The Load-Shedding Generation Learned to Cook in the Dark
A new study of South African households found that years of rolling blackouts permanently changed how families cook, eat and spend evenings together. Gas stoves, one-pot meals and earlier dinners have stuck around even as the grid has stabilised, and many parents say the candle-lit evenings became the best conversations they'd had in years. The researchers call it an accidental national experiment in slowing down.
On 17 presenters' run sheets.
Questions for your show
Written to be read out. Copy one, or make it an Instagram card.
- 01
What is one load-shedding habit your household has kept even when the lights are on?
- 02
What is the best meal you ever cooked without electricity?
- 03
Did the blackouts bring your family closer together or drive everyone into their own corner?
Credit on air
Daily MaverickThis is a summary and a point of view. Name the publisher when you use it.
How did you use it?
4 notes from the boothTell other presenters how this landed on air, which question got the calls, or the angle you took instead.
Used the recap almost word for word as my intro. Saved me fifteen minutes of prep this morning, thank you.
Ran question two at 07:40 and the lines lit up for twenty minutes. One caller admitted to a three-week towel. Radio gold.
Went with the double-standard angle for our younger audience and it turned into a really thoughtful hour.
Perfect for a Friday. Light, a bit cheeky, nobody gets angry. Exactly what the slot needs.