In the Media
Sarah Wassberg Johnson is an author and frequent interviewee of journalists. Want to interview her? Make a media request.
PUBLICATIONS
- "Stories Stirred in Cream and Sugar" Edible North Dakota
- "From the Church Basement: Scandinavian Baking Traditions Fit for a Saint" High Plains Reader
- “Classic 1920s Orange Drop Cookies” TheKitchn.com
- “1930s Vintage Pinwheel Cookies” TheKitchn.com
- “Honey Cookies with Lemon and Nutmeg (1940s)” TheKitchn.com
- “Classic Spritz Cookies (1950s)” TheKitchn.com
- “The Original Peanut Butter Blossoms (1960s)” TheKitchn.com
- “Classic Moravian Christmas Cookies (1970s)” The Kitchn.com
- “Classic 1980s Seven Layer Bars” TheKitchn.com
- “Simple Espresso Shortbread (1990s)” TheKitchn.com
- “The Original Chocolate Brownie Cookies (2000s)” TheKitchn.com
- “Classic Salted Caramel Thumbprints (2010s)” TheKitchn.com
TELEVISION
- "The Food That Built America" miniseries, The History Channel
- S1:E1 "Lines in the Sand" (2019)
- S1:E2 "Best Served Cold" (2019)
- S1:E3 "The Spoils of War" (2019)
- S2:E9 "Godfathers of Fast Food" (2021)
- S2:E10 "The TV Dinner" (2021)
- S2:E11 "Ice Cream Empires" (2021)
- S2:E14 "The Rise of a Rival" (2021)
- S2:E16 "Breakfast Barons" (2021)
- S3:E3 "Do or Donut" (2022)
- S3:E5 "The Best Thing Since..." (2022)
- S3:E6 "Cookie Fortunes" (2022)
- S3:E8 "Pop Stars" (2022)
- S3:E11 "Let Them Eat Snack Cakes" (2022)
- S4:E8 "Thanksgiving Dinner" (2023)
- S4:E9 "Peanut Butter Battle" (2023)
- S4:E11 "Where There's Smoke" (2023)
- American Dynasty miniseries, "Post," Season 2: Episode 5 (2023)
- "Eat Me, or Try Not To" Curiosity Stream
- "Consumers spending more at the grocery, reversing decades of increased restaurant spending" ABC Denver News Channel 7
- "The Rise and Fall of Jello" Business Insider
RADIO & PODCASTS
- "Weather & Ag In Focus: The Food Historian" WDAY Radio, January 19, 2026
- "Ask Gastropod: White Chocolate, Jimmies, Chile vs. Mustard Burns, and Asparagus Pee" Gastropod, November 21, 2024
- "Breakfast Cereal" - Patented: The History of Inventions, March 30, 2022
- "Paul Janeway: Kraft Macaroni & Cheese" - Your Last Meal podcast, February 10, 2022
- "Sarah Wassberg Johnson Interview" - Main Street, Prairie Public Radio, October 5, 2021
- "Nougat - Nurse - New Jersey" - Object Obscura, September 10, 2021
- "Sarah Wassberg Johnson On The Great Foods Of The Northeast & Midwest" Julie Mason Mornings, August 12, 2021
- "Sarah Wassberg Johnson (The Food Historian)" - the Well-Seasoned Librarian podcast, July 19, 2021
- "The Food That Built America" podcast, OZY & The History Channel
- "Baloney Deserves Respect" - Proof, the America's Test Kitchen Podcast
- "What Makes Midwestern Food Unique?" - Eat Your Heartland Out, Heritage Radio Network, July 2, 2020
- "Eggs vs. milkshakes - the history of protest foods" - Blueprint for Living, Radio National Australia
- "The Pretty Big Problem of Ugly Food" - Proof, America's Test Kitchen
PRINT & DIGITAL
- December 3, 2025: "Video of a 1949 kitchen design has people drooling over its brilliant features" Upworthy
- November 19, 2025: "7 vintage Thanksgiving side dishes most people don't make anymore," Business Insider
- October 25, 2025: "'You Love It or You Hate It': Pumpkin Spice Lattes Divide Europe," The New York Times
- July 9, 2025: "RFK’s Promise to Take Farming Back 80 Years Isn’t Plausible," Sentient Media, on the Bittman Project
- August 21, 2025: "The 19th-Century Origins of Ice Cream Socials," History.com
- May 27, 2025: "8 Defining Moments in the History of the Chocolate Chip Cookie," History.com
- May 5, 2025: "Are people losing their appetite for the classic American Breakfast?" Yahoo!Life
- April 9, 2025: "I'd Give Anything to Eat Augustus McCrae's Sourdough Biscuits from 'Lonesome Dove,'" Texas Monthly
- April 1, 2025: "Would You Eat Dried Eggs? Inside the Curious World War II Phenomenon" Food & Wine
- March 12, 2025: "How Coffee Fueled US Troops During World War II" History.com
