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by Claudia Cawb. For her part, Riadini Flesh admires the French brand Visa, which makes sneakers out of organic cotton and Amazonian rubber like Visa, which rebranded the shopping frenzy of Black Friday to Repair Friday. Suka Chita encourages customers to return their clothing for mending or re dyeing, and the brand offers a lifetime repair guarantee. As Riadini Flesh sees it, these kinds of ventures offer new ways for people to understand that there's an alternative to extractive faction.

I never consider ourselves to have competitors, she says, it's about changing the paradigm. One of her latest efforts transpired in November twenty twenty four, when Suka Sita opened a pop up boutique at an upscale mall, its second location in Jakarta. While the garments for sale range from an indigo shirt decorated with geometric stars to a yellow dress whose color is derived from Java's golden gilawe plant, one of the store's primary purposes is to showcase a traveling

exhibition about Sukasita's supply chain. Glass containers hold soil from the villager's farms. The life cycle of a cotton plant is on display, and a video features interviews with the ibis showing the invisible love and labor behind each product. One of the most striking presentations explains how the brand's garments are specifically made to return to the earth rather

than wind up in landfills. A display case lined with soil shows a single cut of Sukasita cotton as it degrades progressively over the course of six weeks, ultimately returning into tiny fragments that can be used in compost. Riadini Flesh hopes to take the exhibition international, sharing it at more pop up stores in part to inspire other brands.

She's also tracking how well her practices are working by earning fair labor and environmental impact certifications from watchdog groups like NEST, a nonprofit that verifies ethical work standards, and the Science Based Targets Initiative, a climate action organization that measures greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, Sukasita became the first fashion company in Indonesia to secure b Corp certification as a business that is committed to transparency and account of BBILIT.

The brand's approach signals a remarkable mix of business acumen and social purpose. By not just scaling for profit, but also scaling impact, says Sarah Schwimmer, who runs b lab Global, the nonprofit behind the certification, she is demonstrating a new way forward. Shwimmer says, over the past four years, the brand has opened four additional craft schools, launched a spin off materials platform so that others can source Sukasita's regenerative materials,

and established partnerships with eleven villages. The company plans to cap rather than grow that number so it can boost the resources it provides to each location. So far, Sukasita has helped communities transform roughly one hundred eighteen acres of previously commercial farm land, which has had a direct impact on more than fifteen hundred lives. There By twenty thirty, it expects to ramp up to more than twenty four

hundred acres in reach up to ten thousand people. One thing Sukusita will do will not do is follow traditional seasonal fashion calendars or over exert the artisans or the land it manages. If demand for our product's sky rockets and the elements won't allow it, the company will simply be sold out. You cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet. Riadini Flesh says it is wisdom shared by the Ibis, who also taught Randini Flesh a philosophy that

inspires her every day. Urip Iku urup. We live to bring light next expeditions on safari, there's no telling what might crush your path, and in South Africa's Greater Kruger Area, rhinos have right of way. But there's a lot more than walk wildlife watching to the newest land itinerary from Northern Geographic Expeditions. The Nine Days Southern Africa Living History and Legendary Species Journey begins with a visit to a vibrant neighborhood of Cape Town and a walk in Table

Mountain National Park. After taking in turbulent seascapes at the Cape of Good Hope and a colony of endangered African penguins. Guests head to Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve ordering Kruger National Park and home to some four hundred species of wildlife. A bush lodge is base camp for three days of safaris and talks with trackers, rangers and national geographic experts. The trip ends in Zombia at the foot of Victoria Falls, near where elders of the Lea people share their traditions

during a village tour. That rhino encounter might not even make your top five list. Next Explorers of the Year Pablo Poppy Garcia Borboroglu and Bertie Gregory. As a boy growing up in Argentina's Buenos Aires Province, Pablo Poppy Garcia Borboroglu was enchanted by his grandmother's tales of her youthful

visits to the teeming penguin colonies of Argentine Patagonia. He was a nineteen year old tour guide when he first glimpsed one, and it dawned on him then how important it was to share with others his sense of awe, inspiring them to protect penguins and their habitats a hemisphere away. Bertie Gregory came to a similar realization as a teenage

