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February 25, 2025

Food Can Show Us Who We Are: Stephen Satterfield, Host of Popular Netflix Show High on the Hog

Food is “the only shared cultural connection we all have,” says Stephen Satterfield. Lavin’s newest speaker reveals how the dishes we cook and eat have a powerful ability to connect us both to our roots and to each other. The host of Netflix’s Peabody Award-winning docuseries High on the Hog, which puts Black cuisine at the center of American history, Stephen shares how understanding the complex stories behind the food we eat can help us forge new paths towards community, connection, and belonging.

“The best way to understand human beings is to understand food,” says Stephen Satterfield.

One of the most respected voices in the food and culture landscape, Stephen has dedicated his storied career to redefining food as a means of organizing and educating. He’s the host of the critically acclaimed Netflix docuseries High on the Hog, which won a Peabody Award for Documentary and two NAACP Image Awards for Best Documentary Series. On that show, he travels across the country to uncover the forgotten roots of Black cuisine, revealing not only the fascinating stories behind the dishes we eat every day, but also how they intertwine with the history of Black America—and America as a whole. He has been profiled in The New Yorker and has gained attention across the media, from Fast Company to The New York Times and beyond.

In talks, Stephen Satterfield draws on his unique journey as a sommelier, a storyteller, and a social entrepreneur to explore his concept of “origin foraging”: unearthing the stories behind our food, our clothing, and the everyday objects around us in order to better understand ourselves. A thoughtful and compelling speaker, he shows audiences how we can better understand our own stories, and how to use this knowledge to connect more deeply with others and make our own voices heard.

"The best way to understand human beings is to understand food," says Stephen Satterfield. One of the most respected voices in the food and culture landscape, Stephen has dedicated his storied career to redefining food as a means of organizing and educating. He's the host of the critically acclaimed Netflix docuseries High on the Hog, which won a Peabody Award for Documentary and two NAACP Image Awards for Best Documentary Series. On that show, he travels across the country to uncover the forgotten roots of Black cuisine, revealing not only the fascinating stories behind the dishes we eat every day, but also how they intertwine with the history of Black America—and America as a whole. He has been profiled in The New Yorker and has gained attention across the media, from Fast Company to The New York Times and beyond. In talks, Stephen Satterfield draws on his unique journey as a sommelier, a storyteller, and a social entrepreneur to explore his concept of "origin foraging": unearthing the stories behind our food, our clothing, and the everyday objects around us in order to better understand ourselves. A thoughtful and compelling speaker, he shows audiences how we can better understand our own stories, and how to use this knowledge to connect more deeply with others and make our own voices heard.