Catalyst is a Creative Industries podcast, from Chapman University. Each episode features Chapman students who have completed a Podcasting course through the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries at the university. Students who had no podcasting experience or technical ability in the genre before taking the course were able to contribute all the segments to Catalyst this season with the goal being that they will take this ‘hands-on’ experience and carry it over to the launching of their very own series. Each episode of Season 9 will feature one to two different interviews conducted by CCI students, exploring different aspects of the Creative and Cultural Industries.

Ashley Retzer kicks off this episode with an interview of Kelsy Parkhouse, owner of the sustainable fashion brand Carleen. Carleen domestically sources and manufactures unique pieces with reworked denim and vintage, quilted textiles. Carleen has been known to work with brands such as Free People and Anthropologie and has been worn by celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and Lena Dunham. Retzer and Parkhouse cover everything from sourcing textiles to the current state of fashion sustainability and wrap up the interview with advice to the aspiring students hoping to work in creative industries and run a successful business.

Our second interview features Julius Durets, a young entrepreneur who started his own clothing brand, Rosado, shortly after graduating from college. Durets sits down with Sophie Gunn to discuss how to balance a growing a brand while still working a corporate job, Durets’ creative process and how he has worked to create a feeling of originality and nostalgia at the same time with Rosado. The two also reflect on the concepts of work ethic and creative freedom and how that can influence and shape one’s work.