Design Matters with Debbie Millman

Manoush Zomorodi, journalist, author, and podcaster who investigates how tech shapes attention and bodies. She talks about her shift from reporting to studying tech’s cultural effects. She describes listener experiments, research linking brief movement breaks to better health and focus, and designing systems that make restorative movement normal.

Mauro Porcini, President and Chief Design Officer at Samsung who champions human-centered, expressive technology. He reflects on cultural roots shaping design, staying humble with an apprentice mindset, leading across cultures, and the ethical duty of design in an AI-driven world. Conversations touch on expressive aesthetics, multi-sensory experiences, and linking ethics to business value.

Jodi Kantor, Pulitzer-winning New York Times investigative reporter who exposed workplace abuses and probed the Supreme Court. She recounts breaking the Weinstein story and the tactics used to build trust. She explains digging into the Court’s secretive practices and the shadow docket. She also describes how to build a meaningful career at the crossroads of craft and societal need.

Cy Gavin, a contemporary painter known for work between figuration and abstraction, explores landscape, memory, and perception. He recalls learning at libraries and museums, shifting from drawing to direct painting, and embracing uncertainty in his process. He talks about place, family imagery, and the weight of having work enter major museum collections.

Pum Lefebure, co-founder and chief creative officer known for blending art and commerce, reflects on her journey from Bangkok to leading a global studio. She discusses childhood creativity, building Design Army, studio culture that prizes solo ideation, and experimenting with AI in campaigns. Conversations focus on leadership, parenting while growing a business, and how to keep work culturally relevant.

Santiago Carrasquilla, Colombian-born director and founder of Art Camp, blends hand-drawn illustration, 3D animation, live action, and tech into emotionally driven work. He tells stories about a 35,000 cigarette-paper mural for Stefan Sagmeister, worldwide moves that shaped his resilience, breaking into Sagmeister & Walsh with handwritten animated GIFs, and ambitious, hands-on projects from stop-motion to music collaborations.

Timothy Snyder, historian of Eastern Europe and the Holocaust, applies deep historical perspective to today’s politics. He discusses how languages and archives shape understanding. He speaks on empathy, freedom as a positive project, the rise of oligarchy and sadopopulism, media concentration, and practical civic actions that combine to change history.

Ada Limón, 24th U.S. Poet Laureate and award-winning poet, reflects on childhood between two homes and a fierce love of the natural world. She talks about poetry as a way to hold loss, joy, and mortality. She also discusses craft, public service as laureate, and how poems emerge from sound, memory, and strange small moments.

Lidia Yuknavitch, bestselling author and artist known for blending memoir and experimental fiction. She talks about water and memory shaping identity. She explores narrative transmography, swimming as survival and art, the film adaptation of The Chronology of Water, and reclaiming menopause as creative power.

Jack Schlossberg, writer, lawyer, political correspondent and JFK's only grandson, reflects on growing up in a famous family and his path into politics and media. He discusses internet culture, misinformation, and why Democrats must take bolder, edgier approaches. He also recounts creating viral truth-telling content and his views on rebuilding trust with younger voters.