Conscious Chatter

In The Root Episode 1: Racism as a System, Dominique Drakeford speaks with scholars and academic activists Nikki Sanchez and Lisa Betty on the importance of dismantling colonial systems and reclaiming the fullness of Native American & Afro-Indigenous history as a regenerative framework for liberation and true sustainability across every industry.

Nikki Sanchez is a Pipil/Maya and Irish/Scottish academic, Indigenous media maker, environmental educator and community organizer. She holds a master's degree in Indigenous Governance and is presently completing a Ph.D. with a research focus on emerging visual media technology as it relates to Indigenous ontology. Nikki's first book, Spirits of the Coast - An Anthology of the Salish Sea Resident Orca Whales - was just released by the Royal BC Museum. Nikki's most recent project is the 8-part documentary VICELAND series "RISE" focused on global Indigenous resurgence. RISE was debuted at Sundance in February 2017 and has received global critical acclaim, recently winning "best documentary" at the Canadian screen awards.

Links to Nikki's work:

• Decolonization is for Everyone, TEDx Talk

• VICE docuseries RISE trailer

• Keynote Speakers Profile

• Follow Nikki on Instagram

Lisa Betty is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at Fordham University. She teaches on themes of labor, migration, and diaspora in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa. Lisa's dissertation research contributes to the growing body of scholarship on the Caribbean diaspora, with a focus on Jamaican migrants, in Cuba and the United States from the 1930s through the Cuban Revolution. She has worked in the field of nonprofit advocacy serving in organizations that advocate for children, families, immigrants, and incarcerated people, and leads antiracist teaching workshops. Proud of her family's southern and Jamaican roots, Lisa contributes to the development of safe, sustainable, and healing spaces for Black and Brown people.

Links to Lisa's work:

• "12 Practices for Protecting and Maintaining Black & Brown Health During the COVID-19 Crisis", April, 2020

• "Lifting Up Black and Brown Health and Wellness during the COVID-19 Crisis: Moving beyond respectability politics & white supremacist logic", April, 2020

• "'Black Death': Race and Representations of the Ebola epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic", May, 2020

• "Being Black at Fordham: Recommendations for an antiracist and equity-oriented university culture", June, 2020

• "General Harriet Tubman (1820–1913): Healing Historical Exploitation", July, 2020

• "At the Intersection of Undocumented and Black: Anti-Blackness in U.S. Immigration Policy — Part 1", July, 2020

• "Disney, Capitalism, and Beyoncé's Black Is King: In the midst of protest and pandemic, how should we engage with Beyoncé and Disney's Black Is King?", July, 2020

• "Marcus Aurelius "Mosiah" Garvey: Garveyism, Black sovereignty, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and African Communities League", August, 2020

• Follow Lisa on Instagram

Thank you to this week's sponsor, FIBERSHED. Learn more about FIBERSHED at www.fibershed.org.

In episode 204, Kestrel welcomes Kamea Chayne, the host of Green Dreamer Podcast, to the show. A Taiwanese American eco creative, writer and author, Kamea illuminates our paths to ecological regeneration, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all through her powerful show, Green Dreamer.

"Sustainability to me isn't an individualistic pursuit for individual people or brands — rather, it's a collective goal requiring context and systemic change. In order to be sustainable, we also need to be regenerative in our actions and practices." -Kamea Chayne, Host of Green Dreamer Podcast

On this week's show, Kamea shares more on her journey, along with the origins and evolution of her podcast, Green Dreamer. Kestrel asks Kamea to share more on what regenerative means to her, and she outlines the way she interprets it, with relation to sustainability.

Also, Kamea shares more on what she has learned through her show, with regard to why we need to decolonize "environmental conservation". As Green Dream has over 250 episodes, Kamea suggests a collection of her favorite episodes to get you started, if you're new to her show.

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• Ecologist Guide To Fashion by Ruth Styles

• Kamea's Instagram post on the need to decolonize environmental conservation

• More on decolonizing "environmental conservation" in Kamea's newsletter >

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

• "On The Stubborn Whiteness of Environmentalism" by Danielle Purifoy in Inside Higher Ed

• "Abundance is sort of natural to what the ecology wants, and we realize that a lot of times scarcity is a human constructed concept as well." -Kamea

• Biocultural diversity, a concept Kamea learned from Terralingua's Director Luisa Maffi

• Fibershed, listen to the Conscious Chatter episode with their founder here >

• Regenerative Organic Certification, "a revolutionary new certification for food, fiber, and personal care ingredients. ROC farms and products meet the highest standards for soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness."

