(re)connect

Jesse and Rachel share the moment that reframed how KOOSHOO thinks about quality. On a visit to their manufacturing partner in Japan, the operations manager looked at a slide showing the average US hair tie pack size (55 per pack) and asked a simple question: why does anyone need that many at once. In Japan, the standard pack size is two.

That question led to an independent lab test. The team sent their ten best selling US competitors to a third party lab alongside KOOSHOO's own ties. The result: KOOSHOO hair ties came back two to three times stronger than the nearest competitor.

This clip gets into the real story behind that data: how an entire industry built around disposability shaped what consumers expect to pay, why "made in the US" isn't automatically the more ethical choice, and what it means to build a product designed to be kept rather than replaced.

Want the full conversation? Go over to (re)connect wherever you get your podcasts.

Audrey Barucchi spent a decade inside a clean-tech startup that promised to solve the climate crisis. What she uncovered over those years, the financialisation of climate fear, the gap between bold claims and real impact, changed everything.

In this episode, Audrey shares her full journey: from a French military family with roots in the Southern Alps, to five continents, to building People For Nature on forty acres of Australian bushland. We talk about what it actually looks like to walk away from the capitalist system when you stop believing in it, and what it takes to choose active hope instead of cynicism.

We also get into Citizen COP, People for Nature's initiative to bring the global climate convention into local communities across Australia, and Audrey's philosophy that every single person is not a drop in the ocean, but the entire ocean in one drop.

This is a conversation about grounding, about motherhood as a multi-generational lens, about asking questions until you actually understand, and about what it means to build something with stubborn optimism.

Learn more about People For Nature & Citizen COP: https://www.peoplefornature.org.au/citizen-cop

green-socials.com | @reconnect.pod

Timestamps:

00:00 — Introduction
02:00 — Growing up in a French military family and finding roots in the Southern Alps
05:15 — Moving across cities and what finally made her stay in Australia
08:00 — Is physical grounding a prerequisite for connecting with nature?
11:00 — Motherhood as a multi-generational lens
16:50 — The full journey: US at 16, South America, China, India, Hong Kong
26:00 — Ten years inside a clean-tech startup
31:00 — Uncovering the financialisation of climate fear
35:20 — Advice for people working inside greenwashing organisations
41:20 — Moving from cynicism to active hope after walking away
46:50 — What is People for Nature and how does it work?
50:30 — The ripple effect: the train-the-trainer ambassador model
53:20 — Citizen COP: bringing COP31 into local communities across Australia
56:25 — Is the hunger for reconnection growing?
1:02:00 — What does the world you want to live in actually look like?

Most products have a backstory we never see. Jesse and Rachel, the co-founders of KOOSHOO, built their entire business on refusing to look away from it.

It started in Borneo, on a budget backpacking trip, standing in the middle of industrial waste that existed entirely to serve Western consumption. That moment planted a seed that took years, a detour through Peru, and a yoga teacher training in India to eventually become the world's first plastic-free hair accessory brand.

In this episode, we get into the full story. The winding path to hair accessories.

The decision to move manufacturing from Los Angeles to a Fair Trade nonprofit run by nuns in southern India and a family rope mill in Japan, and why "made locally" is not the straightforward win we assume it is.

What a Japanese manufacturer said the first time he saw a 55-pack of American hair ties.

And what Norfolk Island, where Rachel grew up and where KOOSHOO is now headquartered, still quietly teaches about community, scarcity, and living in connection with the land.

This is a conversation about doing business differently.

Learn more about their business: kooshoo.com

green-socials.com | @reconnect.pod

The words purpose-driven brands rely on most, like sustainable, eco-conscious, ethical, have been hollowed out. Greenwashing eroded trust. Greenhushing filled the silence. And the brands genuinely doing the work are paying the price for both.

In this episode, Valentine breaks down why most sustainability content fails to land, what's actually driving that gap, and the shift that changes things: leading with decision-making over declarations, specificity over positioning, and honest imperfection over polished credentials.

Learn more about our studio work: green-socials.com

Follow us on Instagram @reconnect.pod

We are living through an unprecedented wave of eco-anxiety. Research shows that 75% of young people globally believe the future is frightening, and that number is growing. But what if the real crisis isn't just ecological? What if it's also a failure of collective imagination?

In this first solo episode, Valentine introduces herself and the thesis behind (re)connect: that the stories we tell about the future shape the future we build. Drawing on the works of Jules Verne and the science of eco-anxiety, she makes the case for why learning to dream differently might be one of the most radical acts available to us right now.

Learn more about our studio work: green-socials.com

Follow us on Instagram @reconnect.pod