Has the vegan business bubble burst?

Is veganism in its flop era? There was a time when veganism – or plant-based food – seemed to be in ascendency: from the early 2010s when Beyoncé adopted a plant-based diet to its height in 2020, when the retail market for plant-based meat made over a billion dollars in sales.

And then… things started getting a little more… meaty. From protein-maxxing to the new food pyramid, the culture seems to have shifted.

But what does the plant-based food flop era say about our culture, how we think about our food, and how we feel about our future? Special guest host Danielle Kurtzleben , NPR political correspondent, discusses with writer Rachel Sugar , who wrote a piece on the boom and bust of veganism for New York Magazine , and Mark Bittman , long-time food journalist and former New York Times columnist who has written about veganism since the early 2010s.

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