Local Food Experts Launch Black Girls Eating Podcast
Photographer / Sam Zachrich
Tanorria Askew and Candace Boyd may be familiar names because they are both food creatives and food bloggers within Indianapolis. Boyd has her own spice line, FoodLoveTog, and is all about getting people comfortable in the kitchen. Askew is a personal chef and author of “Staples + 5: Simple Recipes to Make the Most of Your Pantry.”
They have a deep-rooted personal friendship with each other that was built on their love of well-seasoned food, fun, and challenging conversations. They noticed within those challenging conversations that there needed to be a bigger space for their voices. Thus the idea of Black Girls Eating, the podcast, was born in 2018, but it wasn’t released until early March of 2021. They knew that if they were going to start a podcast, they needed to do it right.
“There’s a lot of work and energy put into this podcast, and if we were going to celebrate and amplify black voices, we were going to do it well,” Askew says.
That’s exactly what Black Girls Eating is – conversations on justice, black-girl magic, and well-seasoned food. They are currently two seasons into the podcast with 19 episodes. In their podcast you can find conversations recorded for the rest of us to hear. They often discuss why food is important, especially in black culture. When it isn’t just them, they’re hosting guests.
“We spend our time shining light on black creatives and black businesses,” Askew says.
Their main focus is black women, and some available episodes feature Oya Woodruff, owner of Chef Oya’s The TRAP, Asia Coffee, owner of Cakes by Coffee, Tanisha Stewart, community advocate, and Nicole Kearney, owner of Sip & Share Wines, to mention just a few.
They record all of their podcasts in the Nexus Impact Center, just northwest of Broad Ripple. All episodes are sound engineered by David McKissic. Season three of Black Girls Eating will be released on their one-year anniversary, March 8, which also happens to be International Women’s Day. Season three will have a heavy focus on black innovation.
“They’re big names in our hearts, they’re change makers, innovators, but this is next-level,” Askew says of the duo’s upcoming interviews. “Just what they’re contributing to black culture and black excellence is what people need to know about.”
In the coming years, Askew and Boyd have many dreams for Black Girls Eating. They want it to be a household podcast name and brand. They dream of a day where they can interview black women like Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King, but they’re also looking for more sponsorships and network opportunities.
“We would love to have a major network pick us up and allow our voice at the table, but the one thing about our podcast is, we built our own table, we built it with our voices in mind, but we built it with the idea that we will always center it around black voices,” Boyd says.
You can follow Black Girls Eating on Instagram @blackgirlseating, and on Twitter @bgepod. Tanorria Askew and Candace Boyd can be found on Instagram @tanorriastable and @foodlovetog. Black Girls Eating is available through Spotify and Apple.
