October 2025 Food Literacy Podcast Artwork

Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series

The Roots Watering Hole podcast series is provided through generous support from the Kalliopeia Foundation. Thanks to their support we have begun the journey to share space in elevated wisdom from numerous voices of people who do good in the world in various forms while providing information to our target communities. Roots Watering Hole produces oral narratives for a multitude of purposes. One track is a monthly gardening education and food literacy series co-hosted by Orrin Williams, the Food Systems Coordinator at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Soil Enthusiast Dr. Akilah Martin. The second track is devoted to independent content created by Orrin Williams and Dr. Akilah Martin as co-hosts and individual producers. The independent track focuses on topics related to our ecosystem as a whole, health and wellness, lifestyle, the arts and culture, and humanities. Both tracks will include guests from multiple walks of life, expertise, wisdom, and disciplines. While our focus is centered on BIPOC communities, we believe that all open-minded people interested in our general well-being as a nation and planet Earth will find the content, we produce useful.

All Episodes

Roots Watering Hole Podcast Series

October 2025 Food Literacy Podcast

October 14, 2025 • Orrin Williams • Season 6 • Episode 10

Check out the short October 2025 Food Literacy Podcast. As always, be sure to check out the show notes for resources, including a link to the October 2024 episode. Most of this short episode is related to topics related to food as medicine, whereas the 2024 episode is garden-oriented. A checklist for October garden tasks is included in the show notes.

I participated in the interview process for the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School project, Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Policy Project report.

More on food and health, or if you wil,l food as medicine... Check out a bit of research on the MIND Diet as a potential way to mitigate dementia and Alzheimer's. Here is a link to information about the MIND Diet.

I discovered an interesting though long podcast you may want to check out in chunks, The Most Honest Man in Nutrition Research. Nutrition research and information is often contradictory one influencer extols the wisdom of eating spinach and another claims that spinach is a diet no-no because of a compound called oxalates. What’s one to do?

I could not miss at least a little bit of gardening information. Check out the link for a checklist of garden tasks for October. Also, if it is not available yet the Chicago Grows Food, October 2025 Lunch & Grow session featured Selma Sims from Gardeneers discussing how to shut down your garden and prepare for Spring 2026.

Bonus Content: Want to Live Longer?... Exposing the US Food Industry

Contact Orrin Williams: orrinw@uic.edu

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker’s own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the OCEAN-HP, the CPHP, the CUT, or the RWH podcast series. The material and information presented here are for general information purposes only. While the podcast is about food literacy, we offer no health advice and encourage our listeners to seek guidance from their healthcare providers.

People on this episode

Dr. Akilah Martin

Host

Orrin Williams

Host