Why We Eat Podcast #2

The podcast episode discusses the differences in dining culture between girls and guys at Notre Dame. The guys tend to have a more casual approach, eating with friends and having conversations about sports and their day. They often sit with random people from their dorm. On the other hand, girls tend to plan their meals and eat with their friends. The differences in eating habits are attributed to dorm culture and the social dynamics at Notre Dame. The episode concludes by mentioning that the next episode will explore the eating distinctions between regular students and student-athletes. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Why We Eat, Episode 2. Today we are diving deeper and discussing the true differences in Notre Dame dining culture between distinct groups, girls and guys. My name is Will Barrino, your host, and I am with two of my roommates and some wonderful ladies from McGlynn Hall. Do you guys want to introduce yourselves real quick? Hi, I'm Vivian. I'm Charlotte. I'm Drew. I'm Maddie. I'm Katie. I'm Rylan. I'm Jason. I'm Jack. And we are ready to truly dive into the distinctions between girls' and guys' eating culture at Notre Dame. So, Jack and Jason, we talked about this in a previous episode, but a normal dining hall conversation for us, we're normally talking about what? We're normally talking about sports, you know, what we're doing with our day, what our night's giving consists of. Honestly, just chopping it up with the boys, having a good time at the dining. And Jack, what would you say the main reason we come together to eat is? For me, it's all about being together with my friends. We have a whole big table, all of us, 50 of us. Real quick, I'm going to speak for you guys. Normally it's about four of you eating at a time. But for us, it's a big family atmosphere. Jack, can you agree? Um, yeah. Eating is about friendship, you know? Once we get to the dining hall, when we're sitting there. Yeah, I actually totally agree that eating is friendship. Okay, now Vivian is going to share some perfect insight into eating culture at McGlynn Hall and the true differences between guys' and girls' eating habits. Go ahead, Vivian. Well, I feel like guys walk into the dining hall without knowing where others, like their friends aren't there, and they will just sit down at a table of their dorm compared to, like, we do not do that. There's not a McGlynn table. I feel like girls show up with their friends, sit with their friends, like they don't go unless their friends are going. Whereas guys will just show up alone and just find random people in their dorm and sit and chop it up, as Jason said earlier. Yeah, that's really great insight. I totally have noticed that. That I'll go into the dining hall not with a planned group to sit with, but maybe just sit with some random people and have a good time. Charlotte, do you have anything to add on the subject? I definitely would agree with that. Our meals are always very planned. We're always like, what time are we going to dinner? What time are we going to lunch? First, I feel like guys kind of walk in whenever they want to eat and always, like, find people to eat. Sometimes I wish we could do that, too, but I like our planned meals, too. Very interesting insight. Do you think that the differences between girls and guys eating habits has to do more with natural, like girls plan more, guys more go with the flow, or is it society at Notre Dame or just in general pushing you one way or the other? Ryland, do you want to add? Oh, it's going to wind to die down. Yeah, we are outside because it is a solar eclipse. I can take it. I feel as though it's more dorm culture that dominates why we tend to plan our meals. I feel as though Ballmer Hall and other guy dorms in general have more of a culture where anyone can sit down at a table and they're more just their dorm versus girls tend to have a lot more friends outside their dorms. Yeah, that's definitely interesting. Do you think it's a problem with McGlynn, per se? You said, Katie, you have some insight on this. I don't want to speak for you at all, so go ahead and speak your truth. I don't think it's just McGlynn. I don't think a single girl dorm has a table dedicated to themselves. There are very few guy dorms that would have a table like that as well. Ballmer has the Jesus table, as you guys call it. But then I would also say, okay, you guys are too limited. You only go to South. We have been known to go to North and South. I can actually speak on this. I, your host, have never been to North Dine Hall in two years. Because every time I walk into South, there's a family there. It's a community atmosphere. No matter what time there is, there will always be people. Food is friendship. Jason, you have something to say. I would like to add on to that, that going to Dine Hall and seeing my fellow brothers and family members really makes me bring such a joy to my day. Seeing them outside the dorms, it's just a great environment. But going off what the lady said, I would not eat with other guy dorms. There's very few other guys that are maybe in my class or stuff like that that I would take the time to eat with at the Dining Hall. That's actually beautifully put, Jason. I think a lot of it has to come down to dorm culture at Notre Dame. Perhaps the guy dorms are a little bit closer knit than the girl dorms. This is Katie. Do you think part of it is you're intimidated to walk into North Dining Hall and see the other male dorms? I actually have a lot of friends who live on the North side of campus. But for me, it's more about the fact that I walk into South Dining Hall instantly greeted with a warm smile from my friends at the Palmer table. And I look over and I just want to always sit with them. So that's really what it comes down to. And in conclusion, that is the end of the episode and I hope you will tune in to Episode 3, which will discuss the eating distinctions between normal students at Notre Dame and student-athletes. Thank you.