A Better Table With Boss Barista Founder Ashley Rodriguez

Welcome to a new episode of A Better Table, a podcast on the Sprudge Media Network where host Umeko Motoyoshi talks to guests and discusses social, economic, and environmental sustainability. In this episode, Motoyoshi interviews Ashley Rodriguez. “Ashley is a freelance writer,” says Motoyoshi, “creator and host of Boss Barista podcast, my friend—which is such an honor—and an all around really powerful, but also gentle and also creative and funny figure in coffee who’s so important to the community in terms of putting ideas out there for people to chew on about social sustainability and also all kinds of sustainability.”

Rodriguez’s Boss Barista podcast explores “gender, race, sex, and other important issues in coffee” and is rounding the corner toward its 200th episode. The show “aims to empower baristas and call for equity in the workplace” and is a Sprudgie Award winner. Rodriguez’s writing (over 500 articles, according to this episode!) has appeared on the pages of Sprudge, Barista Magazine, Standart—among others, and in the ongoing Boss Barista Substack newsletter.

To learn more about Boss Barista and the future of coffee, have a listen!

“Sustainability means a lot of different things, but here are my guiding questions, the questions I want to explore,” explains Motoyoshi. “What sustains communities? What sustains relationships? What sustains your heart?”

advert but first coffee cookbook now available

A Better Table is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series.

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Transcript coming soon.

This episode is available now via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or load it up on your favorite podcast platform using this RSS link. Subscribe, like, rate, and review A Better Table on Apple Podcasts.

Be sure to check out past episodes including interviews with Bianka Alloyn And Sabreen Naimah, Chris McAuley, Cydni Patterson, Nick Castellano, Will Frith, Laetitia Mukandahiro, Emily Haddad, Adam JacksonBey, Kim Elena Ionescu, Alice Wong, Latasha Barr Lewis, Madeleine Longoria Garcia, and Camden Myer.