Have you been itching for some good vegan-related talk radio? Head on over to Vegan.com, where our friend Erik Marcus has recently started up a new program called “Erik’s Diner.” It’s available in MP3 format (”Podcasting” seems to be the term du jour for Internet-only broadcasting, though this incarnation seems to be tied to RSS feeds) and each episode runs in the neighborhood of 20 minutes. Erik covers a variety of topics from the food industry to recipes to health and has already featured an interview with the likes of Peter Singer. I’ve been listening to it on my Nomad going to and from work.

One interesting thing I learned from one of their early episodes is that some natural health food stores offer various nut butters in bulk: peanut, almond, and cashew, for instance. But what’s even more interesting is that some offer what’s called “mystery butter,” which is essentially a mixture of two types of nut butter that comes from the batches in-between making “pure” nut butters. The mystery butter is cheaper than any of the other butters because without it, it would end up being discarded anyway as residue or “leftovers” from the regular batches. Interesting stuff and certainly nothing I’d ever heard of before.

So, check out Erik’s Diner and while you’re at it, pick up a copy of Erik’s new book, Meat Market. I’ll be reviewing here shortly, but take my word for it for now: it’s a mighty fine read.