Rebecca F. Kuang Joins The Incredible Women Podcast Season 10: Supernovas
We’re thrilled to launch the latest season of NET-A-PORTER’s Incredible Women podcast. This series, Supernovas, celebrates an extraordinary lineup of women who shine brightly and draw greatness into their orbits
Episode 2: Rebecca F. Kuang
The second guest in our Supernovas series is a true literary star: Rebecca F. Kuang. At just 29, she has already become one of the most exciting voices of her generation, with six critically acclaimed novels – including the global phenomenon Yellowface – and several prestigious awards to her name. Yet what makes Kuang all the more remarkable is that this dazzling body of work has been produced while pursuing an equally demanding academic career.
A scholar as much as a storyteller, Kuang studied at Georgetown University in Washington before completing further studies at both Oxford and Cambridge. She is now undertaking a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University – a discipline that deeply informs her novels, celebrated for their historical richness, imaginative flair and razor-sharp humor. For Kuang, the act of studying and learning is inseparable from the act of writing.
Despite her extraordinary trajectory, Kuang insists she is only just beginning: “I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface of what I might be capable of,” she reveals. “But this means reading a lot more and thinking a lot more, and frankly, just going through more life milestones.”
Tune in to this episode as Kuang discusses her latest novel Katabasis, the importance of rigorous feedback, and the discipline that allows her to be so remarkably productive.
Highlights from Rebecca F. Kuang’s episode…
“I read voraciously. I think if there’s anything I’m afraid of, it’s running out of time to consume all the ideas that are so appealing to me. This is why I love being in academia, because I never run out of ideas.”
“Something that I think has really, really helped is digital minimalism… About two years ago, I purged my phone – all social media apps. I feel like I have my brain back and I have my attention span back… I’m just able to concentrate on things and linger with things for longer.”
“I’m just not that interested in how people talk about me on the internet, and I’m not interested in being famous. I think being too interested in your own fame can be devastating to any kind of creative, but especially [to] a writer, because a writer’s job is to write about others with empathy and curiosity.”
“I feel really lucky to have a professional team who are invested in pushing me with every book, instead of just kind of signing off on manuscripts as if I can do no wrong. Actually, the edits get harsher and harsher with each book, which feels great because it’s nice to know they set the bar so high for me.”
To listen to the Incredible Women podcast, subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and many more*.
Episode 1: Recho Omondi
Season 10 opens with a force from the podcasting world: Recho Omondi. Her critically acclaimed show, The Cutting Room Floor, pulls back the curtain on the often opaque fashion industry, welcoming a diverse roster of insiders for sharp, candid conversations.
Fashion wasn’t always Omondi’s plan. Her first love was in performance, music and dance, which awakened an obsession with costumes and, ultimately, with clothes. Even so, she started out on a pre-med track before pivoting to pursue her true calling. After graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design, she landed in New York, cutting her teeth at Barneys and later working behind the scenes in design and patternmaking for industry giants including Calvin Klein. In 2013, she launched her own label, Omondi, drawing on her Kenyan heritage and New York life. Although the brand is now shuttered, she described it as “a personal diary told through clothes”.
That instinct to challenge the status quo carried through to 2018, when she founded The Cutting Room Floor with the tagline “fashion’s only fashion show”. What began as a side project soon gained traction after a few viral episodes, transforming into a full-time career. Today, the podcast is a go-to space for unfiltered conversations with the people shaping the industry – and her impact hasn’t gone unnoticed: in 2023, The Business of Fashion named her in the BoF 500, its definitive list of those influencing the future of fashion.
In this opening episode, Omondi sits down with NET-A-PORTER’s content director, Alice Casely-Hayford, to discuss risk-taking, telling the stories she wants to see, and building a platform on her own terms.
Highlights from Recho Omondi’s episode…
“I’m a big failer. I like to just fail and just try things on my own. So I got started failing and I think what I realized is that it was so hard to build a brand, or at least to the scale that I had aspired to. And I think the podcast really was grown out of frustration because I felt like even though I had all of these relationships in the business, none of them really understood the plight of a designer.”
“I never approach any interview trying to have a clickbait viral moment. I mean, there are times where somebody’s saying something and I’m like, ‘Hmm, that’s gonna be something’. But you know, I’ve never coerced them into saying it… I think it’s more that I’m trying to get to some kind of real answer or concrete truth.”
“I’m very excited to see a lot of content creators being recognized for the celebrities that they are, you know, because they’re so deeply influential – and they may not be celebrities in the sense that they’re not getting magazine covers and they’re not sitting down on late-night television, or any network television for that matter, but the phone is their network television.”
To listen to the Incredible Women podcast, subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and many more*.
NET-A-PORTER will donate one British Pound for every first listen to this episode in its week of release** to UN Women UK, an organization working for the empowerment and rights of women and girls globally, helping them realize their full potential.
Presenting Supernovas
For the past five years, the Incredible Women podcast has offered an intimate look into the lives of trailblazing figures shaping our world. From boardrooms to red carpets, studios to stages, we’ve uncovered what it truly means to be ‘incredible’ – exploring the fashion choices that gave women confidence at defining moments, the pivotal decisions that changed their paths, and the vulnerability that makes them relatable. This new series goes even further, spotlighting not only what these women have achieved, but how they’ve redefined what’s possible.
Supernovas features an extraordinary lineup: Hollywood actors America Ferrera and Gillian Anderson; bestselling novelists Rebecca F. Kuang and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; fashion podcaster Recho Omondi; and acclaimed chef Ruth Rogers, founder of London’s Michelin-starred River Café.
Hosted by NET-A-PORTER’s content director Alice Casely-Hayford, each conversation promises an inspiring and eye-opening insight into the lives and legacies of these remarkable women. Incredible Women: Supernovas launches on Tuesday, September 9.
*By accessing Apple Podcasts or Spotify via this link, you agree that you are responsible for complying with Apple Podcasts’ and Spotify’s terms and conditions of use and that we shall have no liability for any breach of such terms and conditions by you.
**THE NET-A-PORTER GROUP LIMITED, trading as NET-A-PORTER, will make a donation equal to one (1) GBP (£1) for each first-time listen to the first episode of this podcast series made between 05:00 BST on September 9, 2025, and 05:00 BST on September 16, 2025, to UN Women National Committee UK, whose address is 63/66 Hatton Garden, Fifth Floor, Suite 23, London EC1N 8LE, a charity registered in England and Wales under charity number: 1162741. The Donation will be subject to a maximum amount equal to seventeen thousand pounds sterling (£17,000). If the number of listens is 12,000 or less, THE NET-A-PORTER GROUP LIMITED will give a minimum Donation of twelve thousand pounds sterling (£12,000).