Conscious Chatter With Kestrel Jenkins

In episode 83, Kestrel welcomes Matt Scanlan, the CEO and cofounder of Naadam, to the show. Naadam is a fashion label that responsibly sources and produces luxury knitwear while preserving nomadic lifestyles in Mongolia. "It's all about an equitable agreement where they're [nomadic herders] getting something and we're getting something; we get better material, they get a level of economic sustainability that didn't exist before." In this chat, Matt shares the wild story of how he and his cofounder ended up finding themselves literally in the world of cashmere, through the friendships they made with nomadic herders in Mongolia. He also walks us through why the traditional cashmere industry had been rigged in the past. A couple of notes from the chat: Naadam doesn't have any contracts with the nomadic herders they work with; instead out in the countryside, as Matt explains, "what matters is the respect, the honor, the trust, the loyalty - that's how you build the relationships" Hand combing is a humane and tr