What’s Cooking? (2000) - Where Culture and Queer Truth Share a Table
Beyond The Table
To mark the film’s 25th anniversary, this episode revisits What’s Cooking? (2000) a groundbreaking multicultural Thanksgiving film directed by Gurinder Chadha. Four families. Four kitchens. One holiday lived through Black, Latin, Vietnamese, and Jewish identities including one of the earliest and most tender portrayals of queer family truth in early 2000s cinema. Amanda explores why this film was ahead of its time, how it reflected the real America long before Hollywood embraced intersectionality, and why its message still matters today. Continue the Thanksgiving Arc, if you...
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Living Colour: Sound, Rage & Revolution
Beyond The Table
In this bonus episode of Beyond the Table, we explore the power, defiance, and cultural impact of Living Colour the groundbreaking Black rock band that reshaped the sound and politics of late-20th-century rock. From Cult of Personaility to Desperate People to Funny Vibe and Which Way to America, we examine how their music confronted racism, capitalism, and identity while redefining what Black artistry in rock could be. We also look at Corey Glover’s solo album Hymns especially “One” and “Little Girl” and how his vocal storytelling deepens the band’s emotional...
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Thanksgiving Everywhere
Beyond The Table
Before there was an American Thanksgiving, there was gratitude spoken in every language under the sun. In this immersive episode, Beyond the Table travels across continents and centuries to explore how people around the world give thanks through food, ritual, and community. From the yam festivals of West Africa to Caribbean Harvest Sundays, Indigenous harvest ceremonies, and modern diaspora feasts — Thanksgiving, Everywhere reveals that gratitude isn’t bound by borders or myth. Written and produced by Amanda Clemons, this story-rich soundscape blends history, memory, and music to remind us...
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November Trailer — Stories of Gratitude & Belonging
Beyond The Table
This November, Beyond the Table explores stories of gratitude and belonging where culture, memory, and meaning come together in sound. Hosted and produced by Amanda Clemons, this special preview invites you to pull up a seat for a month of reflection, creativity, and connection. New stories every Tuesday.
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The Grocery Store Revolution Lesbian Pulp and the Secret Shelf of Desire
Beyond The Table
In the 1950s, you could find them between the canned goods and the cigarettes paperbacks with neon covers and whispered stories of women who loved women. Before Pride marches or queer bookstores, there was pulp: printed on thin paper, sold for a quarter, and hidden in plain sight. In this cinematic episode, Amanda explores the rise of lesbian pulp fiction the grocery store paperbacks that became lifelines. Featuring the stories of Women’s Barracks, Spring Fire, Beebo Brinker, and the readers who turned shame into survival. References & Resources Mentioned: Women’s...
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The Black South and the Supernatural
Beyond The Table
Halloween Feature: In the Black South, the supernatural isn’t a story told just for scares it’s a history of faith, protection, and remembrance. In this cinematic Halloween bonus, Amanda explores: African spiritual traditions that shaped hoodoo and rootwork. The legends of haints, boo hags, and night doctors and the real histories behind them. How the church merged ancestral belief with the Holy Ghost. Everyday rituals of protection the “science” of brick dust, coins, and psalms. The evolution of Black supernatural storytelling in film and culture. This is the kind of...
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Soul Food Rewatch - S1E3:Heart of the Matter
Beyond The Table
In Episode 3 of Beyond the Table, Amanda and her pit bull Priscilla dive into “Heart of the Matter,” which aired on July 12, 2000. Directed by Kevin Hooks and written by Patricia Green, this episode asks what happens when we stop performing strength and start facing the truth. Amanda explores themes of perception, honesty, and control as the Joseph family begins to unravel and rebuild in unexpected ways. In the Legacy Check-In, she looks at how the year 2000 was defined by image from glossy magazines. Soul Food stood out by doing the opposite: showing what happens when the masks come...
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Soul Food Rewatch - S1E2:The More Things Stay the Same
Beyond The Table
In Episode 2 of Beyond the Table, Amanda joined again by her pit bull Priscilla dives into Season 1 Episode 2 od Soul Food The Series: “The More Things Stay the Same,” which aired on July 5, 2000. This episode digs deeper into the Joseph family’s secrets and the cost of keeping them. Amanda connects those cultural shifts to the reality of Black business ownership about 1.2 million Black-owned firms in 2000 versus over 3.6 million today tracing how secrecy, resilience, and self-reliance shaped both family and entrepreneurship. It’s an episode about what we share, what we hide, and how...
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Soul Food Rewatch - S1E1: The More Things Change
Beyond The Table
In the debut episode of Beyond the Table, Amanda joined by her pit bull Priscilla begins the rewatch journey through Soul Food: The Series. We start with “The More Things Change” the pilot episode that aired June 28, 2000. Directed by Eriq La Salle and written by Felicia D. Henderson, it reintroduces us to the Joseph sisters Maxine, Teri, and Bird as they try to hold their family together after Big Mama’s passing. Amanda explores how the series carried forward the heart of the 1997 film while building a new world for weekly television. She looks at themes of grief, responsibility,...
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Trailer — Welcome to Beyond the Table
Beyond The Table
Beyond the Table continues to grow widening its lens and deepening its sound. What began as a Soul Food rewatch has evolved into a cultural magazine: a cinematic sound journey through stories of Black culture, queerness, memory, and belonging. Inthis Beyond the Table Trailer, host Amanda Clemons shares the spirit of the show and its new rhythm ten-minute stories released each week, where culture, sound, and soul meet. 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday 📱 Follow @BeyondTableShow on Instagram Written, produced, and narrated by Amanda Clemons. © 2025 Beyond the Table. All rights reserved.
info_outlineIn the debut episode of Beyond the Table, Amanda joined by her pit bull Priscilla begins the rewatch journey through Soul Food: The Series.
We start with “The More Things Change” the pilot episode that aired June 28, 2000. Directed by Eriq La Salle and written by Felicia D. Henderson, it reintroduces us to the Joseph sisters Maxine, Teri, and Bird as they try to hold their family together after Big Mama’s passing.
Amanda explores how the series carried forward the heart of the 1997 film while building a new world for weekly television. She looks at themes of grief, responsibility, and what happens when love and legacy collide.
In the Legacy Check-In, we step back to the summer of 2000: Be With You by Enrique Iglesias tops the Billboard charts, The Perfect Storm rules the box office, and BET’s $3-billion sale to Viacom reshapes Black media ownership.
It’s soulful, nostalgic, and thoughtful the start of a rewatch rooted in memory, culture, and connection.
Follow @BeyondTableShow on Instagram or send an email to beyondthetablecast@gmail.com for updates, behind-the-scenes notes, and upcoming episode drops.