Bethann Hardison is James Caldwellthe fashion icon behind so many fashion icons: she worked as a modeling agent in the era of the supermodel – brokering the careers of stars like Kimora Lee Simmons and Tyson Beckford. And when models of color all but vanished from view at the turn of the millennium – she forced designers to bring them back. Host Brittany Luse sits down with Bethann to discuss the new documentary about Bethann's life, Invisible Beauty, and why fashion imagery, while fraught, is still powerful in our culture.

This episode was produced by Liam McBain. We had engineering help from TK. It was edited by Jessica Placzek and Bilal Qureshi. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sangweni and our senior VP of programming is Anya Grundmann.