Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda
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  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

The show where business meets love, and culture meets critique. We’re Aiwan and Tamanda, two Black women with 20 years each in entertainment, research, and social justice. We’re also a married couple figuring out what it means to build a life and two businesses together. We'll talk about the realities of running a business, making creative work that matters, and navigating research with integrity. What You’ll Find: Honest conversations on entrepreneurship, research, and creativity.Unpacking the intersections of business, leadership, relationships, and identity.Hot takes on media, culture, and social change.Guest insights from entrepreneurs, researchers, and artists.If you’re navigating business, love, and the messiness of life while trying to do meaningful work, you’re in the right place. Episodes drop every Tuesday! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Hard to Reach or Easy to Ignore? | The Truth About Community Research, Anger & Power

    4d ago

    Hard to Reach or Easy to Ignore? | The Truth About Community Research, Anger & Power

    Why do we let 'experts' from outside our communities decide what we need? Today, we’re talking about the politics of help, the myth of the 'hard to reach' and why genuinely community-led research has the potential to solve global crises like suicide and inequality.   From Black maternal health to Black men’s mental health, in this episode Aiwan and Tamanda explore what could happen when money, power and agency move directly into the hands of communities. When communities set the agenda, choose the questions, shape the process and decide what counts as change.   Aiwan reflects on entering Tamanda’s research world, being baffled by its language and slowly realising that terms like “participatory action research”, “community engagement” and “co-production” point to a pivotal question: who gets to decide what matters and what change is needed?   From there, the episode moves into the anger that surfaces when communities recognise how often they have been studied, used, consulted, underpaid and discarded. Aiwan speaks honestly about the fury of realising how often “help” is designed without the people it is meant to serve. Tamanda unpacks why this anger is not a distraction from the research, but part of the process of knowledge production. Together, they explore the difference between research that extracts and research that heals.   🎙️ In this episode: Beyond the Buzzwords: Stripping away research jargon to understand the truthsThe Extraction Economy: How communities have been "used and discarded" by traditional research institutionsResearch and Community Agency: What happens when we stop being the "subject" and start being the "architect"Setting the Agenda: Why the "most important problem" shouldn't be decided upstream by strangersRelational Research: Why connection is the only real antidote to a disconnected worldFrom Local to Global: How community-led insights can fix our hyper-connected but deeply fractured and unequal world  🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7f5vKA-hYNQ 🔁 Share with someone who believes communities should lead the change that affects them ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTokInstagramLinkedInAiAi StudiosRoots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    52 min
  2. The Dark Side of Activism: Why Our Safe Spaces Turn Toxic

    May 26

    The Dark Side of Activism: Why Our Safe Spaces Turn Toxic

    What happens when the oppressed become the oppressor?   In this episode, taking inspiration from an article by Dr Yvon Guest, Aiwan and Tamanda pull back the curtain on the concept of the "wounded activist”, a phenomenon where unresolved trauma drives social movements, often leading to the very oppression, hierarchy and exclusion we claim to fight.   From the "untouchable founder" to "brand activism", we reflect on justice spaces we’ve been in that felt like fundamentalist religions and explore how to understand and break the cycles of trauma-driven bad behaviour.   Aiwan shares about entering Black queer activist spaces with hope, only to find new rules, "pronoun politics" and exclusion. From vegan safe spaces to the murky line of “no hierarchy”, she traces the ways community can quickly turn into conformity.   Tamanda brings the conversation inward, questioning her own journey in antiracism and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work. She takes a vulnerable look at her historical need for recognition from white institutions and the identity collapse that happened when she realised no movement could heal her wounds. That she had to do that work herself.    🎙️ In this episode: The Wounded Activist: How trauma can become both fuel and fracture in justice workThe Oppressed as Oppressor: How marginalised spaces can recreate the hierarchies they hateActivist Archetypes: Identifying the “Spiritualisers”, “Perpetual Martyrs” and “Untouchable Founders”Class Silence in Black Queer Spaces: What gets hidden when everyone performs samenessBurnout and Identity Crisis: Who are you when activism is no longer your whole self?Healing the Core Wound: How come activists die young and how to break the destructive cycle  Note: This is not an anti-activism episode. It is a conversation about what happens when people carry their wounds into spaces that promise belonging, then reproduce the same control, hierarchy and judgement we were all trying to escape.   🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tmYBzXCMWYo 🔁 Share with someone who has ever loved a movement, left a movement or been hurt by one ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow #RigourAndFlow #WoundedActivist #PsychologyOfActivism #ActivistBurnout #SocialJusticeAnalysis #DEICritique #BlackQueerThought #CriticalThinking #TraumaInCommunity #SocialMovements Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTokInstagramLinkedInAiAi StudiosRoots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 13m
  3. Policed by Design: Why Your Neighbourhood Feels Like a Prison

