In this episode of Athena’s Leading Without Illusions, hosts Holly Smithson and Jaye Connolly sit down with Dr. Steven Morris, founder of Unchained Solutions, a Sydney-based consulting firm focused on modern slavery risk in global supply chains. Sparked by a recent conference in Perth on battery minerals and the growing demand for critical resources in the AI era, the conversation explores the hidden human cost behind “cheap and fast” consumption, including forced labor, child labor, and trafficking.

Dr. Morris unpacks why modern slavery persists, how globalization and consumer culture can normalize exploitation, and why legal mandates like Australia’s Modern Slavery Act are often what finally push organizations to look deeper. The discussion also challenges common narratives around ethical sourcing, exposing how “sustainable” claims can become marketing language without real traceability, verification, and accountability. The result is a provocative look at what we’re underwriting when we buy, and what it takes to build systems that make exploitation harder to hide.