Welcome to the third episode of our new podcast, Don’t Change a Thing, sponsored by BetterHelp, the online, accessible therapy site. Visit Betterhelp.com/dontchange and use promo code: dontchange to try BetterHelp today. In this NEW episode of our podcast, "Don't Change a Thing," Elisa and Lily sit down with Jordan Underwood, a queer, trans, non-binary activist, model, and dancer who shares their experience being an active, healthy fat person who developed Lipodema, a disorder that led them to g...
Jul 18, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 61
Welcome to the 2nd episode of our new video podcast, ‘Don’t Change a Thing’! In this episode, Elisa and Lily sit down with Sonya Renee Taylor, author of seven books including the best-selling The Body is Not an Apology, on her journey from life collapsing around her in 2020 to finding the ultimate home in herself through the power of radical self-love. In this transformative conversation, Sonya shares her journey from surviving to thriving by tending to herself and her grief. Watch the video ver...
Jul 11, 2024•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 60
Welcome to the relaunch of our podcast, with a new name, ‘Don’t Change a Thing’, sponsored by BetterHelp, the online, accessible therapy site. Visit Betterhelp.com/dontchange and use promo code: dontchange to try BetterHelp today. In our premiere episode, we sat down with the legendary B. Akerlund who has styled Madonna, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and more. We first featured her 10 years ago in our Closet series and caught up with her today to talk about aging, motherhood, her career, rejecting the pres...
Jun 27, 2024•37 min•Ep. 58
In this week’s episode of our podcast, former Fashion Stylist turned Radical Dance Teacher, Kate Shela, wants to be seen for exactly who she is, no matter the “risk.” She exchanged her career in fashion and the dream of being a professional dancer (both paths that relied on achieving unattainable ideals of external perfection) for the rewards of healing herself and others as a teacher of the legendary 5 Rhythms dynamic movement practice, a method of dance that allows people to embody their whole...
Aug 20, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 40
Elisa and Lily sit down with inspirational stylist, fashion consultant, author, magazine editor, and former co-host of What Not To Wear, Stacy London. Style by fire, Stacy’s trademark “Morticia” gray streak grew in when she was eleven and she has been refusing to hide it ever since. But it isn’t until turning 50 that she is actually having a midlife Renaissance in her Princess dresses and finally feeling a deep comfort in her skin. She is coming into her own having done life her way; not married...
May 30, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 39
Their own hero, Janaya’s all-black uniform can be packed in 7 minutes flat in case they are called to the front lines as an activist and organizer, where they have the responsibility of redirecting rage and rallying community around politically and socially charged moments. You will also find them wearing black in the boxing ring, where they have learned to punch without apology and where they have found refuge as a black, queer, non-binary person in an inclusive space. Janaya’s heroic qualities...
May 23, 2019•58 min•Ep. 38
Relinquishing shame and stepping into her fullest self is what impersonating others did for Chloe Fineman once she discovered comedy. But her journey to this comfort within only came after lots of zigs and zags. For years, Chloe struggled to fit into a traditional acting career that demanded she shrink herself both literally and figuratively to fit into a waify ingenue “hot girl box.” But a bout with anorexia followed by a chapter of overeating ice cream and blowing out her thyroid led to a dram...
May 09, 2019•59 min•Ep. 37
Born in Kenya of Maasai and Kikuyu roots, Neema Githere has faced the harsh realities of growing up in racist America and, at 21 is proudly living the life of her choosing. With her crown of Bantu hair knots and rainbow braids, she had the smarts to get into almost every ivy league school from a small town in Colorado, where she was feared and fetishized for her difference. She later had the bravery to drop out of Yale in favor of a life outside the systems that oppress her, upon realizing that ...
May 02, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 36
The objectification of women, as represented by the sexualization and thus censorship of their breasts, is such a profound form of systemic oppression that Sister Leona sees no other route to liberation than to rip off her shirt, tap into her inner superhero and take to the streets in protest. Her goal is to get the Equal Rights Amendment into the Constitution and showing up topless outside of the Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings and getting arrested is not Leona’s only rebel cry. A mustache and...
Apr 18, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 35
Founder of The Wu Tang Clan, Rapper, Producer, Musician, Actor, Filmmaker, Author, Writer and soon-to-be creator of a TV show about his life, RZA (aka Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) is all grown up. From wearing army fatigues in the 90s, which represented the militant mindset that initially brought RZA to superstardom, the icon has emerged in 2019 as a Renaissance man who appreciates the reverence that comes with the occasional suit and tie. Among the many insights that RZA lets us in is on how he has...
