Pleasure isn’t the enemy of sustainability. It might be the path to it.
Today, Lisa Kay Solomon is joined by Dana Cowin, longtime Food & Wine editor-in-chief, storytelling innovator, and founder of Progressive Hedonist, to talk about how creativity, curiosity, and continual reinvention shape a meaningful life.
From leading one of the most influential food magazines in the world to uplifting underrepresented voices and sustainable culinary practices, Dana has spent her career expanding our understanding of what “good food” means.
You’ll learn:
Why reinvention is less about starting over and more about listening to what excites you now
How Progressive Hedonism helps us rethink pleasure, connection, and long-term well-being
The role sustainable food practices play in shaping a healthier future for people and the planet
What Dana discovered when she left her “dream job” after 21 years
Why curiosity is the engine that keeps creativity alive
Together, Lisa and Dana dive into the idea of being a Progressive Hedonist: the belief that pleasure and responsibility can coexist. Dana shares how eating deliciously can also mean eating ethically, and how sustainability becomes far more compelling when it’s rooted in joy rather than guilt.
This episode is a reminder that pleasure isn’t frivolous, it’s fuel. And when paired with intention, it becomes a powerful force for shaping a better future.
Links from the show:
Progressive Hedonist manifesto
Are you a Progressive Hedonist? Take the quiz!
Learn how to throw your own Progressive Hedonist dinner party!
Check out Dana’s book: Mastering My Mistakes: Learning to Cook with 65 Chefs and Over 100 Recipes
Dana’s TED Talk: How ugly, unloved food can change the world
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Lisa Kay Solomon: I’m Lisa Kay Solomon, and this is How We Future, where I talk to some of my favorite change makers about shaping tomorrow, starting today.
I’m so delighted to welcome Dana Cowin to How We Future. Dana is a culinary visionary. She’s the former editor-in-chief of Food & Wine and the founder of Progressive Hedonist, a platform that celebrates connection through food and gathering. During her two decades leading Food & Wine, she championed emerging chefs and new voices, transforming the way we think about food culture.
Now, through Progressive Hedonist, she’s turning that same creative energy towards building a more sustainable future, one rooted in community, pleasure, and purpose. In this conversation, Dana and I talk about how food can be a force for the future, from mushroom potlucks and rescued flowers, to a theory of how small actions can fill a reservoir of hope. It’s a conversation about creativity, courage, and finding optimism in shaping a better world, one meal, one gathering, one choice at a time. Let’s get started.
Dana, I am so excited to welcome you to the How We Future podcast, because there are few people that I would rather talk to about the future than you, given what you’ve done and given what you’re doing. I know this is going to be such a fun conversation. Thank you for coming.
Dana Cowin: I’m so excited to be here with you, because you’re my favorite futurist. [laughs]
Lisa: Oh, that’s great. Already, we’re in a delighted place, which is very aligned with your brand of what you’re doing around being joyful and making change, and we’re going to get to all that. Dana, we got together because in part of your absolutely legendary career in food and tenure at Food & Wine for over 20 years, where you really shaped how we talk about food today, how we think about food, how we think about our connection to where we eat and who’s preparing our food. I want to maybe first start our conversation with the origin of your passion for food. Where did this come from?
Dana: So many times, people’s origin story with food is their childhood and their parents, and that’s not my story. My story is all about getting a job. I got a job as the editor-in-chief of Food & Wine Magazine. I liked food. I was excellent at making reservations, and I really, from my background in media, had learned a lot about how people want to surround themselves with beauty and experience pleasure. I had been in Vogue and House & Garden. I applied those ideas to food, and it’s like, “Oh my gosh, food is the most transformative, most incredible way to interact with people’s lives, and really just brings so much pleasure.”
I arrived not knowing a whole lot, but as you can imagine, over 20 plus years, I learned a lot, and I had my own ideas about the ways in which food would change us and shape us and shape culture, and who those culture shapers would be. I was really interested back in 1994, which just seems incredible now. In 1994, I was very interested in the emerging chef culture. The earlier chef culture had been very focused on Eurocentric chefs, so mainly French, but also some Italian ended there.
