Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries
A podcast revealing the extraordinary stories hidden in your cup of coffee
What the press says
Best Podcasts of the Year
An entertaining and thought-provoking way to address how coffee consumption affects the wider world.
Quality production and compassionate, well-researched presentation.
These stories are delightful, entertaining, frightening, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking—but that’s the point of sharing stories isn’t it—to help us feel something.
Front page of Apple Podcasts
These are untold stories, the sort you won’t find in glossy Instagram posts.
280% funded on Kickstarter. "Projects We Love" staff pick.
The Listener - Best Podcast of the Week
Front page of Castbox podcast player
About the show
Filter Stories is a NPR / BBC-style documentary podcast revealing the hidden side of coffee.
We visit a stateless barista stuck on a faraway island, meet an award winning coffee grower earning just $2 profit from 250 espressos, hear from a coffee producer who is almost murdered three times during a civil war, and much more.
"An entertaining and thought-provoking way to address how coffee consumption affects the wider world" - Caffeine Magazine
See the behind-the-scenes stories on Instagram @filterstoriespodcast
If you haven't already, please subscribe to the show and review us on Apple Podcasts and Castbox!
What fans say about the podcast
Don't Miss!
Finally!! A podcast reuniting my three passions: coffee, people and investigation documentary. If you happen to be a little bored about nerdy podcasts or very global ones, this is what you want: extraordinary life stories from ordinary people like you and me, all having one thing in common, coffee.
— OK Coffee Tips
Wonderfully charming and riveting stories
Brilliantly narrated, produced and researched not to mention seriously interesting stories. Coffee lovers or not, you'll love these.
— EvertonStan
For those who are fascinated about coffee substance
I stopped listening to podcasts because I felt they were superficial. Filter Stories is the opposite. This is real food for the brain, that leaves you satisfied. Absolutely great!
— Mahi51603About the Host
James Harper
Founder
An Italian Australian with a British twang, James fell in love with coffee as a teenager in Italy. He's worked across the coffee world but kept running against the same problem: nobody knew what was really happening. So he went off to uncover the reality and discovered uncomfortable, hidden truths. Armed with these stories and a background in storytelling, James started Filter Stories to help coffee drinkers understand how their morning cup of coffee impacts tens of millions of people.
Start with these episodes
Stateless
Mikhail is a specialty coffee barista. But he’s stuck on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
He doesn’t want to be there and he’s trying to get off. But he can’t. There are boats …
Tito
Tito lives on a mountain in Panama, is a rebel and doesn’t listen to anyone.
Which is why he makes a terrible decision: he buys a coffee farm instead of getting an education. Tito is now …
How you can listen to this podcast
You can listen to episodes right here on the website, or if you prefer, in a podcast app. Listening in an app makes it easier to keep track of what you’ve already heard, listen without using your data plan and many other conveniences.