Unbiased Label

This episode is a conversation with Lucy Love who is the founder and voice behind Purely Being Guided Meditations.  In her decade long pursuit of living with transformation, Lucy has developed the art of meditation which she shares in her blog, Youtube channel, Instagram, Pinterest and weekly podcast Purely Being Guided Meditations. 

Lucy's meditation philosophy is a "daily practice of tuning-in that allows you to recharge your body and mind while creating space to move from habitual living to inspired being." Please join us as we talk about what meditation is as a practice, fashion as a reflection of your internal light, the power of love to heal, and living in your purpose.

This episode is a conversation with Mukul Bhatia who is an award-winning visual artist from India based in Bali focused on sustainability, travel and fashion.  Mukul has been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, GQ and TEDx, and winner of Cosmopolitan India’s  2020 Blogger Award for ‘Sustainable Fashion Influencer of the Year’. 

Please join us as we talk about India, the love of sustainable fashion, honest curiosity in gloablised culture, and art of boundless living.

This episode is a conversation with Olly Kennedy who is a consultant and PhD Researcher at the University of Liverpool focused on manufacturing operations and supply chain.  In this talk, we examine the U.K. Modern Slavery Act, the exploitation in the fashion textile industry, the notion of boundaries, the power of consumption, and discuss frameworks as possible solutions to these complex social ills.  

Recently, the Guardian announced that "the UK government is considering the introduction of a clothing trade adjudicator, who would monitor large retailers’ relationships with their suppliers. A former director of Labour Market Enforcement, Matthew Taylor, has also backed the concept amid fears that voluntary measures have failed to make substantial improvements to pay and working conditions in the fashion industry. The issue has been highlighted in the past year by revelations about conditions in the Leicester clothing factories supplying the online fashion group Boohoo as well as difficulties for overseas suppliers as orders were cancelled because of the global Covid pandemic (Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/22/uk-considers-clothing-trade-adjudicator-tackle-labour-abuses-working-conditions-mps)."

"The U.K. Modern Slavery Act will give law enforcement the tools to fight modern slavery, ensure perpetrators can receive suitably severe punishments for these appalling crimes and enhance support and protection for victims. It received Royal Assent on Thursday 26 March 2015 (Source: gov.uk/government/collections/modern-slavery-bill)."

The act will:

consolidate and simplify existing offences into a single act

ensure that perpetrators receive suitably severe punishments for modern slavery crimes (including life sentences)

enhance the court’s ability to put restrictions on individuals where it’s necessary to protect people from the harm caused by modern slavery offences

create an independent anti-slavery commissioner to improve and better coordinate the response to modern slavery

introduce a defence for victims of slavery and trafficking

place a duty on the secretary of state to produce statutory guidance on victim identification and victim services

enable the secretary of state to make regulations relating to the identification of and support for victims

make provision for independent child trafficking advocates

introduce a new reparation order to encourage the courts to compensate victims where assets are confiscated from perpetrators

enable law enforcement to stop boats where slaves are suspected of being held or trafficked

require businesses over a certain size to disclose each year what action they have taken to ensure there is no modern slavery in their business or supply chains

This bonus episode is a talk by Zara Korutz for the DePaul Pop Culture Conference "A Celebration of Superheroes". 

Please join the conference on May 1, 2021 by registering at https://popcultureconference.com/2020-superheroes

Abstract:

Superman, who is a manufactured entertainment superhero character, can be considered an iconic symbol of the Pop-culture Movement in the 1960s— an era when cultural authorities used zeitgeist philosophies, like ‘Camp’, as a way of deciphering new intellectual approaches to artistic sub-cultural phenomena and social revolutions. Superman’s appearance holds cultural power through iconography which is a visual language of social significance that belongs in a larger contextual social structure as outlined in semiotics (Barthes 1995). 

Superman’s power is marked by his fashion and is integral to understanding his identity. The often-dramatic transformation from his alter-ego identity allows for the possibility of another truth, and this duality creates a sense of magical escapism which is fundamental to understanding the superhero’s construct— wherein the costume, like a suit, is used as a ‘weapon of style’ (Breward 2016:116) that holds special powers of physical and ideological strength (Brownie and Graydon 2016).  Superman’s fashioned muscular body can be understood as a metaphor for transforming queer modes of representation in society into dominant modes through symbols of commodified hegemonic masculine power. Therefore, Superman’s secret is a paradox of perceived truth that is not fixed but relative to the state of being (Basu 2017).

Sincere gratitude to Dr. Jane Tynan, Dr. Royce Mahwatte and Dr. Elizabeth Kutesko for their support of this research.  

References

Barthes, R. (1995) The Semiotic Challenge. University of California Press.

Basu, P. (2017) The Inbetweenness of Things. Materializing Mediation and Movement Between

Worlds. London and New York: Bloomsbury.

Breward, C. (2016) The Suit: Form, Function and Style. London: Reaktion Books Ltd.

