Doom and Bloom

In episode two, we talk to Drew Wilkinson, former Microsoft employee who turned a two-person sustainability group into a ten-thousand-person climate movement inside the company. We get into why sustainability dies the second it becomes a checkbox at the end of a project and where the real creative decisions happen. Drew breaks down his “buffet” approach to getting a whole company on board, not jus...

In season two of Doom & Bloom we’re focusing on how designers can shift the culture within the design industry to prioritize climate-forward design decisions. We kicked off the new season during San Francisco Climate Week, interviewing Dr. Renee Lertzman, climate psychologist and strategist. Listen to Renee and Marc discuss the gap between how much designers care about climate and how little t...

We are back with a new season of Doom & Bloom! This time, we're unpacking how designers can shift the culture within the design industry. We all know designers want to make their work more climate positive, but too often this desire is met with resistance or roadblocks. Transforming the entire design industry starts with changing the culture where designers work. This season, we'll tap...

Join the Doom & Bloom team for the final episode of Season 1 as they look back on everything, from  Jolly Sand  to  Unlikely Peaches  to  Gorilla Hard  and beyond. The crew digs into key ideas, challenges, and takeaways, pushing some frameworks even further with their own raw interpretations. Then, in true Doom & Bloom style, they turn the mic on themselves for a full-on Thinknado process...

What if sustainability isn’t the selling point? In this episode, we sit down with Carly Schonberg, NYC Chapter Leader and product designer leading a renewable energy company, to dig into the uncomfortable truth: climate isn’t always the top motivator for business. Her work shows that when renewable energy is framed as solving real problems (financial, operational, human) it becomes impossible to i...

We sit down with design educator Stevie Bales to tackle a big question: How can designers nudge decision makers toward climate action? We unpack why decision makers should be seen as people, just like us, who need to understand climate issues, why values shouldn’t be separated from everyday choices, and why companies get away with “values” that sound good but rarely guide their actions. Stevie sha...

In this episode of Doom and Bloom , Eric Benson and Marc O’Brien join us to ask some big questions: Why is climate being erased from federal budgets? Why is climate literacy still an elective in design schools and not a required course? And why are we preparing students for AI but not for the climate crisis? We explore the uncertainty of our current political moment and the urgent need to embed cl...

In this special episode recorded live during San Francisco Climate Week, Marc O’Brien and Katie Patrick dig into why we’re stuck in a doom-heavy narrative—and what it’ll take to design for the future we actually want. From breaking down the “value-action gap” to calling out the overreliance on financial incentives and education as motivators, Katie challenges us to rewire how we think about change...

In this episode of Doom & Bloom , we’re joined by UX/UI designer and New Wave researcher Zoe to unpack a big question: why have designers become so focused on short-term results? From tight job markets to pressure from profit-driven industries, many designers are racing to deliver—often at the expense of long-term thinking, community impact, and climate considerations. Together, we explore wha...

Why are we still gatekeeping designs? Why do we prioritize competition over collaboration? Why do we assume we have all the answers before asking others?  On the latest episode of Doom & Bloom, Marc O’Brien and Rachel Cellinese use the Thinknado process to question reality and dismantle outdated mindsets that keep design isolated and exclusive. The conversation embraces open-source design and...

Why isn’t sustainability at the core of every project? Why are people still asking what sustainability even means? And why isn’t it baked into our education system? These communication gaps are holding us back—but what if we flipped the script? On this episode of Doom and Bloom , host Marc O’Brien and guest Brian Stancheski explore how we can get more people excited about climate solutions. What i...

In the first episode of Doom and Bloom , Marc O’Brien sits down with John Bielenberg and Brandt Williams, the masterminds behind Thinknado , to dismantle the predictable thinking that’s keeping us stuck. It’s time to flip the script and ask the hard questions: Is our way of thinking broken? Why do we settle for the status-quo? And most importantly, how do we unleash the creative potential we all h...

Doom & Bloom cuts through the noise to the heart of design and climate action Our future is undecided—how will we use our collective imagination to design a better world for all? Through unfiltered conversations, we unpack today's challenges through the lens of creativity and possibility to motivate designers to take meaningful action. Explore bold, innovative ideas that shift away from the cu...