Let's Taco'Bout
Tacos, one useful human and the conversations we usually avoid.
Let's Taco'Bout starts with a very simple format: a host, a local expert, a subject people often avoid and tacos on the table.
No ballroom. No lectern. No panel of six people waiting for their turn to speak. No assumption that the expert is the only person in the room with something worth knowing.
The hook is the point
Taco'Bout was also designed for the people who would never sign up for a deep conversation. It is a quick mid-week thing — 5.30 to 6.30, one hour, done. A taco, a talk and a margarita.
It works the way politics in the pub works: the fun gets people in the door, and then the room goes to what actually matters. The invitation is deliberately harmless — hey, let's do this, mid-week, one hour, a bit of fun. But then the deep stuff happens anyway. People end up talking about the things they carry around and rarely say out loud — and connecting deeply with strangers who turned out to be carrying the same things.
It is the festival method in miniature: like the festival events, but smaller.
Why the format works
Food changes a conversation.
It makes the room less formal, gives people something to do with their hands and makes a serious subject feel more like something humans are allowed to talk about.
Taco'Bout is built around curiosity rather than certainty. The guest brings expertise or lived experience, but the questions in the room matter just as much.
What we have talked about
The series has moved through subjects that are both deeply personal and surprisingly universal.
The first Taco'Bout at The Establishment explored identity with psychological therapist Renee Webster. Charnie Tuckey joined a conversation about living with uncertainty, fear, hypervigilance and courage. End-of-life doula Kaz Hamilton helped open up a conversation about death and dying. Visual artist Jack Randell explored creative legacy and what we leave behind. Vianney McAllister unpacked the illusion of choice. Renee returned for rejection. Craig Granger joined a conversation about resilience and life's unexpected turns. Nick Lowther brought media experience into a discussion about AI, ethics and influence.
Other Taco'Bout material reaches into belonging, caring for other people's children and reconnecting with Country.
The subjects wander because people do.
Jo Efoti and Showing Up
One of the most important Taco'Bout threads came through Jo Efoti and the question of the village — what it really means to care about other people's children.
That conversation eventually opened into my own story of being one of the children someone showed up for, and into Jo and Bruno's extraordinary history of fostering children and building a life around care.
That is a good example of what the format can do. A community conversation becomes an editorial story. The story leads to a person. The person leads to a much bigger network of relationships and work.
What Taco'Bout is not
It is not therapy, and it is not designed to replace professional support.
It is a public conversation format. Its job is to make curiosity socially acceptable and lower the temperature around subjects that can become polarised, embarrassing, frightening or overly expert-driven.
Why it belongs in the Social Gain archive
Taco'Bout is one of the clearest Human and Local formats because the knowledge is not imported for prestige.
The guests are people in and around the community: counsellors, artists, media people, practitioners and locals with something useful to contribute. The conversation begins there, then travels through the blog archive and into other projects.
Curious minds are really just brave enough to ask the next question.
Taco'Bout makes difficult subjects less lonely by making them discussable — preferably with something good to eat.
Scenes from the table.
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Real Talk
Let's Taco'Bout It
Tasty tacos. Spicy topics. Real talk.
At Taco'Bout events, guests are served tasty tacos and a spicy topic to chew over with a side of lively discussion. Your host, armed with research, public opinion and sharp questions, is joined by a local expert to explore a usually off-the-table taboo topic with an audience encouraged to add to the meaningful discussion.
Let's Taco'Bout events are for filling your tummy and expanding your thinking. There's no spotlight or expectations — if you'd rather sit back and soak it all in, that's just fine.
Curious minds are really the only essential ingredient.