Rob Walker is a freelance journalist and the "Consumed" columnist for The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. His writing has appeared in many magazines and newspapers.

Murketing.com is Walker's blog, descended from an earlier project called the Journal of Murketing. Other projects include Unconsumption, Things That Look Like Other Things, Counterfunctionality among others.

In this audio interview with Debbie Millman, Rob Walker discusses his interest in death and how our digital records remain online, being shy and how this influenced his decision to become a journalist, writing about the sleeved blanket known as the snuggie, and the wish to brand the idea of "be happy for what you have." (02.04.11)

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Rob Walker

Design Matters by Debbie Millman features interviews with designers, artists and cultural leaders, including Lawrence Weiner, Barbara Kruger, Malcolm Gladwell, Eric Kandel, Stefan Sagmeister, John Maeda, Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, Michael Arad, Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli, Paula Scher, Steven Heller, Jonah Lehrer, among others.

In 2011, Design Matters received the People’s Design Award from the prestigious Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards.

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