Undercover Reporting: Behind the Scenes

Logan Symposium • April 28, 2017

It was a real honor to share the stage with Ailsa Chang (“Planet Money”), Suki Kim (Without You, There is No Us), Shane Bauer (Mother Jones), and James Jones (Frontline) to discuss the complexities of undercover reporting at the Logan Symposium on Investigative Reporting hosted by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley.

 

Southern Foodways Symposium Lecture:
Jiffy to Maseca

Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium • Oct. 14, 2016

Jiffy corn muffin mix is the second-most sold dry grocery item in the U.S. Maseca is used in more than two-thirds of all corn tortillas in Mexico. Yet the food world tends to sneer at them both. By tracing the origin stories of these two iconic corn mixes, I explore how America’s current romance with kitchen labor can edify longstanding inequities of race and gender—and remind us that we live, and eat, in the present.

Full text of my talk can be read here.

The Secret World of Garlic

Fern Talks & Eats • Oct 3, 2014

Fern Talks & Eats is a party, a performance, and a moveable feast. The centerpiece of the evening is a series of stories told by FERN writers. Like a progressive meal, each story unfolds from a different stage, paired with a thematically related dish specially prepared by an area chef. The dish with McMillan’s talk was garlic soup and garlic grissini, by Chef Mary Cleaver of Cleaver Co.

US Food Ranchers Alliance Food Dialogues: Media, Marketing and Healthy Choices

USFRA • Nov. 15, 2012

Today’s consumers have more access to information concerning food than ever before. During this panel, the conversation centered on the types of information consumers access and use to make decisions about their food choices.

Questions addressed included – What more can be done to ensure consumers have access to the right kind of information? What tools are marketers using to promote certain types of food choices over others? What additional voices are needed to help consumers navigate the supermarket and restaurant menu?