Ethically Questionable

This week Jamila and Jenn look at two very different "cancellations" making headlines right now. The Met Gala had to scrap a planned museum exhibition honoring designer John Galliano after backlash over antisemitic remarks he made back in 2011, remarks serious enough that a French court actually convicted him for them. Meanwhile, Washington Post opinion columnist Karen Attiah was fired within 24 hours of a single post about Charlie Kirk, only for an arbitrator to rule a year later that the firing was unlawful and order her reinstated with full backpay. Same news cycle, same word getting thrown around, but two stories that raise pretty different questions. Does everyone get a path back, and should they? Where's the line between accountability and overreaction? And is "cancel culture" even the right term for either of these? Jamila and Jenn break it down.

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This week on Ethically Questionable News, Jamila and Jenn pause to talk about the death of Cambridge professor Jason Arday following weeks of press scrutiny, and what it says about the responsibility we all carry (media and public alike) for the negativity we aim at real people, from Meghan Markle to public figures closer to home.

Then it's onto some good news: a new Queen Mary University of London study tracking children's lung development in London versus Luton since 2018 has found that London kids' lungs, once measurably smaller due to pollution, have caught up to their Luton counterparts since ULEZ was introduced. Jenn and Jamila break down what ULEZ actually does, why Sadiq Khan took heat for implementing it with "no proof," and why this study changes that. They also get into the pushback ULEZ still faces, the affordability options people overlook, and how cities from Milan to Tokyo to New York are tackling emissions in their own ways.

A story about clean air, common sense, and holding both the press and ourselves accountable for the impact we have on others.

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This week, Jamila and Jenn tear into OpenAI's very first influencer trip, a "digital detox" weekend at a luxury eco-farm upstate, complete with workshops on using ChatGPT more, because nothing says reconnect with nature like a company whose data centers are draining it. They debate whether OpenAI is uniquely tone-deaf or just doing what every tech giant does at Cannes Lions, and why Anthropic still gets the benefit of the doubt (one good podcast interview will do that). Then the conversation turns local: a new data center approved in Jamila's own London borough of Ealing boasts the world's largest solar panel wall, which, once you do the math, will power the facility for a grand total of three hours a year, while residents brace for flickering lights and low water pressure. All of it lands in the middle of London's third drought in five years, a crisis the UK still has no public playbook for. Grab your hose pipe ban and settle in.

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Ethically Questionable: Joe Roberts Walker

Jamila's back from a summer break with Mejuicer founder Joe Roberts Walker, whose circular ginger-shot subscription business supplies offices, festivals, and film sets (Netflix, The Crown) across London. Riding in the Polestar, they dig into six years of building a business reputation: why treating reputation like compounding capital beats chasing viral moments, why "virtue signaling" got an unfairly bad rap, and the customer-service instinct to hit refund rather than argue. Joe opens up about early-career regrets managing his own staff, why he turns away arms-fair clients on principle, and his frustration with governments pushing individual sustainability guilt while big polluters coast on PR. It closes with a rapid-fire Ethical or Questionable on daily LinkedIn posting and working with reputationally shaky clients.

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Meta's AI glasses are being called "pervert glasses" for a reason. Jamila and Jenn break down the covert filming, the "Hey Meta" data pipeline, the content reviewers, and why wrapping all of it in a Kylie Jenner collab makes it worse, not better.

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In this week’s Ethically Questionable news segment, Jamila Brown and Jenn McGarrigle dive into the viral “death pants” conversation around Zara and what it reveals about fast fashion, overproduction, and the hidden cost of trends. From pants getting caught in escalators and bikes to the bigger problem of flammable jumpers, destroyed stock, and overflowing secondhand markets, they unpack how price, status, and brand image can mask serious quality and sustainability issues. The conversation turns to the EU’s new rules on unsold textiles, exploring whether legislation can actually push brands toward better design, more transparency, and a more circular future. It’s sharp, funny, and hopeful with a clear message: progress may be imperfect, but the fashion industry has to start doing better.

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