Stuff You Should Know – “Pop Tarts: No Fruit Necessary”

Podcast: Stuff You Should Know
Hosts: Josh Clark & Chuck Bryant
Date: November 13, 2025
Episode Theme:
A deep dive into the invention, evolution, cultural place, and notorious “fruit” content of the iconic Pop Tart. The hosts trace Pop Tart’s journey from a response to social changes in the 1960s, through its sticky, explosive history, and into its marketing shenanigans and nostalgia-soaked place in American snack food culture.

Episode Overview

Josh and Chuck take listeners on a nostalgic, detailed ride through the history of Pop Tarts: their creation as a convenience food, the culinary arms race between cereal giants, weird marketing decisions, flavor innovations, lawsuits, and why the “fruit” in your Pop Tart is probably apple (but barely). The hosts riff with their signature warmth, trading personal buttering hacks, flavor confessions, and cultural references, while not shying away from the nutritional ugly truth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pop Tarts as a Social Phenomenon (02:38)

• The rise of convenience foods like Pop Tarts is tied to social shifts in the 1960s — particularly second wave feminism and more women in the workplace.
  • Chuck: “Convenience food grew up almost immediately to kind of fill… the vacuum that was left as moms started to move out of the house into the workplace and people still needed to eat.” (03:20)

2. Cereal Wars: The Kellogg & Post Rivalry (04:11–11:01)

• Origin stories start with the Kellogg brothers (health spa inventors of Corn Flakes) and patient-turned-rival C.W. Post.
• By the 1960s, the cereal market was saturated, pushing companies to invent even-more-convenient breakfast foods.

3. Accidental Innovation & The Race to Market (08:53–11:01)

• Post first develops a shelf-stable, foil-wrapped “country squares” pastry—leaked before they were ready.
• News spurs Kellogg into action; they partner with Michigan’s Heckman Biscuit Co. (later Keebler) to fast-track their own version, eventually beating Post to market with Pop Tarts.

Josh: “Pop Tarts ended up beating country squares to market.” (11:01)

4. Design Tweaks and Flavor Secrets (14:02–18:15)

• Early prototypes “tasted like cardboard” and sometimes exploded in toasters; scoring the dough and poking holes solved the issue.
• Original flavors: strawberry, blueberry, apple currant (with Smucker’s), and brown sugar cinnamon.
  • Chuck: “Oh baby, the fourth one, the all-time great brown sugar cinnamon.” (15:09)
• Pro Butter Tip: Butter your Pop Tart, on both sides, for the ultimate upgrade (15:57–16:51).

5. Pop Tarts Hit the Market (23:29–25:51)

• Launched in Cleveland in 1964, Pop Tarts immediately sold out — 10 million boxes in two weeks, a billion Pop Tarts by year’s end.
• Packaging in pairs was a cost-saving measure — and became a portion-defying standard.

6. Naming & Branding: From ‘Fruit Scones’ to Pop Art (24:39–24:55)

• “Pop Tarts” is a clever play on “pop art,” reflecting the product’s 1960s pop culture roots.

7. Post’s Fate & The Imitators (25:51–26:43)

• Post’s Country Squares flopped, rebranded as Toast’em Pop-Ups—others joined the toaster pastry fray, like Nabisco’s Tostettes and Pillsbury’s Toaster Strudel.

8. Constant Innovation and Restaurant Knock-offs (27:12–28:01; 49:23–49:55)

• Frosted versions didn’t arrive until 1967 due to toaster-fire issues.
• Offshoots like Danish rings, pizza versions, and “Pop Tart Bites” fizzled; homemade/fancy-restaurant Pop Tarts lack the “trashy” appeal of the real thing.

9. Marketing Genius (or Evil?) & Mascots (32:41–35:52)

• Pop Tarts blanketed kids’ cartoons with ads and clever slogans (“So Hot They’re Cool,” “Crazy Good”).
• Milton the Toaster was a short-lived mascot in 1971.
  • Josh: “They ran tons and tons of commercials saying, like, put them in the lunchbox, eat them for breakfast, have them as a snack. Like, really? You can serve them warm… you can eat them right out of the foil.” (33:19)
• Pop Tarts’ relentless marketing to children: an example of sugar-food advertising’s golden age.

