313: Dan Pashman

Dan Pashman is one of those increasingly rare people who always wanted to be in radio. His career began at the turn of the millennium as a producer and reporter for NPR , Air America , and SiriusXM . But after six layoffs in under a decade—and an industry in steady contraction—Pashman found himself at a crossroads just as podcasting was beginning to emerge. In 2010, he created The Sporkful , a show he describes as being "for eaters, not foodies." With a young family in front of him and a decade of false starts behind him, Pashman saw the podcast as his last real shot at the career he'd imagined. Long obsessed with food, he finally had a platform to explore something he cared about deeply. Built on curiosity, humor, and an almost comical level of rigor, The Sporkful began with hyper-specific food debates—ice cubes, grilled cheese, cereal milk—and evolved into a broader exploration of culture, identity, business, and human connection. That evolution reached a turning point when Pashman embarked on a multi-year experiment inventing a new pasta shape, cascatelli , which became an award-winning narrative series and a real product on grocery store shelves. In this conversation, Pashman talks about creative obsession, building a sustainable podcast business, audio versus video, integrating ads without losing trust, and what he sees as a key to his success: "Never underestimate the power of desperation." It's a candid look at how a modern creative career gets built—one forkful at a time.

You can listen to 313: Dan Pashman online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

313: Dan Pashman is an episode from The Third Story Podcast with Leo Sidran by Leo Sidran.

This episode is 01:04:18 long.

This episode was published on Jan 16, 2026.

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