In America, there were chefs who were in that bridge zone of American and French, but pushing towards experimentation, and really influencing how people thought about ingredients, exposing people to so many new ways to cook and eat. I just thought it was the most exciting thing in the entire world. That’s where my love of food came from, just being inside of the experience of trying to find out what people would eat next, what would be delicious and exciting, and from there, I fell in love.
Lisa: I love that. I can almost feel the magic now that you’re describing so many years ago. I think it really embodies what I’m hoping this podcast is all about, which is making our understanding, our mindsets, our approaches to shaping the future more accessible, more available, more known. When I think about you coming to Food & Wine at that moment, you weren’t after like, must shape the future, must be an innovator. It sounds like, filled with wonder about what was happening, and asking these opening questions about, “Hey, why do we have this version of chefs? What would it look like to celebrate our version of chefs? How can we get up close and personal? How can we tell their story?”
You really invented the whole culture of celebrity chef that we take for granted for now, but you were doing this futuring thing just because of your appreciation and willingness to notice what was going on around you.
Dana: I think it was two things. It was partly just this sense of curiosity, but I had worked at both Vogue Magazine and House & Garden, and at House & Garden, we featured the stars of the house world. Those were designers. I applied that logic to the chef world, and asked the questions that you just said, which is, “How do these people who are at the core of this world shape the way that we eat? How will that look in the future?” The other advantage that I had was that I knew nothing, that I wasn’t imbued in the world of food magazines.
I wasn’t connected to the chefs, I wasn’t connected to home cooks, I wasn’t connected to the cookbook authors, I was a clean slate of curiosity, someone who just wanted to eat better. When you talk about accessibility, that’s where I think Food & Wine really was quite special. My approach as someone who doesn’t know, I do know now more, didn’t know a lot was quite helpful, because the test kitchen would recreate a chef’s dish and they would say, “This is really easy,” or “This is really available,” or “This only takes three hours.” I would say, “Wait, hold on a minute. Only takes three hours, those words don’t go together,” or accessible at what market? What market are you going to that you think has oxtails?
Happily, as time went on, those questions were answered differently. Food is not static, the world is not static. What started out, the questions remained the same, but the answers changed substantially by our pushing the limits and saying, “You’re not going to make a three-hour meal every week. This is cool and exciting.” Maybe you’ll try it on a weekend, and maybe it’s going to expand what’s possible for you. I think hitting on that note of accessibility is quite important, and just general curiosity as a way to create any new future.
Lisa: One of the things I really appreciate in that is that the curiosity stays, but the conditions evolve.
Dana: Yes.
Lisa: One of the things I’m trying to share both in my classes and through these conversations is that having an approach to the future is not a talent anointed to you. These are things you can learn, and you can grow, and you can be intentionally aware of. We’re just wildly underdeveloped when it comes to talking about what it’s going to take to have the skills to create something that didn’t exist before by being curious, by using what’s available to you.
Another thing you shared is this idea of using an analogous example, like, “Hey, this didn’t exist yet in the chef world, but it did exist in the interior design world.” What might it look like, and how do we take some of the best of what that process offered or that category and try it here in a different way?
Dana: 100%. I think that in regard to in the moment, thinking about the future, that turns out to be very tricky. I do it, I think, genetically. I am inclined towards this idea, which you were saying you don’t have to be, but because I am, it’s something that I notice about myself. What is that that makes me interested in leading towards the future? In that notion of leading, you need to understand the steps between where you stand and where you would like to end up.
That, I think, is the process that I’ve been inside of, both for Food & Wine, and when I was working with Women in Hospitality, and now with Progressive Hedonists, that what is a distance away, a walking distance that you don’t know the path, you just know you need to walk to get there. When I think about it, I like to think about the small steps and the things that are joyful, because anything that’s too hard or feels like a bramble or a rosebush, or something thorny that gets in your way, then it’s really hard to think about the future.
Pessimism makes it hard to think about the future. Cynicism makes it hard to think about the future. Being surrounded by people who inhabit those two qualities. In order to be a futurist, you do need this open mind, but also protect your mind from the brambles and the harsh edges of people, places, and ideas that are inhospitable to a better plan.
