Adam Ragusea ( ; born March 22, 1982) is an American

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

who creates videos about food recipes, food science, and culinary culture. Until 2020, Ragusea was a professor of journalism at

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,00 ...

Personal life

Ragusea grew up in

State College, Pennsylvania State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania ...

. Ragusea attended the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

but left before the end of his first year. He finished his bachelor's degree at

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State becam ...

under Associate Professor of Music Composition Dr. Paul Barsom. Since mid-2021, he has lived in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state ...

, with his wife, novelist Lauren Morrill, and their two children. He previously lived in Macon, Georgia.

Career

Journalism

Adam Ragusea was a journalist in residence at

from 2014 until February 2020. Ragusea taught introductory and advanced journalism, and media production classes while still a professor at Mercer. Before becoming a professor, Ragusea worked as a reporter for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

and its affiliates. He was the longtime host of ''The Pub'', a

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exch ...

podcast for people in

public media Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

. While working at

Georgia Public Broadcasting Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) is a state network of PBS member television stations and NPR member radio stations serving the U.S. state of Georgia. It is operated by the Georgia Public Telecommunications Commission, an agency of the ...

, Ragusea was the Macon Bureau Chief and host of the local

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...

. Prior to working at GPB, Ragusea worked at

WBUR-FM WBUR-FM (90.9 FM) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Boston University. It is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM and produces several nationally distributed programs ...

in Boston, and

WFIU WFIU (103.7 MHz) is a public radio station broadcasting from Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. The station is a member station of NPR, Public Radio International and American Public Media. Together ...

in Indiana.

YouTube

Ragusea created his YouTube channel on February 12, 2010, and his first videos were food recipes, made with the intention of sharing with his friends. His videos began to garner attention for his "straight-to-the-point" style that is influenced by his background in journalism. He also cites ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...

'' as an influence on his style of comedy, describing it as "edgy but fundamentally ... just a beam of bright sunshine." He launched "The Adam Ragusea Podcast" with the first episode "Dorian Yates Drumsticks" releasing on February 25, 2022. Ragusea announced that he would drop from his usual 2 videos a week along with the podcast to only 1 video a week plus the podcast on December 19, 2022 in a video titled "The next phase of our relationship."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ragusea, Adam American YouTubers American chefs 1982 births Living people Food and cooking YouTubers Educational and science YouTubers 21st-century American journalists Mercer University faculty