
Second Life
Hosted by Who What Wear co-founder Hillary Kerr, Second Life spotlights successful women who have made major career changes. Guests share lessons they've learned through fearlessly daring to pivot, and how they've used skills from their "first lives" to navigate their winding career journeys.
Latest episodes

Jan 8, 2025 • 33min
The Who What Wear Podcast: Tracing the Rise of Bob Dylan Through Clothing in A Complete Unknown With Costume Designer Arianne Phillips
Arianne Phillips is the costume designer for the new film A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan. Phillips is an accomplished costume designer for stage and screen and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design three times, beginning with James Mangold's Walk the Line in 2006. For A Complete Unknown, she teamed up again with Mangold to re-create Bob Dylan's visual style with extreme specificity. Phillips spent several years researching Dylan's wardrobe, working with vintage experts, designers, and even Etsy sellers to find pieces that captured each iteration of Dylan's unique style. This week, she joins Erin Fitzpatrick, WWW's associate director of fashion news, to talk about her approach to the project, working with Chalamet, and collaborating with Levi's on a new capsule collection that re-creates Dylan's favorite skinny jeans style.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jan 6, 2025 • 58min
Erika Thompson: Beekeeper and Founder of Texas Beeworks
Erika Thompson is a beekeeper, bee advocate, and founder of the bee removal services company Texas Beeworks. Erika grew up in Texas loving all things animals and bugs. She studied geography at the University of Texas at Austin, and after a brief stint as a vet tech, embarked on a career in communications. She worked at several different nonprofit organizations over the years, but despite the impact she was making, she didn’t love sitting at a desk every day. In 2012, she signed up for a beekeeping class as a fun outlet. But from that first class, she was hooked. She started keeping bees herself and eventually began offering humane bee removal services to people in the Austin area. In 2018, she left the world of communications to commit to being a beekeeper full-time. In 2020, she made another major career move when she began posting videos of her bee removals on TikTok. Her passionate, kind, fascinating storytelling immediately resonated with others, and her audience grew quickly. Today, she has over 11 million followers, and several of the videos of her bee removals (which she still does for free!) have over 100 million views.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dec 18, 2024 • 33min
The Who What Wear Podcast: Personalized Pet Charms and Martini Menorahs: A Conversation on Joyful Accessorizing With Susan Alexandra Designer Susan Korn
Susan Korn is the founder of the charming, quirky, and downright joyful accessories brand Susan Alexandra. Korn started her brand by making jewelry and creating handmade painted pieces. But one fateful day, she discovered a bead shop in Chinatown and had a vision of a beaded bag she wanted to create. Her beaded bags have since cemented her as the queen of whimsical fashion. Now, she’s expanded into DIY charm jewelry, custom sculpted pet pieces, home goods, a full Judaica line, and has collaborated with brands like Pebbles, Bose, and Crocs. This week, she joins Kat to talk about how she approaches designing a new product, her dreams for the brand in 2025, and her epic dog fashion show with Rachel Antonoff at New York Fashion Week this past fall.Listen to Susan Korn’s Second Life episode here!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dec 16, 2024 • 58min
Aisha Bowe: Aerospace Engineer, STEMBoard and Lingo Founder, and Future Astronaut
Aisha Bowe is an aerospace engineer and the founder of the engineering consultancy firm STEMBoard. Bowe wasn’t always an engineering wizard. In high school, she struggled to connect academically and enrolled in community college with little hope that any field could interest her. But a teacher identified her strengths and suggested she try out engineering. She thrived in her engineering courses, and her confidence and sense of possibility for her career began to grow. She followed this passion to the University of Michigan, where she gained two degrees in aerospace engineering. Bowe interned at NASA in college and then was hired full-time. She ultimately spent seven years there, working on small spacecraft and flight trajectory dynamics. In 2013, she founded STEMBoard, a startup that provides engineering services and solutions—a feat she accomplished without any outside funding—and eventually left her job at NASA to pursue her startup full-time. In 2020, she founded Lingo, a company that creates self-paced, at-home STEM education kits for kids. Earlier this year, it was announced that she would be the first Black woman to travel to space with Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by Jeff Bezos.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dec 11, 2024 • 26min
The Who What Wear Podcast: The 2024 Luxury Report: Little Luxuries, Endless Elegance, and the Fashion Sports Love Affair
Kristen Nichols, Associate Director of Special Projects at Who What Wear and an expert in luxury markets, shares her insights on the future of high-end fashion. She discusses transformative trends and leadership changes shaping the industry, and how sports are intersecting with luxury fashion. The rise of personalized items like bag charms reflects consumers' desire for individuality. Nichols also anticipates a shift from minimalism to maximalism, sparking excitement for upcoming innovations in 2025.

