On this very special LIVE episode, recorded at The Cascade PBS Ideas Festival on May 31, 2025, host Rachel Belle sits down with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who represents Washington’s 7th District. She’s also the first elected official to be a guest on Your Last Meal!

Congresswoman Jayapal is an activist and fierce advocate of immigrant rights, but she was thrilled to (mostly) take a break from talking politics to chat about one of her favorite topics: food!

She talks about what it was like immigrating to the United States on her own at 16, what she thought of American food when she arrived and what American snack has been her favorite since she was a child living in India. She recalls the time President Joe Biden personally called her to invite her to the White House for breakfast, and a tells a charming story about why her daughter became such an avid cook at such a young age.

• Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!
• Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle - Season 2 out now!
• Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings!
• Follow along on Instagram!
• Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.

Support Cascade PBS: https://secure.cascadepublicmedia.org/page/133995/donate/1/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Isaac Brock — lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the Portland, Oregon-based band Modest Mouse!

Isaac tells Rachel Belle about the time Modest Mouse got to collaborate with an ice-cream company on a flavor that ... wasn’t so well received; he talks about the first concert he went to; and Rachel and Isaac bond over their love of milkshakes.

• Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!
• Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle - Season 2 out now!
• Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings!
• Follow along on Instagram!
• Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.

Support Cascade PBS: https://secure.cascadepublicmedia.org/page/133995/donate/1/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Modest Mouse’s lead singer, guitarist and songwriter has one of the longest, and most disjointed, last meals in Your Last Meal history, but each dish draws from a lifetime of experiences and memories.

A lover of culinary highs and lows, Isaac wants both traditional Japanese ramen and Top Ramen for his last meal, something he ate a lot of in his younger years. We’ll learn the history of instant noodles with Andrea Wang, author of the children’s book Magic Ramen: The Story of Momofuku Ando.

Isaac tells host Rachel Belle about the bar he used to own in Portland, Oregon (and why he made a rule to never drink there!); what sorts of hijinks he’s been roped into doing on an upcoming Modest Mouse cruise; and his quest to figure out a mysterious dish his parents made him for breakfast when he was a kid.

• Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!
• Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle - Season 2 out now!
• Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings!
• Follow along on Instagram!
• Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.

Support Cascade PBS: https://secure.cascadepublicmedia.org/page/133995/donate/1/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.