Ethically Questionable
Join Jamila Brown, former Global Head of Sustainability and Social Impact at Soho House, as she explores how to live a fulfilling life without harming the planet. Each week, she talks to culture shapers, industry innovators, and impact activists about topics like fashion, food, dating, design, wealth building, and wellness. The podcast offers simple swaps, mindset shifts, and insights to decode greenwashing and make more ethical choices. It's a guide to figuring out what's worth keeping in the pursuit of a good life.
Episodes
People Don't Really Like Starbucks Anymore
Starbucks wants to get “Back to Starbucks.” So why has it just dropped or scaled back most of the sustainability goals it set in 2020, including its targets to halve water use and landfill waste, while CEO Brian Niccol pushes through $2 billion in cost cuts?This week on EQ News, Jamila Brown and Jenn McGarrigle get into the Financial Times report on Starbucks’ retreat from its green goals. Jamila
We're Creating a Culture Where Sexual Assault is an Opinion
Trigger warning: this episode discusses sexual assault.A former Cornell student alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven fraternity members in 2024. Messages about it were reportedly shared in a group chat with dozens of other men, and no one stepped in. The district attorney didn't bring charges, and Cornell handed out sanctions that included essays and workshops. Two years on,
Hating AI Whilst Using AI
Artificial intelligence is becoming impossible to ignore. It is changing how businesses operate, how people work, how students learn, and even how we think about productivity.But behind the excitement is a much harder question: What happens when we adopt AI faster than we understand its consequences?In this episode of Ethically Questionable, Jamila Brown and Susan Allen Augustin explore the uncomf
EQ News: Live from Climate Week NYC w Plant Kween
Recorded live at DUMBO House for Climate Week NYC, Jamila welcomes back her first ever repeat guest, Christopher Griffin, aka Plant Kween, educator, storyteller and author of You Grow Girl.Between them they've been to a lot of events this week, and they've pulled out the three conversations they kept hearing everywhere.Nature as infrastructure, not decoration. Street trees placed where the
EQ News: Fashion, Porn, Sports, Music
This week's news cycle had it all, and Jamila and Jenn are not holding back. First up: CFDA CEO Steve Kolb's shocking physical altercation with PETA protesters at a COS runway show, caught on camera and now under investigation. Then, adult content creator Lily Phillips teams up with Yellow Dot Studios (the team behind Don't Look Up) on a provocative climate change campaign that's turning heads for
The Clothes Are Not Alright
Why "Polyester" Became an Insult (And Why Brands Are Still Making More of It)Shayeza Walid, sustainability journalist at The Business of FashionPolyester turned into a slur online this year. Teenagers use it to mean cheap, plastic, fake, and people now read clothing labels the way they read ingredients lists. So the obvious question is whether any of that hatred has changed what the industry actua
EQ News: Champagne on the Titanic
This year's heatwaves have produced what English wine growers are calling a genuine vintage year for sparkling wine, and that's not a coincidence. Jamila and Jenn get into three reports that landed this week and what they add up to. The UN's new Limiting Overshoot report says the world is on track to blow past 1.5°C, likely reaching 1.8°C or higher under current policies, and lays out what actuall
EQ News: Do Some People Deserve To Be Cancelled?
