What Happens When You Speak Up For Food Safety with Food Safety Icon Dr. Darin Detwiler and His Wife Gennette Zimmer | Episode 139
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In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts, Matt and Francine, are joined by some old friends: food safety icon and advocate Dr. Darin Detwiler and his data analyst wife and co-host of the Confessions of a Food Safety A**Hole Podcast, Gennette Zimmer.
Straight from the Food Safety Consortium 2025, you'll hear all about Dr. Darin and Gennette's new binge-worthy podcast in this laugh-out-loud crossover episode.
Between stories of speaking up for food safety, submarine service, band camp, podcast creation, and lots of laughter, this episode explores how being a food safety a**hole might actually be a badge of honor.
Get ready to see a new side of Dr. Darin that doesn't show up in a magazine or on stage, and to officially meet his partner in business and in life, the witty storyteller, Gennette.
In this episode:
💩 [01:34] A food safety a**hole, his conflict-averse wife, and their podcast
💩 [06:05] Poisoned, the Emmy award-winning documentary
💩 [07:40] How Confessions is genuine, fun, and very binge-worthy
💩 [10:14] Being food safety a**holes and the stories that don't make it on stage
💩 [16:50] Times when speaking up for food safety went right or wrong
💩 [20:03] When Gennette found out what she was getting herself into
💩 [25:58] How they make it work together both personally and professionally
💩 [31:25] Dr. Darin's life on a nuclear submarine versus his life now
💩 [38:18] Twice irradiated submarine food and a radioactive prank
💩 [40:17] What we can expect from Confessions as it evolves
💩 [43:23] Two similar yet so very different food safety podcasts
💩 [44:59] How our podcasts started and how they're going
💩 [49:05] Dr. Darin and Gennette's favorite thing about the FSC 2025
💩 [51:21] What could make the Food Safety Consortium even better
Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.
Resources from this episode
Listen to the Confessions of a Food Safety A**Hole at foodsafetyahole.com
Catch up with previous Don't Eat Poop! episodes with Dr. Darin Detwiler, starting with Episode 106, where you’ll find the links to the other ones as well.
Watch Dr. Darin Detwiler and Bill Marler’s Emmy award-winning documentary, Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.
Hear more about Dr. Darin's life on a nuclear submarine on Episode 5 of Confessions of a Food Safety A**Hole.
Learn more about irradiated food on Episode 133 | Food Irradiation May Be On Its Way to Being Widely Adopted in the US.
Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“While there's this flip of a coin 50/50, whether I go into saying something, whether they're gonna treat me as an a**hole or thank me, I also know that if I don't say anything, then I'm 100% the a**hole.” – Dr. Darin Detwiler
“ You generally are treated like an a**hole if they don't care. If they don't know, they're usually very appreciative of it, or it didn't cross their mind [...], that kind of thing. But if they go on the defensive, it's usually that they don't care.” – Gennette Zimmer
We hope you enjoy this episode!
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