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Sign up todayRaw Dog
The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs
Narrator
Jamie Loftus
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Length
9 hours 38 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Funny, informative, and fantastic, this has to be the most American book ever written. It has: a road trip with a relationship on line, plus pets; hot dogs; baseball; the COVID-19 pandemic; the trials and tribulations of small businesses; corporations pretending to be the small guy; the Great Depression; local communities who love their local food joints; anthropomorphized food items used for marketing purposes (we hope); prejudices against ketchup; and humor. Raw Dog is kind of like if Fast Food Nation were summarized by a stand-up comedian. And Jamie narrating the book herself is just perfect! ”
— Jennifer • Tattered Cover
Bookseller recommendation
“Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus, (host of The Lolita Podcast and Ghost Church), covers all the basics you'd expect from a writer embarking on a road trip to taste test all the hottest pork tubes in America - a crumbling relationship due to a distaste for mustard, xenophobia and sexism in the competitive hot-dog eating circuit, and the horrible conditions for both humans and animals in the meat industry. With a deft touch for comedic lines in between all the facts that made me thankful to be a vegetarian, this audiobook will arrive just in time for your next summer beach party by the grill! ”
— Sarah • Third Place Books
Bookseller recommendation
“This is your smart, funny, acerbic, friend talking at you a mile a minute about their latest hyperfixation which, in this case, is hot dogs. This is a cross country travelogue steeped in meat-sweat and post-pandemic uncertainty with detours through such territory as gas station pickles and the politics of competitive eating. This is an appropriately angry critique of America via as patriotic a symbol as they come: The All American Hot Dog. You can keep loving hot dogs just let Loftus complicate that love for you. You can thank me later. ”
— Jenna • Phoenix Books
Bookseller recommendation
“I know you've never actively wanted to know the history of the hot dog, but you should. Using the comfort food as a lens, Jamie Loftus examines all sorts of niche elements of societies and neighborhoods around the US and makes it eye opening, informative, and simply hilarious.”
— Holly • Kew & Willow Books
Bookseller recommendation
“This book is a freaking wild ride, which I recommend you get on. Yes, there is hot dog information between the unfiltered commentary from the author, who reminds me of a young Anthony Bourdain, while they wander along the road searching for this iconic food. ”
— CoriAnn • The Green Dragon Bookshop
Bookseller recommendation
“I would like Jamie Loftus to narrate my LIFE please and thanks. Sardonic, brilliant, anarchy on a bun!”
— Tory • Sower Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Have you ever wondered how hotdogs are made? Or how the meatpacking industry was one of the largest breeding grounds for COVID-19? How about hotdogs as a tool of capitalism? You will learn about all of this and more in Raw Dog, delivered with Jamie Loftus’ signature humor. I laughed so hard I cried multiple times! I would recommend this book to people who love travel/culinary writing and/or fans of Samantha Irby ”
— Brittany • Ruby's Books
One of BookPage's Best Audiobooks of 2023
"Loftus is a charming narrator...goofy, engaging, and always game to do a silly voice." —The New York Times
"There’s something terribly irresistible about her narration, which is often incredibly funny." —BookPage
Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut, Raw Dog, will take you on a cross-country road trip in the summer of 2021, and reveal what the creation, culture, and class influence of hot dogs says about America now.
“Wise and funny” —ANDY RICHTER • “Gonzo yet vulnerable” —GABE DUNN • “Hot dog Moby-Dick” —BRANSON REESE • “Revealing, funny, sad, horny, and insatiably curious” —SARAH MARSHALL • “A wild ride” —ROBERT EVANS • “Deeply incisive and hilariously honest” —JACK O’BRIEN
Hot dogs. Poor people created them. Rich people found a way to charge fifteen dollars for them. They’re high culture, they’re low culture, they’re sports food, they’re kids' food, they’re hangover food, and they’re deeply American, despite having no basis whatsoever in America's Indigenous traditions. You can love them, you can hate them, but you can’t avoid the great American hot dog.
Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs is part investigation into the cultural and culinary significance of hot dogs and part travelogue documenting a cross-country road trip researching them as they’re served today. From avocado and spice in the West to ass-shattering chili in the East to an entire salad on a slice of meat in Chicago, Loftus, her pets, and her ex eat their way across the country during the strange summer of 2021. It’s a brief window into the year between waves of a plague that the American government has the resources to temper, but not the interest.
