A Better Table Podcast

Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Will Frith of building.coffee about the coffee species Robusta.

A Better Table is sponsored by Seattle Coffee Gear, Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex.

In the fourth episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Laetitia Mukandahiro. Mukandahiro is a renowned coffee professional in Kigali, Rwanda. She is an accomplished cupper, a licensed Q Grader, and she has judged Cup of Excellence multiple times. She has worked in many areas throughout the coffee value stream, and now she runs her own company Ikawa House. In this episode, Mukandahiro shares the experience of women in Rwandan coffee production. Season One of A Better Table is sponsored by Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands. Full transcript available here.

In the fourth episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Emily Haddad. Haddad is an acupuncture student, barista, and works as a key organizer in the Tartine Union. Tartine Bakery originally opened in 2002 in San Francisco's Mission District. In February of 2020, Tartine was operating five retail storefronts in the Bay Area, three in LA and four in Seoul, Korea. That same month, over 140 employees declared their intention to unionize to management. Earlier this year, Motoyoshi sat down with Emily Haddad and had a conversation about the efforts to unionize.

Season One of A Better Table is sponsored by Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.

In the third episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Adam JacksonBey. JacksonBey is the founder of GoFundBean, a nonprofit organization that supports, uplifts, and protects the hourly coffee professional. Motoyoshi and JacksonBey discuss workplace and career sustainability for baristas and the important work GoFundBean is doing to make that possible. Season One of A Better Table is sponsored by Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.

In the second episode of A Better Table, host Umeko Motoyoshi interviews Kim Elena Ionescu, the Chief Sustainability and Knowledge Development Officer at Specialty Coffee Association.

Ionescu and Motoyoshi dive deep into an issue impacting coffee farmers all over the world: labor shortages. This is a complex, multi-faceted topic and it makes for an absolutely compelling listen. Even if you've never encountered these issues before, settle in with the show and you will come away asking questions and pondering the bigger picture.

Presented by Baratza, Urnex, and Oatly.

Transcript available here.

A Better Table on the Sprudge Podcast Network is hosted by Sprudgie Award-winning journalist, author and community organizer Umeko Motoyoshi. This show is a journalistic deep dive into the topics that matter in today's coffee world, from disability access to coffee producer rights at origin to labor organizing in the modern coffee workforce, and much, much more. Motoyoshi's fearless journalism isn't afraid to ask big questions: who is coffee for, what ways can we challenge existing systems, and how do we come together to create a better table for all.

In the first episode of A Better Table, Umeko Motoyoshi interviews disability rights activist and author Alice Wong (Disability Visibility). Alice Wong is an award-winning disability awareness activist, consultant, and media producer based in San Francisco, and was appointed to the National Council on Disability by President Obama. In 2015, Wong made history as the first person to visit The White House via a telepresence robot. The Disability Visibility Project has collected over one hundred and forty oral histories in collaboration with the nonprofit organization StoryCorps.

While this interview was recorded before the COVID-19 crisis disrupted cafes across the country, the topic of accessibility remains as relevant as ever; cafes are slowly starting to reopen under new restrictions, and it's important to consider the access barriers of new protocols. Our pursuit of a "new normal" for cafe operations in the coming months and years must hold space for every person, a notion for which Alice Wong is a powerful advocate.

Full transcript available here.

This episode of A Better Table is sponsored by Baratza, Oatly, and Urnex Brands.