COMIC: How foraging restored my relationship with food

VPM | By Katie Monteleone and LA Johnson

Published October 7, 2022 at 9:01 AM EDT

Updated April 21, 2023

COMIC: How foraging restored my relationship with food

This comic, illustrated by LA Johnson, is inspired by an interview from TED Radio Hour’s episode The Food Connection.

For forager Alexis Nikole Nelson, who has a very popular TikTok (@alexisnikole) with over 4 million followers, there’s something soul-nourishing about connecting with your food. Her videos are all about her foraging adventures — finding cool plants, teaching people all about them and then using them to cook amazingly delicious dishes. And after dealing with an eating disorder and cultural stigma, she found that foraging was the way to fall back in love with food.

LAJohnson Foraging comic finalPage1 custom dba12faadb90efcf8d97a353b0629186cdf629b4 — /

LAJohnson Foraging comic finalPage3 custom 3880562d5af9d79fc6f5d0264e3da68f3b3cb48a — /

LAJohnson Foraging comic finalPage4 custom a8995e30cb0ff0364d4fd275fb21aefdfd380d26 — /

LAJohnson Foraging comic finalPage5 custom fbbd5fafcf95939aaa7c857bd939b12ee11a3327 — /

LAJohnson Foraging comic finalPage6 custom 6bb309ab4021e4de9e5a11681cbf12c6b398de33 — /

LAJohnson Foraging comic finalPage7 custom 0d163f53a1e067494bd4fd95a8c84f089b0426b5 — /

LAJohnson Foraging comic finalPage8 custom cfcf276029730ccf76d4f895752f083a54155194 — /

LAJohnson Foraging comic finalPage9 custom ab088e115c082a7d18706752a5f004011d068c9e — /

lajohnson foraging comic part2page 10 custom b1b393ede1e1ee6b837b7f1fe3ed9bbe39992a45 — LA Johnson / NPR

* Please note: If done incorrectly, foraging can pose serious risks. Those who choose to pursue foraging should conduct thorough research from multiple credible sources, consult experts, and exercise caution.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Katie Monteleone and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. Fiona Geiran contributed to the research and digital production of this piece. You can follow us on Twitter @TEDRadioHour and email us at [email protected].

Tags

NPR News NPR News

Katie Monteleone

Katie Monteleone is a producer for TED Radio Hour. She started out as an intern for the show in January 2019. After her internship, Monteleone began producing for Life Kit before returning to the TED Radio Hour team in October 2019 as a full-time producer.

For TED Radio Hour, she's produced sound-rich segments on a wide variety of subjects including TikTok star Alexis Nikole Nelson's adventures as a forager, archaeologist Alyssa Loorya's exploration of a 300-year-old farmhouse in Brooklyn and the 5,000 mile journey of a giant puppet named Amal.

Monteleone graduated from Colby College in 2018 where she studied theater and creative writing. In her free time, she loves to cook vegetarian food, listen to Broadway musical soundtracks and hang out with her dog Maple.

See stories by Katie Monteleone