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Four exceptional women, ranging from the ages of 47 and up, have come together to create a new dynamic podcast that’s all about the joy, despair, and thrills of midlife. “Timeless & Unfiltered” hosts Leggra Colon, Charisse Palmer, Stephenye Hill and Evanya Stevens have a lot to share and they aren’t holding anything back.
Listen to learn how to cope with your fears and how to count every win, how a seasoned woman navigates dating, what a successful career looks like and more. Together, these ladies have you covered on topics ranging from menopause, self-care and maintaining lasting friendships to cooking with friends and not to be forgotten is midlife fashion. The new sisterhood podcast made its debut to audiences on February 11.
The Beginnings of Sisterhood
“Timeless & Unfiltered” is produced where Colon, Palmer, Hill, and Stevens currently reside in Atlanta, Georgia, with Colon being the common connector between the group and the mastermind behind the podcast. However, some of these ladies go way back, and all grew up with the same cornerstone of food and family.
Colon and Hill are both from Akron, Ohio, and attended the same high school, only passing by each other briefly. After high school, Colon obtained a master’s degree in education from the University of Toledo and a secondary education degree from Kansas State University. She is currently a successful entrepreneur and the CEO of Global Travelers LLC.
Hill pursued a degree in business at Argosy University and is now an IT project manager. As adults, long after high school, Colon and Hill reconnected and first formed their bond.
Palmer, who works in corporate America, holds a master’s degree in managerial leadership and is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She also owns her own travel business, Point A to B Travel. In the 80s, she found her way to Atlanta desiring to provide a better upbringing for her daughter after the infamous Pittsburg steel mill closings. In time, Palmer and Colon met through Colon’s sister and formed a friendship.
Stevens, who is originally from Charleston, South Carolina, found herself in Atlanta attending Spelman College and later John Marshall Law School. She began her travel agency, Turquoise Travel Boutique, in 2019 under Colon’s travel company, Global Travelers LLC, after pursuing a career in law for several years.
It was then that these four phenomenal women became an empowered crew with several shared favorite pastimes, such as cooking with friendsand hanging with family at Colon’s one-of-a-kind seasoned crowd parties, traveling together when they can, and eating at some of the best restaurants around Atlanta.
Love, Laughter, and Cooking with Friends
Colon, who is now 55, shares with Cuisine Noir how she came up with the original conception for the podcast. “Timeless & Unfiltered kind of came about because when 50 years of age hit, I don’t know, life shifted and changed, and I was going what happened. It’s like you turn 50 and we are forgotten, and we are pushed off to the side. You’re now the old lady hanging out.”
Colon, who put aside her education degrees and has been an entrepreneur for the last 25 years, is a breast cancer survivor. That recent experience helped her to see that not only is life too short but also what family really is and how family truly behaves. Some of the family members Colon thought would stand by her did not. However, in the roughest of times, her girls, Palmer, Hill, and Stevens, got her through it.
Out of all of these divas, Colon is the one who enjoys cooking the most and always has a meal prepared along with to-go boxes for her girls when they come over to hang out or to record each podcast episode. Stevens says, “Leggra is actually a really, really good cook, and she cooks for us whenever we are at her home. We even have take-home bags.”
Colon grew up with a family that had a love for seafood. It was a constant in the kitchen growing up. She shares, “I cook like my mom. If you ask me how I cook it, I can’t tell you, and I cook a lot of seafood for someone who has never had it. I don’t eat shrimp. I don’t eat crab. I don’t like fish. I don’t eat any of these things but it’s something about the scent or the aroma when I’m cooking that tells me that I’ve got it right.”
All the ladies’ love for food began with the influence of their home and family life. Colon and Stevens come from a family who loves seafood, while Hill and Palmer enjoyed soul food with their extended families growing up.
For Colon, cooking with friends or for her friends brings her exceptional joy. However, when they all go out to eat, her favorite meal is filet mignon. Palmer loves good ole’ barbecue. Hill’s favorite dish is shrimp alfredo. However, she swears Colon’s shrimp alfredo is the best, while Steven’s favorite dish is oysters and rice.
Hill recalls the benefits of being around her girls while dining out. She says, “As girlfriends, we would talk. We would talk over food actually. We would go out and eat and have good conversations over food, so there were things that I didn’t pick up in my family because they were taboo that my girlfriends were putting me onto.”
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Self-Care, Sisterhood and Spilling the Tea
One of the primary objectives of “Timeless & Unfiltered”is to show positive Black women who know how to enjoy and uplift each other. Colon states, “We are still hot girls, and social media has really changed the world. There are all the comments about the young girls thinking the older women are competing with them. Or with men, you see all the silver foxes and the grey-beard gang. They’re sexy, but we as women are old?”
“Who put us in this box? Who told us what we could wear? Times have changed, and it’s time to talk about it, and there are a lot of women who are trapped in these boxes, and we are kicking the door down,” adds Colon.
Palmer adds, “These ladies are my friends, so the conversations that we have, the unfiltered, the timeless conversations such as talking about age, etc. It just came about as a byproduct from us being friends and talking about our lives and our children.”
Stevens, the youngest in the group at 47 chimes in, “It’s also talking to girlfriends, like Charisse calls me all the time. She has been a very big inspiration in my life. She tells me things are going to happen but live out loud, live proudly and boldly. I’m still taking that in and finding my voice.”
In addition, “Timeless & Unfiltered”addresses the importance of self-care in midlife. When asked about this topic, Palmer explains, “Self-care for me started with therapy quite honestly. And from there, being able to share my stories with my friends. It was eye-opening and freeing.”
Hill shares, “I’ve learned to start setting better boundaries and to do more for myself. Every time I get paid, I do something for myself. It’s more about getting back to Stephenye and my girls have helped me do that.”
A few upcoming episodes go into childhood triggers, motherhood, healing and acceptance. A mental health clinician is even featured to address how midlife women can heal from their pasts.
Stevens presents as the educated “baby” of the group. Colon, like the other women, keeps it raw and real. Palmer brings holistic balance, while Hill adds in the comedic gold, especially since she is the host of a local open mic night.
Each woman brings a vital piece of themselves to the podcast. Palmer shares, “You’re not the only one. It will be okay. We are in this together.” Colon closes with, “We fight fair. At the end of the day, I love my sisters. I don’t always agree with everything they say but we can have a discussion about it.”
Don’t miss an episode of “Timeless & Unfiltered”which airs a new episode every Tuesday on all major streaming platforms. Learn more about each of these extraordinary women by visiting the “Timeless & Unfiltered” website. You can also follow along on Instagram and Facebook for episode highlights.