Lisa: I totally agree. I think the other thing that gets in the way is fear, and we all have a lot of it right now. In fact, that’s really fueling why I’m doing this, is to try to elicit more stories to break down the fear, the fear of the unknown, the fear of taking a risk. Particularly for our young people that are so fearful for being known, and not being perfect on social media. That’s why I’m so passionate about sharing stories like yours, and your journey of both creating new futures within an established institution like Food $ Wine, and then on your own. This notion of being able to, not with certainty, but having an instinct that says, “We don’t have to stay where we are.”
You alluded to this briefly, but maybe we could talk a little bit about it, is that after Food $ Wine, you noticed that women in hospitality were not getting the kind of support they needed. Their stories weren’t being told. They weren’t being elevated. That didn’t exist, and you imagined a platform or medium or just the need to share those stories more broadly. I wonder if you could share a little bit about that.
Dana: Yes. There’s also a connection between the way that I found my purpose at Food & Wine, the way that I found my purpose with Women in Hospitality, and the way I found my purpose with Progressive Hedonists, which is I looked at the world and said, “What is missing?” Not what is there that I can amplify, which is also a powerful thing to do, but it’s not my path. At Food & Wine, as you had mentioned, no one was highlighting chefs in the path that they were taking. With Women in Hospitality, there were becoming more voices.
In fact, when I stopped doing Women in Hospitality six years later, it was because I did a speaking tour all around the country, talking to women in hospitality groups. I’m like, “Okay, I think my work is done.” Not that I created them, but that there was a moment where there was broad recognition that extraordinary, talented women were underrepresented. There weren’t as many stories, and that needed to change. I had a piece of it, but Cherry Bombe did an incredible job. There are places all around the country, locally, women chefs and restaurateurs, I could name so many of them, which were really great partners to me.
It did start with this feeling that their stories had not been told. There’s a really great example. There was a chef in Boston who had been left out of a picture. She was in the article, but out of the picture that was taken of the great chefs of Boston. She’s like, “If you can’t see me, I don’t exist. Why would I be left out of that?” For a number of us, we were trying to rectify who’s in the picture and what stories are told. That continues. It wasn’t only women, but it was women of color. It was not just stories of people in America, but people in America who were third-culture kids and trying to recognize the tremendous diversity of voices that also hadn’t been heard. Many of the women, not all of those being women.
Lisa: It brings up another aspect of thinking about the future, which is visualizing it. If you cannot see the future, then you cannot build it. Even if seeing it is in your mind’s eye, in your imagination. You were doing two things. One is noticing what is missing. What would it look like if it wasn’t missing or if it was somehow attended to? Then, along the way, you’re creating paths for others to see the future that wasn’t necessarily available to them. I just think that that’s a thing we don’t talk about enough is noticing, okay, where are we now? What’s missing? What would it look like if it were better on that front? What was it like when you started to put these stories out there?
Dana: I think just to build on that for one second, there’s also recognizing that problems or holes can be filled. I left Food & Wine when I felt like this era is actually over. We do not need to continue to have chefs lead the way. I’m interested in something else. It was the same with Women in Hospitality. We made progress. I think it’s really important to give credit to the fact that progress is made. It’s not like the future is infinitely ahead of us. It’s not that as we walk, we’re always 20 feet from the future. We can walk and meet the future, and then we change and we continue our journey, but with a different mindset, with a different goal set.
I think that’s important to recognize because the idea that the future is always out so far ahead can be very intimidating. Why do I want to do it if it’s always going to be 20 feet from me and I’m never going to hit the goal?
Lisa: One of the things I try to tell people is that we all have the capacity to think about the future. We do it every day. We want to stay on this idea of futures that are too far and futures that are closer in. If you have planned a meal for yourself, you have thought about the future.
Dana: Exactly. Or you went grocery shopping.
Lisa: Grocery shopping. You had to do some planning. You had to do some vision. You had to do some kind of analysis. What do I have? What do I need? What do I want to be building with what I’m going to get? I think that is one of your gifts, my dear friend Dana, which is your ability to keep the human part of it alive and central. This empowering notion of, we can do this. We don’t have to let this narrative come over us that it’s so far out or that we can’t shape it or that we’re always going to have to have a pessimism mindset. I think you are doing, I did not coin this phrase, but what I like to bring forward, which is this protopia, making it better. Protopia.
Dana: I love that word.
Lisa: We are capable of making it better. That food is such a concrete way to talk about it because we all eat. We all know what it’s like to get pleasure when we are enjoying not just the nutritional things we’re putting in our body, but an experience that is something totally different.
