Meet the Hosts

TUX

Tux Loerzel is a 72 year old woman living in a 40 year old gay man's body. He grew up in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and called Bushwick, Brooklyn home from 2007 to 2022. He recently bought a century old duplex in Detroit, Michigan, which he’s in the process of restoring and bringing back to its former glory.

Thanks to dull text books and standardized testing, Tux grew up believing he hated history, all while fostering a fascination with the past. Because they're interwoven with modern life, historic recipes and family history were the first topics that sparked his interest enough to get past his high school aversion to history class. Once he bought his first book on food history, the floodgates opened, and before he knew it his shelves were overflowing with books on the histories of baking powder, breakfast cereals, grocery stores, agriculture, and food politics. Eventually the scope widened to include books on WWII, American history, politics, and social justice issues. These days, when he’s not working tirelessly as an advocate for Eating the Rich, Tux gets his kicks watching black and white movies from the 1940s, researching historic cake recipes, and reading books on institutional racism. He's a real hoot at parties. 

STEPHANIE

Stephanie at her core is a hardcore nerd fueled by curiosity, Aperol spritzes, and a dissatisfaction with the status quo. If anyone tried to nerd-check her,  she need only explain in detail that her sole reason for joining Twitter was to stalk Dr. Maya Angelou and all would be settled. 

Stephanie grew up one of six daughters in Canton, Ohio, a town not particularly ripe with diversity. Thankfully her agriculturalist Alabaman mother and London-born Nigerian father provided all the culture needed. Amazingly vibrant parents aside, as soon as she was legally able to move from Ohio she did just that and has been living on her own in New York state since college. Since 2008 Stephanie has resided in Brooklyn commuting into Manhattan to work a boring corporate job in the fashion industry. She balances out her 9-5 by teaching vinyasa yoga part-time and routinely pushing out of her comfort zone.

In her spare time she enjoys reading library books, travelling solo, cultivating an indoor garden, listening to arcane podcasts, and knitting unsolicited scarves for unsuspecting family members. She stans for Hamilton the musical, body liberation, Drag Race, incremental institutional change and the Italian language (despite its needlessly cumbersome grammar rules). Stephanie is passionate about politics and the humor (and brown liquor) often needed to keep sane while being passionate about politics.