Most creators are building brands, growing audiences, and closing deals — without ever being taught the financial infrastructure underneath it all. This changes today.

Recorded live at the inaugural ShopMy x STEWARD Media event in New York City, this is Part 1 of a financial empowerment series built specifically for creators — conversations the industry usually has behind closed doors.

Host Sophia Li leads two panels with experts:

On taxes: CPA and Dumb Rich founder Ariel LaFond, author Erika Veurink, and creator Julia McGuire break down how to stop dreading tax season and start using it as a wealth-building tool.

On building wealth: Samir Sama of Chapter One and Sherif Hamid, Head of Talent Ventures at WME, pull back the curtain on equity deals, brand partnerships, and what sustainable creator wealth actually looks like.

Listen for clarity on your finances, a new relationship with money and the language to advocate for yourself.

This episode includes references to the STEWARD Financial Literacy Handbook — follow @sophfei and @steward.media to get your digital copy.

Welcome to Season 2! This live Lunar New Year edition welcomes best-selling author and astrologist Liz Tran to unpack the Year of the Fire Horse — a rare, once-every-60-years cosmic surge of intensity, change, and opportunity. Recorded fireside at 929, Manhattan's iconic canto-pop cocktail lounge, Liz decodes what this energy means for how we make decisions, take risks, and adapt — then connects it to the framework at the heart of her new book, AQ (Agility Quotient ).

Discover your AQ archetype and leave with rituals, mindset shifts and concrete action steps to move through 2026 with clarity and momentum. Happy year of the fire horse!

Speaker:

Liz Tran, Author of AQ, Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker

Resources:

Order a copy of AQ here

Take the AQ Archetypes Quiz here

If you would like to join for a future live podcast taping, follow @sophfei and @steward.media for upcoming events

Credits:

Created by Sophia Li

Produced by Delilah Harvey, PodHouse

Video by PodHouse

Filmed at 929, a cocktail bar inspired by Canto and Mando pop. The bar sits inside Hue House, a four-story cultural and create space built to celebrate Asian heritage through food, design, wellness and community.

Welcome back! STEWARD is evolving into exploring the vital intersection of spirituality, sustainability, and longevity, holding space for the profound dualities of our time for collective healing.

This Movember, we confront a pressing issue: the crisis in men's mental health, particularly for white men who face alarming rates of loneliness, addiction, and suicide, while historically hold power in systems like patriarchy and colonialism. Can spiritual fulfillment be the disruptive force, allowing white men to transform these systems from within? Join us as we speak with three men who left corporate careers for spiritual paths, exploring their journey of reconciling privilege, family, and purpose in the heart of New York City.

Our speakers:

Abie Cohen: Managing Partner of Centre Street Partners

George MacPherson: Founder of Sound of the Times

Jeremy Fisher: Spiritual Coach & Guide

Resources:

Attend George’s upcoming sound meditation here. Schedule a discovery call with Jeremy here. Discover more of Abie’s work here.

Stay up to date with Sophia ⁠@sophfei⁠ and ⁠@steward.media⁠ on Instagram and Tiktok

Credits:

Created by Sophia Li

Produced by Morgan Von Steen, Delilah Harvey, PodHouse

Video by PodHouse

Filmed at 113 Spring, STEWARD listeners receive a complimentary beverage when booking the Emergence meditation experience here

Introducing a new format: STEWARD Debates! Join host Sophia Li for a live debate to a sold-out audience recorded during New York Climate Week to tackle this question: Are Sustainability and Affordability Complementary or Contradictory?”

A responsibly made cotton T-shirt costs twice to three times its fast-fashion equivalent. In food, organic produce can cost over 50% more than conventional options, while globally we waste nearly one-third of all food produced. And in design and culture, circular practices promise longevity, yet require upfront costs many cannot afford.

The paradox deepens when we look at scale: producing “sustainable” goods for millions often means consuming more land, water, and energy in absolute terms. What sustains the planet in principle may strain resources in practice.

To explore this tension, we are joined by voices across fashion, food, culture, and design, who will test not only the economic models but the moral imperatives that shape how we live, eat, wear, and create. This episode explores the tensions with access, ethics, and economic realities from personal and industry lenses.

