The Podcast

Speaking in generalizations or platitudes is annoying. Really annoying. But sometimes easy or necessary. Think of phrases like, “go with the flow,” or “everything happens for a reason.” These statements mean NOTHING—they can even go so far as to be insulting in the wrong context.

When folks ask what this podcast is, I end up relying on some—even though I want to tell them how complex and fascinating and weird the world is, I usually end up saying something like, “this podcast is about feminism and coffee.” Sometimes that feels…callous, or wrong, or like every person who talks on my podcast has the same experience—and they don’t.

In the coffee industry—and probably all industries—we use generalizations all the time, but the world is way, way more nuanced than summations about the world around us like, “we need to pay more for coffee,” or “women in coffee producing countries are often overlooked.” And that’s something my guest, Amaris Gutierrez-Ray, noticed quickly. We speak way too generally about women in coffee.

Amaris, who is the Director of Roasting for Joe Coffee in New York City, started the Women in Coffee Project as a way to shine a light on the complex and nuanced world of coffee growing for the women who live in producing countries. The Women in Coffee Project centers around narratives and storytelling, often inviting coffee producers to speak about their own experiences. It sort of makes sense someone like Amaris would crave this type of primary research—she has a background in museum science and archival information, and has always questioned where facts and figures come from.

Imagine reading a study about water from Nestle, who has gone on record saying they don’t believe water is a human right, versus a non-profit whose work centers around accessibility to clean water for all. They’d likely produce some very, very different facts and figures. We get into these ideas of complexity, nuance, and what it means to find solutions to conceptual problems like how we represent members of our community—all in this episode. Here’s Amaris.