Dec 9, 2024 • 52min
Taryn Delanie Smith: Content Creator and Former Miss New York
Taryn Delanie Smith, content creator and former Miss New York, shares her inspiring transformation from aspiring diplomat to viral TikTok sensation. She discusses her journey of authenticity, emphasizing how humor helped her connect with fans, especially through her character Denise, a receptionist in heaven. Taryn highlights her advocacy for housing insecurity and reflects on the growth she's experienced while balancing her social impact work with her entertainment career. Her honest approach to content creation provides a relatable lens for those navigating personal struggles.

Dec 4, 2024 • 38min
The Who What Wear Podcast: Fashion Writer Becky Malinsky on 5 Things You Should Buy for the Holidays and Her New Alex Mill Capsule Collection
Becky Malinsky is a stylist, consultant, and writer of the popular Substack newsletter 5 Things You Should Buy. In 2022, after several years as The Wall Street Journal's deputy fashion director, she started her own business, offering executive and professional styling, consulting, trend reporting, and more. At the same time, she launched 5 Things You Should Buy, which provides insightful, straightforward advice and fashion analysis, and the newsletter now has over 64,000 subscribers. In this episode, we picked Malinsky's brain on everything from her hero pieces and how she styles them for winter to her favorite pieces from her brand-new Alex Mill collaboration and, of course, five things we need for the holiday season.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dec 2, 2024 • 59min
Rebecca Zhou: Co-Founder and CEO of Soft Services
Rebecca Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Soft Services, shares her journey in the DTC consumer goods industry. With past roles at Gin Lane Media and Glossier, she reveals how these experiences shaped her approach to entrepreneurship. Listeners will learn about navigating cultural expectations and her journey from finance to founding a body care brand. Zhou discusses the unique intersection of comfort and aesthetics in product design, along with the recent expansion into Sephora, showcasing her commitment to innovation and customer empowerment.

Nov 27, 2024 • 25min
The Who What Wear Podcast: Wicked Costume Designer Paul Tazewell Talks Glinda’s Bubble Dress, Elphaba’s Style Evolution, and the Visual Language of Oz
Paul Tazewell, a celebrated costume designer known for his Tony Award-winning work on Hamilton and Emmy-winning designs for The Wiz Live!, joins the show for an engaging discussion. He shares insights into the creation of Glinda's iconic bubble dress, blending homage with innovation. Tazewell also delves into Elphaba’s emotional transformation through costume choices, and the unique school uniforms at Shiz University that foster individual expression. From whimsical trends to vintage shopping, his perspective on the visual language of Wicked is both enlightening and entertaining.

Nov 25, 2024 • 42min
Lauren Caris Cohan: Reformation Chief Creative Officer and Filmmaker
Lauren Caris Cohan is a filmmaker and the chief creative officer of the chic and sustainable womenswear brand Reformation. Lauren got her start as a styling assistant at Free People in Philadelphia in the late 2000s, eventually working her way up to the title of artistic director. While looking to pursue a newfound interest in screenwriting, she was given carte blanche to create a series of narrative short films for the brand. In 2017, she left the company to look for new opportunities to explore filmmaking. She consistently worked on her projects, creating short films, writing scripts, and co-founding a creative services agency called Lolly Would. In 2017, she co-founded the industry-disrupting lingerie brand Cuup, again bringing her distinctive creative flair to craft the storytelling around the start-up. In 2020, she was brought in by Reformation to consult on projects, and in 2022, she was appointed the role of chief creative officer. In her time as CCO, she’s guided Reformation through some truly amazing collaborations—from the New York City Ballet to Monica Lewinsky.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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