Dana: Yes. Food is great because it is in itself pleasure. Although some people, as you say, just use it for fuel, and I don’t understand those people, so I can’t talk to that. In and of itself, food is pleasure, but it is such a great conversation point. It’s not just that we all have to eat, and we do, but it’s that within what we eat, we can shape the world. How amazing is that? We shape how healthy our body is and our mind is, but we also shape the future because the choices that we make, whether we’re eating buckwheat or ultra-processed food, those are radically different choices about the future. Both of them, perversely, can give us a certain kind of pleasure.
Ultra-processed food is very short-term pleasure and very unhealthy. Buckwheat, [laughs] I don’t know why I picked buckwheat, but buckwheat soba, buckwheat groats, buckwheat pancakes, these are all things that lead to a delightful and better future because buckwheat, the plant, is regenerative. I love that food can be the message, the joy, and the change agent.
Lisa: I just want to say for the record, I love buckwheat crepes. They’re my favorite.
[laughter]
Lisa: I will take them over savory crepes anytime.
Dana: That’s great.
Lisa: I think you’re capturing something bigger here that’s connected to, again, the theme of the podcast. Why I love what you’re doing so much, which is that we don’t have to accept the binary choice, that either it’s good for you and it’s awful, or it’s horrible for you.
Dana: Exactly.
Lisa: It’s destroying the planet. You can make good choices that are things that are enjoyable, things that connect you with each other and build community, and are also good for the planet. I think that’s a great segue for you to describe Progressive Hedonist because it is just so fun. First of all, to say the words, and then even especially when you learn more about what they mean.
Dana: That’s funny because Progressive Hedonist, it turns out that H is very hard to say. I have a really extraordinarily delightful 95-year-old mother who’s quite forgetful. I have to tell her many times that the name of my organization is Progressive Hedonist, and she will say Progressive Etonist. I’m like, “No, it’s not Progressive--” Anyway, Progressive Hedonist. The idea underlying is that pleasure is important to our soul, but the only way to be truly filled with pleasure is if you’re doing right by the planet and by other people.
With that in mind, I’ve held gatherings all around the country, lots of potlucks, lots of collabs with star chefs to bring people together to both build the connection between the people, which is extremely important. To also build the connection between people and what they eat so that people are eating and consuming mindfully, but also very happily. I like to think of it as there’s hope in hospitality. There’s hope baked into these meals that we share with each other.
I love the fact that people come to these events knowing that they’re there for a potluck for the planet or a feast for the future or whatever. I’ve got a couple of different names that I should narrow down. They leave filled with delicious food, but also the ideas of what they can do as individuals to impact the future. I think that one of the greatest challenges at any age, particularly now, is to feel like you can make a difference. The idea that many people have shared with me, which is, what does it matter what I do?
I’m beginning to call it the thimble metaphor. Someone says to me, “It’s like you’re taking a thimble and trying to fill a reservoir.” I say, “Yes, but there’s a million thimbles. My reservoir is going to be overflowing.” We are all the thimbles here. We are all able to fill that reservoir of hope, but never if we think we don’t count. This idea that the individual, anyone who’s listening, you matter. You matter in every way. You matter as a human being. You should have joy and connection with friends, but you also matter in any problem you’re trying to solve that’s larger than you.
The problem I’m trying to solve that’s larger than me is around the environment. I have an environmental calling, as Krista Tippett calls it. Maybe your calling is something else. You, whatever you are doing, whatever you are studying, whatever you care about, you’re the thimble that can fill the reservoir.
Lisa: It’s a beautiful perspective and a joyful approach that I think we don’t hear too often. Often we hear the, “This is really important, let’s be very serious, let’s not allow ourselves to have joy in it because it is so serious and so urgent that we have to double down and just get our way through it.” Yet you’re saying, “Wait, why do we have to make that choice? We could have both.” We could be joyful and connect to each other, and do something that feels good on behalf of the planet and, therefore, on behalf of generations to come.
I wonder if you could get concrete for a moment and describe the beautiful Progressive Hedonist dinner that you and I shared together in San Francisco, because that was really an eye-opener for me. It was just so special.