wildlife photographer roaming the English countryside. Today, at thirty one, he's an accomplished wildlife filmmaker and leads storyteller behind the new National Geographic series Secrets of the Penguins, on which he worked with Warboroglu, now a marine biologist and founder and President of the Global Penguin Society. For their efforts, Warbaro Blue and Gregory have been named the twenty twenty

five Rolex National Geographic Explorers of the Year. Pope Garcia, Barbaro Blue and Bertie Gregory exemplify the power of collaboration in exploration, says National Geographic Society CEO Jill Tiefenthaler. By uniting crown breaking conservation science with me master storytelling, they not only deepen our understanding of penguins, but galvanize global action to protect them. Barbaro Blue's initiatives to create protected areas for penguins have helped conserve some thirty two million

acres of habitat on land at sea. Now fifty five, he takes inspiration from the bird's resilience the way they swim hundreds or even thousands of miles for food, avoid predators and pollution, and survive in environments increasingly affected by climate change. When you see penguins making that big effort, he reflects, you say, how can I give up? Warbaro Glue and Gregory shared a spotlight in last month's Secret of the Penguins cover story, and there's more on their

adventures with penguins at Nationalgeographic dot com. Being recognized as an Explorer of the Year alongside his filmmaker friend Boubaroglue says is fantastic, a great combination of different kinds of explorers and expertise. When you see penguins making that big effort for Baro Glue reflects, you say, how can I give up? At first, Gregory says he was hesitant to

make a documentary about penguins. The Emmy winning host of the Disney Plus series Animals Up Close, who was shot for iconic series like Planet Earth and Frozen Planet, knew that filming in penguins harsh habitats would be tough, and worried the species was already plenty documented. If you're going to make a series called Secrets of the penguins. He says, you've got to show people something they've never seen before. But Gregory embraced the challenge to film one of the

series three episodes. He camped for more than two months near an Emperor penguin colony in Antarctica's at Kabay. He was documenting a critical phase in a penguin's life cycle, when juveniles abandoned by their parents are left to figure out how to become a proper adult penguin, getting themselves to the ocean to swim and hunt. He succeeded spectacularly in capturing behaviors never before filmed, including footage of hundreds of young Emperor penguins entering the sea by base jumping

off a fifty foot cliff. I really think it's going to blow people's minds, he says. I thought I knew what penguin's limits were. I was wrong. This article by Renee Ebersol next the candy colored beauty of sea urchins. These tiny animals protect coral reefs, but they need protection too. Beneath sea urchins, exterior spines, rounded skeletons called tests are

jewels of color, texture, and symmetry. There are hundreds of urchin species, and they're found in every ocean on Earth, from the intertidal zone to more than four miles below the surface. In twenty eighteen, Anders Holland, a research associate at the Australian Museum in Sydney, began photographing urchin skeletons that had washed up on beaches or been collected by divers and tho on fishing or research vessels. He created the composite image over a course of a week in

twenty twenty four, using seventy six individual photographs. The project comes at a perilous moment for these creatures. Since twenty twenty two, sea urchins have been plagued by a scuticlotiniate, a single celled pathogen that eats away at the animal's soft tissue and makes their spines fall off. A mass die off that started in the Caribbean that year has since spread east, likely through the Mediterranean, into the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. In some survey locations, researchers found

thousands of dead urchins. The animal's survival is vital to the health of reefs, where they eat algae that can smother coral. It's one of the many reasons Halan is committed to capturing their beauty. They are really quite ingeniously evolved. This by Hicks Wogan. The next articles from March April twenty twenty four National Geographic History Magazine. Three thousand year old tombs surprises scholars in Peru. A high priest's grave dates to an earlier era than expected, yielding a new

understanding of the history of the ancient Andes. Archaeologists in northern Peru have discovered a three thousand year old burial. Inside it lay one of the first priests in ancient Andean history, a man who lived well before the time of the Inca. The discovery was made in the Paco Pampa Archaeological Complex, a forty acre site of monumental and ceremonial structures that was active between twelve hundred and seven hundred BC. Over nearly twenty years, the project of archaeological

Investigation has discovered numerous fines at Paco Pampa. The latest one, a skeleton of an ancient religious leader interred there around one thousand BC, has been named the Priests of Pacopampa because of his tomb's contents. Buried with him were three stamps or seals The first seal resembles a jaguar, indicating the priest's status as a leader who could harness the animal's spiritual power. The second one depicts a human face, and the third is in the shape of a hand.

