Fashion

The US spends more than $700 billion on defense every year, more than healthcare, education, and all the rest of our discretionary spending combined. And yet the coronavirus slipped silently and invisibly across our borders, and even onto our aircraft carriers. You could say we were preparing for World War III, when we got hammered by World War C.

This season we ask, “What else are we missing?”

GUESTS: Alden Wicker, Sustainable Fashion Journalist; Kathleen Hicks, CSIS; John Blocher, Dave Ahern, Mia Herrington, and Larry Rubin, who shared their personal views with us at Defense One 2020.

ADDITIONAL READING:

Getting to Less, Foreign Affairs.

The Lessons of Y2K, 20 Years Later, Washington Post.

Nuclear Spending vs. Healthcare, ICAN.

Following Acquittal, What’s Next for the Democrats?

Rep. Steve Israel argues that Democrats should continue to expose Trump’s misdeeds and focus on November.

The Murky Waters of Social Media and “Objectivity” in Newsrooms

Is there even such a thing as “objectivity?”

Prada to Address Racist Incidents in Landmark Settlement

In late 2018, luxury fashion house Prada came under fire for a racist window display in its flagship shop in SoHo. 

Student Homelessness is at an All-Time High

In the 2017-2018 school year, more than 1.5 million public school children had experienced homelessness.

September 28, 2016:

1. Iconic Statesman Shimon Peres Dead at 93 (2 min)

2. Margaret Sullivan: Get Out of Your News Comfort Zone (6 min)

3. Jerry Springer: Trump’s Reality TV Speak Made his Rise ‘Inevitable’ (5 min)

4. Should U.S. Citizens Be Able to Sue Foreign Countries? (9 min)

5. How Modern Meat Production Threatens Workers, Consumers, and Animals (6 min)

6. Closing the Representation Gap for Plus-Size Women (8 min)

September 09, 2016:

1. Discrimination in the Sharing Economy Goes Way Beyond Airbnb (11 min)

2. Unequal Justice: Filling in the Gaps for Public Defenders (7 min)

3. It’s Time to Take North Korea Seriously (4 min)

4. Africa’s Largest Economy Tumbles into Recession (4 min)

5. Films to Catch and Skip at the Box Office This Weekend (5 min)

6. Exploring the Evolution of Menswear (7 min)

September 08, 2016:

1. Analyzing the Clinton, Trump Foreign Policy Forum (12 min)

2. The Border Wall Business is Booming (7 min)

3. When It Comes to Surge Pricing, Who Benefits — You or Uber? (8 min)

4. Follow the Money? Trump Donation to Florida AG Raises Questions (7 min)

5. Textile Waste: A Growing Environmental Crisis (4 min)

6. We’re Seeing the Slow Death of Handwriting (8 min)

7. ‘What Is Aleppo?’ Gary Johnson Stuns With Syria Confusion (1 min)

In this week’s special fashion episode, Kurt gets some style advice from the industry’s most quotable observer, Simon Doonan. We take a look at how World War II shaped New York Fashion Week. Plus, Isabel Toledo became an internationally recognized designer after dressing Michelle Obama for her first Inauguration — we take a peek inside her studio. 

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.

The fashion industry isn’t particularly well known for it’s diversity and inclusion. When we hear the term “fashion model,” we often think of tall, sleek, and slender young women.

But there are more than a few trailblazers out there shaking up that idea, including Alexandra Kutas. Paralyzed since birth, this Ukrainian model and accessibility advocate came to New York Fashion Week to court designers, photographers, and publishers, and to show that models come in all shapes and sizes.

“I love to express different emotions to show real life in photos,” she says. “Fashion is alive—I never fake in pictures. If you look at my portfolio, it’s always how I really felt at the moment.”

Alexandra Kutas

By integrating disabled people into the world of fashion, Kutas says the conversation will change.

