Clotheshorse with Amanda Lee McCarty

Would you be surprised to hear that your favorite shoe brand is neither family-owned nor as punk as it portrays itself to be? Did you know that wealth inequality and shoes are directly connected?  Could your latest shoe purchase be subsidizing lobbying efforts to fight a rise in the minimum wage or reduce taxes for the wealthiest people? Amanda is joined by Ariel, the founder of Cobbled Goods to t...

In this episode, Amanda explores and explains a few different topics that are “ripped from the headlines,” including some news submitted from listeners: A recap of Amanda's day at the United Nations Fashion and Lifestyle Network Annual Meeting An update on the Fashion Act How boycotts are affecting Target (and their nightmare 2025 Pride collection) What Joann has in common with Toys R US, Bed Bath...

This week you are going to meet Molly and Jane of Content Queen , a two-person Bay Area-based zine publisher. And we are going to talk about all kinds of very hot topics (including literally Hot Topic): Why do Jane and Molly make physical zines rather than virtual/online content in 2025? The answer is important and might get you thinking… How has the kind of “content” we consume (especially the co...

What happened to Jo-Ann (the massive fabric/craft store chain)?  In many places, it was the only game in town.  It had a captive audience.  And sewing and mending are on the rise.   So Amanda set out to find out who killed Jo-Ann.  It’s a lot more complicated than you think! In this episode we take a journey full of twists and turns: Was it just private equity? And WTF is private equity anyway? Wh...

A better future for our planet means most people buying secondhand clothing most of the time. Right now we live in a “golden era” of shopping secondhand…if you’re the customer! But the infrastructure as it exists right now for the people doing the work of finding, repairing, cleaning, and selling secondhand clothing needs a lot of improvement.  This week, Amanda is joined by Valeria Brenner of Thr...

Understanding what your personal style and wearing what you want to wear? AMAZING! Not only does it feel great to love your clothes, it's also an essential part of a more sustainable way of life.  In this week's episode, Amanda is joined by Marlee of Style Me Slowly to talk about how to find "closet contentment." Why “flattering” is kind of a myth (and puts the focus on the wrong person’s happines...

Amanda is currently googling "fast home remedies for nonstop cough" with a tissue jammed in her nose, so please enjoy part four of this series from The Department about the history of secondhand shopping.   This episode was originally released in April 2023. From the original episode description: Amanda + Kim end their journey through the history of secondhand shopping as a social, retail, and sty...

Amanda's still coughing and feeling pitiful, so here's part three in a series about the history of secondhand shopping from The Department. This episode was released in April 2023. From the original episode description: Secondhand shopping is having a major moment right now and it isn't without controversy. Amanda + Kim take a deep dive into the trend cycle of secondhand clothing, because it turns...

Amanda is out with the most disgusting cold this week, so here's part two of The Department's series about secondhand shopping! This episode was originally released in April 2023. From the original episode description: Secondhand shopping is having a major moment right now and it isn't without controversy. Amanda + Kim take a deep dive into the trend cycle of secondhand clothing, because it turns...

Hi everyone! Dustin brought one souvenir back from his recent tour with his band American Motors : a really gross cold, which I now have the pleasure of experiencing right now.  I'm in the constant coughing/lost my voice stage of it this week, so there is no new episode of Clotheshorse. Instead, I thought I would share a few of my favorite episodes of my kinda RIP/kinda on-hiatus podcast, The Depa...

Last month, Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy for the second time. It is planning to close all of its stores in the coming months as it winds down its operations. This is not a eulogy for Forever 21, but it is a deep dive into how one retailer change changed our habits, along with the entire business of making and selling clothing. We’ll be talking about the following topics: The history of Forever...

How can we do good things in difficult times? The seemingly small things we do as individuals are actually really radical, impactful, and important. And if we do these good things with members of our community, they become even more powerful. This week, Christa of Material Union joins us to share how her community fridge has changed her life!  We will be covering the following topics: How to get a...

How can we do good things in difficult times? The seemingly small things we do as individuals are actually really radical, impactful, and important. And if we do these good things with members of our community, they become even more powerful.  In this week's episode, Scout of Radical Sewing Club shows us how mending and sewing are radical political acts.  They will will share how we can start our...