Scholars believe people dipped the seals in paint and then stamped the images on the priest's skin. The find is extremely important, says Yuji Seiki, who leads researchers from Japan's National Museum of Ethnology and Peru's National University of San Marcos Deep Connections. The discovery of the priest is helping archaeologists at Pacopampa pinpoint when a powerful priestly class first

appeared in the region. Seiki explains that Pacopampa was at one time a pilgrimage center where people from near and far came together to participate in religious rights. These group rituals are credited with creating the social conditions that allowed

the earliest Andian civilizations to rise, says Siki. Similar burials such as the tomb of the Lady of Pacopampa found in two thousand and nine and the Tomb of the Serpent Jaguar Priests found in twenty fifteen, have important connections to the priest of Pacopampa, whose tomb may be as many as three hundred years older. Saiki believes that these later spiritual leaders made their relationship with ancestral elites visible

through their burials. I consider this to be evidence of the incorporation of ancestor worship into the succession of power. Worshiping ancestors was of central importance to later Andian cultures in the region, such as the Wari ad five hundred two one thousand, the Tiawanaku circa a d. Six hundred to one thousand, and ultimately the Inca circa a d. Twelve hundred to fifteen thirty three. Excavations continue at the Pacopampa complex, with new discoveries on the horizon. In twenty

twenty two, a priestly tomb the site was uncovered. Some believe it could be even older than the priest of Pacopampa, but analysis of the tomb and its contents is still under way. This article by Braden Phillips next Portsia, loyal Heroine of the Republic, a woman of firm political convictions. Porsia was the steadfast wife and staunch ally of Brutus and a key supporter of his murderous plot against Julius Caesar.

When Julius Caesar seemed increasingly likely to embrace authoritarian rule, two men emerged as the Roman Republic's fiercest defenders, Cato the younger, who led resistance to Caesar in the Senate, and his nephew Marcus Junius Brutus, who led the conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. But there was another key player in the tumultus events surrounding Caesar's end, a woman who would

come to embody strength under pressure an unwavering loyalty. Her name was Porsia, daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus. Porscha Catonis circa seventy three to forty three BC was the only woman who was privy to the plot. As the Roman historian Cassius Dio described her. PUSH's courage, logical mind, and willingness to sacrifice were celebrated by Roman historians and centuries later immortalized in William Shakespeare's fifteen ninety nine Tragedy

Julius Caesar. Many factors shaped to this extraordinary person, but two stand out. The volatile political climate and the teachings of her father. Growing up Stoic. Much of what is known about Portia comes largely from Greek historian Plutarch in his books about Brutus and Cato, and from Cassius Dio's Roman History, along with mentions and other works. In all ancient references, she is remembered as the member of younger Cato's family who is most committed to her father's cause.

According to Judith P. Hallett, Professor Emerita of Classics at the University of Maryland, an author of Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society, Women and the Elite Family, Porsia's father, Cato the Younger, so named to distinguish him from his great grandfather Cato the Elder, was an old Guard aristocrat and Republican. A devotee of Stoic philosophy, Kato put virtue and civic responsibility above all else, an uncompromising idealism that

deeply influenced his daughter. Early in the second century i d. Plutarch wrote that Portia was addicted to philosophy and praised her sober living and greatness of spirit in keeping with the Stoic rejection of luxury and commitment to justice. Based on his depiction, Porsia is often regarded as the first female Stoic marriages and divorces. As a very young woman, Portio was wed to a political ally of her father.