• "Liberal, progressive — and racist? The Sierra Club faces its white-supremacist history." in The Washington Post

• The Robert Hanna Show #4 | Dr. Carolyn Finney (FYI — Robert Hanna is the great great grandson of John Muir)

• Subscribe to Kamea's newsletter Embark >

• Green Dreamer Episode 173: Sean Sherman on Revitalizing Native American Foods and Re-Identifying North American Cuisine

• Green Dreamer Episode 179: Mark Charles on Unveiling the Deeper Roots of Our Systemic Social and Environmental Injustice

• Green Dreamer Episode 245: Gina Rae La Cerva on how our shift from eating wild to domesticated foods transformed our landscapes

• Green Dreamer Episode 248: Maxine Bédat on Setting New Standards of 'Sustainability' in the Fashion Industry

• Green Dreamer Episode 253: Aditi Mayer on Decolonizing Fashion and Going Beyond the Tokenism of Diversity

• California Native Seeds

• "People talk about humans being destructive — I really don't like that narrative, because it's really the how and it's the systems that we have created and not us inherently, so I'm interested in learning how to be a more regenerative human." -Kamea

In episode 203, Kestrel welcomes Manpreet Kaur Kalra, the founder of Art of Citizenry, to the show. An activist and educator, Manpreet is dedicated to exploring the intersection of digital media, social impact and justice.

"One of those very tangible things that I often tell people that they need to work on is the language they use — really being thoughtful about words such as empowerment, which really imply this idea of the person on the receiving end is not empowered to begin with." -Manpreet Kaur Kalra, Founder of Art of Citizenry

On this week's show, Manpreet shares more on what led her from the tech industry to creating her own unique business in the social impact space. After discovering how the minority voice is lost in sustainability, Manpreet set out to address power dynamics in social entrepreneurship.

Throughout the conversation, Manpreet breaks down more on heropreneurship, white saviorism, and what decolonization means to her. She also dives into more on how fashion has been built on appropriation, and what brands can be doing today to work toward building more cultural humility and empathy into their businesses.

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• Phulkari, traditional embroidery technique from Punjab

• "For me, I realized that colonization continues to influence society's pervasive assumption that people of color need saving — and this idea of there being a Global North vs Global South really just reinforces that." -Manpreet

• The Brandt Line, invisible line that was created in the '80s to separate the Global North from the Global South

• "And the fact that to be fair trade, you have to be working with a quote unquote marginalized community from the Global South is fundamentally reinforcing that power dynamic of the North helping the South — right, the top helping the bottom." -Manpreet

• "What Broke Me Today: Why Language is Important When Navigating Inequity", article by Manpreet

• "But the issue that most people don't realize with social entrepreneurship is that impact does not scale like a business." -Manpreet

• "Tackling Heropreneurship" in Stanford Social Innovation Review

• Manpreet suggests the best place to start is asking yourself these 4 core questions — 1) Do I sound like a savior? 2) Am I making blanket statements about a community or a culture? 3) Do I have permission to share the information I'm sharing? 4) Am I promoting cultural hegemony?

• "Fashion has been built on appropriation — it has been built on basically, stealing designs and concepts from communities that have been historically marginalized, and basically, reframing them to be quote unquote minimalist or really ethnic or boho chic." -Manpreet

• "Cultural humility is a concept that comes out of global health — and it basically is this idea of not going into conversations with individuals who have different life experiences or communities other than your own with any assumptions, and just listening and having empathy." -Manpreet

In episode 202, Kestrel welcomes Fashion Psychologist Shakaila Forbes-Bell to the show. With her area of research focused on diversity in fashion and the importance of multicultural marketing, Shakaila was among the first people in the world to hold a Masters Degree in Psychology for Fashion Professionals at University of the Arts London: London College of Fashion, and she is also the founder of the platform Fashion Is Psychology.

"In the wake of the Black Lives Movement, when people are really starting to think about the lived experiences of Black people across all industries, we're definitely going to start to see some major upheaval, and I'm quite excited about that." -Shakaila Forbes-Bell, Fashion Psychologist + Founder of Fashion Is Psychology

On this week's show, Shakaila shares more on what led her from wanting to be "the Black female Frasier" and a clinical psychologist, to carving out her own space in the psychology discipline at the intersections of fashion, representation, media, and marketing.