“Before it was kind of a stereotype: If you have a disability, you’re probably miserable, you’re suffering, or you’re not happy with your life,” she says. “But, right now, more and more [disabled] people are out there—more and more people that are successful in different kinds of areas.”

Kutas says that, in coming to New York, she is setting an example for other disabled people.

“I really want every single person who has any kind of disability to think, ‘OK, whatever my dream is, I can do it too,’” she says.

Model Alexandra Kutas.
(Credit: Alexandra Kutas/Anneshka Panchenko/Facebook)

Though Kutas is bringing more visibility to disabled people through modeling, she says she’s also focused on raising awareness about the larger challenges facing individuals like herself.

“Honestly it’s more about infrastructure—a lot of things are not accessible, unfortunately, and especially in the Ukraine,” she says. “That’s the most difficult thing.”

Kutas, who is from Kiev, started a campaign in Ukraine to build more wheelchair ramps on sidewalks and in high population areas.

“You won’t see people in wheelchairs on the streets most of the time,” she says. “Usually I joke that if you’ve seen someone [in a wheelchair in Ukraine], it’s probably me, which is a horrible thing. Right now, due to the war situation, we have more and more soldiers who are injured and who have gotten disabilities.”

Model Alexandra Kutas.
(Credit: Alexandra Kutas/Andrey Sarymsakov)

Though she was able to overcome it, Kutas says having a disability in Ukraine has been difficult. She hopes that she can make things a little easier for the next generation.

“It should be different,” she says. “I believe that people, especially in my country, need such kind of change.”

Though the nation has been ravaged by war, Kutas says that many talented Ukrainians are looking towards the future, and are hoping to change their nation through the arts.

“We’re going through a tough time right now, but I believe with a laugh and some hard work, you can change things,” she says.

Model Alexandra Kutas.
(Credit: Alexandra Kutas)

Model Alexandra Kutas.
(Credit: Alexandra Kutas)

John Hockenberry with Alexandra Kutas
(The Takeaway )

February 17, 2016: 1. An Outsider’s Perspective on an Insider Candidate | 2. Immigration Envy Grows as Cubans Get Easy Access | 3. A Best in Show Pooch and Plenty of Westminster Rejects | 4. When High Fashion Meets a Wheelchair | 5. The End of Average | 6. Turkish MP: Turkey Nearing Civil War

January 26, 2016: 1. A New Hope for Juveniles Serving Life Without Parole | 2. Filmmakers Fight Piracy, Teach Diversity With Storytelling | 3. The Sewing Machine: America’s Greatest Innovation? | 4. Designing for an Equal Future | 5. Infomagical: The Solution to Infomania and Content Overload

Since mid-December, I have been taking photos of public radio personalities, producers and strangers on the street wearing a hat that that makes an obviously false claim: “I AM LAKSHMI SINGH.” At a live event last week, NPR newscaster and personal hero Lakshmi Singh finally wore the hat, admitting the meme was exactly her kind of crazy. By the end of the event, audience members departed with their own Lakshmi Singh hats, doubling the meme’s half-life.

The so-called “#lakshmeme,” a tribute to the newscaster who inspired me to pursue a career in public radio, has amassed hundreds of portraits, posted and shared on Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. It even landed on the front page of Current, public media’s trade publication. 

The meme drew to its satisfying, crazy conclusion – a public radio spelling bee and piñatas were involved – live in The Greene Space on May 26 when Lakshmi talked about her career in public radio and discussed the importance of diverse voices, names, and faces in media. We were joined by current This American Life and former Snap Judgment producer Stephanie Foo and “The Whiteness Of Public Radio Voice” author and Clemson University communications professor Chenjerai Kumanyika.
 
THE LAKSHMI SINGHERS PERFORM “TUESDAY”

 THE LAKSHMI SINGHERS PERFORM “OLD RADIOS”

 THE FIRST ANNUAL PUBLIC RADIO SPELLING BEE: 

 
WATCH THE ENTIRE EVENT: