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Toya Talks Podcast

Toya Talks Podcast

Toya Washington 210 Episodes Jun 17, 2026

Toya Talks is a podcast created for Black women and their allies, exploring the intersection of culture, courage, and career. Host Toya Washington unpacks workplace realities through the lens of life, politics, and global events, covering topics like pay gaps, leadership, and authenticity. The show offers bold truths and unapologetic strategies to help listeners navigate their professional lives with clarity and confidence.

Episodes

A Cautionary Tale Jun 17, 2026 6970 Send us Fan Mail£12,500 in your pocket today sounds like relief, but what if the price is your state pension arriving a year later? We get into the Citizens Advance proposal making waves in the UK and ask the real question underneath the headlines: do younger generations still believe retirement is guaranteed, or does it feel like the goalposts keep moving until there is nothing left to reach?From
Sister Jackie May 27, 2026 2804 Send us Fan MailA make-up technique isn’t just a technique when it comes from a community that has watched its creativity get copied, commercialised, and stripped of its origin story. I’m speaking on the Painted by Esther and Patrick Ta situation because the reaction online is not only about beauty products, it’s about power, credit, and what happens when money walks into the room and suddenly som
No such thing as a free lunch. May 20, 2026 3171 Send us Fan MailA well known brand drops into my inbox, praises my TikTok, then asks for a full video turnaround within hours and never once mentions payment. That one email opens a bigger conversation about workplace boundaries, self-worth, and why I refuse to build any part of my life on “maybe there’ll be future work”. If you are a content creator, freelancer, or employee who is tired of being
Ambition Doesn't Live In An Office Apr 23, 2026 6970 Send us Fan MailSomeone can do everything “right” at work and still get blindsided by an office bully, a microaggressive comment, or a private Teams thread that was never meant to reach you. We’re not pretending that’s fair. We’re talking about what to do next, how to stay strategic, and how to protect your credibility without spending your whole life sat in HR.We start with the reality of workpla
The Optics of Accountability Apr 9, 2026 4059 Send us Fan MailWireless Festival gets cancelled and the easy headline is to blame Kanye West, but that story is too neat. I talk through what’s actually happening behind the scenes: government pressure, visa power, sponsor risk, and the uncomfortable truth that “cancel culture” doesn’t land equally. Kanye’s antisemitic statements and harmful comments about slavery still matter, and I’m clear abou
The Mediocrity Ceiling Mar 18, 2026 6970 Send us Fan MailThe news cycle is screaming, the cost of living is climbing, and somehow we are still expected to perform at full capacity. I sit with that tension out loud, starting with the fear and uncertainty around the Iran conflict, the way power plays get framed, and how ordinary people end up carrying the fallout through stress, disruption and constant unease.Then I bring it back home to w
The Award For Professionalism Goes to Black People. Feb 25, 2026 4539 Send us Fan MailA five-hour wait in A&E with my toddler stripped away any illusions I had about emergency care. Corridor beds, exhausted staff, and a doctor arguing for babies to be seen before a sixty-year-old with a rash this is the UK’s reality, where private healthcare won’t fast-track an emergency and winter air feels like a petri dish. I share what we saw, what it did to me as a mum, and
Golden Handcuffs Part II: The Grown Woman Remix. Feb 4, 2026 5315 Send us Fan MailHeadlines collide when you put workers’ rights, political power, and culture on the same table. We start with UK TikTok moderators who say they faced harassment, punishing KPIs, and union busting while screening the content the rest of us never have to see. From there we unpack Pat McGrath Labs entering Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the US and what it reveals about cash flow, innovation
Golden Handcuffs Jan 21, 2026 3585 Send us Fan MailPower makes itself felt in our bills, our jobs, and our beliefs and this week we trace that line from Arctic ice to everyday life. We unpack why Greenland has become a pressure point, how tariff threats could ripple through British businesses, and what a fraying “special relationship” means for a post‑Brexit UK with less leverage at the table. It’s not just geopolitics; it’s the co
Job Hugging: Because Hopping May Land You Nowhere Jan 7, 2026 3102 Send us Fan MailA hard truth set the tone for the new year: a fatal accident in Nigeria and the stark reminder that infrastructure and governance shape lives. I share why that grief paused my urge to create and how honesty, not forced optimism, can be the smartest way to start January. From there, we move straight into the UK job market, where rising employer costs, higher NI, and a punishing tax
Reclaiming The Narrative. Dec 10, 2025 6267 Send us Fan MailPolicy shapes pay packets, childcare, heating bills, and even how we move around our cities. We break down Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget without jargon, showing how frozen thresholds create fiscal drag, why dividend and property tax hikes shift the balance toward taxing wealth, and how ISA changes nudge under 65s into risk. We look at the upside too, scrapping the two child cap, tar
What Does Justice Look Like When History Still Bleeds? Nov 26, 2025 6157 Send us Fan MailA superstar stopped a show to eject a sleepy fan, and the crowd divided. We look past the memes to the real duty of care at live events, the difference between standards and humiliation, and why humility travels further than hype. That contrast sets the stage for a wider theme: how power is used in public, at work and in culture.From Lupita Nyong’o’s choice to refuse typecasting to

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