Unpaused x Judy Stewart: A Conversation with Polly Leonard
Podcasts have become one of the most powerful ways to tell stories today. They invite us in through the intimacy of voice, creating space for reflection, connection, and exchange. At their best, they amplify perspectives that might otherwise remain unheard - especially the voices of makers, who are so often more comfortable at the loom, the potter’s wheel, or in the garden than in the spotlight. Judy Stewart’s Unpaused aims to do just that: serve as a living archive of women who have reimagined their lives through the transformative act of making.
Judy Stewart, founder of the Unpaused podcast.
For Judy, the podcast was born from her own story of reinvention. After stepping back from her career as a barrister to raise four sons, she chose not to return to the courtroom but instead to carve a new path altogether. Along the way she discovered that many women, like herself, found renewed purpose through creativity and craft, through work that was tactile, intentional, and deeply personal. Unpaused is her way of sharing these journeys: a repository of courage, craft, and creativity.
The very first Selvedge magazine - Issue 00, Launch. July/August 2004.
In Season 8, episode 54, Judy sits down with Polly Leonard, founder of Selvedge magazine. For over twenty years Polly has shown us that textiles are never just fabric. They are memory, belonging, and connection - threads that tie us to people and places across generations. As she says, “fibre may look like fluff, but it carries the weight of human history.”
Polly shares her journey from art school in Glasgow and New York, to building Selvedge into the world’s leading magazine about cloth. She talks about the tension between fast fashion and the slow, sustaining power of handcraft, and why she believes making should be at the heart of education. This is a conversation about curiosity, courage, and what happens when you follow a thread wherever it takes you.
Listen in and discover why Polly Leonard believes textiles matter — not just as fabric, but as culture, history, and future.
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Further Information:
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Image Credits:
Lead: Portrait of Polly Leonard by Alun Callender
All other inages as credited in photo captions