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.
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    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.
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    42 min
  • What a Gold Medal Meant for Black Britain: Tessa Sanderson’s Legacy

    What a Gold Medal Meant for Black Britain: Tessa Sanderson’s Legacy
    Dec 30 2025

    In this Feedwarmer episode of Rigour & Flow, we share a moment of encounter: meeting sporting history in the flesh.


    The episode opens with us setting the scene at CLIMB 2025, where Aiwan attended a talk by Olympic gold medallist Tessa Sanderson and knew immediately she had to hear more. After that brief introduction, we move into a live conversation between Aiwan and Tessa, recorded at the AiAi Studios stand during the festival.


    Tessa Sanderson is the first Black British woman to win an Olympic gold medal. In this conversation, she reflects on her journey to the 1984 Olympics, the mindset required to win, and the reality of carrying history on her shoulders. She reflects on racism in British sport, the pressures faced by Black women athletes, and the mental discipline required to sustain excellence over time.


    The conversation also moves beyond the track. Tessa shares how she has translated elite sport into business, leadership, and advocacy - from boardrooms to grassroots work - including her longer term vision to set up a Museum of Diversity and her commitment to creating pathways for young people, especially Black girls, in sport.


    This is a warm, generous, and energising conversation about excellence, confidence, legacy, and what it means to meet someone whose achievements shaped generations.


    🎧 In this episode:

    • Tessa’s journey to Olympic gold in 1984 and the mindset behind it

    • What that medal meant for Black Britain and Black women in sport

    • Mental strength, self-belief, and sustaining confidence over time

    • Sport as business: sponsorship, leadership, and treating yourself as an enterprise

    • The Museum of Diversity and educating future generations

    • Encouragement for Black women and girls to take up space and keep going


    🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts

    🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube

    🔁 Share with someone who loves sport, legacy, and Black British history

    ☕ 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.
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    27 min
  • Why We Love Reality TV: Unguilty Pleasures with Liv Little & Scarlett Curtis

    Why We Love Reality TV: Unguilty Pleasures with Liv Little & Scarlett Curtis
    Dec 23 2025

    In this Feedwarmer episode, we spotlight one of our absolute favourite projects of 2025: Unguilty Pleasures - the Real Housewives–inspired podcast we launched this year as a collaboration between AiAi Studios and Daylight Productions.


    Hosted by Liv Little and Scarlett Curtis, Unguilty Pleasures is a joyful, self-aware ode to reality TV, escapism and the softer corners of culture we don’t always give ourselves permission to enjoy. From the chaotic brilliance of The Real Housewives to the emotional intelligence hidden inside so-called “trash TV,” Liv and Scarlett dive into the shows that hold us, distract us, heal us or simply make us laugh.

    In this episode, we revisit their conversation with Elizabeth Day - a warm, funny, chaotic delight that celebrates pleasure without guilt, the art of switching off, and the beauty of finding meaning in the unserious. We reflect on why these worlds grip us, what they reveal about class, gender and longing, and why escape isn’t something to apologise for.


    If you need a smile, a breather or a reminder that joy counts as culture, this Feedwarmer is for you.


    To close the year, we also share how much fun it has been to help bring this show into the world - with Aiwan Obinyan serving as Executive Producer and Senior Producer, Elizabeth Day as Executive Producer, and Tamanda Walker leading on data and insights for the series. One of the brightest collaborations of our 2025.


    🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts

    🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube

    🔁 Share with someone who loves Housewives, pop culture or escapist joy

    ☕ 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.
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    49 min
  • Why Are Mixed Race People Always Asked to Pick a Side?

    Why Are Mixed Race People Always Asked to Pick a Side?
    Dec 16 2025
    We return to a conversation that never really settled.After the unexpected response to Season 2’s “Episode 19: Are Mixed Race People ‘Properly Black’?”, we sit with what lingered; the comments, the discomfort, the language policing, and the familiar demand that mixed race people either ‘pick a side’ or ‘play the bridge’.This isn’t a debate about identity labels. It’s a reflection on what mixedness is asked to do in a world structured by racial hierarchy.We begin with language: the push to abandon the word “race,” the claim that naming it only entrenches division, and the exhaustion - especially among Black and mixed communities - of being told that silence equals progress. We ask what gets lost when language is policed, and why refusing to name race never seems to dismantle racism.From there, we move into the deeper fault lines. The recurring pressure to “pick a side.” The temptation to claim a separate category. And the seductive pressure and idea that mixed race people are uniquely positioned to mediate, reconcile, or soften conflict - to ‘be the bridge’ in a divided world.Drawing on personal experience, online responses, and psychological frameworks, we unpack the emotional labour hidden inside that phrase. The shapeshifting. The code-switching. The quiet expectation to absorb tension so others don’t have to sit with it themselves, and the discomfort of racial anxiety.Along the way, we name a distinction that matters: being asked to pick a side is not the same as being asked to pick a politics. Identity does not determine values - but values do determine what we refuse to excuse, paper over, or explain away.This episode is about exhaustion, refusal, and integrity. About belonging everywhere - and what it costs. And about the possibility that wholeness does not require neutrality, mediation, or silence.In this episode:Language policing and why refusing the word “race” doesn’t end racismThe pressure on mixed race people to “pick a side”, and why that framing sometimes failsIdentity vs politics: why values matter more to Tamanda than categoriesThe burden of being the bridge: emotional labour, mediation, and being “walked over”Shapeshifting, code-switching, and the hidden cost of adaptability as told by Jamilla AnderssonWhy mixedness is often welcomed only when it is quiet and non-disruptiveRefusing the bridge as an act of integrity: when standing for something leaves you feeling most wholeWhat staying whole looks like in a world that keeps asking you to split🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube 🔁 Share with someone navigating mixedness, mediation, or the cost of belonging ☕ Want to support the show? Buy us a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/rigourandflowPlease 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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    1 ora e 3 min
  • Healing, boundaries and borders: Mental health, money lending and Black queer travel stories

    Healing, boundaries and borders: Mental health, money lending and Black queer travel stories
    Dec 9 2025

    In this Notes from the Margins edition of Rigour & Flow, we follow three journeys that sit at the heart of Black life: how we heal, how we give, and how we move through a world that does not always want us in it.

