In this episode, we catch up with Anthony & Marlie Love, travel vloggers and creators of the YouTube show Traveling While Black in Seattle and @TWBSeattle on TikTok.
A local married couple, they travel together to various Pacific Northwest destinations and share their comfort level as Black people visiting there for the first time. After three years, Anthony & Marlie have garnered 5,000 YouTube subscribers and 50,000 followers on TikTok. They’ve also established brand partnership that include the Pike Place Market and the Space Needle.
Anthony & Marlie highlight key moments from their first 100 episodes: They explain how the Covid-19 pandemic (February 2020, first reported in Kirkland, WA) as well as the murder of George Floyd (May 2020) and the Black Lives Matter protests that ensued, have shaped their work. They also share how they’ve used TikTok to increase their reach. Anthony & Marlie conclude with an announcement of a new expansion to their mission.
After listening to this episode, you may never experience travel in the Pacific Northwest the same way again.
“Whether you are travelling while Black, White, Asian, whatever…at the end of the day you just want to be welcomed and treated like a human being. That’s all we’re all looking for: Why we do our show is because that’s not the case for a lot of folks who don’t look a certain way.” - Anthony Love
Here are Marlie, Anthony, & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, August 2022:
