The Brand is Female

You’ve heard of farm-to-table, but have you heard of farm-to-closet? This week, host Eva Hartling is joined by Christy Baskauskas, founder of the California-based clothing brand Christy Dawn. Christy has made it her mission to integrate regenerative farming into her supply chain, partnering with a small cotton grower in India focused on responsible farming practices. After all, our skin is the largest organ in our body, why wouldn’t we care about the way we cover it, the same way we care about the food we eat? Christy Dawn now leases land from existing farmers, while working with local partners to rework and restore the land. She and her team do this by using traditional practices that work in harmony with the Earth, similar to how it was done prior to the emergence of industrialization when intensive chemical practices became the norm. Listen to this episode to hear Christy's experience, and the launch of her company's new collection, fully made of garments they literally grew themselves — proving that it is possible to reinvent our broken system and focus on healing the planet while caring for humans.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

Today’s guest is Shelby Taylor, founder and CEO of Chickapea, the all-organic, high-protein, plant-based pasta, sold in 3,000 stores across North America. Shelby is an entrepreneur on a mission to create good for the world through nutritious food that’s not only good for you but also does not harm the planet. She also happens to be part of the rare 2% of women to receive funding, having just closed $9.3M in financing in her last round, having just closed $9.3M in financing in her last round, with $16M raised overall.In 2019, Chickapea was ranked in the top 10% of all Certified B Corps on the planet—a clear reflection of Shelby’s commitment to meeting the highest standards of social and environmental impact— not bad for an entrepreneur who began only 6 years ago. Chickpea is also a certified women-owned business, something especially important to Shelby.Don’t miss this episode to hear Shelby and host Eva Hartling discuss this fascinating journey, along with why she’s so passionate about helping other women succeed.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

Nikki Sanchez is an Indigenous Advocate of Pipil and Irish/Scottish heritage with a mission to raise awareness for the climate crisis, which she does by addressing the way environment conservation intersects with decolonization, with racial and gender inclusivity, and with our society’s mental health.Nikki holds a Master's degree in Indigenous Governance and is pursuing a Ph.D. with research focused on Indigenous ontology. She uses her vast knowledge and research as a contributor to various publications on topics like sustainability, gender and racial bias, decolonization and more. As a testament to her accomplishments, she was crowned “Queen of Green” by the David Suzuki Foundation in recognition of her environmental journalism, however, in this episode, you will hear her explain to host Eva Hartling what is wrong with that title. To add to her impressive resumé, Nikki is also part of the team behind VICELAND’s series “RISE” focused on global Indigenous resurgence; she is a TEDx speaker, and she has been a wilderness guide and environmental educator in the Nuu-chah-nulth territory of Clayoquot Sound for over 10 years. If you've ever felt hopeless in the future of our world, it's people like Nikki who are, and will continue to be integral in guiding us towards a brighter future. Hear all this and more in this important episode.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

More than a year into the pandemic, we know it is women who are bearing the brunt of COVID-19's impact. Around the world, women are disproportionally affected by job loss, increased responsibilities around childcare, domestic violence, health and overall economic inequities—not to mention continued systemic gender and racial bias. Mother’s Day is a couple of days away, so host Eva Hartling wanted to ask the question: how will it be different this year? One of the biggest changes being faced is also the most heartbreaking: in the US, it’s estimated that 40,000 young people have lost a parent due to the pandemic; meaning the celebration will have a whole different meaning to so many individuals. So what has changed for moms? This episode features a panel of incredible and accomplished women who weigh in on whether we should be pessimistic or optimistic about the issues and opportunities mothers are facing in a post-COVID-19 world. On this panel, you will hear Penny Abeywardena, New York City’s Commissioner for International Affairs, and an advocate for social justice, who is mom to a young boy; Carrie Ellen Phillips, co-founder of communications agency BPCM, a sustainability educator & advocate passionate about the circular economy, environmental impact and soil health, and a mom to two young girls and two boys; as well as Dr. Oxiris Barbot, pediatrician and Public Healthcare expert who is the former Health Commissioner for the City of New York, and a godmother and aunt.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

This week, host Eva Hartling is joined by guests Michelle Bilodeau and Karen Cleveland, authors of ‘The New Wedding Book: a Guide to Ditching All the Rules’, which offers readers an alternative to wedding planning, based on the extensive list of antiquated customs that are so often tied to the big day. Michelle is a Canadian editor and writer, known for contributing on topics including fashion, lifestyle, green beauty, and cannabis; additionally, she’s recently made the decision to go back to school and study Psychology. Karen Cleveland is an established Communications and Marketing professional who currently works for the CAMH Foundation in Toronto. The co-authors came up with the idea for their book after getting hitched themselves, realizing the insane pressure that is placed on women on their way down the altar. Can you believe that in 2021, we are still embracing the same traditions that were developed in the Victorian era? Letting go of all we've learned as feminists in favour of a long-expired code of conduct: from rules about what to wear, to 'slimming down' to fit into a dress that's just a size too small, and having a patriarchal figure walk us down the aisle. Dare we also ask the question… why get married in the first place when there are so many options for women today? We no longer rely on matrimony to access things like a bank account and credit card, the right to vote or own a business — not to mention the many who are left behind by the myth of the all-white perfect wedding including BIPOC, non-binary people, and same-sex couples. You’ll hear answers to all this and more in this episode - including a discussion about weddings’ close cousin, the big D-I-V-O-R-C-E, rates of which have been skyrocketing during the pandemic.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