    Tamanda opens with a little-known and astonishing history of mental health care in Nigeria. Long before global psychiatry learned to speak about community, Dr Thomas Adeoye Lambo pioneered a model that placed patients with local families, blended medical care with traditional healing, and produced recovery outcomes that surpassed Western institutions.

    We trace how cultural belief, ancestral knowledge and community networks transformed treatment, and why colonisation buried so many of these practices from view.

    From there, Aiwan takes us into the psychology of lending money. Growing up in a home where generosity came before the electricity meter, she unpacks the emotional inheritance behind giving, the different meanings of “broke”, and the personal boundary she had to learn the hard way: ‘Do not lend what you cannot afford to lose!’.

    We explore how culture, responsibility and survival shape our money instincts, and why boundaries are a form of self-care.

    We close with a listener request that goes straight to the marrow of identity: travelling while Black and queer. From the relief of landing in majority Black countries, to “walking the gauntlet” in Lanzarote, we speak honestly about safety, the violence of the white gaze, and the fragile peace that holiday planning requires when your body is othered before you even reach passport control.

    We also speak to the joy of finding Black owned and queer run travel spaces that see us, hold us and shelter us.

    🎧 In this episode:

    • Community as clinic: The Aro Village System and the ancestral healing that Western psychiatry could not recognise
    • Culture and healthcare: Why traditional healers shaped better outcomes and how colonial healthcare erased that knowledge
    • Inherited generosity: Growing up in homes where giving was the norm, and how this shapes adult money habits
    • Unquestioned belonging: Landing in majority Black countries and feeling the burden of Blackness lift
    • The colonial gaze abroad: Othering in Asia, Europe’s white gaze, and finding the familiar in Africa
    • Travel as calculation: Scanning for safety as Black queer travellers, and the pain of choosing destinations on a heavy criteria of safety
    • Queer routes and refuge: Finding unexpected joy in Black owned and queer run travel communities, and recognising the places that hold us

    🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts

    🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1TTKqQl9k_o

    🔁 Share with someone navigating their own journey

    📬 Reflections or stories to share? rigourandflow@gmail.com

    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.
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    53 min
  • Pentecostalism & Zionism: Faith, Conditioning & the Politics of Palestine

    Pentecostalism & Zionism: Faith, Conditioning & the Politics of Palestine
    Dec 2 2025
    We step into the charged, intimate territory of religion, politics and the stories we were raised to believe, and ask how aspects of Pentecostal conditioning continue to shape how many of us understand Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East today.We begin with the lessons we absorbed long before we had language for them: Zion as a sacred homeland, Jews as “God’s chosen people,” Muslims as enemies in spiritual warfare, and Israel as a nation that could never be questioned without risking blasphemy. We trace how church services, sermons, youth camps and worship songs shaped a political worldview long before we voted, read widely, or understood the stakes.From there, we widen the lens. Aiwan recalls her childhood Pentecostal formation: the unquestioned reverence for Israel, and the anti-Muslim narratives woven into some spiritual teachings. She then reflects on her pilgrimage to the Holy Lands - from being baptised in the River Jordan, to standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee - and how the holiness of those spaces blurred the violence and dispossession occurring in the present day. Together, we ask what it means to inherit a theology that centres on people’s chosenness at the expense of others’ humanity.Along the way, we confront the fear many Christians carry: the fear of questioning Israel; the fear of “dishonouring God”; the fear of being seen as anti-Semitic simply for naming state violence. We explore how Christian Zionism blurs spiritual devotion with geopolitical allegiance, and what it looks like to unlearn those scripts with clarity, compassion and courage. This is not a geopolitical debate.Recorded on 19 August 2025, it is a discussion about how faith shapes our inner world, how conditioning influences what we think is right or wrong, and what it means to find honesty at a holy crossroad. It is about learning our minds, unlearning what no longer fits, and staying open to the full story of building faith in humanity.🎧 In this episode:Pentecostal conditioning: the scriptures, sermons and spiritual warfare narratives that shaped our worldviews‘God’s chosen people’ alongside anti-Semitic teaching: how reverence, hostility and identity became entangled.Christian Zionism 101: what Pentecostals believe about Israel and the why behind these beliefsPilgrimage stories: baptisms, holy sites and how sacred awe masked political realityThe fear of blasphemy: why questioning Israel felt spiritually dangerousPalestine in the present: state violence, dispossession and the inherited blind spots many of us were raised withWhy religion is never “just religion”: faith as a political education and as banal cultural backdropUnlearning with compassion: how to dismantle harmful scripts without dishonouring personal history🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vf84RUtOtgc 🔁 Share with someone exploring faith, politics or deconstruction📬 Reflections or stories to share? rigourandflow@gmail.com⚠️ Content note: discussion includes anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim narratives, state violence, and theological indoctrination.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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    1 ora e 10 min