In our final episode of the season, journalist and Roads & Kingdoms co-founder Nathan Thornburgh explores food, politics, migration, and identity. Drawing on his experience as a foreign correspondent, he reflects on storytelling beyond the headlines and how food can reveal the human connections that politics often obscures.

Hawa Hassan, author of In Bibi's Kitchen, explores the rich culinary traditions of eight African countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Through recipes and stories gathered from grandmothers, she documents a remarkable diversity of foodways shaped by trade, migration, and resilience, preserving cultural knowledge and celebrating the enduring power of food.

Chef JP McMahon of Galway's Michelin-starred Aniar and founder of Food on the Edge explores how colonization, land ownership, and the Great Famine shaped Ireland's food culture and national identity. Drawing on years of research into Irish food history, JP discusses the potato's legacy, forgotten native ingredients, and the evolution of New Irish Cuisine.

Michael Shaikh, New York–based writer and human rights investigator, joins us to explore food in conflict zones. His book The Last Sweet Bite reveals how war reshapes not just lives, but what and how people eat. From Myanmar to Uyghur regions, food becomes both a tool of control and an act of resistance. This conversation uncovers how culinary traditions endure under extreme pressure. A powerful look at dignity, identity, and survival, told through the lens of food, memory, and the people who refuse to let their culture disappear.