    May 19

    Policed by Design: Why Your Neighbourhood Feels Like a Prison

    Have you ever looked at your own neighbourhood and felt like you weren’t actually meant to be there?   In this episode, Aiwan and Tamanda reveal that it’s not in your head. It’s in the blueprints. We dive into the sobering reality that communities are increasingly under surveillance, including how the Metropolitan Police are far more directly involved in the architecture of homes, schools and playgrounds than we might ever imagine.       With memories of the Meridian Estate and the "prison-like" Ferrier Estate, Aiwan explains how our built environment is designed to infantilise us, and why the antidote is teaching the "structure of local politics" from a young age. We explore the possibility of training the next generation of architects directly from the community, so the people designing estates are the same people who call them home. The same people who live, breathe and feel their realities.   Finally, we move beyond the critique of hostile architecture to ask how we take our power back from these structures of control. Tamanda brings in Amahra Spence’s work on "architectures of abolition" - plus learnings from some recent work with The Ubele Initiative - which remind us that safety isn't simply the absence and prevention of crime, but the presence of care, dignity and collective agency.   From Northumberland Park and the shadows of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to the sterile playgrounds of modern social housing, this is a conversation about race, class and the radical act of reclaiming our agency through architecture that reflects that its communities have been heard. 🎙️ In this episode: The Met as Architect: How police influence the design of our "securitised" streetsThe Southwark Pergola: A case study in how "security" logic destroys community’s sense of safetyThe Technology of Power: Why buildings, barriers and shutters are never neutralArchitecture from the Ground Up: Why the kids on the estate should be the ones designing its futureAgency as a Basic Right: Why every living thing needs control over its environmentThe Power of the Mass: Why collective agency is the only way to "reclaim and rebuild the block"  🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rsv0XzIrFp0 🔁 Share with someone thinking about housing, class or the places that shaped them ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow #RigourAndFlow #SpatialJustice #UrbanDesign #PoliceByDesign #LondonHousing #SocialHousing #Architecture #AmahraSpence Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTokInstagramLinkedInAiAi StudiosRoots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 2m
  4. WTF Happened to Body Positivity? | The Rise of the Ozempic Aesthetic

    May 12

    WTF Happened to Body Positivity? | The Rise of the Ozempic Aesthetic

    Is body positivity dead in the wake of Ozempic? We're exploring how weight loss culture and the 'heroin chic' aesthetic are making a high-speed comeback under the guise of medical wellness.   ☕ Support the show: www.buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow   With this being Mental Health Awareness week, we couldn’t think of a better time to put the spotlight on one of the most overlooked mental health conditions in the Black community. As just six months ago, body positivity felt like a permanent cultural shift and today, the landscape has changed. People are "shrinking" overnight.   In response, Aiwan and Tamanda interrogate the radical shift in weight loss culture in 2026. From the medicalisation of weight loss using a “miracle” drug to the normalisation of "shrinking," we unpack how quickly the conversation has shifted back toward unhealthy control. We deep dive into how so called “wellness” language - and even medical terminology - is being used to mask aesthetic pressure and the impact of diet culture on Black body image.   Drawing on her personal experience with eating disorders and recovery, Tamanda reflects on the unsettling "seduction" of these new drugs, and what this shift means for a generation of teenagers watching people dwindle in real-time.   🎙️ In this episode: The Rise and Retreat: How body positivity moved from a cultural force to a quiet disappearanceThe Ozempic Effect: The medicalisation of weight loss and the normalisation of "shrinking"Wellness or Control?: Decoding how "health" language is being used to mask aesthetic pressureRace and Body Politics: How Black bodies sit differently inside cycles of visibility, pressure, and desirabilityChasing Capitalism: Why the system needs our bodies to remain "projects" that need fixingWatching in Real Time: What this shift means for teenagers growing up inside it Subscribe for more critical deep-dives into power, class and the Black experience.       🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts
 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/g-yUKuuTSCU   🔁 Share with someone thinking about what “health” and “beauty” mean today. Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTokInstagramLinkedInAiAi StudiosRoots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    57 min
  5. 92% of England’s Land is Inaccessible | Are You As Free As You Think?

