Last month Popeyes launched their new chicken sandwich at its franchises across the country. Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday to explain how the sandwich rapidly rose in popularity, and the chain was unable to keep up with demand.

"This is entirely a social media story," he said. "It's a very cleverly designed launch of a new product saying, 'We have this great sandwich, but you can't get it. Even though it's the best thing in America, we're only having it in a couple of restaurants.'"

Helen Rosner's piece in The New Yorker describes why many people will cheer on a Chik-fil-A chicken sandwich challenger, Kummer said. "It's a way of putting your thumb in the eye of Chik-fil-A, which is homophobic, bad, big and specializes in fried chicken. It's fried chicken without the homophobia."

Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.