- September 29, 2024: "Before Store-Bought Milk Was A Thing, There Was The Milkman" Chowhound
- September 6, 2024: "The History of Ice Cream, One of the World’s Oldest Desserts" Reader's Digest
- February 28, 2024: "C Is For… Cooky? An Investigation Into the Weird Alternate Spellings of Vintage Cookbooks" Racket
- October 6, 2023: "Fall's favorite spice blend has a violent history," The Washington Post
- June 13, 2022: "22 Things You Didn't Know About Jell-O," Cheapism
- May 24, 2022: "Why Is Every Cookbook a Memoir Now?" Bon Appetit
- February 17, 2022: "How do you follow up an online cookbook with 15 million downloads?" Input Magazine
- February 1, 2022: "I Used To Hate Breakfast—Until I Did This" Yahoo!Life
- November 22, 2021: "Cranberries, stuffing and turkey: Why do some Thanksgiving foods divide the dinner table?" USA Today
- July 28, 2021: "San Francisco chefs are bringing back this much-maligned 1950s dish" SF Gate
- July 2, 2021: "Bake Victory Cake, the Simple, Inspiring Treat of Wartime America" Gastro Obscura
- June 27, 2021: "What we learn from the study of diets of previous wars and pandemics" The Indian Express
- April 1, 2021: "The Untold Truth of Grape-Nuts" Mashed.com
- November 26, 2020: "Why there was no pumpkin pie at the first Thanksgiving - and other Thanksgiving pie myths debunked" Yahoo!Life
- November 25, 2020: "Thanksgiving's most popular side is surprising — and a 50s childhood favorite" Yahoo!Life
- November 23, 2020: "Why Everyone’s Suddenly Hoarding Mason Jars" Medium.com
- August 28, 2020: "Classic American Recipes Through the Decades" Thedailymeal.com
- August 26, 2020: "How did vanilla come to mean boring? Blame colonialism" Mic.com
- August 2, 2020: "Which hot dog are you? The enduring appeal of regional food in the global digital age" Salon.com
- July 22, 2020: "How hot dogs became a pandemic staple as Americans faced the uncertainty of the coronavirus" Yahoo!Life
- June 25, 2020: "22 Things You Didn't Know About Jell-O" Cheapism
- June 12, 2020: "Just Cook From the Back of the Box" Eater
- April 29, 2020: "In 1950, Americans Had Aspic. Now We Have Dalgona Coffee" The Atlantic
- April 16, 2020: "How Banana Bread Became the Unofficial Baked Good of COVID-19" Well + Good
- February 13, 2020: "Looking for Blood" Eater.com
- November 26, 2019: "Why President Coolidge Never Ate His Thanksgiving Raccoon" Atlas Obscura
- November 26, 2019: "After WWII, Mutton Fell Out Of Favor In The U.S. Can It Make A Comeback?" NPR
- November 21, 2019: "American History as Told By 7 Vintage Pies" Matador Network
- November 13, 2019: "Pass Along Traditions With a Family Cookbook" NextAvenue
- October 17, 2019: "The New Definition of American Cuisine" Well+Good
- September 20, 2019: "Why Bear Fat Makes for Better Baking" Atlas Obscura
- September 1, 2019: "Nose-to-Tail Cooking Seeks a Culinary Comeback" Rooted Magazine
- August 27, 2019: "I tried vintage recipes from a '50s cookbook and I see why Jell-O salads aren't popular anymore" Insider.com
- August 27, 2019: "Why Lunch Is Even More Important Than Dinner for Healthy Eaters" Well + Good
- August 5, 2019: "How an Accidental Invention Changed What Americans Eat for Breakfast" History.com
- July 26, 2019: "What the 'milkshaking' zeitgeist says about our relationship to politics" Abc.net.au
- July 11, 2019: "It's 7/11 Day" CNN.com
- May 14, 2019: "In Memoriam: The Trashy Mall Food Court Smoothie of the 90s" Vice
- March 8, 2019: "The Scientific Reasons Why Sweet-and-Salty Foods Turn Us Into Snack Monsters" Well+Good
- January 30, 2019: "Fact: the Healthiest Foods Are Now Found in the Freezer Aisle" Well+Good
- October 22, 2018: "Is Alt-Milk Still Milk? Inside the Food Lexicon Debate the FDA has Final Ruling On" Well+Good
- October 9, 2018: "Why We Love Avocado Toast: How a Healthy Food Trend Gets Made" Well+Good
- "An Oral History of Iconic American Fast Food Chains" Fashionbeans.com (sadly this article has been removed!)