Apr 11, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 34
Co-creator, writer and director of HBO’s High Maintenance, Katja Blichfeld shares the agony and ecstasy of what has been a lifetime of coming to terms with her queerness. After going to an Evangelical Christian school as a child, Katja deeply struggled to honor the natural impulses of her sexuality. In her mid-thirties, during her marriage to High Maintenance Co-Creator Ben Sinclair, a full-on depression (amidst the height of her career success and her dream job) propelled Katja to claim the tru...
Apr 04, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 33
In a world that is quick to judge and fear the other, Lebanese filmmaker Pam Nasr doesn’t want to overlook the many ways we can communicate and seek bonds without words, whether it be through the food we share or how we dress. When she walks down the street in bold colors or flaunting her strong legs, Pam’s style screams, “I love life” and “I want to connect.” Growing up in Dubai with a dad who gave her the space to push boundaries and wear mini-skirts in a country that is more conservative due ...
Mar 28, 2019•44 min•Ep. 32
“When is it enough?” Amy Yeung has been asking herself this since becoming a mom 18 years ago. Now 55, Amy feels like she is a “naked baby chasing butterflies…every day is so much fun.” Amy already knew how to build success the consumerist way, with a big-brand career designing fast fashion destined for landfills. But following a breakthrough moment in the Moroccan desert, she turned her back on being a designer of disposable fashion in favor of creating success with a conscience. Her company, O...
Mar 14, 2019•55 min•Ep. 31
From her grade-school role of “goth weirdo” among a sea of blond hair and floral dresses to playing a myriad of stereotypical Asian-best-friend parts in Hollywood, Korean-American actress and performance artist Vivien Bang has struggled to be seen and heard for who she is. It wasn’t until Vivien began to listen to her inner voice, which included a deep dive into her roots, that she came to realize that she could be the hero of her own story. This super power has guided her to release traditional...
Mar 07, 2019•52 min•Ep. 30
23-year-old cultural activist Kamil Oshundara invites you to judge her by her cover. An open book when it comes to expressing herself, Kamil’s body is her altar and she is continually designing it as a means of altering perceptions and making it clear that she is her own person and not anyone’s product. With a rage that is love, Kamil’s authentic tattoos, markings, jewelry, and piercings, honor the richness of indigeneity, her Yoruba religion, her ancestry, gender fluidity and a “don’tmess” conf...
Feb 28, 2019•59 min•Ep. 29
Often while riding her Harley Davidson and always driven by her immense love for this planet and the cultures that inhabit it, there is almost no wild and untouched place on this planet to which Betsy Huelskamp has not traveled. Despite having practically no time to train, and facing life-threatening hostility from the men around her, she reached over 27,000 feet on Mount Everest. In this episode, Betsy talks to us about the Death Zone on Everest, the life-changing empowerment of riding a motorb...
Feb 21, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 28
Superstar fashion stylist turned apothecary healer, Lysa Cooper, reminds us of the authentic New York of yesteryear, a time when phones were at home and ‘living in the moment’ was the only place to be. A time when style had less to do with shopping than enhancing our experience of ourselves and those around us. She talks candidly about leaving home at 14 for the Big Apple in the 90’s, the pitfalls of our modern celebrity-and-phone-addicted culture, and starting a whole new chapter in her 50s. “I...
Feb 07, 2019•44 min•Ep. 27
Ilma gore is an Australian-American artist and activist whose work is such a true expression of who she is that she is willing to be banned from the internet and beaten up for her beliefs when it comes to her art. The loss of her parents, a home and any sense of stability at a young age is what she attributes to her ability to be so liberated in her life from fear. “Life and death are the same to me,” Illma states. Some of her political-centered work hones in on the obsessive significance placed...
Jan 31, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 26
Ty Defoe is an Ojibwe and Oneida grammy award-winning performance artist, activist, and writer who identifies as Two-Spirit. In Native American cultures, not only is it acknowledged that gender is more fluid than our patriarchal binary society allows, but Two-Spirit individuals are also highly revered for their spiritual gifts. In this episode, Ty talks to us about the difficulty of being accepted as Two-Spirit, even within his own culture, as a result of colonialistic and religious brainwashing...
Jan 24, 2019•55 min•Ep. 25
Dana Falsetti, speaker, writer, yoga teacher of larger bodies, and body positive insta-warrior visionary on a mission to make the world a more accessible place, talks about how her yoga practice was born out of a need to prove herself but quickly grew into something much bigger than that, even steering her away from the legal profession path she was on. We discuss the double-edged sword of social media commodification and why Dana felt the need to take a break from Instagram, and how perilous fa...
