What Doesn't Kill You Podcast: How Safe Is Your Food And Water?

 In the United States, approximately 3,000 people die from foodborne illnesses (food poisoning) every year. Nationally, this includes about 48 million illnesses and 128,000 hospitalizations annually. Globally, the impact is much higher, with an estimated 420,000 deaths occurring worldwide each year. Salmonella, Listeria, and Toxoplasma are responsible for over 75% of deaths caused by known pathogens. 

While several foods frequently cause food poisoning, poultry (chicken, turkey) is often cited as a top culprit due to common bacterial contamination (like Salmonella and Campylobacter) from fecal matter during processing, leading to many illnesses if undercooked or cross-contaminated, with leafy greens, eggs, and seafood also major sources.

What Doesn't Kill You, hosted by former food service professional Katy Keiffer on the Heritage Radio Network, is a weekly podcast exploring critical, often political, issues in the global food system. Keiffer interviews experts, journalists, and activists to discuss topics like industrial agriculture, food safety, and sustainability.
The show delves into meat production, water rights, labor issues, and, more recently, topics like environmental impacts of herbicide drift.

The podcast aims to understand how to "feed the future" while examining the complex, often unseen, forces in the food industry.
Guests have included experts like Dr. Marion Nestle, discussing food politics, and industry figures like Emily Metz Meredith regarding animal agriculture.

Some of the best episodes include the show with Erik Kanter, President of Clean Wisconsin, explaining how Republicans are withholding funds for clean up until the legislature passes a bill immunizing polluters from prosecution for polluting the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites.

Another episode focuses on how, across the farm belt, cancer cases are spiking, and states are getting serious about tracking and providing guidelines for exposure to agro-chem. Journalist Keith Schneider has been digging into this for months and reported on the show.

In one of my favorite episodes, Professor Sylvia Secchi from the University of Iowa joined to talk about how ethanol is a giant giveaway to the ag industry, purporting to be a partial solution to fossil fuel impacts. Instead, the excessive cultivation of corn is having disastrous impacts on soil and water... and guess what? It's anything but fuel efficient. "How did we get here?"

Host Katy Keiffer grew up in rural New England with a background in gardening and scratch cooking. With over 30 years of experience, including experience as a butcher, cook, and cookbook publicist, she focuses on the intersections of people, policy, and the food system, exploring how it operates. She also works as a food writer and brings a background in cooking to her commentary 

Katy says: "The National Family Farm Coalition is advocating for the Farmland For Farmers Act introduced by Senator Cory Booker in July of this year. Agricultural land needs to stay accessible to actual farmers, rather than offer an opportunity to corporate entities to capitalize on high land prices, at the same time driving those prices into a stratosphere no mere mortal can possibly attain. Our food security depends on measures like this."

 What Doesn't Kill You is sponsored by the Heritage Radio Network (HRN) is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit covering the world of food, drink and agriculture. HRN's podcasts cover everything from the artistry of baking to the craft of brewing, the complexities of cheese mongering to the challenges of solving climate change. HRN shows offer many different voices and topics, but they share the same goals.

HRN Chairman of the Board Ronald Pruett, Jr, says: "HRN’s mission is to build a more sustainable world by shifting how we think about food. Through storytelling, we amplify voices, spotlight solutions, and inspire change that helps foster equity and environmental stewardship for all."

 What Doesn't Kill You will make listeners think twice about the safety of our food supply. With the current deregulatory fervor of the administration, the number of food inspectors has decreased, and food safety has been compromised.

In fact, the 2025 Food & Health Survey... "found that only 55% of Americans feel confident in the safety of the U.S. food supply - down from 62% in 2024 and 70% in 2023," notes the International Food Information Council (IFIC).