Design Matters

From practicing on his first piano—drawn on a piece of paper—to recording albums and launching the podcast and Netflix show “Song Exploder,” Hrishikesh Hirway has lived a marvelous life of music.

On this special episode of Design Matters, we take a look back at 2020, revel in the collective brilliance of Bisa Butler, Miranda July, Marilyn Minter and V—and close the year out with a performance by Lucy Wainwright Roche.

Hailing from Lebanon and Alabama, respectively, Wael Morcos and Jonathan Key discuss their amazing journeys that coalesced into their groundbreaking design work as MorcosKey today.

Karen Finley reflects on her legendary performance pieces, censorship and decades of groundbreaking work—and the sheer joy in creating art.

Laurie Haycock Makela discusses her revolutionary typography days at Cranbrook with Scott Makela, surviving two brain hemorrhages—and arriving at “the project of a lifetime.”

In his third Design Matters interview, writer Seth Godin riffs on his 20th book—“The Practice”—a milestone text exploring creativity and the sheer power of doing the work and putting it out into the world.

In his extraordinary journey, Thomas Page McBee traversed trauma and wound up in the ring at Madison Square Garden, brimming with a host of wisdoms on gender, identity, feminism and masculinity.

From a life-changing letterpress moment to early viral fame and the current COVID crossroads, Gemma O’Brien remains a master of illustrious letterforms.

Malcolm Gladwell discusses his book "Talking to Strangers”—and how we default to truth … but not necessarily the whole truth.

Soccer star Abby Wambach and author Glennon Doyle discuss their striking first meeting, falling in love as pen pals, addiction and sobriety, and the art of speaking out and speaking up.

Tiffany Shlain completely unplugs from technology one day a week—and week after week, it completely refuels her creative well. Here, she reveals how the rest of us can take our own Tech Shabbat.

Writer, director and actress Miranda July discusses the surreality of releasing a surreal movie in an even more surreal time—and the eternal magic of kissing, cakes and clothes.

Debbie talks to performance poet Sarah Kay about teaching people to write.

On this archive edition of Design Matters with Debbie Millman, Debbie talks to Priya Parker about meetings and gatherings and why so many of them don’t work.

On this archive episode cartoonist Lynda Barry talks to Debbie about learning how to draw, and the damaging effects of one’s own opinion.

On this episode, Jacqueline Novogratz talks about her long career fighting poverty around the world.

On this episode Claire Danes talks to Debbie about her long career, and what she learned about spies from playing one.

On this episode, artist Bisa Butler talks to Debbie about her career, and about how making a quilted portrait of her grandmother led to an artistic breakthrough.

On this episode, Debbie talks to Michael R. Jackson about his latest musical, which is about a gay man trying to write a musical.

On this episode Debbie talks to Fanny Singer about her career writing about art and food, and about cooking in the time of Coronavirus.

Debbie talks with Maurice Cherry about his education and career, and about why the profession of graphic design has been so slow to acknowledge Black designers. “Black people were barely free 100 years ago so certainly they weren’t thinking about being graphic designers.”

On this episode Debbie talks to Gabrielle Hamilton about her career as a chef, and as a late-blooming writer.

Debbie talks to Pepsi's Chief Design Officer, Mauro Porcini.

Debbie talks with V (formerly known as Eve Ensler) about her abusive father and how feminism has shaped her career.

Debbie talks to Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter about their program for redesigning our politics.