Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries
Coffee stories with an extra shot of history and science
Articles
The Future of Coffee? - Episode Transcript
In this final episode of A History of Coffee, Jonathan and James explore where the specialty coffee movement came from, whether it will succeed in arresting coffee’s race-to-the-bottom, and look into the future to understand what might be the future of coffee.
Read moreDesperately Seeking Sustainability - Episode Transcript
In this fifth episode of A History of Coffee, Jonathan and James explore where coffee certifications came from, how they tried to stop coffee’s devastating race to the bottom and assess whether they succeeded.
Read moreA Dark Bitter Powder - Episode Transcript
In this fourth episode of A History of Coffee, Jonathan and James explore how the popularity of instant coffee dramatically alters the balance of power amongst coffee growing countries. Coffee as a global commodity takes on a life of its own, sweeping millions of farmers into a race to the bottom.
Read moreCoffee Catches Fire - Episode Transcript
A hundred years ago one Brazilian man owned so many coffee trees he could fill every inch of a European country with them. But why does Brazil grow so much? And who is drinking these lakes of caffeine? In this third episode of A History of Coffee, Jonathan and James explore how industrialisation dramatically and permanently strips away Brazil’s forests, and why coffee becomes a part of the American dream.
Read moreSlavery, Suffering and Affordable Luxury - Episode transcript
Why do we get upset when we’re charged €36 for an ordinary cappuccino? The answer flies us to the Caribbean where white Europeans make black Africans suffer. In this second episode of A History of Coffee, we uncover how colonialism squeezes the price of coffee, and how that changes European culture forever. A History of Coffee is a collaboration between James Harper of the Filter Stories - Coffee Documentaries podcast and Jonathan Morris, Professor of History and author of ‘Coffee: A Global History’.
Read moreEpisode 1 - A History of Coffee transcript
Here’s a surprising fact: coffee was only invented around the time Michelangelo was chiselling his statue of David. Why did it take so long for humans to invent the cup of coffee? In this first episode of A History of Coffee, Jonathan and James unpack how humans figured out that delicious flavours were contained in the roasted seeds of a coffee tree’s cherries. The answer has nothing to do with dancing goats...but, in some ways, it has everything to do with a shepherd in the forests of Ethiopia.
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Supporting marginalized farmers
A guide for supporting marginalized coffee farmers.
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A Girl on a Coffee Farm
A short update on goings-on over at Filter Stories. The story behind the latest episode, an update on marginalisedfarmers.org and answering the perennial question: how do you make money?
Read moreHow 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.