She and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus would have due children together before their relationship became complicated by a distinctive Roman practice. In addition to arranged marriages, elite Romans also practiced arranged divorces, ending one match in favor of another that was more advantageous. Portia was about twenty when one such proposal came her way. Another of her father's allies, Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, asked to marry her. The aging childless widower wanted Portia as his

wife in order to have an heir with her. After she gave birth, you promised to return her to Bibulus. Bibulus was not a fan of this proposal and refused it. Cato also disliked the idea of breaking his contract with Bibulus. To avoid alienating Hortensius, Cato agreed to divorce his own wife, Marcia and offered her instead. Hortensius agreed, and the plan went ahead. After Hortensia's death, Cato would remarry Marcia. Portia's high profile family was deeply involved with the Roman Civil

War that began in forty nine BC. When Caesar refused to yield his armies and territories to the Republic. Rome split into two factions, one led by Caesar and the other led by Pompei. The conservative Cato and Bibelius both aligned with pompe and found themselves on the losing side of the war. Bibelius, leader of Pompey's fleet on the Adriatic,

died of illness around forty eight BC. Cato took his own life in Utica modern day Tunisia when Caesar's troops won the nearby Battle of Thopsus in forty six BC. In Rome, Portia watched as Caesar amassed power. Rather than resign herself to a dictatorship, she continued to believe in the Old Republic. In forty five BC, she married Marcus Junius Brutus, a one time alli of Caesar who would

famously turn against him during the war. Brutus sided with Pompey, but in the after meepa the war, Caesar pardoned him and even made him governor of Cisilpine Gaul northern Italy. Brutus's sympathies for the Old Republic, however, had not waned. Marrying Cato's daughter and divorcing his wife Claudia. To do so was a way to reaffirm his commitment plans and plots. In the months that followed, Brutus, along with other senators, alarmed by Caesar's ambition, embarked on a plot to assassinate him.

Although politics was primarily a male domain in Roman culture, Pusia pledged to aid her husband because of her family's beliefs. According to Plutarch, she noticed a change in her husband and questioned him. When Brutus wouldn't answer, she wounded her own thigh with a knife. The act was a plead that her husband show her trust and respect. Brudus, I am Cato's daughter, and I was brought into thy house, not like a mere concubine to share thy bed and board merely, but to be a partner in thy joys

and a partner in thy troubles. Her resolve prompted Brudus to reveal his plan to assassinate Caesar. Moreover, wrote Plutarch, she inspired him to see his plot to the end. When he he saw the wound. Brutus amazed and lifted his hands to heaven, prayed that he might succeed in his undertaking and thus show himself a worthy husband of Portia. After Caesar's death on March fifteenth, forty four BC, Brudus fled Rome to avoid the wrath of caesar loyalists, while

Porsia remained in the capital. She followed her husband's fortunes as he fought to defend the republic against Octavian, Caesar's heir in alliance with Mark Antony. Finally, Porsia received the news that Brutus had been defeated in the Battle of Philippi forty two BC, and, like her father, Cato, had taken his own life. What happened next is not known for certain. The more dramatic ending has a devastated Porsia killing herself, either by swallowing hot coals or inhaling carbon monoxide.

In one version, the poet Marshal Route that Porsia, seeking a weapon to enter life they had hidden by attendants, exclaimed, you know not yet that death cannot be denied. I had supposed that my father had taught you this lesson by his fate. She spoke, and with eager mouth swallowed the blazing coals. Plutarch tells a similar story symbol of strength. One key piece of evidence, however, puts Porsche's suicide in doubt.

The Roman statesman and orator Cicero wrote a letter to Brudus in forty three BC lamenting Porsche's death, which means that Porsia died before her husband. Cicero's words implied that she died of natural causes. The legend of a violent suicide appeared later, but took root in the popular imagination. Plutarch has Brutus say of his wife, though she lacks the strength of men, she is as valiant and as active for the good of her country as the best

of us. William Shakespeare in particular, found great inspiration in the character of Porsia through his reading of Plutarch. In addition to the historical character of Porsche in Julius Caesar, her name also appears in The Merchant of Venice fifteen ninety six to ninety eight, in which it is given to the brilliant woman determined to assert her herself in a male world by impersonating a lawyer. As a symbol

of bravery and devotion. Portia has resonated through history. Abigail Adam's, wife of John Adams, the second U S President and first US Vice President, signed letters to him as Portia in recognition of the patriotic sacrifice of Brutus's stoic wife. This by Juan Louis Posadas. Next medieval times gave birth to modern fashion. Draped, shapeless garments were replaced by taller, pointier, and tighter clothes in fourteenth century Europe, when newly rich

