Food writer and historian Michael Twitty has deep roots in the Washington region – he grew up in the D.C. area and learned his scholarly craft by interning at the Smithsonian and studying at Howard University. In addition to his research on African American culinary history, Twitty is in dogged pursuit of his family’s personal history from Africa and Europe to America and from slavery to freedom–and he traces his genealogy through food. Twitty joins Kojo to discuss the importance of food history, genetics and his growing extended family and his forthcoming book, “The Cooking Gene.”