Kristen and Kyla are joined by Manic Pixie Dream Coffee’s Kristen and Casey to discuss the ins and outs of coffee roasting. Topics: what is coffee roasting; how can coffee be ethically sourced; what is it like to run a small business; how can businesses better support the communities they source from; is it better to buy small or to buy Fair Trade.
Read MoreKristen and Kyla are joined by Erin Hynes and Kattie Laur from the podcast Alpaca My Bags to discuss how we can travel more responsibly. Topics: choosing a destination; carbon offsets and flying; how to find vendors, tour guides, and places to stay; choosing souveniers; general intentionality.
Read MoreKyla and Kristen join Eva and Emma of team Gender Troubles to kick off their Porn Month with a chat about whether porn can be ethical, and what ethical porn looks like in practice. Gender Troubles is a podcast dedicated to debunking, demystifying and making accessible the world of academic feminism. Topics: Kristen and Kyla think Bridgerton is porn; Kyla eats a banana; what are the labour rights of folks in the porn industry; is big tech ruining porn with surveillance capitalism; how to support creators directly; legalizing the sex work industry; what policy makers should do next.
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Gender Troubles recommend: "Porn Work: Sex, Labor and Late Capitalism" by Heather Berg
They also recommend checking out their Patreon!
Pullback is produced and hosted by Kristen Pue and Kyla Hewson. Logo by Rachel Beyer and Evan Vrinten.
Read MoreKristen and Kyla take on the world’s most iconic millennial food: the avocado! Tune in to hear a little of the history of the avocado (Kyla’s brain explodes when she realizes avocados are berries), as well as some of the modern issues facing farmers today, including cartel violence driven by lax American gun control laws and the war on drugs.
Read MoreIs it ethical to take a cruise? In the second half of this two part episode, Kyla and Kristen discuss the effect the cruise industry has on the environment, looking at what gets dumped into the oceans, the emissions of a ship, and the effect on marine life with a focus on whales.
Read MoreIs it ethical to take a cruise? In the first half of this two part episode, Kyla takes Kristen sailing around big cruise, discussing tax evasion, vague labour laws, illness outbreaks, and the effects of the industry on port communities.
Read MoreKristen explains donations to Kyla. How do you choose an organization to donate to, and how do you recognize a good charity from a bad one? What's the difference between non-profits, foundations, and charities? How do you know your money is being well used? What is the most effective way to support an organization you care about?
Read More"Oh she has a vineyard! That's the third! I know three things about Martha Stewart."
This week Kyla and Kristen explore the ethics behind meal kits. Topics: How environmentally friendly are they? Does less food waste really make up for all that single-use plastic? How are workers treated in an industry experiencing explosive growth in a short span of time? Who are meal kits for?
Read More"I remember years ago going to an optometrist, and they ask how many hours of screen time I have in a day and at the time I think I sort of sheepishly said like 4 hours, or something like that, knowing it was actually higher. But today if I went it's like… well how many hours am I awake in a day?"
In part 2 of the electronics summer series, Kristen and Kyla discuss the impact of our favourite tech items on the environment. Topics: mining; rare earth mineral refining and toxic waste; e-waste dumping and recycling; the right to repair and planned obsolescence; what you can do.
Read More"I'm sure engineers are going to hate that description as well."
Kristen and Kyla explore the ethics of consumer electronics, starting with a deep dive into human rights. Topics: the history of electronics; what's in a computer; supply chains; factory working conditions.
Read MoreIn this episode, Kyla and Kristen are joined by Bianca Vong to talk about ethics and the outdoors! Topics: the seven principles of leave no trace; ten essential items for a safe and successful outdoor trip; strategies for finding ethical outdoor gear; accessibility and the outdoors.
Read MoreIn this episode, Kyla and Kristen talk about everyone’s favourite work drug: coffee. Topics: how coffee is made; coffee history; the coffee industry; working conditions on coffee farms; what is a fair price for coffee; the environment and coffee growing, brewing, packaging, and accompaniments; what you can do.
Read More"Whoa. I had not thought about that. Very Dystopian."
Kristen and Kyla stop to smell the roses, only to find the ones from the Netherlands don't smell like anything anymore. Listen in for a discussion on the cut flowers industry! Topics: Dutch flower auctions; worker's rights; greenhouses vs. airplanes; ethical certifications; bursting the tulip bulb trading bubble.
In this episode, Kristen talks plastic free periods with Jasmine Tribe, Campaign Manager of City to Sea’s Plastic Free Periods campaign. City to Sea is an environmental nonprofit working to stop plastic pollution. Topics: the Plastic Free Periods campaign, period products and plastic pollution, why you shouldn’t flush period products, reusable alternatives, the Rethink Periods program, period poverty, and access to free period products.
Looking to try something new? Reusable period product discount codes are available at the City to Sea website! Link here: https://www.citytosea.org.uk/campaign/plastic-free-periods/products/
Read More“I always feel so metal holding a chalice of my own blood.“ In this episode, Kyla and Kristen open up a discussion about menstruation, period stigma, and a range of reusable period products. Topics: period positivity, period poverty, the free bleeding movement, menstruation and the environment, plastic free period products (plastic free tampons, menstrual cups, reusable pads, period underwear).
Read MoreWould you buy lab-grown meat if you could? Cell-cultured meat is now being sold in Singapore, and it is coming soon everywhere else. In this episode, Kyla and Kristen are joined by climate activist Robert Miller to discuss the promise and dilemmas of cell-cultured meat. Topics: how cultured meat works; the race to bring lab grown meat to market; justifications (animal welfare, climate change, hunger, antibiotic resistance); is cultured meat a good solution and can people get over the “weird” factor.
Read More“We call it an ugly fruit…the uglier it is on the outside, the more beautiful it’s going to taste on the inside.” In this episode, Kyla and Kristen are joined by Samantha Luc to talk about chocolate. Samantha is a former professional chocolate eater! She used to be the Head of Traceability and Tastings and Education at Soma Chocolatemaker. Now she is working with companies across a variety of industries to support their traceability efforts with Wherefour ERP. Topics: what is chocolate; the history of chocolate; chocolate and colonialism; poverty and the price of chocolate; child labour; deforestation and chocolate.
Read More"Our politicians aren't experts. I think that was quite evident when a man was made minister for women."
Kyla and Kristen are joined by Peter Harris, post-doctoral research fellow for the Centre for Agricultural Engineering in Australia, working on the bioenergy and bio-resource recovery team. He works on projects involving a process called anaerobic digestion, which can be used to turn biowaste into energy, while recovering useful elements. Pete discusses: the history of anaerobic digestion, what is biogas, can cow-farts be turned into energy, the potential for biogas as a sustainable energy source, barriers to biogas adoption, and how can we best utilize this technology?
“I’ve just googled, and a Canada goose can live to be 24 years old so. There ya go.”
”Ah. It’s further proof that meanness makes you live longer.”
Kristen and Kyla examine winter boots and jackets in an attempt to answer the question: is it even possible to buy ethical winter gear? Topics: synthetic vs animal products, winter boots vs snow boots, how long do ducks live.
Read MoreWhat do banks do with your money and how can you make it more ethical? In this episode, Kyla and Kristen talk about ethical money. Topics: ethical problems in banking and finance; environment, social, and governance campaigns targeted at banks; what is ethical finance; tips for approaching banking and finance ethically.
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