    May 5

    92% of England’s Land is Inaccessible | Are You As Free As You Think?

    92% of England is off-limits to the public. And 50% of the land is owned by 1% of the population. Most people in Britain believe they are free. But are we really?   Episode description and notes: In this episode of Rigour & Flow, we move between the personal and the structural to interrogate land ownership in Britain today. We start with the film 'Our Land' and its exploration of the politics of walking, before widening the lens to connect British land estates to global colonial histories.   Touching on the Right to Roam movement and contrasting rights of passage in Scotland vs. England, we ask: what does it mean to live in a country where you are legally a trespasser on most of the land?   This conversation is not just about countryside access or a "nice walk". It is about who is allowed to belong, how colonial logic reorganised itself into modern property law, and how community wealth building is being systematically stalled.   🎙️ In this episode:   Landing British Realism: The myth of freedom in a country where 92% of land is inaccessible.The Right to Roam: The radical differences between Scotland and England and what they reveal about power.Colonialism at Home: How 1% owning 50% determines class, control and belonging in the British countryside.Indigeneity and Erasure: Why Western societies do not see themselves as indigenous and the discursive moves that separate us.Community Wealth Building: Why land ownership is the centre of long-term Black community security and survival.  Subscribe for more critical deep-dives into power, class and the Black experience. 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts
 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SQUH9YPO6Lo 🔁 Share with someone thinking about land, freedom or belonging ☕ Support the show: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow     Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTokInstagramLinkedInAiAi StudiosRoots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 15m
  6. 95% of Doctors Who Died Were Black | Why Was This Not a National Scandal?

    Apr 28

    95% of Doctors Who Died Were Black | Why Was This Not a National Scandal?

    95% of doctors who died during COVID-19 were Black and racially minoritised. And at the height of the pandemic, while making up only 14% of the population, Black and minoritised communities accounted for 63% of all healthcare worker deaths.   Why was the risk so unevenly distributed? It’s time to stop sitting with the numbers and shift the stakes.   In this Feedwarmer edition, Tamanda and Aiwan revisit a 2021 conversation to dismantle the deep-seated racial disparities in UK healthcare. Featuring Rianna Raymond-Williams (Ree Speaks) and Michael Hamilton (The Ubele Initiative), we explore how youth-led organising like the "We Need Answers" campaign forced accountability onto the national agenda.   From public health activism to the deeper architecture of systems change, we ask: Who is protected? Who is exposed? And what must happen now?   🎙️ In this episode: The 95% Reality: What COVID-19 revealed about racial inequality in the UKThe Frontline Cover Up: Why black and racially minorised doctors were sent to the frontline over their white colleagues and what this reveals about a lack of institutional safetyWe Need Answers: The power of youth-led organising and how it put accountability onto the agendaUnhealthy Structural Racism: What could happen when data confirms what communities already know?Moving up the “Funding Food Chain”: Why black organisations must shift from "firefighting" on small, unpredictable grants to controlling large-scale institutional capital  🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts
 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/L5WdH5NZiIA 🔁 Share with someone thinking about systems, power and change     ☕ Want to support the show? Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow       Subscribe for more critical deep-dives into power, class and the Black experience. And be ready for the launch of Season 5 next week!     Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTokInstagramLinkedInAiAi StudiosRoots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    41 min
  7. The Future of Rigour & Flow: Seasonal Shifts and Personal Reflections