Her undergraduate research, which she called "The Hoodie Project", explored how the murder of Trayvon Martin was treated, and that led her to dive deeper into the way that clothing can be weaponized, why representation matters on all levels across industries, and the important of understanding the nuances of how power plays out in society.

Additionally, Shakaila shares more on how she feels fashion should truly make people happy — and that brands need to be empathetic to their shoppers, to reflect on how their marketing really makes them feel, in order to be as inclusive as possible in their messaging.

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• Million Hoodies March

• Vogue Italia's July 2008 Black Issue

• Aja Barber, Kestrel mentions how she has been reading Aja's work on the way brands are responding "performatively" to Black Lives Matter

• "The Relationship Between Fashion Psychology and Black Lives Matter"

• "Testing the effect of consumer-model racial congruency on consumer behavior", Shakaila's published paper

• "It takes around 66 days to change a habit." -Shakaila

• "Representation for representation's sake is dead." -Shakaila

In episode 201, Kestrel welcomes Samata, the CEO of Red Carpet Green Dress, to the show. A women-led global change-making organization working from 'moment' to movement, Red Carpet Green Dress creates awareness by showcasing sustainable fashion on the red carpet. A British born Ghanaian entrepreneur, Samata is also the founder of THE TRIBE, a women's empowerment collective.

"I try and choose talent that will speak to different audiences, because part of the way that I think fashion is not intersectional is by the faces it presents as the messenger." -Samata, CEO of Red Carpet Green Dress

On this week's show, Samata shares more on what she's been up to over the last 4 years since she first came on the show, as well as what life looks like in her new role as the CEO of Red Carpet Green Dress. Kestrel and Samata also discuss how their perspectives have shifted when it comes to sustainability, since both recently becoming new moms.

Additionally, Samata shares more on the intentionality that goes into choosing talent for Red Carpet Green Dress, and the power of having access to a mainstream audience by partnering with the Oscars. Currently, Red Carpet Green Dress is hosting their 2020 Design Contest, of which designers around the world can enter — Samata explains how to enter, and the incredible opportunities the winner will receive.

Kestrel and Samata dive into more on the cultural context and meaning behind garments, as well as the way fashion can be weaponized. Samata shares a story about a conversation she had with someone on the "professionalism" of headwraps, and more on what they mean to her personally.

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• "Changing mindsets is actually where I think the battle is won." -Samata

• Red Carpet Green Dress Design Contest 2020

• Tencel, RCGD partner for the Design Contest, designers get to choose from 3 Tencel fabrications to incorporate into their entry

• Laura Basci, couture designer that will provide mentorship to Design Contest winner

• Alice Elia, former winner of the Red Carpet Green Dress Design Contest

• Samata's Instagram post about headwraps

• The Zoot Suit

• Suggested podcast from intro — Hot Take hosted by Mary Annaise Heglar and Amy Westervelt — episode "Media In Meltdown and Climate In Crisis with Kendra Pierre-Louis"

In episode 200, Kestrel welcomes Sanah Sharma, the founder of her eponymous label, to the show. A conceptual sustainable fashion brand from Chennai, India, Sanah Sharma is focused on making aesthetic clothing that is intelligently engineered and tested for human kinetics.

"Everything in our universe is in a constant state of motion. So, I really think — you know, we're not static, so why should our clothes be statically designed?" -Sanah Sharma, Founder of Sanah Sharma

On this week's show, Sanah shares more on how her love of fashion and making clothing began when she was a little girl — she would upcycle the clothes she grew out of into clothes for her dolls. She also explains that while she learned more about the concept of sustainability at university, she quickly realized that she had many of these ideals already in her, from growing up in her Indian culture.

Sanah developed her own zero waste design technique called Planar Flux, of which other designers can access if they are interested in learning the process. In line with this technique — which plays off of the idea that we are in a constant state of motion — Sanah also incorporates digital human kinetics testing into the development of her garments because as she says, "I make clothing for humans."

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• "We have about a 15% cutting waste that happens in fashion, and that's a lot. So, for me, it was about — how can I create something where I can use lesser material to make beautiful clothes?"