Dana: It was put on by Lucy Duckworth, who’s a student, and she decided to host it on the farm, get ingredients from the farm, which couldn’t be more Progressive Hedonist because it’s very local and you’re supporting your farmers and you’re sharing their story. She cooks the food herself, which is so giving and so generous. She chose how she wanted to express that generosity with the other guests who were there by being very particular about who she invited, which is also critical to a Progressive Hedonist event. Who’s in the room? In her case, she wanted students, grad students, and faculty, which is a great group of people to connect to each other in a casual setting.
Each person had to apply for their seat. It’s not that they paid. They just had to really understand the purpose to participate. I thought that made the evening more meaningful because everyone cared that they were there. She added an element that I have in all the Progressive Hedonist dinners, which is inviting a speaker. Someone who can talk to the topic with a little more expertise, but not bore people, which I think is very important because not everyone wants to learn so much about all the Progressive Hedonist ways. Having that speaker was so special. It was freezing cold, which I think actually also made it special because we were all huddled together.
Lisa: Unusually cold. It was so cold.
Dana: Then it was so joyful because people felt chosen. They felt so cared for because they had students cooking for them. The evening felt like one of one, one of a kind, and the experience was a 10 out of 10. It was a great event. It hits all those Progressive Hedonist points, which is you have to have a purpose for your gathering. You have to be thoughtful about who’s inviting and be sure, depending on what your goal is, but open people’s minds and solidify. Create and broaden a community. In this case, it’s across generations, if you will. I always love working across generations.
The food itself is delicious, proves the point, and at the end of the day brings so much joy because of being together, eating well, and you’ve learned something. When you leave, you leave with leftovers. There were a couple of leftovers. Some people got to bring food home, which I always think is good, so there’s no waste. I connected with 10 people after that event, all of whom, because of Stanford and because of the way this was curated, were extraordinary human beings who I hope I’ll know for a long time.
Each event that’s part of Progressive Hedonist has some version of that, where you leave feeling like, “I want to know you forever because you were chosen, you are joyful, and you’re part of the solution for the future.”
Lisa: There was so much goodness that came out of that experience. I loved how you articulated the ingredients behind it because I think anybody listening could say, like, “Wow, how might I turn my dinner party or next gathering?” Add a little bit more purpose or a little bit more thoughtfulness, some of the attention, the detail. It actually reminds me of the book I wrote about how to design strategic conversations, but here we’re designing joyful gatherings. Just that same level of intentionality that rises above. It’s like, what’s the thing you’re going to talk about a week later, six months later?
I think it was going to be that dinner, and I just want to even take a step back in the spirit of Howie Future and honor Lucy Futuring because here’s a senior. She’s finishing up her last few weeks at Stanford. She had a million other things to be doing with her time. I said, “Listen, Lucy, I know you have a passion for food. I want to let you know this food icon is coming, and I really want you to meet her.” She said, “Oh, I’d love to meet her.” She’s got one conversation with you. Then she says, “You know what? I see a bigger idea here.”
“I’m not just going to have a conversation with Dana. I’m going to use this opportunity to generously, generatively, joyfully gather others that share a passion for food, hence the application part, just really aligning that everybody there has some kind of connection in different ways, and we’re going to break bread together.” She cooks this vegan delicious… I’m still thinking about the meal, six months later. It was so delicious. We were, as you said, felt cared for.
I think the other thing that you started to touch upon is this from a future’s lens, it opens up your neural pathways for what’s possible. Just another thing that I took away, among others, from that dinner was, as you mentioned, the guest. Besides you, Christopher Gardner. Dr. Christopher Gardner is there. He is also a legend in reimagining sustainability. He teaches at the med school, but across Stanford. He shared another futuring story.
He talked about how he has been cultivating partnerships with the Culinary Institute of America to get them to train institutional chefs that are teaching on campuses, in schools, even in jails, or places where they serve lots of people to cook plant-based that’s also delicious. Again, I think about that little shift of like, hey, what if we get out of the binary, it’s either going to be delicious or good for the planet, but wait, delicious and good for the planet, and empower them to make choices for themselves. What a huge impact that can make. Once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.
Then, of course, there’s this new Netflix. I don’t know if people have been seeing it, a series now, and he’s the feature…. I mean he’s one of them. So you can’t unsee these things.
