FAIR Talks Podcast

Rooted in Love: How to Grow a Healthy Business & Maintain Relationships | The Tote Project

Friendship, fair trade, and freedom for trafficking survivors?! Yes please! Join us for a conversation with the founders of The Tote Project as they share their journey to launching an anti-trafficking business while maintaining a strong friendship. Fay and Michelle share how they’ve grown their business on fair trade principles, streamlined how they educate customers about human trafficking, and how they keep going on tough days. Finally, they share poignant advice for running a business with a friend and staying flexible through life’s challenges and transitions. 
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

Dressing for Change: Supporting Trafficking Survivors Through Education & Advocacy | Dressember

How can every-day citizens support human trafficking survivors around the world? This week’s episode shares a place to start. Elisha chats with Blythe Hill, the founder of the Dressember movement to raise awareness and funding for anti-trafficking programs across the world. They dive into Dressember’s history, the four foundational pillars of their anti-trafficking work, and why effective solutions must be survivor-led. Finally, Blythe shares tangible actions that anyone can take to support healing and security for trafficking survivors.
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

The Power of Data and Impact Measurement in Fair Trade | Fair Trade USA

Have you ever wondered how fair trade programs measure their success and impact? If so, join Elisha and this week’s guest on a deep dive into data analytics, key performance indicators, and robust measurement systems. Andrea Bassetti, Impact Research and Analysis Manager at Fair Trade USA guides us through the definition of greenwashing and how to avoid the companies’ engaging in these practices, what makes the Fair Trade certification stand out, and one qualitative data point from a recent study that surprised their team. Finally, Andrea shares the importance of data transparency to drive meaningful change for both consumers and certification bodies. 
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

Investing in the Future: Providing Economic Opportunities to Women for a Better World | Child’s Cup Full

In this episode, Elisha chats with Dr. Janette Habashi who shares her journey from growing up in Jerusalem to founding a nonprofit providing refugee and low-income artisans training and job opportunities to create lasting economic growth for Palestinian women. She shares some joys and challenges in creating a worker training program and shipping products around the world, and why it’s important for the artisans to feel a strong sense of ownership in the production process. Finally, Dr. Habashi names one simple act every citizen can do that has far-reaching effects. 
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

Spilling the Tea: How Products with Purpose Build Resilient Communities | Sarilla

Pour yourself a warm beverage and settle in for this conversation with Sara Delaney, founder of Sarilla. She and Elisha discuss Sarilla’s evolution from equipping social service workers to provide healing & resiliency training models drawn from Rwandan culture to the development of the social impact business and why they chose tea over coffee as their hero product. Sara shares why loose leaf tea is better quality and better for the environment. Their conversation ends with the ways product certifications like fair trade or women-owned can help consumers make decisions and build trust with a brand. 
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

Housing, Wellbeing, and Social Impact | Downtown Women’s Center, Los Angeles

This week Elisha chats with Joe Altepeter and Alexandria Pineda from the Downtown Women’s Center, the only organization in Los Angeles exclusively serving and empowering women experiencing homelessness. Learn more about this incredible organization from its audacious inception to their vision to see every woman housed and on a path to personal stability. Alex shares her journey from bartending and serving in the Air Force to her current role as lead trainer in the transitional jobs program and head of production for the MADE By DWC home and gift collection. Joe explains how the social enterprise arm of the DWC invests time and money back into the local economy. Their conversation highlights the ways COVID, race, class, and gender disproportionately affect BIPOC women’s opportunities for safe housing, and how housing is a prescription for health. 
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

BONUS | Hong Kong to Haiti: Global Impact Made Personal | Elisha Chan

Join us for a special bonus episode before our fall season! Listen as our Executive Director and host of this podcast, Elisha share her personal journey with fair trade - from her first trip to Haiti during college to building a social enterprise aimed at eliminating poverty that’s given away over 345 scholarships to send children to school. She recounts powerful stories of the impact of ethical employment and teases about big changes to come for her business!
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

How Dinosaurs Keep Fair Trade From Extinction | Ten Thousand Villages

This week Elisha talks with Mary Lampmann about the collaboration between Ten Thousand Villages and Jurassic World: Dominion. They discuss the crossover of themes like preservation of culture, sustainability, and women’s empowerment. Mary also shares how the artisan partners have scaled their operations and market reach with this partnership, and the ways that will impact these communities for years to come. Finally, she shares the one thing that citizens can do that mean the most to any fair trade organization to build a fairer world. 
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

How Hand Embroidery Creates Financial Independence for Refugees | Neococo

Are hand embroidery, fashion, refugee resettlement, and women’s empowerment connected? This week’s guest will tell you how! Amrita Thadani shares how her background in fashion design and volunteer experience with refugee resettlement led her to start NEOCOCO, a social impact brand equipping women for financial independence through community, femininity, and hand embroidery. She highlights the ways embroidery acts as a cultural and family connector, as well as a therapeutic act. Elisha and Amrita explore how fair and dignified employment provides a firm foundation for women refugees building a new life, and how fair trade businesses can get involved in the refugee crisis.
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.

The Difference Between Fair Trade & Charity | The Little Market

Doug Lapp, the Artisan Relations and Supply Chain Senior Strategist of The Little Market, shares his journey as a fair trade buyer and building artisan relationships. He breaks down the differences between fair trade, charity, and mainstream models of business, and explains the positive potential impacts in children’s lives that fair trade offers. Finally, Doug and Elisha discuss the importance of changing how the fair trade world can better communicate the multiple layers of value embedded in fair trade.
Visit fairtradela.org/podcast for show notes and exclusive discounts.