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 h
EQ News: Gen Z's Nastiest New Slang Word Is Coming for Your Wardrobe
Gen Z has a new insult and it is savage. This week Jamila and Jenn break down "polyester," the TikTok slang word taking over from "larp" to call something fake, janky, and low effort. Except it turns out the word did not come out of nowhere. Its a direct analogy to the actual fabric. Tune in as we trace how a fiber that was once sold to 1950s housewives as a wrinkle free miracle became such an ins
EQ News: Imagine Being Mad about Kids Having Clean Air
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
EQ News: Trump Thinks the Oil Companies are Making Too Much Money... Duh
Big Oil just posted $93 billion in profits in three months while the rest of us pay more to fill up our cars. Jamila and Jenn dig into the Guardian investigation showing eight major oil companies nearly doubled their earnings during the Iran conflict, why "the market" means we all pay more even when a country produces its own oil, and the surprising twist: even Trump thinks Exxon and Chevron are m
EQ News: Open AI's Influencer Trip + London Droughts and Data Centers
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 stil
To Send or Not To Send That Fiery Email... That is the Question
Ethically Questionable: Joe Roberts WalkerJamila'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 mo
EQ News: Meta AI's Pervert Glasses
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.Electrified by PolestarFollow us below for more:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ethicallyquestionable/TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@ethicallyques
EQ News: Zara's Death Pants & The EU Ban on Destroying Unsold Clothes
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,
EQ News: Pete Hegseth Serving Weirdo Misogynist Yet Again
This week on EQ News we cover 2 stories both about the US Secretary of War (gag) Pete Hegseth. With a new investment in testosterone for US troops, and divestment in Women's Leadership... what other conclusions can we really come to? Pete Hegseth is a weirdo misogynist and we really gotta vote the folks who put him in power out ya'll... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Rewind: You're Thinking About Your Wardrobe All Wrong
We're off this week guys so dropping one of our most listened to episodes in the feed for you with ByRotation Founder Eshita Kabra-Davies on building out the wardrobe of your dreams without f*cking up the planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
EQ News: Nigel Farage vs Count Bin Face
In a world where your options for political leadership are a man often confused for a walking trash can or Count Binface who will the people of Clacton-on-Sea vote for? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
From Tequila to Tween Skincare - Can these Businesses be a Force for Good?
Elise Som is the serial entrepreneur behind Mijenta, a B Corp tequila made with recycled glass bottles and just three ingredients, and Bare la Terre, a compostable kids' skincare line her daughter asked her to build. On the pod, she and Jamila get into why simpler products are actually cheaper to make, why ESG departments are mostly talk without action, and why banning kids from skincare doesn't w
What Does Public Art Have To Do With Anything?
Jamila gets in the car with Marine Tanguy, founder of the world's first B Corp art agency MTArt and author of A Visual Detox, to talk about something most of us never clock: the art and advertising around us is quietly deciding who matters.Marine breaks down the brutal stat behind UK billboards (the poorer your postcode, the more ads you see), why 97% of London's sculptures depict men on pedestals
EQ News: Heatwaves, Handshakes, Horrible Instagram Posts
TW: We discuss world cup players involved in sexual assault casesThis week Jenn and I cover the massive heat dome burning up Europe, feminism and misogyny at the World Cup, and all the insane responses we've seen to these things along the way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Wine Lovers, This One’s for You
Ever wonder if something as simple as switching up your go to wine order at the bar or on your shopping trip can have a positive impact on the planet? Enter Corinna Pyke, Marketing and Partnerships Director whose advice is probably not what you were expecting to hear.Don't miss this week's episode of Ethically Questionable, filmed front seat of our Polestar for a convo on materials, methodology, a
EQ News: Elon Musk's Financial Obesity + The Social Media Ban & The Slow Death of Net Zero
This week on EQ News, Jamila, Jenn, and Aisling dig into the three stories dominating their feeds.Jenn returns with an update on the salmon crisis and the science behind what researchers are calling the "extinction vortex." Aisling unpacks the SBTi's major overhaul of net zero standards and whether more flexibility for companies is progress or a cop-out. And Jamila makes the case that we need a we
Candice Brathwaite on the Changing World of Brand, Influence, & Value Alignment
This week we have two-time Sunday Times bestselling author and podcaster Candice Brathwaite in the Polestar for a deep dive on the changing world of brand partnerships, influence, and value alignment. In a world where we're stuck to our devices, either as creators or consumers of content, what do we sell when we sell out to bad brands, and how do we reclaim that space? To help us unpack that, Cand
EQ News: Farmed Salmon Boycott, Free Ben & Jerry's, plus Woodland Inheritance Fraud
Will a campaign in the restaurant sector to boycott farmed salmon save our waterways? Will Ben & Jerry ever free Ben & Jerry's from their evil corporate overload The Magnum Ice Cream Corporation? Can Planting Trees as an Inheritance Tax Loop Hole save the world? We question all of this and more on this weeks... Ethically Questionable News. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in
Would You Let An Algorithm Make Your Dinner?