Dana: He was a very special guest to have and so fascinating to me, because we have a lot of touch points and overlaps. Whereas I focus on the individual, having someone like him focus at institutional scale is so important. I work with an organization called Food for Climate League that does very similar work. It’s so powerful to say, “How do we write recipes and influence people to do more food that’s good for the planet?” Generally, vegetarian-focused. I don’t excise meat entirely because I think there is a proper role for animals in our food system, but generally, vegetarian is better.
Anyway, it was so exciting to have him there and to be able to share that, and for everybody to hear from him, because it’s like God walks in the door and you’re like, “Oh.”
Lisa: He still needs to eat. What do you think he’s talking about? That’s the thing. It’s this gift that keeps him going. Let’s not connect while I’m no research expert here, just talking earlier with a colleague of mine about the research that’s come out around loneliness and around longevity and well-being, and that one of the most important factors is the relationships that we build. This plants the seed, to your point of now you’ve got 10 people relationships.
Also, there was a business school student that also blew my mind who was working before he joined the business school. He was working consulting– 8:00 in the morning until 6:00 PM. Then he would do a night shift, working at a restaurant, and now he’s working on a new idea to serve higher-quality quality sustainable food to construction workers.
Dana: Yeah, brilliant.
Lisa: It was brilliant.
Dana: He was amazing because he was working for one of the country’s best chefs, José Andrés. I just love that he transformed that dining experience into something that’s much more accessible. When I talked to him in New York City, where I live, construction sites are 50 people max. I was like, “How do you scale this?” He’s like, ‘Oh, no, no. In California, it’s like 1,000 people.” It’s, “Oh, this is so interesting.” He’d done the work to understand how big the market could be and how helpful it would be to all these people to eat healthy food when they’re working so hard.
Lisa: It’s amazing. I know that not everyone has the opportunity to go to a Stanford farm or attend one of these celebrity chefs. You’ve also done them in people’s homes and particularly around, I know, a big passion of yours, which is mushrooms.
Dana: It’s funny because before talking to you, I was talking to someone about yet another mushroom dinner. I feel like I’m going to end up the mushroom queen soon enough. I do believe that these events, because they’re potlucks, in general, they’re not all, but mostly potlucks, they are very accessible to anybody. The idea of a potluck hits on so many levels. I’ll get to mushrooms. The idea that you don’t have to pay for everything yourself it’s less time-consuming, it’s much more efficient, but the effect is still super powerful. I think that’s really important to know.
I’m always interested in what is the lowest barrier to hosting and potlucks allow for that low barrier. It also could be a breakfast or it could be in a restaurant. I feel like it’s really important to say that setting the parameter, this could happen anywhere, as long as it’s easy for you to do. I fell in love with mushrooms, deeply in love with mushrooms, because they are not only delicious, but they are phenomenal for the planet. They are great as a metaphor. They are great as just something to eat.
In terms of what mushrooms do for the ground and the lifecycle of living things, I’m sure many people who are listening know this already, but mushrooms are decomposers. They actually live by destroying and eating other things that have died, which is very important and powerful. They connect through mycelia underground and give the energy to other living things in their ecosystem. The mushrooms, because of their ability to decompose and then share the energy, create a balance. They decompose and create energy. As you know, I’m sure that the mushroom that we eat is actually the fruiting body of this thing that happens underground.
You can forage for mushrooms and find them. Of course, there’s also cultivated mushrooms. I love thinking about the metaphor of mushrooms, which is how do I achieve balance in my life, which is important to the future? How do I detoxify and decompose things? Not only think about building, because they’re actually-- They build soil, but they build through decomposition. How can I be more connected to every living thing? That’s why mushrooms are a particularly great Progressive Hedonist party source. I have had many mushroom parties.
I did a writing workshop where I took people to Martha’s Vineyard Mycological MVM. They have wild harvest shiitakes that grow on logs under tents, and the farmer, Tucker Pforzheimer, talked us through how he grows them, how you develop the spores, how they fruit, how you harvest them. Then we came back to my house. I made a meal of foods that had all been grown within 20 miles of here, except lemons and salt, of course.
Then I gave people the prompt, “What in your life needed to die in order for you to live more fully?” People went off, I’ve set up desks with little flowers all around the house. No one’s out on desks. They’re like on couches, on floors, sitting close together, which I never thought anyone would want to sit next to somebody and write. Anyway, they wrote for an hour and wrote the most beautiful, moving things about grief and rebirth and divorce and childbirth. That memoir metaphor with mushrooms is very powerful.
