Conscious Chatter With Kestrel Jenkins

In episode 241, Kestrel welcomes Akilah Stewart, the founder and creative director of FATRA, to the show. A creative waste management company, FATRA makes luxury bags from recycled plastics and fabric. On this week’s show, Akilah shares stories about some of the ways her grandmothers have influenced her and her work today. She also reminds us of the importance of thinking about creativity as a tool for building solutions — and not just an aesthetics-oriented idea. Kestrel and Akilah talk about the way in which we must be reimagining waste, and truly looking at it as a resource. As Akilah highlights, when so-called “waste” is generated by other animals, they are always finding creative ways to use it in different ways — it’s not something to be simply “thrown away”. Another big topic that comes up in this conversation is financial sustainability, and some of the ways that the nuances around it have been missing from the sustainability conversation. “I just want to keep it going in that manner — you know, wo