Breward, C. (1998) Cultures, Identities, Histories: Fashioning a Cultural Approach to Dress,  Fashion Theory, 2:4, 301-313.

Brownie, B. and Graydon, D (2016) The Superhero Costume. London and New York:  Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.

Meyer, M. (1994) The Politics and Poetics of Camp. London & New York: Routledge.

Sontag, S. (2018) Notes on Camp. Penguin Random House UK.

Cover Photo: Courtesy ClipArt.info

This episode is part 2 of a 2 part conversation with Maxim Silaev who is an Entrepreneur & Technical leader/ Software Security Designer & Architect/ Quantitive trader based in Australia.  Max is founder of several global companies focused on algorithmic trading, cryptocurrency, Blockchain, artificial intelligence and software engineering. 

For more information, please see https://maxsilaev.com

Please join us as we talk about Blockchain technology, NFTs and the use of cryptocurrency.

This episode is part 1 of a 2 part conversation with Maxim Silaev who is an Entrepreneur & Technical leader/ Software Security Designer & Architect/ Quantitive trader based in Australia.  Max is founder of several companies focused on algorithmic trading, cryptocurrency, Blockchain, artificial intelligence and software engineering who works with international partners from USA, Australia, UK, Singapore, Russia, Ukraine, India, Laos, and Thailand.  

Maxim, who started his career almost 20 years ago as a software engineer designing and coding a number of network utilities and service cores, has since then focusing on the cybersecurity field where he worked with tech giants like Kaspersky Lab, IBM and Microsoft.  For the past 10 years, Maxim's focus is on AI technologies, and development of modelling algorithms and technologies. What makes Max different is the way he examines client’s business and offers bespoke digital solutions.  

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Max has built over 30 projects in various industries and domains, which includes:

- Prediction modelling

- Mathematical statistics

- Software engineering and team leadership

- Big data analytics

- Network security threat modelling

- Threat and risk analysis

- Software security design

For more information, please see https://maxsilaev.com.

Please join us as we talk about the use of technology to bridge the digital world with the physical world through unique interactive experiences.   In this episode, we talk about artificial intelligence, machine learning, data, and the use of Smart View technology in fashion retail.

This episode is conversation with Rabi Yansane who is a Guinean-Senegalese, Paris-based fashion entrepreneur and cultural intermediary.  She worked for many years as an intercultural language consultant in Germany, and also along side independent fashion designers in Japan, Senegal and France.  While living in Tokyo, Rabi discovered her fashion purpose as an intercultural brand curator bridging together cultures and fashion. Rabi is founder of TAABARA, a clothing distribution company celebrating responsible African fashion in Japan.

Please join us for part 2 of a 2 part conversation talking about the beauty of being a fashion outsider, the art of being a cultural bridge, and the importance of acknowledging the artisan and the culture.

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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/zara-korutz/message

This episode is conversation with Rabi Yansane who is a Guinean-Senegalese, Paris-based fashion entrepreneur and cultural intermediary. She worked for many years as an intercultural language consultant in Germany, and also along side independent fashion designers in Japan, Senegal and France.  While living in Tokyo, Rabi discovered her fashion purpose as an intercultural brand curator bridging together cultures and fashion. Rabi is founder of TAABARA, a clothing distribution company celebrating responsible African fashion in Japan.

Please join us for part 1 of a 2 part series conversation talking about the art of wanderlust, the beauty of discovering your purpose, the personal joy of fashion, and reflections of life.  

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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/zara-korutz/message

This episode is a conversation with Danielle Radojcin who is a London based fashion, art and culture multimedia journalist and podcast producer.  Danielle's clients include Miu Miu, Matches Fashion and the British Fashion Council.  She started her career at Vogue and has worked at GQ, ASOS, Net-A-Porter and is currently a contributing editor for MATCHESFASHION.COM as well as an associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins on the MA Fashion Journalism course.  Danielle is founder and host of the podcast In Talks With-- bitesize conversations with luminaries about contemporary culture. 

Please join us for a casual conversation discussing Danielle's career as a fashion journalist and her wisdom on success, thoughts on culture and 1990s subcultures, and ideas surrounding fashion in the contemporary world.

This episode is a conversation with Christian Benjamin who is a Washington, D.C. based cultural tastemaker, thought leader and entrepreneur. Christian is the founder and Creative Director of Story MKTG, a full service creative and marketing agency focused on mission based initiatives with authentic storytelling representing cultures from communities of colour. 

Story MKTG's client roster includes brands McDonalds, Ciroc, and Seagram's with a creative portfolio that includes White House Administration initiative My Brother’s Keeper under U.S. President Barack Obama, United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up initiative, San Francisco’s Young Community Developers Organization, and The Made in Africa Experience. Christian is also partner of Eighty5 Cigars, a Black-owned cigar company.

Please join us for a conversation discussing the journey of being an entrepreneur, ideas rooted in authentic diversity & inclusion, the importance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in America, Black American culture, and Kanye West as a cultural change maker.

For more information, please see www.storymktg.com and www.eighty5cigars.com