I’ve also hosted a mushroom party at home. This is where you’re like, “Yes, I don’t know who’s going to replicate this, Dana.” I invited the woman who has GUS mushroom planters to come. She sells the planters and you would buy the mushroom insert. She grew mushrooms for this party. We hid the planters under the table and around my house. At the end of the evening, people went with scissors and snipped mushrooms to take home from the GUS planters.
We had a woman who came and brought her mushroom kombucha. I had some extraordinary women from San Francisco paint different mushrooms, which we created as mushroom art. People got to take the art of the mushroom home. I could go on and on because, yes, I went all in on mushrooms.
Lisa: It makes me think like, why are we coming to dinner parties with flowers or chocolates? We should be coming with mushrooms. What a gift.
Dana: Sometimes people will come with flowers, but they’re flowers that are rescued. There’s a woman in business in New York. The business is called Flower Aggregate. She’ll take flowers that have been used for galas or parties that would have been thrown away, which end up in landfill, which is just awful. Instead, she repurposes them and makes beautiful arrangements, or flower designers can come and use them so that they have a second life. Flowers can have second, third, and fourth lives.
Lisa: That is so powerful. Rescued flowers. That’s amazing.
Dana: Exactly. Rescued flowers.
Lisa: I’ve also just heard you talk about when you have a Progressive Hedonist dinner party, perhaps in your neighborhood, that these connections are made. Then people are actually building relationships around bartering. In some cases, we now have people that have farms. They’re little gardens, really. They want to exchange what they have, so these different kinds of relationships grow and flourish.
Dana: I love the idea of the barter system and being able to build that into these events. My next event is going to be just a hang on the lawn, where I’m going to put out cookbooks for people to take and bring. It’s not barter, but they can just exchange cookbooks. Very low-tech. Bring your own beverage, take away a cookbook, hang out with your neighbors.
Lisa: Who doesn’t love a great cookbook and discovering a great cookbook? Dana, I’m so grateful for your time. If people want to learn more about Progressive Hedonist and how they could bring this into their lives, what are your recommendations? Where should they go?
Dana: You can follow me on Instagram at Progressive_Hedonist. It has an underscore in there, Progressive_Hedonist. Take a look at the website. There’s a really fun quiz to see how much of a progressive hedonist you are. I’ll be making announcements on Instagram for events that I’m doing that are open. What I really encourage is people to DM me if they have any questions at all, and say, “I’d love to hold an event. Can you help me out?” I’m more than happy to. Anything that I can do to spur more people to host events and then to feel more empowered to do something to support your local farmer, to buy secondhand flowers, to not waste food. I’m here for all of it.
Lisa: I love it. All of that with a smile. Being a thimble with a smile, and maybe the thimble becomes a measuring cup a little bigger.
Dana: Exactly.
Lisa: It really all adds up. The fact that you’re doing it at every level. You’re doing it at this upper echelon with these celebrity chefs and honoring particularly the ones that are leaning into these practices without, again, sacrificing the experience and flavor, but perhaps enhancing it. At the lowest level of connecting with your neighbor and sharing a meal, or exchanging a cookbook. I think I’m going to try to do that in the next couple of weeks.
I’m so grateful for everything you’re doing. I’m so grateful that you’re willing to share it with everyone on How We Future. I’m going to continue to learn from you and cheer you on. Just really, truly, I’m grateful and appreciative of all that you are bringing to this world. Thank you so much for being here.
Dana: Thank you. I just love these conversations because it’s a reminder to everybody that we create our own future and that of everyone around us. Thank you, Lisa.
Lisa: What an energizing conversation with Dana Cowin. She reminded me that joy and progress aren’t opposites, they’re partners. If Dana’s ideas spark something in you, maybe start small. Host a meal with purpose, shop from your local farmer’s market, or simply notice how the food on your plate connects to the world around you. Those gestures matter more than we think.
If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate How We Future and leave a comment. Your reflections help new listeners discover these conversations and maybe find their own way of filling the reservoir. I’m Lisa Kay Solomon. Thank you for listening. May your week ahead be filled with good food and even better company.