BETTER with Mark Brand

About BETTER with Mark Brand

Mark Brand is your host for BETTER, a podcast about challenging the food systems we’ve built, questioning the status quo, and exploring what it takes to leave the world a better place than we found it. In Season 4, Make Food Food Again, Mark takes a deeper look at the systems that determine how we feed ourselves, who benefits, who gets left behind, and what needs to change. Through powerful human stories, investigative documentaries, and accessible explainers, BETTER explores the connections between food, health, labour, land, power, and dignity. From food banks and grocery giants to the people growing, preparing, and relying on our food, Mark asks difficult questions, challenges familiar narratives, and explores practical solutions. Because building a better world starts with understanding the one we've created.

Publisher

iHeartRadio

Category

arts · business · education · health & fitness · news · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

10 Mar 2022

Latest episode

30 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

64 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   30 Oct 2026

   Primer: Food Systems

   What is a food system and why does defining it matter? In this Better primer, Mark Brand traces the food system from growing and processing to selling, eating, and wasting, while showing how wages, housing, trade, and public policy shape every link in the chain. The episode explores a difficult contradiction: Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector employs more than 2 million people, yet the meeting cites 9.8 million Canadians, nearly one in four, as living in food-insecure households in 2025. Mark argues that hunger isn’t simply a question of whether enough food exists. It’s also about poverty, affordability, and the rules that determine who can access food. This episode introduces a season about food insecurity in Canada, food policy, food waste, workers’ rights, grocery industry power, Indigenous food sovereignty, and school food programs. It’s a starting point for understanding how the food system works and how people can change it. East Coast Credit Union is proud to support Better because we believe meaningful change starts with asking the right questions and challenging the way things have always been done. As Mark Brand explores the systems that shape our lives and meets the people working to improve them, we see a natural connection to our own purpose: using banking as a force for good to improve financial wellbeing, strengthen communities and help people thrive. When our members and communities thrive, we all do. Learn more about how East Coast Credit Union is challenging the status quo of traditional banking and showing how business and banking can be a force for good: eastcoastcu.ca (https://www.eastcoastcu.ca/)

2. 

   23 Oct 2026

   Season 4 Purpose Recap

   Where is this season going? Into the systems that shape how food gets grown, made, shared, and accessed, and toward the possibility of making them work better for everyone. We are setting out to demystify the food system: how it works, who it serves, who gets left out, and how people can help change it. Drawing on decades of experience in restaurants, farms, and community food programs, he’ll make big ideas around food access, agriculture, and food justice clearer, more practical, and easier to act on. Because the systems we live with were built by people, and people can build them better. This season is a guide to understanding what’s possible when we work together to make good food and care more accessible to all. East Coast Credit Union is proud to support Better because we believe meaningful change starts with asking the right questions and challenging the way things have always been done. As Mark Brand explores the systems that shape our lives and meets the people working to improve them, we see a natural connection to our own purpose: using banking as a force for good to improve financial wellbeing, strengthen communities and help people thrive. When our members and communities thrive, we all do. Learn more about how East Coast Credit Union is challenging the status quo of traditional banking and showing how business and banking can be a force for good: eastcoastcu.ca (https://www.eastcoastcu.ca/)

3. 

   16 Oct 2026

   Season 4: Make Food Food Again

   In Season 4, Make Food Food Again, Mark takes a deeper look at the systems that determine how we feed ourselves, who benefits, who gets left behind, and what needs to change. Through powerful human stories, investigative documentaries, and accessible explainers, BETTER explores the connections between food, health, labour, land, power, and dignity. From food banks and grocery giants to the people growing, preparing, and relying on our food, Mark asks difficult questions, challenges familiar narratives, and explores practical solutions. Because building a better world starts with understanding the one we've created.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Contact BETTER with Mark Brand

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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