Street You Grew Up On: Kerry Washington’s Podcast Where Stories Begin and Lives Take Shape

What began as a simple, heartfelt pastime during the quietest days of the pandemic has grown into something far bigger: Street You Grew Up On, Kerry Washington’s new weekly podcast, where the most famous names in entertainment return to the places and people that made them who they are. It is not a show about red carpets or box‑office numbers. It is about the streets they walked, the homes they grew up in, and the quiet, formative moments that shaped their dreams long before the world knew their names.

A Phone Call That Grew Into a Series

The idea first came to Washington in 2020, when the world paused, and she found herself reaching out to friends just to connect. “It really started as a hobby and a side hustle during COVID, just something to do because we were all stuck at home,” she tells PEOPLE. She began with exactly what the title suggests: picking up the phone and asking people she admired, Eva Longoria, Michelle Obama, and others, to tell her about the street where they grew up. It was gentle, personal, and deeply meaningful. In 2021, it launched as a digital interview series, and now, in 2026, it has expanded into a full weekly audio and video podcast in partnership with her production company Simpson Street and creator‑services company Daylight.

The name Simpson Street is no accident; it honours the very idea at the heart of the show. “My company, Simpson Street, is named after the street in the Bronx that my mother grew up on,” Washington explains. “I have always been curious about how our origin stories impact who we become.” That curiosity drives every conversation: not just what guests have achieved, but where they came from, and how those early experiences still live within them.

The Premise: One Question, a Thousand Stories

The concept is beautifully simple: ask a guest about their childhood street, and let the memories unfold. From there, the conversation naturally deepens moving through the people who guided them, the moments that changed them, and the quiet foundations that supported them long before success arrived. “Street You Grew Up On allows me to continue to explore this idea by engaging in conversation with people whose journeys fascinate us all,” she shared with Variety. “I’m excited to expand the series into a podcast and spend more time with our guests exploring the people, places and experiences that have shaped their lives.”

The expanded weekly format gives these stories room to breathe. Washington is no longer fitting conversations into short segments; she is sitting with guests, listening deeply, and letting each story find its own pace. “To get to where we are today, to be able to have the guests that we’re having, the conversations we’re having and a podcast studio space that we’ve built is really fun,” she says. She admits it is a learning curve: “It’s not as easy as I thought it might be” but it is work she loves, because it matters.

The Guest List: Icons Return to Their Beginnings

The new season launched September 30 with Ben Affleck, her co‑star from Animals, which premieres on Netflix October 9. He was the perfect opening guest, someone who would open up about his own journey and the memories that still stay with him. The weeks ahead bring an extraordinary lineup: Dwayne Johnson, Demi Lovato, Colin Kaepernick, Chelsea Handler, and more. They join an already remarkable roster from earlier seasons: Michelle Obama, Jane Fonda, Queen Latifah, John Legend, Issa Rae, Jay Shetty, each one reflecting on where they started, not just where they arrived.

What unites every guest is that they are not there to promote a project or rehearse a familiar story. They are there to remember to revisit the neighbourhoods, the homes, the parents and teachers and friends who saw them before the rest of the world did. It is a reminder that no matter how bright the spotlight shines, the roots remain the same.

More Than a Podcast, But Rather A Conversation About Us

For listeners, Street You Grew Up On does something rare in entertainment: it levels the ground. It reminds us that even the most celebrated lives began somewhere small on a street, in a house, in a moment that felt ordinary at the time but turned out to be everything. Washington does not ask her guests to be perfect or impressive; she asks them to be human. And in doing so, she invites all of us to look back at our own streets, our own beginnings, and see how far we have come.