Bringing The World Home To You

© 2025 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Already a Sustainer? Click here to increase now →
The logo for Embodied, which features a person with brown skin wearing yellow pants, a white shirt and white glasses pulling back a starry curtain of the silhouette of a person that is roughly twice as large as the person in yellow pants. The word "Embodied" is at the top with the WUNC logo directly underneath it and the PRX logo in the bottom righthand corner of the illustration. All of the text is in white, and the background of the illustration is light blue.
Embodied

Why It’s So Hard To Break Up With Fast Fashion

By Kaia Findlay,
Anita Rao, Amanda Magnus, Wilson Sayre
Published November 21, 2025 at 1:01 PM EST
The logo for Embodied, which features a person with brown skin wearing yellow pants, a white shirt and white glasses pulling back a starry curtain of the silhouette of a person that is roughly twice as large as the person in yellow pants. The word "Embodied" is at the top with the WUNC logo directly underneath it and the PRX logo in the bottom righthand corner of the illustration. All of the text is in white, and the background of the illustration is light blue.

Fast fashion has already been exposed for its negative impact on workers and the planet. A fashion industry insider explains how companies and brands keep us hooked. 

The consequences of fast fashion are well known: worker exploitation, environmental damage and poor quality items. And yet many of us keep buying it — either unknowingly, in willful ignorance or because it feels like there is no other option.

Fashion industry insider Amanda Lee McCarty joins host Anita Rao to interrogate why fast fashion has such a particular hold on us…and what we can do about it.

Amanda is the host of the “Clotheshorse” podcast, which decodes and demystifies the fashion world. You can also check them out on Substack and Instagram!

Read the transcript

Tags
Embodied Embodied Radio ShowFashion
Stay Connected
Kaia Findlay
Kaia Findlay is the lead producer of Embodied, WUNC's weekly podcast and radio show about sex, relationships and health. Kaia first joined the WUNC team in 2020 as a producer for The State of Things.
See stories by Kaia Findlay
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is an award-winning journalist, host, creator, and executive editor of "Embodied," a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships & health.
See stories by Anita Rao
Amanda Magnus
Amanda Magnus is the executive producer of Embodied, a weekly radio show and podcast about sex, relationships and health. She has also worked on other WUNC shows including Tested and CREEP.
See stories by Amanda Magnus
Wilson Sayre
Wilson Sayre is WUNC's Director of Digital Content leading our podcasting strategy and initiatives. She has worn many hats in the audio world as an editor, producer, consultant and team lead. Wilson was Managing Producer at Pushkin (previously Transmitter Media) where she helped launch shows like Am I Normal, the TED Interview and The Heist. Before that, she served as Executive Producer at Capitol Broadcasting Company and lead reporter for The City podcast from USA Today. Prior to that, she covered social safety net programs at WLRN, Miami's NPR member station. There, she founded the station's youth radio program. Wilson's work has been recognized by the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize and national Edward R. Murrow Awards. Wilson grew up in North Carolina and enjoys playing banjo and eating chocolate, usually not at the same time.
See stories by Wilson Sayre