Design Matters

As a child, Thelma Golden dreamt of a life in art museums—and that’s exactly the path she followed, breaking brilliant and historic new ground along the way.

The daughter of folk-music royalty, singer-songwriter Lucy Wainwright Roche joins to talk about her life, family, and multi-decade career in the music industry.

James Clear has been writing about habits, decision making, and continuous improvement for over a decade. Author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits, he joins to talk about his career and how we can stop sabotaging our efforts with insurmountable goals.

Shaped by music and activism, Toshi Reagon reflects on her upbringing and remarkable career writing, playing, singing, and producing music.

Iconic graphic designer, typographer, author, and educator Stefan Sagmeister joins live on the CreativeMornings stage to talk about his multi-decade, ever-evolving career and his newest book, Now is Better, transforming facts about the state of our world into abstract data visualizations.

Working in painting, bookmaking, illustration, collage, performance, and sculpture, Oliver Jeffers joins to talk about his career making art and telling stories. His new book, Begin Again, explores humankind’s impact on itself and our planet, asking the big question: Where do we go from here?

On this special episode of Design Matters, we take a look back at the collective brilliance of the filmmakers interviewed in 2023. Best of Design Matters 2023 with Siân Heder, Sarah Polley, and Kyra Sedgwick is live!

On this special episode of Design Matters, we take a look back at the collective brilliance of writers interviewed in 2023. Best of Design Matters 2023 with Alexandra Horowitz, Rick Rubin, and Kevin Kelly is live!

Roy Wood Jr. is an Emmy-nominated comedian, writer, producer, actor, radio personality, and podcaster known for his stand-up comedy and work as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. He joins the Design Matters Live Tour to discuss his career, entertaining millions across the stage, television, and radio.

The legendary Audie Cornish—anchor, correspondent, journalist, host, and interviewer—joins live from the Design Matters Tour to talk about her career in journalism, covering national, political, and breaking news for over two decades.

For decades, Rosanne Cash has soared through the ranks of music with her powerhouse poetic skills and wistful reflections on her past. She has released 15 albums, won four Grammys, and authored four books, including a best-selling memoir. She joins to talk about her life and legendary career as a singer, songwriter, and author.

Isaac Fitzgerald has been a firefighter, worked on a boat, and was once given a sword by a king. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts, a coming of age memoir recounting his early years in Boston, an ongoing search for forgiveness, and a more expansive definition of family and self.

One of the most influential art directors, design thinkers, and cultural critics of our time, Steven Heller, and his son Nicolas Heller, an acclaimed commercial director and documentarian, better known to his social media followers as New York Nico, join live at the AIGA Conference to talk about their remarkable careers and shared love for New York City.

Neville Brody is one of the most celebrated graphic designers of his generation—a leading typographer and internationally recognized art director and brand strategist. He joins to discuss his third monograph, which showcases projects from the last thirty years of his illustrious career.

Former Editor-in-Chief and President of New York Magazine’s The Cut and current Styles Editor of The New York Times—Stella Bugbee joins to discuss her remarkable career in the media industry, covering fashion, beauty, and culture as a journalist, editor, and creative director.

Kip Thorne, Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist known for his pioneering work in astrophysics, and Lia Halloran, multi-award-winning artist and photographer, join to talk about their cosmic collaboration—a book of poetry and paintings called “The Warped Side of Our Universe: An Odyssey through Black Holes, Wormholes, Time Travel, and Gravitational Waves.”

Celeste Ng—New York Times bestselling author of three novels, Everything I Never Told You, Little Fires Everywhere, and Our Missing Hearts—joins a live audience to talk about her illustrious career exploring complex family dynamics and themes of identity, race, and culture.

Tech journalist, opinion leader, and disruptor—Kara Swisher has hosted hundreds of newsmaking interviews tracking tech and media's changing power dynamics, often going head-to-head with the most prominent figures in the technology industry. She joins a live studio audience to talk about her inimitable career covering the ever-evolving world of technology.

MacArthur Fellow, Peabody Award winner, iconic public radio host and creator of one of the most successful shows, Radiolab—Jad Abumrad joins a studio audience in New York for the Design Matters live tour.

From pop stars to sports legends to rock gods, Mary Ellen Matthews has been crafting iconic images as an entertainment portrait photographer for over two decades. She joins to talk about her career as the chief photographer for Saturday Night Live and how she’s created the distinctive look for the show’s images since 1999.

Design royalty Paula Scher, Emily Oberman and Michael Bierut join this special live episode to celebrate and commemorate the 50th anniversary of the legendary, multi-disciplinary, independently owned design studio, Pentagram with a new, two-volume book, PENTAGRAM AT 50: LIVING BY DESIGN.

Digital visionary, bestselling author, founder of the popular Cool Tools website, and Co-Founder and Senior Maverick of Wired magazine—Kevin Kelly joins to talk about his career, his new book, and his radical optimism about the future of our world and humanity.

For over sixty years, Gloria Steinem has been at the center of American culture and political life, where she has been instrumental in shaping our ideas about feminism, humanity, and equal rights for all people. She joins to talk about her legendary career as an award-winning journalist, New York Times best-selling author, co-founder of one of the most significant magazines of the 21st century, an...

Jessica Nordell—science and cultural journalist—explores ways of changing pernicious thought patterns to eliminate unconscious bias for a more just world.

Steven Heller—legendary writer and author—joins to discuss his new book “Growing Up Underground,” an entertaining and humorous coming-of-age story at the center of New York’s youth culture in the 1960s and 1970s.