Home & Hunger: The Crossroads of Food and Thought

Continuing the Conversation: a Great Books podcast by St. John’s College

What is home? Santa Fe tutor Paola Villa, Italian by birth, begins this episode with the Elvis Presley cliché “Home is where the heart is,” and then clarifies to host Sarah Davis that the heart is the crossroads between the stomach and the brain. From there, Villa shares French poet Ponge’s poem “Snails,” which describes the way that snails devour the land they cross, defecate on that land, and are fed by that land—all while carrying their homes on their backs. For Villa, this metaphor describes her own journey and conception of home: devouring the food and ideas of a new place, which transform her in return, while remaining deeply Italian.

In Villa’s native tongue, “to know” and “to taste” have the same root, a reminder that food and mind are one, each mediated through the tongue. And the table, draped in a tablecloth, is what brings one’s family and community together—a metaphor that she also ascribes to the St. John’s seminar table, where hungry seekers come together in community to devour ideas, and to be devoured in return. This episode, rich in metaphor and poetry, connects gastronomy, language, thought, and community to a theme to which all humans can relate: wanting to know and be at home in the world.