Jan 17, 2019•48 min•Ep. 24
From being a fashion director for W Magazine to studying yoga and opening her own studio, to growing pot in Northern California, to making a spontaneous move to the magical, middle of nowhere in Uruguay, Heidi Lender has lived many lives. After years of following the dreams and wishes of the men in her life, in the last seven years, Heidi has had a slow and uncomfortable awakening to the fact that over time she had developed a pattern of dimming her own light in exchange for pleasing her partner...
Oct 04, 2018•59 min•Ep. 23
Singer, dancer, and fashion designer, Wunmi, short for Ibiwunmi, meaning “a birth loved, a child loved, a life loved”, is a force of nature, but it took her a long time before she felt she could step into her name and really own it. Abandoned by her mother and sent to live with family in Nigeria by her father, Wunmi grew up fantasizing over and yearning for her mother’s love. Feeling deeply lost and invisible, clothing and dancing became a way for her to be seen, “I didn't want to dress like any...
Sep 27, 2018•55 min•Ep. 22
We interviewed Naomi Shimada three years ago for the What’s Underneath Project video series. She inspired us then and continues to inspire us daily on social media with her singular embrace of herself, which includes her voluptuous curves, her boldly colorful style, her overall joie de vivre and its inextricable link to her darker side. In 2015, when we asked Naomi what her favorite body part was, she said it was her mouth because everything she loves most in life comes from the lips, “Kissing, ...
Sep 20, 2018•55 min•Ep. 21
We are super excited to be with the youngest of the three Kirke Sisters, Lola Kirke. We have already featured both Jemima and Domino on our What’s Underneath video series, and Domino was also with us in episode 6 of this podcast, so now we are thrilled to be able to dig deep into what’s underneath the equally radical and truthful younger sister. Lola talks candidly about growing up in a bohemian family of artists, the struggle to be heard in a room of men, how sexual rejection fueled a song on h...
Sep 13, 2018•59 min•Ep. 20
We sit down this week with the incredibly multi-talented artist, director, and musician, Terence Nance, to get inside his head about things like his HBO series, Random Acts of Flyness, that airs out, in almost a stream-of-consciousness, many of today’s most salient issues like systemic racism, white privilege, gender, and masculinity. Not knowing it all is especially important to Terence’s work, “I think of making stuff as conversation; why would you get into a conversation if you knew where it ...
Sep 06, 2018•44 min•Ep. 19
Curandera (Mexican Healer), Chloe Garcia Ponce, was introduced to darkness at 8 years old when her father passed away. “In order to understand or to speak about light you have to experience darkness. The amount of light that I'm capable of working with is also because I have witnessed a lot of darkness and sadness and grief and pain, and all that is part of this beautiful wheel of life. We cannot have one without the other.” In a way, the passing of her father was her first teacher on her spirit...
Aug 30, 2018•48 min•Ep. 18
We reunite with author and activist, iO Tillett Wright, who we first interviewed about four years ago for our What’s Underneath Project video series. In that interview, he told us about his radical self-awareness as a very young child, asking his parents if he could live as a boy, despite the fact that he was born into a female body. Even after a childhood of gender-bending, for the majority of his adult life, iO identified as a queer woman, and it wasn’t until 3 years ago that iO officially cam...
Aug 23, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 17
Last week we spoke with Damien Echols who was incarcerated on death row for more than 18 years for murders that he did not commit. It became crystal clear during that interview that the heroism of his story was as much to do with him as it was his wife, Lorri, the heroine of this truly incredible love story. Lorri was a successful architect working in New York when she saw the first Paradise Lost film (which documented the circus of Damien’s first trial) at the Museum of Modern Art in 1996. She ...
Aug 16, 2018•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 16
In this episode, we are joined by a gigantic hero of ours, Damien Echols, who was incarcerated on death row for 18 years and 76 days for murders that he did not commit. We became aware of his story with the first of a series of three documentaries called Paradise Lost and have since been forever strengthened by his two books (we can’t wait for the next one soon to be released). Damien’s story is one of almost superhuman inspiration in terms of what the human spirit is capable of enduring and ove...
Aug 09, 2018•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 15
We greatly admire New York-based fashion designer, Mara Hoffman. Her designs and principles stand out in a sea of homogeneity and “buy more” culture. The former dancer studied at Parsons School of Design in New York and London’s Central Saint Martins College. She was “discovered” by Sex and the City stylist, Patricia Field, who sold Mara’s samples in her shop. We sat down with Mara in her 6th Avenue studio to talk getting comfortable with change by facing our mortality, not being too attached to...
Aug 02, 2018•56 min•Ep. 14