This powerhouse panel features experts from design, fashion, food, and culture:

Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ingka Group

Hawa Hassan, Chef and James Beard Award Winner

Adam Met, Musician AJR Band, Adjunct Professor at Columbia

Olivia Cheng, Founder & Creative Director Dauphinette

Join us for a stimulating discussion where our panelists are given the rare space to speak freely about these controversies with the help of some audience participation. 

Resources:

Read Adam Met’s Neo-Industrial Revolution: A Declaration for a New American Climate

Buy Hawa’s new cookbook: Setting a Place For Us

Read Karen’s opinion piece: It’s Time To Make Sustainability Work for the Many

Stay up to date with Sophia ⁠@sophfei⁠ and ⁠@steward.media⁠ on Instagram and Tiktok.

Credits:

Created by Sophia Li

Produced by Morgan Von Steen, Delilah Harvey, PodHouse

Video by PodHouse

Hosted at The Bench

Sophia Li joins Outrage + Optimism for this special preview episode for the Be Hope global podcast takeover - a collaboration of shows amplifying courage and possibility in facing the greatest challenges of our time.

Alongside Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson, we explore how states, cities, and communities in the US are holding the line on climate when federal leadership fails.

What does it take to take Trump to court on clean energy? Attorney General Peter Neronha of Rhode Island tells us about his landmark lawsuit to restart the nearly completed Revolution Wind project.

How can we bring more people with us on this transition? Musician and climate advocate  Adam Met introduces his Neo-Industrial Revolution declaration, calling for a new language of climate that connects with jobs, prosperity and everyday lives.

From Courtrooms to Statehouses: The US Climate Pushback.

Follow ⁠@outrageoptimism and Sophia ⁠@sophfei⁠. Stay up to date with us ⁠@steward.media⁠ on Instagram.

We're back! Just as we wrap up fashion month, Sophia chats with Kering’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Marie-Claire Daveu, for a live discussion on what comes next at this pivotal moment for fashion.

In 2019,  Kering (home to Gucci, Balenciaga, YSL to name a few) was ranked the world’s second most sustainable company across all industries—and #1 in luxury and fashion by the Corporate Knights’ Global 100 Index. This episode dives into how fashion brands can reconcile growth with sustainability and how do we move past consumer sustainability fatigue?

Follow @kering_official and Sophia @sophfei. Stay up to date with us @steward.media on Instagram.

This episode features Dr. Britt Wray, researcher, director of CIRCLE at Stanford Psychiatry and author of Generation Dread.

STEWARD Asks explores the questions on everyone's mind—the complex, urgent issues of impact, climate, and sustainability—through insightful 1x1 interviews with today's leading voices. Stay up to date with us ⁠@steward.media⁠ on Instagram.

Go to ⁠mill.com/steward⁠ for $75 off your Mill food recycler that handles peels, bones, stalks, and forgotten leftovers.

Welcome to a special Earth Month edition of STEWARD podcasts in collaboration with Beyond Noise. As the current headlines are dominated by the state of the economy, we dive into how investing in climate is good for the economy and planet and how to strategically disrupt while navigating change.

Meet our roundtable speakers:

Ida Liu, Former Global Head, Citi Private Bank, @idaliu1

Samina Virk, North America CEO of Vestiaire Collective, @saminanyc3

Lauren Singer, co-founder, Overview Capital, @trashisfortossers

Marina Testino, Sustainability Editor, Beyond Noise, @marinatestino

Moderated by Sophia Li, award-winning journalist, @sophfei

Stay up to date with us ⁠@steward.media⁠ on Instagram.

Go to ⁠mill.com/steward⁠ for $75 off your Mill food recycler that handles peels, bones, stalks, and forgotten leftovers.

Welcome to STEWARD Asks with award-winning journalist Sophia Li. This first podcast is asking a very hard truth: have we reached 1.5 °C?

This podcast was filmed at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan in conversation with acclaimed filmmaker and climate activist, Josh Tickell. He is the mastermind behind the documentary Kiss the Ground which is a three-part feature length documentary series on solutions to combat the climate crisis like regenerative agriculture. Common Ground, their second part of this trilogy is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. 

Follow Josh @joshtickell and Sophia @sophfei. Stay up to date with us @steward.media on Instagram.

Go to mill.com/steward for $75 off your Mill food recycler that handles peels, bones, stalks, and forgotten leftovers.