Over the past few years, we have explored many different facets of the secondhand economy: resellers and the ethics of reselling secondhand items, the various secondhand platforms, the fine art of thrifting , and even where all of the unsold stuff from thrift stores ends up! In this episode we'll learn what it's like to run an independent thrift store, with Sara and Shan of Bargain Thrift Center,...

One of the challenges facing all of concerned citizens is where and how to find accurate and reliable news.  This week Amanda is joined by Elizabeth Segran, Senior Staff Writer at Fast Company Magazine. They tackle some very important questions about news, media, and how we can determine what is fact, fiction, or something in-between: How can we tell the difference between editorial/opinion pieces...

2025 is a lot. Things are kinda overwhelming right now: there’s a lot of news to digest and it's coming fast, it’s hard to suss out reality from fiction, and we don’t know what we can do to help. And so…it’s hard to be okay right now.  But it sure is easy to be overwhelmed. Frightened. Angry. Trapped in a sense of powerlessness.  Find this episode's transcript (and so much more) at clotheshorsepod...

This is part four in a continuing series about slow fashion and inclusivity. Amanda is joined by some rad people doing great work making slow fashion more inclusive: Itohan Asemota is the founder of HNI Collective , a Philadelphia-based fashion service agency with a focus on size inclusivity and sustainability. Find Itohan on Instagram: @itsitohanhey Marlee Rosen is a slow fashion personal style c...

This is part three in a continuing series about slow fashion and inclusivity. In this episode you'll meet two people working to get more people into slow fashion and highlight size inclusive ethical brands: Itohan Asemota is the founder of HNI Collective , a Philadelphia-based fashion service agency with a focus on size inclusivity and sustainability. Find Itohan on Instagram: @itsitohanhey Marlee...

Despair. Apathy. Not believing that things can change and be better. Just fully discounting any possibility of progress.  Have you struggled with these feelings? It's called doomerism and you're not wrong for feeling that way.   In this week's episode, Amanda talks all about doomerism (and how to fight it off): Amanda shares what she learned on her desert road trip in search of optimism, with stop...

In the final episode of 2024, Amanda is inspired by a conversation with her friend Janelle to explore board games that teach children (and adults) the “winner takes all” aspect of late stage capitalism and/or reinforce the message that success=stuff. We’ll take a journey through the history of board games, with a deep dive into the Game of Life. We’ll check out the shopping focused games of the 19...

This is part two in a continuing series about slow fashion and inclusivity. In this episode you'll meet two people working to make slow fashion more accessible for more people: Nico Herzetty is the founder and CEO of Phoria, " a platform to help people find what fits their bodies, their style, and their priorities—and how we can support each other in that journey." Find Phoria on Instagram: @phori...

Amanda is joined by Sushmita, the person behind Ethical Fat Fashion , the "coolest fat positive fashion newsletter amplifying ethical size diverse brands.”   In this episode--recorded in a karaoke room in Tokyo--Amanda and Sushmita discuss the following: “Sustainable fashion” has an inclusivity problem. Meaning: it still focuses on thin, white, young, wealthier cis-gendered women. Why is that stil...

Amanda has a cold, so this week's episode is the return of a 2022 classic, Part 1 of the 12 Days of Slow Gifting with Maggie Greene! Gifting is an easy place for us to begin to educate others about the impact of overconsumption, while creating new traditions and changing societal behaviors!  Maggie Greene (The Halloween Queen) joins Amanda to introduce The 12 Days of Slow Gifting. This is part 1 o...

Clotheshorse (aka Amanda) was in Japan! And in this week's episode--the last in the Japan series--Amanda breaks down why everything is so cute in Japan. We'll talk about the following: Why are the fruit bus stops of Konagai a lesson in Instagram versus reality (but also so cool and special)? What is Don Quijote and why is the song a real earworm? What are eki-melo (駅メロ)  and why are they an imp...

Clotheshorse (aka Amanda) is in Japan! And in this week's episode, recorded in Nagasaki, Amanda shares the story of fake food (Shokuhin Sampuru, 食品サンプル) in Japan. We'll talk about the following: The history of food replicas in Japan (and why showing the actual food available in a restaurant was necessary for a long time), How department stores in Japan compare to department stores in the US,...