• Professor Julian Roberts of The Royal College of Arts, a mentor to Sanah — find him on Instagram here >

• Planar Flux, zero waste design technique developed by Sanah

• Guppy Bag + Cora Ball — products that help collect microplastics in your washing machine before they drain out into our waterways

• Brian Greene, physicist and author Sanah is doing a lot of reading of at the moment

• "Everything in science has design, and everything in design has science, so they're very intricately connected."

• "The Women Series featuring Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs" — an interview on The Frontlash, suggested in the intro

In episode 199, Kestrel welcomes Laura Wittig, the cofounder and CEO of Brightly, to the show. A curated discovery platform, Brightly aims to empower conscious consumers around the world. Laura is also the co-host of the Good Together podcast.

"You are sending a message to the big corporations of the world — whether you are purchasing Fair Trade coffee at Target or you're purchasing something from a small brand." -Laura Wittig, cofounder + CEO of Brightly

On this week's show, Laura shares more on her unique background working with companies like Google, Amazon, and Adobe, and how those experiences helped her eventually launch Brightly.

Additionally, Laura shares her thoughts on whether the tech landscape is shifting to bring more social good into the mix, and how COVID-19 has already transformed the future of tech.

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• "Eco-Friendly Finds From Target" on Brightly's TikTok

• "What's Your Sustainability Superpower?" Brightly Quiz

• Natalie of Sustainably Chic

• "Why Your Clean Beauty Routine Makes A Difference" with Tiila Abbitt on The Good Together Podcast

• Podcast suggestion from intro: Gina Rae La Cerva on Green Dreamer by Kámea Chayne

In episode 198, Kestrel welcomes Vin+Omi, award winning fashion and multi media designers, to the show. One of the leading pioneering eco fashion brands today, VIN+OMI are focused on sustainable approaches to business, design and textiles.

"We don't need another fashion brand — we don't. You know, we have enough clothes, if everybody stopped production tomorrow (all fashion houses and every fashion brand stopped), we have enough clothes to last us at least 6 generations." -Omi, Cofounder of VIN+OMI

On this week's show, Vin+Omi share more on the unique path they took to becoming fashion designers. They outline some of the sustainable textiles they've developed, including their latex project in Malaysia and their nettle project with Prince Charles.

Kestrel asks Omi to share more context on a quote from him that was featured in Business of Fashion where he said that "sustainability is a dirty word" that he hates.

They also discuss how they've intentionally resisted the traditional fashion system throughout their evolution, and found unique ways to work outside of it, by taking time to consciously build a sustainable business model.

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• When London first starting talking about Vin+Omi in the press, they called them "the black sheep" because they were known for being "against the system"

• A Nesta scholarship early in their careers helped Vin+Omi further build the early stages of the company

• Vin+Omi's first project was focused on latex in Malaysia

• "Because of the scholarship that we had, it really allowed us to step away from the system, and really decide whether we wanted to be a one hit wonder in fashion or if we wanted to really build foundations before we plotted concrete, and then plotted the house." -Omi

• "These Designers Want to Fight Climate Change. Just Don't Call Them 'Sustainable'", BoF article where Omi said, "Sustainability as a word is so dirty … We hate the word."

• "The business needs to be able to shift gears and mold very quickly to what society demands, opposed to what we dictate to society, because the landscape has changed." -Omi

• Vin+Omi's collaboration with Prince Charles

• "We don't need another fashion brand — we don't. You know, we have enough clothes, if everybody stopped production tomorrow (all fashion houses and every fashion brand stopped), we have enough clothes to last us at least 6 generations. We don't need another fashion brand — what we need is fresh ideas — we need thinkers. We need people to infiltrate the system, while keeping the economy going."

• "The fashion industry is in a cocoon — a really nice shiny little bell jar cocoon — and it's just perpetuating the same problem over and over and over again." -Omi

In episode 197, Kestrel welcomes Dr. Hakan Karaosman and Professor Donna Marshall to the show. A sustainability management professional and award-winning researcher, Hakan is also a fashion supply chain and sustainability expert at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Donna is a Professor of Supply Chain Management, Head of Research, Innovation and Impact, and the Director of the Centre for Business and Society at University College Dublin.

The European Commission recently awarded Donna and Hakan with the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship award for their forthcoming project, FReSCH (Fashion's Responsible Supply Chain Hub) to be conducted at University College Dublin.

