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The (so-called) dying art of dinner parties

Colleagues having dinner together in the garden.
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News outlets and opinion writers have called it: The traditional dinner party is dead. But are dinner parties really so bad? Or are we just bad at hosting them?

This hour, the history of dinner parties and some advice from people who turn party-hosting into an art form.

GUESTS:

  • Rand Richards Cooper: Fiction writer, contributing editor at Commonweal, and the restaurant critic for the Hartford Courant
  • Nandita Godbole: Author of several cookbooks including ; she also writes the blog 
  • Julia Skinner: Culinary historian and food writer whose work includes the book 

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Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired October 26, 2023.

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Carolyn McCusker helps produce The Colin McEnroe Show. She loves making true radio stories and listening to fake ones. In the past, she’s worked for NPR and WNYC, and she’s glad to be back at CT Public after interning in 2019. Carolyn can be reached at cmccusker@ctpublic.org.