McNugget
Season 1. Episode 5: McNugget. And here’s the question we want to answer for history: What happens to our World if McDonald’s never gives us those delicious, golden fried things that have chicken in their name but that actually look and taste nothing like poultry?
In the late 1970s, the Carter administration tried to convince Americans that they were eating too much red meat. It worked. Hamburger consumption declined and McDonald’s panicked. Over the course of several years, and with the help of a fancy European chef, they ultimately brought the legendary McNugget to the world in 1983. None of us have ever been the same since.
With the help of our panel, which includes a fast food expert who credits his life's success to the McNugget and a Manhattan foodie who sorts his Yelp restaurant searches by Michelin stars, we retell the story of the poultry-ish "food” that has brought joy to billions.
In our conversation, we ask:
Did they get it right? Should they have gone with the fried pot pie?
How could they have done better?
Is there anything that we could learn about the McNugget that would stop us from eating them?
How many McNuggets does a handjob cost in Albuquerque, New Mexico?
What would happen to our world if the McNugget were never invented?
To this last question, the answers are quite simple. Bill Clinton never becomes President and dies as a young law professor. Juan Gonzalez leads the 1994 Indians to a World Series Title. And Kurt Cobain becomes a successful sales executive for an Aberdeen based organic probiotic supplement company.
I mean, how can you not want to hear how we get there?