So grab a dog, lay out your picnic blanket, and dig into the delicious and inevitable product of centuries of violence, poverty, and ambition, now rolling around at your local 7-Eleven.
“One of the freshest and most insightful new comedic voices of this decade.” —LINDSAY ELLIS
A Macmillan Audio production from Forge Books.
JAMIE LOFTUS is a comedian, Emmy-nominated TV writer, and podcaster. She’s worked as a staff writer on Teenage Euthanasia, Robot Chicken, and Star Trek: Lower Decks, and wrote and starred in her own web series for Comedy Central. She writes and hosts popular limited-run podcasts—“My Year In Mensa” (2019), “Lolita Podcast” (2020), “Aack Cast” (2021), and “Ghost Church” (2022)—and cohosts, with screenwriter Caitlin Durante, a podcast on the How Stuff Works Network called “the Bechdel Cast.” She has her baby teeth bronzed and loaded into a slingshot.
JAMIE LOFTUS is a comedian, Emmy-nominated TV writer, and podcaster. She’s worked as a staff writer on Teenage Euthanasia, Robot Chicken, and Star Trek: Lower Decks, and wrote and starred in her own web series for Comedy Central. She writes and hosts popular limited-run podcasts—“My Year In Mensa” (2019), “Lolita Podcast” (2020), “Aack Cast” (2021), and “Ghost Church” (2022)—and cohosts, with screenwriter Caitlin Durante, a podcast on the How Stuff Works Network called “the Bechdel Cast.” She has her baby teeth bronzed and loaded into a slingshot.
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Reviews
"Raw Dog will leave you nourished." —BuzzFeed
“Jamie Loftus is a wise and funny storyteller, and her enthusiasm is inspiring. There’s so much about hot dogs that you need to know, and Jamie is here to teach you!” —ANDY RICHTER, actor and writer
“A moving, gorgeously written and lovingly researched dive into the world of hot dogs, American nationalism, in-group scandal, and delicate human relationships. This gonzo yet vulnerable trek is meaty, fun, critical, and evocative all at once. Jamie Loftus is the hot dog generation's Joan Didion.” —GABE DUNN, New York Times bestselling coauthor of I Hate Everyone But You
“Jamie deftly interweaves the absurdity of the ubiquitous hot dog with the chaos of an American culture trying to suss out its post(?)-pandemic identity. Her eye for detail, sly wit, and whip-smart way with words makes her one of the freshest and most insightful new comedic voices of this decade.” —LINDSAY ELLIS, New York Times bestselling author of Axiom’s End
“Who but Jamie Loftus could’ve given us the hot dog Moby-Dick? This book is like getting shot in the chest and waking up three hours later, stronger and wiser.” —BRANSON REESE, New York Times medium selling author of Hell Was Full, creator of FX’s Swan Boy
“Raw Dog is a wild ride. I cannot prepare you for it, and I wouldn’t want to. Enjoy the surprise.” —ROBERT EVANS, host of the podcast Behind the Bastards
“Jamie Loftus is the best travel companion a reader could ask for, and in Raw Dog she takes us on a revealing, funny, sad, horny, and insatiably curious journey across America, and into the truth of what it means to be human.” —SARAH MARSHALL, host of the podcast You’re Wrong About
“Jamie Loftus is the most deeply incisive and hilariously honest artist in podcasting, and her singular comedic voice rings as crystal clear on page as it does on mic. With Raw Dog, she continues to find the subject you didn’t know you wanted to spend hours learning about, and leave you wanting more. Loftus writes with the laugh-a-minute cadence of a Fey, the twisting, somersaulting vitality of a young Eggers.” —JACK O’BRIEN, cofounder of Cracked.com and head of comedy at iHeartPodcast Network
“Growing up, I never thought I would want to read an entire book about hot dogs. But that was before Jamie Loftus decided to write one.” —ALLISON RASKIN, New York Times bestselling author of Overthinking About You: Navigating Romantic Relationships When You Have Anxiety, OCD and/or Depression
Praise for Jamie Loftus:
"One of the most interesting voices in podcasting . . . It is Loftus’s probing curiosity that is her greatest asset." —The New Yorker
"Unexpectedly gripping explorations of niche subjects, infused with her biting comedic delivery." —The New York Times
“Thoroughly entertaining.” —Vulture
“Diving headfirst into a minefield of impossible yet crucial questions.” —Mashable
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