    Apr 7 ·  Bonus

    The Future of Rigour & Flow: Seasonal Shifts and Personal Reflections

    Rigour & Flow is evolving. After a full year of weekly episodes, we are moving to a Seasonal rhythm starting with Season 5 this May. In this intimate update, we reflect on our first year through the lens of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count and our own personal Easter Monday reflections. We’re sharing the "why" behind our move to seasons, what the data from Year 1 told us, and a preview of the incredible conversations we’ve already recorded for the new season. Stay tuned for a feedwarmer coming soon! 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/KCuL_ALYTsA 🔁 Share with someone trying to build something that lasts   ☕ Want to support the show? Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow    Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTokInstagramLinkedInAiAi StudiosRoots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    27 min
  8. Podcasting Is Easy… Until You Try It | Learnings From One Year of Rigour & Flow

    Mar 31

    Podcasting Is Easy… Until You Try It | Learnings From One Year of Rigour & Flow

    Everyone has a podcast. But very few people sustain one. In this final episode of Season 4, we mark one year of Rigour & Flow - a milestone that feels both significant and, at times, improbable. Because behind the weekly releases, the conversations and the growth, there have also been moments of doubt, exhaustion, and the very real question of whether we could keep going. We reflect on what it actually takes to build and sustain an independent podcast. Not just creatively, but emotionally, relationally and practically. This takes us back to the beginning: the original names we nearly chose, the friend who thankfully stopped us being ‘Ditsy Wise’, the poll that pointed us one way, the reality check that forced us another, and the emergence of ‘Rigour & Flow’ as the title that could hold the tension between depth and levity, critique and ease, research and culture.   We talk about how the show has changed us. Aiwan speaks about getting to understand, from the inside, what clients go through when they try to make podcasting sustainable. Tamanda reflects on how hosting has expanded her sense of identity, raising new questions about research, knowledge, public thought, and the blurred line between scholar and public intellectual.   Finally, we look back at the first year of the show itself: 52 episodes, platform features, awards, global listeners, growing audience connection, the first signs of monetisation, and the reality that sustainability has to become the next serious conversation if the show is to keep evolving.   🎙️ In this episode: One year is no small thing: Why sustaining a weekly podcast matters more than simply launching oneThe podcasting apocalypse horsewomen: Burnout, time and despair as real threats to creative consistencyThe names before the name: From Ditsy Wise to In Tandem to Rigour & FlowFrom producer to podcaster: What Aiwan learned by living what clients faceResearch in real time: Tamanda on audience, interpretation and the question of public intellectual workThe archive before the show: How relationship video diaries became the seedbed of the podcastWhat the show has changed in us: Podcasting, identity and becoming ourselves in publicMarking the journey: Apple features, awards, global listeners and building from zeroSustainability and the future: What has to change if independent podcasting is going to endure  🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts
 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7kq4dvcwNMw 🔁 Share with someone trying to build something that lasts   ☕ Want to support the show? Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow    Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes. Connect with us on: TikTokInstagramLinkedInAiAi StudiosRoots & Rigour This is an AiAi Studios Production ©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    50 min
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About

The show where business meets love, and culture meets critique. We’re Aiwan and Tamanda, two Black women with 20 years each in entertainment, research, and social justice. We’re also a married couple figuring out what it means to build a life and two businesses together. We'll talk about the realities of running a business, making creative work that matters, and navigating research with integrity. What You’ll Find: Honest conversations on entrepreneurship, research, and creativity.Unpacking the intersections of business, leadership, relationships, and identity.Hot takes on media, culture, and social change.Guest insights from entrepreneurs, researchers, and artists.If you’re navigating business, love, and the messiness of life while trying to do meaningful work, you’re in the right place. Episodes drop every Tuesday! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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