Sophia Roe doesn't mince words. In this episode we get into the quiet automation of our food system — from AI-generated recipes to big farming's grip on what ends up on your plate — and ask what we're actually losing when convenience becomes the default. Cooking skills. Nutritional value. The connection between a person and what they eat. Do you really want to be eating auto-food? Hosted on Acast.
EQ News: The Plastic Detox, Cancelled Flights, & Pattie Gonia - Live from SXSW London
Sustainability experts Jenn & Aisling are on the pod for our first ever "Ethically Questionable News" episode recorded at SXSW London. Tune is as we gossip about Everlane and Shein, Plastic Sperm, Jet2 Holidays 2 Nowhere, and a Drag Queen Climate Activist who didn't hike 100 miles through the California wildnerness in full glam for this shit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf
Miranda Priestly With A Conscience
Lucy Cleland is the editorial director and founder of Country & Townhouse, the world's first B Corp glossy magazine, and one of the most quietly radical publications in British media. In this episode, we drive through West London talking about why luxury has nothing to do with what you own, the psychology behind why we buy things we don't need (or even like!), and how some of Britain's most be
Plant People Get It
The PlantKween has Spoken - and they are here to help you rethink your relationship with your houseplants. Yes they are pretty, yes they need love, yes you can (and should) give it! Because as Plant Kween always says - if you can learn to care for a plant, then you can care for the planet, and at the end of the day, won't that save us all. Ethically Questionable is electrified by @PolestarCars. F
Top of the Game and Top of the Ethical Food Chain?
So, you want to be a good leader? Join us this week as we host my old boss, and hospitality industry legend MARTIN KUCZMARSKI of Soho House, The Dover, Dover St Counter, and Martino's fame in the Polestar for a chat on being best in the biz, and the things he wishes people would take inspiration from in his brands beyond the aesthetics and the vibes. For more on MK, his hospitality ventures, and h
Should Designers Demand More in Exchange for the Clout they Bring?
This week we catch up with @DearTyler designer and Project Runway star TYLER NEASLONEY on fashion, fabrics and fascism. We chat about ethical expectations in high design, if you should work with people/systems you don't agree with, and of course the viral "Not even to dinner with the Kushners" moment which has been living rent free in my head for years. The convo left me wondering - in a world whe
You're Thinking about Your Wardrobe All Wrong
This week we catch up with the founder By Rotation the world's largest clothing rental app ESHITA KABRA-DAVIES on looking at your wardrobe as an asset, and making the circular and sharing economies work for your wallet as well as your morals. Our simple swap this week - search with www.Ecosia.org get the app on your homescreen or whatever and help that ad revenue flow towards some environmental go
Could I date someone who didn't believe in Climate Change?
This week we have OLIVIA PETTER in the Polestar. Sex and relationships journalist, author, and broadcaster Olivia and I deep dive into the intersections of choosing your life partner and living a life aligned to your values. Cuz compromise is tough ya'll, but some things just aren't worth letting your standards slip for.Sustainable Sex Toys: www.thenaturallovecompany.com Hosted on Acast. See acast
An Ethically Questionable Manifesto
Welcome to Ethically Questionable, a show about having everything you want in life without f*cking up the planet. Episode 1 is our manifesto. I gotta level set with you guys and help you tear down all the crazy things you think and feel and have heard about being more sustainable. Most of the negative stuff is bullsh*t. Cleanse your palette with me and then lets start the show! Hosted on Acast. Se
Trailer
Ethically Questionable is a new podcast helping us figure out how we can have everything we want in life without f*cking up the planet. Hosted by Jamila Brown and Launching April 22nd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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