If you're like most people, you've probably started thinking already about the traditional foods you'll eat this week at Thanksgiving dinner.

As many of us learned in elementary school, the holiday is based on a three-day harvest feast held back in 1621. No one knows for certain what exactly was on the table at that first meal, but two colonial accounts mention venison, wild fowl, lobsters, eels, mussels, grapes, plums, and corn.

What's conspicuously not mentioned are some of the foods we now consider Thanksgiving staples, such as sweetened cranberry sauce, potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Turkey is mentioned, but its prominence at that first meal is doubtful.

This week on Intersection, we’ll talk turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, and ask why we eat the foods that we do on Thanksgiving.

Panelists
Marcia Vanderlip is the food editor for the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Trey Quinlan is the chef and owner of Trey Bistro.

Sandy Oliver is a food historian and co-author of the book Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History, from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie.

Carol Fisher is a writer on cookbook and food history. She’s the author of The American Cookbook: A History.

Last week, Americans across the country took time to celebrate veterans and their contributions to the nation. Here in Columbia, the festivities included a Veterans Day Parade that made its way down 8th Street, ending at the Boone County Courthouse. To mark the occasion, each day since Veteran’s Day KBIA had been airing a variety of personal interviews with soldiers during Morning Edition. The series, which was done in partnership with Storycorps’ Military Voices Initiative and the MU Extension Community Arts Project, will continue through Wednesday.

Today on Intersection we’ll listen to a few of these interviews, and try to get a better understanding of what it’s like to be a veteran returning home, and about military life in general.

Panelists

Eugene O’Loughlin works for the Missouri Veterans Commission as the Veterans Service Supervisor for Boone County.

Shawn Martin is the acting acting team leader of the Columbia Vet Center.

Last week a Missouri Court of Appeals vacated the conviction of Ryan Ferguson. Listeners might recall Ferguson as one of the two men accused in the 2001 murder of Columbia Daily Tribune Sports editor Kent Heitholt. In its legal opinion, the appeals court said the prosecution violated Ferguson’s due process rights by withholding favorable information from the defense team. In this case, it was an interview with the wife of a key witness that could have undermined her husband’s testimony. 

This type of evidence suppression or withholding, which is known as a Brady violation, may be more common than you think. A 1999 Chicago Tribune reporton prosecutorial misconduct found that 381 homicide convictions were later vacated because “prosecutors hid evidence or allowed witnesses to lie.”

This week on Intersection, we’ll take a closer look at Ryan Ferguson’s case, and learn more about Brady violations.

Panelists

Bill Ferguson is the father of Ryan Ferguson. 

Rodney Uphoff is a professor in the MU School of Law. Before becoming a law professor, Uphoff was a public defender.

John Roodhouse is a partner in the law firm of Jones, Schneider and Stevens, LLC. He’s also worked as a Boone County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney and Assistant Attorney General for the State of Missouri. 

Charles Atwell is an attorney with the law firm of Foland, Wickens, Eisfelder, Roper & Hofer, P.C. Before that he was a circuit judge in Jackson County. 
Full disclosure: Atwell also worked with the law firm of Wyrsch, Atwell, Mirakian, Lee & Hobbs which represented Ryan Ferguson, although Atwell was not directly involved in the case.