United States.

Mark as Played

A Dish Best Served Soft

June 8, 2022 • 21 mins
In Illinois, a father and son working in the wholesale ice cream mixing business have an idea. Convinced that ice cream tastes better fresh before it’s fully-frozen, what if they could create a machine that could dispense it while it’s still only semi-solid? Their names are John and Alex McCullough. By 1940 the McCullough’s open their first store, naming it Dairy Queen.

Hosted on Acast....

Mark as Played

Do or Donut

June 1, 2022 • 26 mins
Post-World War Two, a food entrepreneur sees promise in a new business. In 1948, William Rosenberg notices two of his offerings selling better than anything else: donuts and coffee. So, he takes a risk, opening a shop with his brother-in-law that will sell just two items. The store, Open Kettle, offers a whopping 52 kinds of hand cut donuts. After a few bumps along the road, Dunkin Donuts is born, and Rosenberg finds a way to domin...

Mark as Played

A Cold One

May 25, 2022 • 29 mins
150 years ago, German immigrants in the Midwest write the history of beer in America. A recently shipwrecked steamboat captain - Captain Frederick Pabst - buys a local brewery, becoming the largest producer in the city. The crisp American lager we know today is born. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark as Played

Submarine Warfare

May 18, 2022 • 23 mins
Sixty years ago, sandwiches were finger food, not a whole meal, and certainly not sold as fast food. But when three high school friends encounter a sub sandwich, they realize it’s the perfect fast-food alternative. As they navigate advertising, business, and menus, they create Blimpie, and reshape the way Americans think about lunch.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...

Mark as Played

Once You Pop

May 11, 2022 • 19 mins
In the 1950s, one of the biggest companies in the world - Procter and Gamble - decides to enter the chip business. A chemist for P&G designs a strong, saddle-shaped chip and a revolutionary container to ship them in, and Pringles are born.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark as Played

Cookie Wars

May 4, 2022 • 21 mins
Nabisco, the most popular cookie company, is born when an ill-fated partnership leads Adolphus Green to revolutionize packaging and create one of the most iconic cookie and cracker companies ever. But when his former partners strike back with their own invention, Green retaliates with the help of milk chocolate titan Milton Hershey.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informa...

Mark as Played

A Game of Chicken

April 27, 2022 • 22 mins
In the 1970's, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s is far ahead of the competition. But when a burger chain called Burger King poaches his third-highest ranking executive, Don Smith, it's war. Smith re-engineers the emerging rival, and in an unprecedented move, Kroc brings on a world renowned chef to develop the chicken nugget.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark as Played

Gum Slingers

April 20, 2022 • 19 mins
William Wrigley, whose name will later adorn sports stadiums and buildings, first stumbles upon a new product that will kickstart a revolution across industries.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark as Played

The Big Cheese

April 13, 2022 • 23 mins
At the turn of the 20th century, James Kraft challenges thousands of years of cheese-making tradition and forever alters the dairy industry with his new cheese innovation: processed cheese.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark as Played

King of Burgers

April 6, 2022 • 20 mins
In the 1950s, two Florida visionaries start Insta-Burger King, a burger stand that will become Ray Kroc and McDonald’s biggest rival, re-inventing their kitchen's equipment into the pioneering flame broiler. Over the next two decades these two iconic restaurants will duke it out, launching the flame-broiled burger that will shape the world.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Mark as Played

Announcing: The Food That Built America Season 2

February 25, 2022 • 1 min
The Food That Built America is back, and believe it when we say it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Season two will take you behind the scenes of sandwich squabbles, histories of beer, and origin stories of our favorite snacks. We'll explore the rivalries, runaway successes, and tremendous failures of the biggest names in food and drink and the legacies they left behind. New episodes of The Food That Built America...

Mark as Played

Introducing: Hope, Through History Season 2

June 30, 2021 • 1 min
Welcome back to a new season of the C13Originals critically acclaimed Hope, Through History documentary limited series. Narrated and written by Pulitzer Prize Winning and Best Selling Historian, Jon Meacham, Season Two explores some of the most historic and trying times in American History, and how this nation dealt with the impact of these moments, and how we came through these moments a more unified nation. Season Two, presented ...

Mark as Played

Colonel Sanders’ First Stand

April 8, 2021 • 29 mins
During the Great Depression, a Kentucky businessman named Harlan Sanders started selling fried chicken out of the tiny kitchen inside his gas station. He launched a product that would become an American staple and make him a brand icon: Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark as Played

The Great Chocolatiers

April 1, 2021 • 31 mins
With his iconic milk chocolate bar, Milton Hershey transformed an exotic luxury into an affordable indulgence for millions of Americans. Then he went to war with an upstart rival - Frank Mars, creator of legendary bars like the Milky Way, Snickers and Three Musketeers.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark as Played

The Chips That Took Over the Snack World

March 25, 2021 • 34 mins
In different corners of the country in the 1930s, ambitious entrepreneurs Charles Elmer Doolin and Herman Lay launched two products — Fritos corn chips and Lay’s potato chips — that would revolutionize the way Americans snack.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Dateline NBC

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

    Death, Sex & Money

    Death, Sex & Money

    Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.

    Stuff You Should Know

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Crime Junkie

    Crime Junkie

    If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.

    Start Here

    Start Here

    A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Explore

iHeart

Live Radio

Podcasts

Artist Radio

Exclusives

News

Features

Events

Contests

Photos

Information

About

Advertise

Blog

Brand Guidelines

Contest Guidelines

Subscription Offers

Jobs

Get the App

Automotive

Home

Mobile

Wearables

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.