Ethically Questionable

All the Tea on the Very Great MidtermsEthically Questionable, Electrified by Polestar.What even is a midterm, and why are Americans everywhere celebrating? Jenn and Jamila explain the 2026 US midterm elections for everyone outside the US (and plenty of people inside it). They cover how the House and Senate work, why this vote mattered so much, and how a blue wave turned into a tsunami as Democrats took control of Congress.Then it’s on to the stories. Texas elected its first Democratic senator since 1988, James Talarico, and its first Latina governor, Gina Hinojosa. An Iowa candidate quit his race and won anyway. Alaska ended up with two Dan Sullivans on the ballot, and Mississippi’s Senate race is still too close to call. The night was full of history-making firsts: Keisha Lance Bottoms is the first Black woman elected governor in US history, Deb Haaland the first Native American woman governor, Abdul El-Sayed the first Muslim senator and Chris Pappas the first openly gay man in the Senate. We also talk about Amy Acton’s win in Ohio after her opponent ran an attack ad featuring her estranged mother. Content note: that story touches on childhood sexual abuse.And yes, Jenn found a way to make it about sustainability, because everything is. God bless America (it feels good to say it again).Shout out to Jake Amazing for our incredible End Credits this week "Delicious Irony"Find EQ everywhere Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EthicallyQuestionablePod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethicallyquestionable/ Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ethicallyquestionablepodFollow your hosts Jamila: https://www.instagram.com/jamilafaye/ Jenn: https://www.instagram.com/jennmcgarrigle/Ethically Questionable is Electrified by Polestar https://www.instagram.com/polestarcars/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ethically Questionable, Electrified by Polestar.A South Korean government study says paper straws are worse for the environment than plastic ones, and the New York Post could not contain its joy. Jamila and Jenn dig into what the study measured, what it left out (litter, ocean pollution, microplastics), and why the best straw might be no straw at all.Plus, H&M’s investment arm hosted an event called the Sustainable Fashion Forum. That’s also the name of Brittany Sierra’s 10-year-old company, which H&M had been in talks with for years. H&M says the name was a mistake. We’re not convinced. We get into what this says about how big brands treat Black women founders, and whether you should ever take money from brands you don’t trust.Plus, we have thoughts on Obama saying the White House looks like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.” Barack, if you’re listening, our DMs are open.Find EQ everywhere Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EthicallyQuestionablePod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethicallyquestionable/ Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ethicallyquestionablepodFollow your hosts Jamila: https://www.instagram.com/jamilafaye/ Jenn: https://www.instagram.com/jennmcgarrigle/Ethically Questionable is Electrified by Polestar https://www.instagram.com/polestarcars/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ethically Questionable, Electrified by Polestar.Jenn hosts this week. Our theme is governments letting us down, and the bar is on the floor. Trump’s new press secretary Katie Zacharia held a 14 minute briefing, took three questions, admitted she never passed the bar, and was out after five days. That’s half a mooch. We get into how she got the job in the first place, and why Jamila’s sarcastic comment on The Cut was too British for America.Then Trump wants to evict the White House press corps so he can bring back FDR’s old indoor pool. He posted a gilded mock-up to prove it. Moving reporters across the street is about control, not swimming, and it turns out he’s not the first to want the pool back. Over in the UK, Andy Burnham’s government has approved the Jackdaw gas field. Dale Vince calls it a tiny gas field. Jamila calls it strike two. We ask whether any of this gets us closer to solar panels on every roof.Grab your goggles. Leave your press pass at the door.Find EQ everywhere Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EthicallyQuestionablePod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethicallyquestionable/ Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ethicallyquestionablepodFollow your hosts Jamila: https://www.instagram.com/jamilafaye/ Jenn: https://www.instagram.com/jennmcgarrigle/Ethically Questionable is Electrified by Polestar https://www.instagram.com/polestarcars/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sh*t’s Creek: WTF Is Happening to Our Water?Ethically Questionable, Electrified by Polestar.This week, Danny Dyer floated a giant poo sculpture down the Thames and delivered a petition to Downing Street calling for the water industry to be nationalised. Nearly 350,000 people have signed it. So how did we get here?Jamila and Jenn dig into the story behind the stunt: the 1989 privatisation of England’s water, the billions paid out to shareholders while debt piled up, sewage spilling into our rivers and seas, and bosses moving between the companies and the regulator meant to hold them to account. Plus, the campaigners refusing to pay the sewage part of their bills, why renationalising is harder than it sounds, and what Paris and Copenhagen did to make their rivers swimmable again.Funny, fired up, and a little bit gross. Grab a tea (maybe skip the tap water though).Find EQ everywhere Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EthicallyQuestionablePod Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethicallyquestionable/ Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ethicallyquestionablepodFollow your hosts Jamila: https://www.instagram.com/jamilafaye/ Jenn:https://www.instagram.com/jennmcgarrigle/Ethically Questionable is Electrified by Polestarhttps://www.instagram.com/polestarcars/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Starbucks wants to get “Back to Starbucks.” So why has it just dropped or scaled back most of the sustainability goals it set in 2020, including its targets to halve water use and landfill waste, while CEO Brian Niccol pushes through $2 billion in cost cuts?This week on EQ News, Jamila Brown and Jenn McGarrigle get into the Financial Times report on Starbucks’ retreat from its green goals. Jamila confesses to walking into a Climate Week event in New York holding a single-use Starbucks cup. Jenn, a former Starbucks barista and coffee master, remembers the company it used to be: compost bags made from coffee grounds, pastries donated to local shelters, and a “third place” people actually wanted to spend time in.They talk about why watered-down goals worry them more than missed ones, how a change in what gets counted turned 500 billion litres of water into 53 billion, why a coffee company should treat climate change as one of its biggest business risks, and the citywide reusable cup trial in California that worked and then quietly disappeared. Plus, the private jet commute.Is it greenwashing to set a goal you might miss? Who should a sustainability team really report to? And can “Back to Starbucks” work while cutting the people who made it Starbucks?Stories mentioned: Financial Times, “Starbucks retreats from green goals amid $2bn cost drive” (29 September 2026). Bloomberg, “Hot Potatoes Mean Higher Prices and Shorter Fries in Europe” (16 September 2026).Ethically Questionable is Electrified by Polestar, the Swedish electric performance brand created to accelerate the shift to zero tailpipe emissions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.