{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Live Lightly Podcast ","title":"Your Expensive Clothes Are Made of Cheap Plastic, and Your Health May Be Paying for It Too, with Meli of Arms of Andes & Eco Aya","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1514,"description":"You're paying top dollar for clothing that may be costing your health too — and most of us never thought to ask what our clothes are actually made of until now.\nMost conventional clothing, including the premium brands charging top dollar for it, is made from cheap synthetic petroleum-based plastic materials that shed microplastic particles onto your skin and into the air around you every single time you wear them, wash them, or simply move through your day. With infertility rates rising globally, researchers are increasingly pointing to daily microplastic and endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure as a contributing factor, and what we wear every single day is one of the most direct and continuous sources of that exposure. Pajamas included.\nIn this episode, I sit down with Meli, co-founder of Arms of Andes and Eco Aya — two plastic-free clothing brands built entirely without synthetic materials, rooted in a deep reverence for the earth and the people who live on it. Meli's story starts in Peru, shaped by a childhood rich in cultural values around nature and sustainability, and leads to two brands that prove clothing can perform beautifully without a single synthetic fiber.\nIn this conversation, we cover:\nMeli's childhood and the cultural values that shaped everything she builds\nGrowing up in Peru and a deep-rooted reverence for the earth and its resources\nWhat your clothing is actually made of, from production to your body\nThe personal health motivation:  microplastic exposure, hormone disruption, and fertility\nThe journey of building two plastic-free clothing brands and the challenges behind it\nSupply chain transparency and how to know if a brand is actually doing what it claims\nHow alpaca and pima cotton outperform synthetic materials in every way\nGetting to know the people and values behind the brands we bring into our homes changes everything. It's what turns a purchase into an intentional choice — and a label into something you can actually trust.\nAnd if you...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/QFul4K7-YUcKl2mXcxl9-OPygahyJg_PsRnWXBIVXQ8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9jMTA4/MmY3YjA1N2RiZjRk/ZWFlOGMyMGNmNTRh/Y2QyMS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}