Raw Dog, Jamie Loftus
Raw Dog, Jamie Loftus
2 Rating(s)
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Raw Dog
The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs

Bestseller

Author: Jamie Loftus

Narrator: Jamie Loftus

Unabridged: 9 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/23/2023


Synopsis

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.

About Jamie Loftus

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by emma on December 23, 2023

hot dog! this satisfied two of my driving forces in this life: a) my desire for everything i ever encounter to be funny, and b) my need for gossip. it's essentially a hot dog-filled memoir, like if a pretty amusing person you know did an incredibly specific quest and recounted the quest to you but mo......more

Goodreads review by Israel on February 28, 2023

Finally someone who GETS IT. Proud of the great state of Ohio for Tony Packos but she missed where my heart truly belongs and that’s Dirty Franks in Columbus. Yes I own and wear the merch in LA, no no one ever asks. Hilarious and annoying she says “snap” so much I was transported back to 2005 w my X......more

Goodreads review by Dan on June 25, 2023

This book is gross not because it's about hot dogs but because the author is incapable of describing food other than in relation to bodily fluids. Dozens of hotdogs are recounted and the only culinary description of note is whether or not they "snap." There's something really saddening about the way......more

Goodreads review by Mai on August 28, 2024

My tastes vary. You can catch me (1) eating a footlong corndog at the Houston Rodeo, or (2) traveling internationally for a tasting menu. I hate the in between. As a hot dog connoisseur, this greatly amused. I'm glad I listened to this on audio, so I didn't end up bookmarking each and every restauran......more

Goodreads review by Rick on September 23, 2023

Ok I guess. This felt like the rushed version of something that really could’ve been amazing. I’m talking travels with Charley, hotdog Americana, heartbreak literature. The ingredients are there just put together poorly. To which I say this is maybe the hotdog literature that we deserve. Jamie is en......more


Quotes

"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


Awards

  • Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year
  • New York Magazine Best Books of the Year