This week, host Eva Hartling is joined by Stephany Lapierre, Founder, and CEO of Canadian tech company Tealbook, which offers an innovative B2B platform for procurement and supplier intelligence management that leverages machine learning and AI. Tealbook has experienced rapid growth and caught the attention of investors early on, in addition to having become a favourite among Fortune 500 companies.Stephany has won several awards for her innovative approach and has received recognition as a successful female tech entrepreneur. In this enlightening conversation, Stephany shares her vision for success — a combination of finding the right talent to bring on her team so she is not a ‘lone ranger’ trying to do it all, and the right champions who can offer support at different stages of growth in addition to advising her for her own personal development as an entrepreneur.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

Dr. Britt Wray, PhD is a globally renowned expert on Climate Crisis Dread, studying the link between mental health and the eco-crisis. Between her newsletter, aptly named Gen Dread, her broadcasting gigs, and the books she's published, Britt is an authority on staying sane while facing the climate crisis. In this episode, Britt and host Eva Hartling cover the intersection of feminism and climate issues, how the pandemic has effectively reprogrammed the DNA of our global consciousness, and how racial and health inequities have been amplified by the pandemic; revealing how broken our system truly is. Want to hear more from Britt? Tune into BBC podcast's Tomorrow's World, where she co-hosts alongside Ellie Cosgrave. No stranger to science broadcasting, her resume also includes hosting CBC Radio’s national science show: Quirks and Quarks. Her production credits include the likes of numerous other programs for CBC, NPR, and celebrated podcasts such as Love and Radio. Britt is an Associate Partner at Dare Disrupt and is currently directing an interactive documentary series with the National Film Board of Canada. She has also hosted with CBC The Nature of Things on a feature TV documentary, The Nature of Invention. This episode was originally aired on February 16, 2021This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

This episode features Carrie Ellen Phillips, and it originally aired August 18, 2020. In honour of Earth Day, we’re bringing back this important conversation about sustainability — all aspects of it — and the changes that need to take place in our world, both from a consumers’ standpoint, as well as from the brands that are manufacturing the products we consume. Carrie is absolutely passionate about sustainability (although she’d prefer we use the word ‘impact’), the circular economy and most of all, about helping companies carve out a new model for lasting change. She is the co-founder of BPCM, one of the world’s leading fashion PR agencies with offices in New York, Los Angeles and London, in addition to being a Sustainability Educator and an Advisor to Closed Loop Fashion, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and a Lecturer & Advisor to the Bard Center for Environmental Policy.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

“We judge women criminals more harshly. Women get judged twice: once for being a criminal and once for being a woman." When you hear the names Anna Sorokin or Elizabeth Holmes, what comes to mind? Does it ever strike you as interesting that society has such a fascination with women con artists? That their trials inspire countless magazine articles, TV series, and even podcasts? Enter Tori Telfer, author of the book ‘Confident Women’ published by Harper Perennial, a collection of vignettes about some of the world’s most infamous female con artists. Released earlier this year as a sequel to ‘Lady Killers', her first book which the New York Times described as a "thrilling character study of the most diabolically complex, fascinating female psychopaths in history”, which was also published in Brazil, Poland, the UK, Spain, and Korea. Tori graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing. After college, she worked in children's publishing and taught before going freelance. She is also the host of three podcasts about women who break the law: Criminal Broads on the Lit Hub Radio network, Red Flags on Investigation Discovery, and Why Women Kill, on CBS All Access. On this episode, host Eva Hartling catches up with Tori to discuss what makes women con artists unique, what draws other women to fantasize about emulating some of these criminals’ confidence, how gender bias affects the way women who commit crimes are perceived, and the continued high rates of incarceration for women in America.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale

"At work, I see the orders from my male bosses as suggestions; and from my women superiors, as orders. And it doesn’t matter who ranks up to who in the organization. If you’re a man who’s always known privilege, then what you tell me is a suggestion. Especially if what you’re telling me is to do more, and do better, and be more creative and productive and give, and give, and give." Meet Chris Bergeron, Vice President, Content Experience at Ad agency Cossette. She was formerly, the Editor-in-Chief of Montreal’s iconic VOIR cultural weekly before she transitioned to the world of advertising several years ago. Chris is also a trans woman whose first novel, 'Valide,' was just published and is available in bookstores in her native French. In this novel, Chris explores her trans identity, using a futuristic science fiction thriller as backdrop. In this conversation, Chris and host Eva Hartling explore what it means to be trans in today’s world as well as the lack of recognition for trans women in the feminist movement; Chris also shares how she deals with gender politics in the workplace and her wish for a world with less hate and more tolerance.This season of The Brand is Female is brought to you by TD Bank - Women Entrepreneurs. TD is proud to support women entrepreneurs and help them achieve success and growth through its program of educational workshops, financing, and mentorship opportunities! Find out how you can benefit from their support!————Visit: TBIF: thebrandisfemale.com //TD Women Entrepreneurs: td.com/ca/en/business-banking/small-business/women-in-business //Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/thebrandisfemale