I grew up around a lot of black people and not a lot of money. I have always had to be very much aware of my presence as a minority in white spaces or even mixed spaces. It felt very obvious to me that if I could make things more easeful for people coming behind me, like that's what I should do. And now in this amount of time, I've gotten them into a space through something pleasurable. Now we can talk about things that could otherwise create discomfort.
Stephen Satterfield, the host of Netflix docu-series “High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America,” thinks the bananas in the U.S. are gross. Sure, they’re convenient to produce and ship commercially, but they’re fibrous, bland and maybe worst of all inescapable! They’re also just one example of how what we eat is shaped by culture, politics, and history. In this episode, Stephen explains why he uses gastronomy as a way to understand the world and shares how we can use food to empower people who grow and consume what we eat. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts