Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda copertina

Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

Rigour & Flow with Aiwan and Tamanda

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A proposito di questo titolo

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.

AiAi Studios Economia Gestione e leadership Leadership Relazioni Scienze sociali
Episodi
  • “I’m Done Performing Productivity!” | Burnout, Worth & Walking Away

    “I’m Done Performing Productivity!” | Burnout, Worth & Walking Away
    Jan 20 2026
    New year energy is usually about what we are chasing next. In this episode of Rigour & Flow, we slow that impulse down and start 2026 by asking, “What are we leaving behind in 2025?” After an intense year of work, production, learning curves and hard lessons, we wanted something lighter for this conversation. The result is a mix of reflection and a lot of laughter, alongside some seriously important focus points as we step into the year ahead for Rigour & Flow, AiAi Studios, as well as Roots & Rigour. We launched into our on-mic reflections without comparing notes at all for this one - each of us sharing five things we are consciously putting down as we enter into a year we both want to feel totally different from that last! Aiwan reflects on leaving behind the misused word “talent” in the creative industries, exploring how it enables poor behaviour, while erasing the intense work of entire teams. She speaks about productivity systems that promised balance, but only delivered pressure, pain and anxiety. And finally, the cost of allowing other people’s visions to dominate her time, energy and creative life. Tamanda reflects on entering public-facing work after years in academia and the shock of navigating online hostility and automated culture war commentary. She talks about funding applications, funding rejections, the need to centre realism, and the difference between backing yourself and building expectations on timelines you do not control. Together, we unpack over-functioning, the consequences of straying out of our lanes, underestimating the labour behind the scenes in creative work, and the subtle ways self-abandonment often masquerades as dedication. We close with reflections on choosing to trust our experience and instinct more this year, planning for guilt-free rest, living truthfully and outline some simple decisions we have made to build a work and life balance that can be sustained. 🎧 In this episode:The misuse of “talent”: How creative industries blur the lines of contributions, empower poor behaviour, and overlook collective effortProductivity promises and personal cost: Systems that claimed balance but delivered anxiety, rigidity and rebellionWasted social media arguments: Navigating public commentary spaces, automated hostility, and why not every comment deserves a responseOptimism and timelines: Funding hopes, rejection, and learning the difference between backing yourself and just getting your hopes up too earlyOver-functioning and reciprocity: The hidden costs of filling the gaps others leave behind because you are a high performerStaying in your lane: Underestimating creative processes, straying into everything, and learning to respect and trust others’ expertiseSelf-care as infrastructure: The importance of planning rest, nourishment and recovery before crisis hits 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xuvHT96FGeY🔁 Share with someone choosing differently this year☕ 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 & RigourThis is an AiAi Studios Production©AiAi Studios 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    59 min
  • Snatched! | Behind the Scenes on RuPaul’s Drag Race Companion Podcast

    Snatched! | Behind the Scenes on RuPaul’s Drag Race Companion Podcast
    Jan 13 2026

    In this Feedwarmer episode of Rigour & Flow, we spotlight a project from Aiwan’s back catalogue that brought her an enormous amount of joy to produce: Snatched! - the companion podcast celebrating all things RuPaul’s Drag Race.


    We open with a short preamble reflecting on why Snatched! mattered to AiAi Studios as a creative project - not just because of the joy and chaos of Drag Race, but as producers who care deeply about sound, pacing, playfulness, and permission to lean fully into camp, queer chaos. From there, we introduce Snatched! and share clips and reflections on how the show came together, why it worked, and what made it such a pleasure to produce.


    Hosted by Sam Damshenas and Umar Sarwar, Snatched! is smart, funny, irreverent, and unapologetically joyful - a podcast that treats fan culture as something thoughtful, creative, and worth taking seriously. We sit with the craft behind that joy: the sound design choices, the creative freedom, and the rare delight of making something that doesn’t need to justify itself beyond being fun.


    We talk about why Drag Race lends itself so well to podcasting, what it means to make a companion show that serves both superfans and casual listeners, and why projects like this remind us that pleasure, camp, and creativity are not distractions from “serious” work -they are part of it.


    🎧 In this episode:

    • Reflections on joy, camp-queer chaos, and creative freedom
    • Spotlighting Snatched! as a Drag Race companion podcast
    • Why RuPaul’s Drag Race makes perfec the opportunity to build new sonic landscapes
    • Fan culture as thoughtful, playful, and meaningful
    • Why making something fun can still be rigorous and technical work


    🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts

    🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube

    🔁 Share with someone who loves Drag Race, podcast craft, or joyful sound design

    ☕ Want to support Rigour & Flow? Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow


    Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes.

    Connect with us on:

    • TikTok
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • AiAi Studios
    • Roots & Rigour


    This is an AiAi Studios Production

    ©AiAi Studios 2025

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    47 min
  • She Love Bombed the F*ck Out of Me: The Unapologetically Black Podcast on Friendship

    She Love Bombed the F*ck Out of Me: The Unapologetically Black Podcast on Friendship
    Jan 6 2026

    In this Feedwarmer episode of Rigour & Flow, we spotlight a podcast that had us nodding, wincing, laughing, and quietly re-evaluating our own friendships.


    We open with a short preamble and reflections on adult friendship; the stories we tell ourselves about loyalty, closeness, and safety, and the moments when something starts to feel off but we can’t quite name why. From there, we introduce an episode of the Unapologetically Black Podcast that literally woke Tamanda up in the dead of night.


    Hosted by Dr Leanne Levers and Roshan Roberts, the episode centres on friendship red flags- from love bombing and emotional over-investment, to negativity, judgement, and relationships that drain more than they give. What unfolds is an honest, funny, and sometimes uncomfortable conversation about how friendship can mirror romantic dynamics, and why so many of us end up lowering our standards when it comes to the people we call friends.


    We reflect on why this episode resonated so deeply: the language it gives to experiences many people struggle to articulate, the permission it offers to reassess “ride or die” narratives, and the importance of boundaries in friendships.


    This Feedwarmer is all about giving ourselves permission to name the patterns and emotional labour that seem to go unquestioned, and asking what healthier, more reciprocal friendships look like. You can see it as a taster of what’s to come in a deeper dive on friendship we’ll be dropping in 2026.


    🎧 In this episode:

    • Reflecting on adult friendship: unspoken discomfort and toxic patterns
    • Spotlighting the Unapologetically Black Podcast and their episode on friendship
    • Love bombing in friendships, and why it’s not just a dating phenomenon
    • Red flags, emotional drain, and the myth of unconditional loyalty
    • Rethinking friendship standards, boundaries, and reciprocity


    🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts

    🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube

    🔁 Share with someone rethinking friendships, boundaries, or emotional labour

    ☕ Want to support Rigour & Flow? Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflow


    Please rate, review and subscribe for weekly episodes.

    Connect with us on:

    • TikTok
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • AiAi Studios
    • Roots & Rigour


    This is an AiAi Studios Production

    ©AiAi Studios 2025

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    42 min
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