10. Cultural Touchstones (48:49–52:12)

• Netflix’s 2023 Jerry Seinfeld movie “Unfrosted”: panned by both hosts (“flaming garbage” – 49:13).
• Military air-dropped Pop Tarts in Afghanistan as ‘icebreaker’ food (50:00).
• The Simpsons: Dr. Nick advises Homer to use Pop Tarts as sandwich bread when gaining weight (50:40).

11. Flavors, Failures, and Weirdness (26:43; 51:06–54:14)

• Wacky flavors: from ice cream shop riffs to a universally reviled Everything Bagel “Mr. E” mystery flavor (53:33–54:14).

12. Health, Safety, and Lawsuits (41:21–47:44)

• Pop Tart fires are rare, but possible with malfunctioning toasters; Dave Barry popularized the danger in a humor column (42:04).
• 1995: Lawsuit over Pop Tart fires settled for $2,400.
• Nutrition: Almost completely “junk food” (31g sugar in two tarts), yet people sued over “made with real fruit” claims. Lawsuits lost—courts said nobody really thinks Pop Tarts are health food.
  • Josh: “There’s more pear and apple in a strawberry Pop Tart than strawberry.” (45:33)
  • Judge (recap): “Everyone knows what a Pop Tart is. Dummy. Go home.” (47:31)

13. International Differences (47:44–48:43)

• UK Pop Tarts have no high fructose corn syrup or artificial dyes, instead using paprika, beetroot, and annatto for color.

14. Consumption Patterns & Nostalgia (52:15–53:14)

• Pop Tarts’ market: Majority are bought and eaten by adults (not kids), 44% of Americans eat them at least weekly, 9% daily.
• 56% cite “convenience,” 30% “childhood memories,” as reasons to buy.
  • Josh: “It seems like Gen X is buying and eating these Pop Tarts… themselves.” (53:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On why Pop Tarts come in pairs:
  “It would have cost them a lot more. But it also makes me wonder how many people… would have only eaten one Pop Tart if they were individually wrapped. Fools.”
  — Chuck, 22:32

• Flavor Confessions:
  “Some Lipton BlackBerry tea and brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts in the evening was just a great way to wind down after a long day in third grade.”
  — Chuck, 15:15

• Butter Hack:
  “Just unwrap it a little bit, flip it over to the non frosted side and just sort of rub it on there. And then don’t forget about that frosted side, my friend…”
  — Josh, 15:58

• On Lawsuits:
  “No reasonable consumer would… reasonably expect that fresh strawberries would be the sole ingredient.”
  — Recapping federal judge dismissal, 47:31

• Marketing & Nostalgia:
  “Pop Tarts finally just put it all in to mostly just making Pop Tarts and new, interesting flavors.”
  — Josh, 32:09

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Grandma stories & 1960s context: 01:47–03:25
• Kellogg & Post cereal wars: 04:11–07:42
• Birth of Pop Tarts & race to market: 08:53–11:01
• Design & prototyping mishaps, flavor launch: 14:02–16:26
• Butter Pop Tarts, flavor debate: 15:57–18:15
• Launch and initial Pop Tart mania: 23:29–25:51
• Branding & pop art connection: 24:39–24:55
• Marketing, mascots, slogans: 32:41–35:52
• Pop Tart fires & lawsuits: 41:21–47:44
• Cultural references (Unfrosted, Simpsons, military): 48:49–52:12
• Health & international differences: 44:01–48:43
• Market data, nostalgia, who eats them: 52:15–53:14

Episode’s Language & Tone

Conversational, nostalgic, irreverent, and richly anecdotal — Josh and Chuck riff on personal memories, deliver trivia, and level with listeners about the culinary reality and health hazards of the Pop Tart while never losing a light, friendly tone.

Useful for Those Who Haven’t Listened:

This summary unpacks how Pop Tarts rose out of shifting American culture and ended up as a near-ironic snack icon, laying bare their nutritional emptiness and commercial cunning. Along the way, you’ll get fun personal tips (How to butter a Pop Tart!), brand trivia, litigation oddities, and a realistic understanding of why you probably want one right now… but shouldn’t eat them every day.

For full flavor, start with brown sugar cinnamon. And, maybe, a stick of butter.