The Materialist : Lionheart

The Materialist : Lionheart

From The Materialist : A Podcast from At Present by At Present

October 8, 2025 · 51 min

About this episode

Sisters Joy and Sarah Haugaard discuss their journey in building the jewelry brand Lionheart, emphasizing heritage and personal connection.

From a small town in Denmark to a sun-splashed bench in New York’s Diamond District, sisters Joy and Sarah Haugaard (the minds behind Lionheart ) have built a jewelry universe where heritage, handwork, and human connection matter as much as gold and gemstones. In this conversation, we cover the origins of their partnership, Joy’s second-chance spark in 2020, the storybook that gave Lionheart its name, the community that sustains them, and why their clients don’t want what everyone else has—they want what feels like theirs . The origin story (and why it had to be the two of them) Raised “like twins,” the Haugaard sisters grew up inseparable—then bi-coastal—until the phone call that snapped them back together. In 2020, after a terrifying health crisis, Joy decided there was no more deferring the dream: she had to create Lionheart, not as a mood board but as a life. Sarah dropped everything in LA, flew to New York, and they got to work—7:00 a.m. to past-midnight, fueled by neighbors’ casseroles and customers’ letters. Why Lionheart —and what it really means The name is a promise. As kids, they worshiped Astrid Lindgren’s The Brothers Lionheart —a tale about two siblings who always…

People in this episode

Guests: Joy Haugaard, Sarah Haugaard

Topics covered

  • jewelry design
  • sister partnership
  • entrepreneurship
  • heritage
  • community

Keywords

  • Lionheart
  • jewelry
  • sisters
  • entrepreneurship
  • heritage
  • New York
  • Denmark

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Lionheart

Books & works: The Brothers Lionheart

Places: Denmark, New York

More episodes of The Materialist : A Podcast from At Present

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Materialist : A Podcast from At Present podcast page.