merchants vied with nobles to be in vogue. Plague, famine in war blighted the fourteenth century, but the period was also marked by an exciting revolution in fashion. Out went the beggy, amorphous robes that had been swathing people for centuries, and in came startlingly lean bodykindus styles that revealed the silhouette silhouette, at least for men. The sweeping transformation in European elite clothing is regarded by many historians as the

birth of modern Western fashion. Aristocratic men and wealthy merchants started downing short, tight doublets, brightly colored woolen tights, and elaborate hoods with date dangling tails. Footwear that had long been hidden under robes was now revealed to the public gaze. These pointed leather shoes were known for their extremely long toes. Although the change was less marked for women, a shift

in feminine style was also notable. They still wore dresses that concealed their legs, but the garments came in more colors and fabrics. The greatest change for women sat atop their heads, known as henyans. These head dresses could be a short, flat cap or a tall, pointy cone, veils often draped off the back, while the hat itself added height and accentuated the wearer's forehead. Tailored for individuals. Advanced as in garment construction played an essential part in changing

the fashions. Earlier, textile manufacturer was shaped by rectangular looms, producing large, square, angular material that did not conform to the contours of the body. But in the fourteenth century, wealthy men's clothing started to be made from smaller, separate pieces of fabric, which allowed greater construction and more variety in design. Designers began to shift from draping fabric to cutting, sewing,

and tailoring it. The idea of clothing, which for the first time was truly custom made to fit an individual's body. Implies a new relationship between the clothing and the wearer, said Laurel A. Wilson, a researcher in the history of fashion at the Center for Medieval Studies at Fordham University. Wilson points to the thirteen thirties as the pivotal decade of change. That's when various social and economic factors helped

redefine fashion. An emerging merchant class was seeking social recognition, while above them aristocrats were evolving gradations of status, both to distinguish themselves from other aristocrats and from the ever wealthier merchant class beneath them. These status wars were expressed through their clothes. Tailors were in demand, and soon they grew too expensive for people in the lower social orders. This sea change in fashion quickly conquered Western Europe, likely

because of a sheared court culture. Expanding choice gave rise to markets and industries in specialized fabrics, ornaments, and garments. Along with Europe's well established woolen's industry, Exotic fabrics like silk, damask and velvet, previously imported, were now manufactured in Italy and Northern Belgium, with access to greater choice and growing commercialization,

came another mainstay of modern fashion, rapid change. During the fourteenth century, men's fashion change as rapidly as decade by decade, when before it was over the course of century. Wilson explained that system is still with us, only to a greater extreme. Constance's artorial change was not to everyone's liking,

especially those with more conservative outlooks. In the thirteen forties, the anonymous English author of the Westminster Chronicle took offense at changing various deformities of clothing yearly and abandoning the ancient honesty of long loose garments. The deformities was a reference to the variety of tailoring short, tight, dagged, cut, laced and tied with unbuttoned everywhere, with sleeves and tippets of surcoats and hoods too long in their clothes and shoes.

Such work, he concluded, belonged more to torturers and demons than men. In the thirteen forties, the French chronicler Jean de Vinet added his voice to a chorus of indignation at the shortness and tightness of men's clothing, noting that men cannot bend or kneel without showing their underwear and while was inside it. Later in the fifteenth century, medieval fashion was centered on the courts of the Dukes of Burgundy, based mainly in the wealthy cities of Flanders modern day Belgium.

As the biggest cloth making area in Western Europe, Flanders drove fashion trends. Philip the Good thirteen ninety six to fourteen sixty seven, the most important of the Burgundian dukes, made sumptuous black his signature color. In wearing it, he combined style and spectacle with an expression of mourning for his father, killed in France in fourteen nineteen. His sister Anne was also a fashion icon, regularly depicted wearing the

day's latest passions. Printed in fourteen thirty, the Bedford Book of Ours shows Anne at prayer while wearing a long gown known as a hupeland, made of a richly colored fabric covered with intertwined red branches, green leaves, and blue fruit against a yellow background. This conclude's readings from National Geographic Magazine and National Geographic History for today. Your reader has been Marsha. Thank you for listening, Keep on listening and have a great day,