"In times of uncertainty, bureaucracy doesn't work, hierarchy doesn't work — and we need to have these much more flat network systems, which seem to be much more innovative, much more agile — and that's really about tearing down some of the cultures that are really embedded within the fashion industry at the moment. " -Donna Marshall, Professor of Supply Chain Management

On this week's show, both Hakan and Donna share more on how the fashion industry needs to work to take the ego out of the way they do business — and according to their research, this will actually be "good for business".

Donna shares more on how simple shifts in the words we are using can make significant changes — that certain words reinforce hierarchical frameworks, while others can reinforce collaboration. For example, shifting the job role name from "buyer" to "relationship manager" made a massive positive impact on one multinational company that she and Hakan have worked with.

For both Donna and Hakan, transparency is important and a powerful first step, but it is absolutely not synonymous with sustainability, and must be looked at across every area of a supply chain.

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• "Unfortunately, fashion betrayed its own values." -Hakan

• "To me, the future will be something in which growth will not be measured only by financial terms — it will be really about a system that is socially just, economically inclusive, and environmentally regenerative." -Hakan

• "I say the solution will be shorter supply chains, which we can actually control." -Hakan

• Fashion Revolution Transparency Index

• "One of the things that we've found again and again with multi-stakeholder initiatives that are being really successful and actually bringing radical transformation and change — both socially for people and environmentally for the planet — is around inclusiveness and representation." -Donna

• "And unfortunately this current fashion schedule that we all criticize, that should change, doesn't allow us to listen to people, and unfortunately the leg of empathy is a bottleneck in the fashion industry, so people don't really interpret or listen to what workers are dealing with." -Hakan

• Better Work Initiative

• Greenpeace Detox My Fashion

• "Transparency is now being seen by investors, by the big pension funds, as really a proxy for good business." -Donna

• "Brands will be remembered for what they did in this crisis." -Hakan

• Hakan will be curating and moderating a session on climate change and the circular economy for the forthcoming Fashinnovation Worldwide Talk on June 5th

• Donna and Hakan will be giving a keynote for this online webinar co-organized by The Financial Times on June 18th

• More on Donna + Hakan's forthcoming project FReSCH: FReSCH will be one of the first research projects to investigate economic, environmental and social sustainability to understand the trade-offs, tensions and outcomes between them in the transition to a low-carbon circular fashion industry. By using a novel methodology, simultaneous multi-level action research, with a brand name company and their supply chain, FReSCH will take a top-down and bottom-up approach by examining a fashion supply chain in transition to uncover the realities of SME suppliers and their workers. The outcomes of the project will provide insight into the economic and environmental demands placed on suppliers and how these impact working conditions and human rights practices. The project will also show how companies can use worker self-determination practices to solve problems in and across supply chains.

• From The Intro: 18 FASHION PEOPLE RECOMMEND THEIR SUSTAINABILITY MUST-READS by Whitney Bauck

In episode 196, Kestrel welcomes Kayti O'Connell Carr, the founder and creative director of MATE, to the show. A clean essentials brand, MATE is made sustainably in Los Angeles with nontoxic and certified organic materials.

"I realized that the missing piece — a part of the sustainability conversation — is fashion's impact that it has on us as women from a health's perspective." -Kayti O'Connell Carr, Founder of MATE

On this week's show, Kayti shares more on her journey of starting MATE, and how much the brand has evolved since its early days as a vintage tee brand. Kestrel asks Kayti to walk us through her process of shifting MATE from using conventional fabrics to organic nontoxic options, and how their Dress Clean initiative now drives the company.

For Kayti, realizing the impact that clothing can have on women's health was a big moment for her, and influenced how she wanted to ensure MATE's products were nontoxic and healthy for our bodies.

The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat:

• Some resources Kayti used while conceptualizing the "Dress Clean" initiative for MATE: Documentaries The True Cost + River Blue, Wear No Evil by Greta Eagan + Conscious Chatter

• Dr. Zach Bush, his work focuses on how the soil of our health is interconnected with our individual health and the health of our planet

• "If you think about it, inside of a factory, there's hundreds of thousands of microfibers just flying around at any given time, and what does that look like if the product itself is made from polyester, which is a plastic. We as humans are ingesting plastic at very alarming rates."

• More on MATE's Dress Clean Initiative >