It’s 2026 and Forked has returned from a short holiday break. Helena and Theodore are excited – and maybe a little nervous – to see what happens in the second year of life in the MAHA moment. Along with bold (and unsubstantiated) predictions, in this episode: it’s SNAP bans on junk food, why skinny santas matter, and the pill that just may eat the American appetite.

The Gulf Coast is one of the last places in the world where there is still a major wild oyster harvest. Lately, though, that harvest is in trouble. In this episode, the second in a two-part series on the future of seafood, produced in partnership with WWNO’s Sea Change, we ask: What can the downfall and resurrection of the Louisiana oyster tell us about a future in which the ocean is a farm? This episode is dedicated to the memory of FERN staffer Katie Gardner, who passed away after a brave struggle with cancer. Katie was a special person – a good friend and trusted colleague of all of us at FERN – taken too young. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones.

Americans now eat more farmed seafood than they do from the wild ocean. That’s turned farming fish into big business, one that consumers have benefited from. But the U.S. imports most of that seafood – we have very few domestic fish farms. Now, though, that might start to change. There are proposals to build massive fish farms in U.S. federal waters. And the Gulf of Mexico is where some of the early action is unfolding. Reporter Boyce Upholt explores the shift from wild-caught to farmed, what it could mean for the environment and economy, and our connection to the ocean. This episode is the first in a two-part series on the future of seafood, produced in partnership with WWNO’s Sea Change.