In January 2015, Jonathan Gold spoke to my class, "Media, Food and Culture" at USC. I recorded the conversation we had with the class, and had it transcribed. As I reread it a day after his death, I'm struck by the almost offhand brilliance of his insights and descriptions. This was Jonathan unplugged, and embarrassingly generous with his time. In that spirit, I've decided to share what he said that evening in a lightly edited form.