Coming Home With Something to Say: Erickka Jones on The Brew Is Back and Rediscovering Toledo

Sometimes leaving home is what helps you understand what home really means.

For Toledo native Erickka Jones, that journey stretched across nearly four decades and included New York, Los Angeles, Jersey City, Europe, television, journalism, acting, music, modeling, writing, and storytelling.

Now, after 37 years away, she is back in Toledo with a new perspective and a renewed sense of purpose.

In this episode of Taylor Community Connection, Community Ambassador Terry Crosby sits down with Erickka, host of The Brew Is Back Podcast, to talk about the people who helped launch her career, the experiences that shaped her, and why returning home has made her even more excited about the stories Toledo has to tell.

Her path has taken her around the world.

But in many ways, the story started right here.

When Toledo Helped Open the First Door

Erickka grew up in Toledo and attended Pickett, Walbridge, Jones, and Libbey, graduating from Libbey High School in 1989.

While still in high school, she dreamed about becoming a model.

An opportunity came along to attend a modeling convention in Cleveland, but there was one problem.

She could not afford to go.

So Erickka did something that would shape the rest of her story.

She asked her community for help.

She went door to door to local businesses, corner stores, laundromats, barbershops, and others throughout Toledo. Teachers and staff at Libbey supported her too.

Five dollars here.

Ten dollars there.

Little by little, people helped her raise what she needed.

At the convention, Erickka connected with agents from New York.

At 18, she moved there.

That leap launched a career that would take her far beyond anything she imagined while growing up in Toledo.

A Career Built Around Creativity and Storytelling

Erickka’s career evolved again and again.

She worked as a model in New York, appearing in magazines, commercials, and campaigns. That work gave her opportunities to travel throughout Europe and beyond, including London, Paris, Sweden, Germany, South Africa, and Amsterdam.

From modeling, she moved into television.

She became an MTV Europe VJ and hosted a program recorded at MTV’s Times Square studios. The show was distributed across European countries and Australia, giving Erickka another opportunity to expand creatively.

She was not just appearing on camera.

She was writing scripts, producing, and helping bring artists onto the show.

That experience led naturally into journalism.

Erickka became a writer and editor for magazines and digital publications, continuing a lifelong interest in people and the stories behind their lives.

Acting eventually became another part of the journey.

She appeared on shows including Chappelle’s Show and Law & Order: SVU, worked in independent films, created and produced a web series, and continued exploring music and other creative projects.

Through all those changes, one thing remained consistent.

Storytelling.

Erickka says she has always been curious about people.

She wants to understand what drives them, what they believe, what they have experienced, and what can happen when different voices are invited into the same conversation.

Coming Back After 37 Years Away

Returning to Toledo was not originally part of Erickka’s plan.

Her grandmother changed that.

As her grandmother grew older, Erickka became responsible for helping with her care. She started traveling back to Toledo more frequently and eventually realized that if she wanted her grandmother to remain at home, she would need to move back herself.

So Erickka relocated to Toledo with her two daughters.

Her grandmother passed away six weeks later, on Erickka’s 55th birthday.

Rather than viewing that timing only through loss, Erickka describes it as meaningful.

She had made it home.

And after spending most of her adult life elsewhere, she began seeing Toledo differently.

The years away had exposed her to different cities, countries, industries, and cultures.

Now, she could bring all of that perspective back to the place where her story began.

“I’ve done so much in my life, in my career,” Erickka says. “But being home, there’s a beauty in that.”

For her, returning to Toledo has created a new kind of confidence.

She feels more comfortable speaking, more willing to use her own voice, and more excited about what she can contribute.

Bringing The Brew Back to Toledo

One of the biggest expressions of that new chapter is The Brew Is Back Podcast.

The idea behind The Brew has actually been with Erickka for decades.

While modeling in New York in her twenties, she created a magazine column built around questions, relationships, opinions, and conversations with friends.

The format continued evolving as Erickka’s own life changed.

Marriage, motherhood, divorce, raising daughters, career changes, and growing older all gave her new questions to explore.

Eventually, The Brew returned as a podcast.

The central idea remained the same.

Start with a question.

Bring different people into the conversation.

And see where the discussion goes.

Erickka says one of the things she learned early was that her own perspective could change after hearing from other people.

That became part of what makes the format meaningful to her.

“I love strong opinions,” she says.

The goal is not to bring people together who all agree.

It is to create a space where people can contribute different experiences and viewpoints, and where the conversation can become something none of them could have created alone.

Holding Up a Mirror to Toledo

After moving home, Erickka knew she wanted Toledo to become part of The Brew.

The podcast is now recorded live downtown, and its conversations draw heavily from the people, ideas, businesses, art, music, culture, and leadership Erickka is rediscovering around the city.

She admits that she did not expect to find quite as much happening here as she has.

That discovery has become part of the mission.

Erickka wants to highlight and amplify the people doing interesting work throughout Toledo.

She describes it as holding up a mirror so Toledo can recognize how much it already has.

But she also wants the show to reach beyond the city.

After building relationships for 37 years in places including New York, Los Angeles, London, and other communities, Erickka still has an audience and network outside Northwest Ohio.

Now those people are watching Toledo too.

That creates an opportunity.

The Brew can introduce people outside the region to the artists, leaders, businesses, ideas, and conversations happening here while also helping local audiences discover more of their own community.

Creating Community Through Conversation

The Brew Is Back is not built around traditional one on one interviews.

Erickka typically brings several guests together around one topic.

She introduces the subject, then allows each person to bring their own perspective.

Where the conversation ends is not predetermined.

That uncertainty is part of what she enjoys.

If everyone enters the room thinking exactly the same way and leaves thinking exactly the same way, something may have been missed.

Erickka wants people to listen.

She wants them to challenge ideas.

She wants people with strong opinions to feel comfortable sharing them.

And over time, she hopes to expand the podcast into a live studio experience where audiences can participate directly, ask questions, and become part of the discussion.

For Erickka, that is about more than producing content.

It is about creating community.

Bringing the Journey Full Circle

Erickka Jones left Toledo at 18 because this community helped give her the chance to go.

She traveled.

She created.

She wrote.

She performed.

She worked in television, journalism, acting, music, and media.

She learned from places and people far beyond Northwest Ohio.

Now she is bringing those experiences home.

There is something fitting about that.

The people who contributed five or ten dollars to help a teenager attend a modeling convention could not have known where that support would lead.

Decades later, Erickka still remembers it.

And today, she is using the voice and perspective she developed around the world to shine a light back on Toledo.

Her journey may have taken her thousands of miles away.

But the next chapter is unfolding right where the first one began.

👉 Watch now to hear Erickka Jones share how Toledo helped launch her journey, why she returned home after 37 years away, and how The Brew Is Back is creating conversations that showcase the people, culture, and possibilities of her hometown.