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Welcome to the Human Frame Podcast. The Human Frame is where activism and art meet, a space for honest, searching conversations with people using creativity to challenge systems of power and reimagine justice.

Hosted by Łucja Hawking, a human rights campaigner, actor, and writer. This series, created for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, features voices like Olga Borisova (Pussy Riot), Holly Renaut, Homira May, and many more artists and advocates pushing for change.

Each episode is an act of curiosity, exploring how storytelling, performance, and art can become forms of resistance, and how, through sharing stories, we find empathy, connection, and the courage to change things.

Music by Yago Cardalda.

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In this powerful episode of The Human Frame, Łucja speaks with Olga Borisova, a core member of Pussy Riot, about her extraordinary journey from working inside the Russian police force to becoming an internationally recognised activist, artist, and dissident.

Olga opens up about the moment she realised she could no longer serve the state machinery she disagreed with, and how that decision led her directly into the world of political art, protest, and creative resistance. Together, they explore what it means to use performance, storytelling, and digital activism to challenge authoritarianism, especially as censorship, harassment, and surveillance escalate across Russia and beyond.

Olga shares insight into:
• Her transition from police officer to Pussy Riot activist
• Why art became her form of rebellion
• Digital censorship, online harassment, and the risks she continues to face
• The power of feminist protest in Russia, standing for Ukraine
• Her upcoming book project
• The possibility of adapting her story into film or theatre

This episode is part of our 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence series, spotlighting artists and activists who use creativity as a tool for resistance, justice, and change.

Follow Olga Borisova / Pussy Riot:
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Pussy Riot Instagram

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Host: Łucja Hawking

Music: Yago Cardalda

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In this urgent and eye-opening episode, Łucja speaks with Holly Renaut, actress, voice and dialect coach, writer and director, to explore how AI is reshaping the acting industry.

Together, they dive into the rise of deepfakes, voice cloning, and AI-generated performance, asking what it means for actors when their face, voice, or identity can be replicated without consent. Holly reflects on the emotional, professional, and ethical impact of these technologies, particularly for performers whose bodies and voices have historically been objectified or undervalued.

This conversation moves between the personal and political:
• Holly’s journey into acting, voice work, and creative practice
• How deepfakes and AI threaten autonomy, agency, and artistic labour
• The risks of voice theft and the future of dialect coaching
• How AI influences creativity, authenticity, and the training of actors
• Why consent-based tech matters and how the industry must change
• What performers can do to protect themselves in a digital era

Part of our 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence series, this episode examines the deeper implications of AI, and how artists can resist through storytelling, maintaining their craft, and cultural critique.

Follow Holly Renaut:
Holly's Instagram
Website
Dialect & Voice Coaching

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Host: Łucja Hawking

Music: Yago Cardalda

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In this powerful conversation, Łucja speaks with Homira May, a Hazara rights activist, about the ongoing persecution of Hazaras in Afghanistan and the escalating system of gender apartheid under Taliban rule.

Homira shares her personal journey from Afghanistan to the UK, the emotional and political realities of being a Hazara woman in exile, and why speaking out is both a responsibility and a form of resistance. Together, they explore:

• The historical and ongoing genocide of the Hazara people
• How Afghan women are facing systematic erasure under Taliban governance
• The psychological toll of activism and displacement
• Why documenting atrocities is essential for future justice processes
• What meaningful international action should look like — and how individuals can support it

Homira’s clarity, urgency, and humanity offer a rare window into one of the world’s most underreported crises, and a reminder that silence is complicity.

Follow Homira’s work:
🔗 Homira's Twitter
🔗 Homira's Instagram

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Host: Łucja Hawking

Music: Yago Cardalda

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In this episode, Łucja sits down with Lois Tallulah, actress, director, and founder of Shorties, a platform dedicated to elevating female and non-binary filmmakers. Lois shares her unexpected path into the creative industries, from initially resisting acting to discovering her identity as a Cockney performer and eventually carving out her own place behind the camera.

Together, they explore:

• How working-class artists navigate an industry built on privilege
• Why Lois founded Shorties and how it has grown into a thriving community
• The importance of representation that isn’t tokenistic, but lived and grounded
• What it means to create work that challenges gender roles, stereotypes, and creative gatekeeping
• The power of collaboration, mutual support, and creating your own opportunities when doors stay closed

This candid conversation is about identity, class, creativity, and the courage to build what doesn’t yet exist. Lois’s journey shows how much can change when diverse storytellers have the space, and the platform, to speak in their own voice.

Follow Lois & Shorty’s:
🔗 Lois Tallulah Instagram
🔗 Shorties Instagram

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Host: Łucja Hawking

Music: Yago Cardalda

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In this episode of The Human Frame, Łucja speaks with Willow Stone, a drag performer, model, trans woman, and powerful advocate for trans rights, about the transformative force of performance and the politics of visibility in today’s climate.

Willow shares her journey into drag, how performance helped her discover and embody her womanhood, and why creativity became a site of both safety and resistance. Together they explore the emotional, artistic, and political layers of drag; the challenges of being a trans artist in the UK; and the importance of joy, resilience, and chosen family in the face of rising hostility.

This episode dives into:
✨ Willow’s early creative roots
✨ How performance shaped her transition and identity
✨ Navigating the UK’s growing wave of transphobia
✨ Drag as rebellion, storytelling, and survival
✨ The realities of working as a trans model in mainstream media
✨ Why representation, nuance, and humanisation matter more than ever

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🔗 Willow's Instagram

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Host: Łucja Hawking

Music: Yago Cardalda

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In this episode of The Human Frame, Łucja speaks with Mita, a human rights advocate, consultant, and documentary producer whose work is shaped profoundly by her own lived experience.

Mita shares their personal journey of navigating bureaucracy in a country that too often treats asylum seekers with suspicion rather than humanity. Drawing on their frontline work and creative projects, they offer an unfiltered look at the realities faced by people seeking safety - from systemic failures and hostile policies to misinformation in the media.

The conversation explores:
✨ How lived experience shaped Mita’s purpose as an advocate
✨ The realities of claiming asylum in the UK, beyond media narratives
✨ Mita's documentary Dover 82
✨ Storytelling as a tool for reclaiming dignity and truth
✨ The importance of representation and centering lived-experience leadership
✨ What meaningful reform and solidarity should look like

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🔗 Mita's Instagram

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Host: Łucja Hawking

Music: Yago Cardalda

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In this episode of The Human Frame, Łucja sits down with Martina Avogadri, actor, teacher, and founder of The Truthful Actor acting course, for a deep dive into the philosophy and emotional rigour behind her work in I XXXX My Sex Doll, one of the most provocative and psychologically roles.

Martina opens up about the process of becoming a sex doll on screen: the physical stillness, the psychological demands, and the philosophical questions surrounding embodiment, objectification, and the blurred line between humanity and artifice. Together, they explore how her grounding in Meisner technique and beyond shapes truthful acting, what it means to strip performance down to its raw essentials, and how acting can reveal deeper truths about desire, identity, and the self.

This conversation explores:
✨ The philosophical questions behind playing an “inhuman” role
✨ How Meisner technique informed her physical and emotional work
✨ The challenges and breakthroughs of I XXXX My Sex Doll
✨ The performer’s body as object, subject, and site of meaning
✨ Her acting course The Truthful Actor, teaching at the Beck Academy of Dramatic Arts (BADA), her production company Aberrant Gene Films, and the courage to work with vulnerability
✨ Why truth, presence, and attention matter more than ever in contemporary acting

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🔗 Martina's Instagram

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Host: Łucja Hawking

Music: Yago Cardalda

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