The Banquet Hall Blog
“We Are Groot.”
The first ever episode of The Banquet Hall Podcast premiered on YouTube on Monday, November 7, 2022, featuring the incredibly talented Jaida, founder of Black Beauty Near You. 947 days, almost 90 episodes and hundreds of hours of content later, we are still chuggin’ along!
So why write a blog introducing the podcast now? Multiple reasons. First, because [obviously], I can. More importantly, the vision for the podcast has become clearer now more than ever. Early on, I recorded a Q&A episode, comprised of questions predominantly provided by Jaida and Dr. Kenny, 1 of 2 of my dentist friends (shout out to the amazing Dr. Cambria). One of those questions was from Jaida, and was importantly, about the “why” of podcasting - whether it was with specific objectives in mind, or creating a time capsule of story (beautifully stated), or something else.
First and foremost, The Banquet Hall is about community. Throughout the windiest of my life’s paths, I have encountered so many amazing individuals. Some that I grew up with, others I met on the podcast, and for each and every one of them, there is something about their story that I find inspiring. Some of these stories, were unearthed early on in friendships, some after years of bonding, others discovered just through talking on the podcast. We live in a time with social media, where we know the stories of so many celebrities doing so many things that quite frankly, we shouldn’t care about. The Banquet Hall aims to bring stories from people you might have met once, or maybe you’ve seen around your timelines, but most importantly, from people you should know about. It isn’t about the people with the biggest followings, or with the “best” products, it is about people who have a story, and are willing to share it. Some of those stories include:
The beauty is in the hidden stories though. The relationships that exist outside of the boundaries of the podcast. Throughout the tenure of The Banquet Hall, I have interviewed the first person that ever broke my heart, and one of the first people I have ever had a crush on. Other episodes though, we make magic out of my first extended conversation with the guest - so many guests are people I interacted with because we were in shared space, but never made the opportunity to get to know better. Which leads to the second important pillar that holds up The Banquet Hall…
In the age of social media, we are bombarded by content. A lot of it is short-form (think 15 second TikTok’s and Reels), and often forgotten as soon as the next video has started. I am committed to a platform that focuses on longer-form content. I podcast for people who want to listen to an actual, extended, natural conversation. These conversations aren’t seeking out viral clips and hot takes, they are authentic conversations rooted in questions that I am generally interested in.
Ask anyone who has been on the podcast, there are no surprises. A lot of the guests, it is their first time ever on the pod, and my primary goal is their comfortability at every stage - before recording, while recording, before posting, and after posting. Our stories are so delicate and precious, that I only want people represented in a way that they are most comfortable with. There is a moment every episode, where my spirit feels that the guest’s defensive arsenal is idle, no guards are up, and we are just two humans connecting and conversing. That is where the magic of podcasting happens.
At episode’s end, I really want the guest to feel like the star they are. We spend so much time waiting on our names to be etched into the back of a seat at the table. My question is, how much time on the agenda is dedicated to pulling up seats, compared to how many of these seats get a chance to shine. I don’t want to wait until 2050 to hear the story about how author of several books, and award-winning slam poet Joe Mac started his journey. I don’t want to wait until a future Oscar's ceremony to learn about Trae’s upbringing in a small community in Jamaica. I don’t want to wait until the rich are all buying condos on Saturn’s rings to learn about Julian’s space kickbacks.
The point is, I want to challenge the status quo of who is worthy of an hour+ long interview. We all are.
