lets get existential

Lyssna

Design Matters

People who make horror movies know: if you want to scare someone, use scary music.

Some of the most creative use of music and sound to evoke fear and anxiety is on the TV show Hannibal.

Hrishikesh Hirway of Song Exploder spoke with evolutionary biologist Dan Blumstein, Hannibal executive producer David Slade, and composer Brian Reitzell. 

Bonus: To celebrate the addition of Song Exploder to Radiotopia, we're playing Roman's favorite episode of the program, featuring John Roderick of The Long Winters "exploding" his masterpiece "The Commander Thinks Aloud."

99% Invisible-168- All In Your Head

On the evening of May 31, 2009, 216 passengers, three pilots, and nine flight attendants boarded an Airbus 330 in Rio de Janeiro. This flight, AirFrance 447, was headed across the Atlantic to Paris. The take-off was unremarkable. The plane reached a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. The passengers read and watched movies and slept. Everything proceeded normally for several hours. Then, with no communication to the ground to the ground or air traffic control, flight 447 suddenly disappeared.

99% Invisible-170- Children Of The Magenta (Automation Paradox, Pt. 1)

More than 90% of all automobile accidents are all attributable to human error, for some car industry people, a fully-automated car is a kind of holy grail.

However, as automation makes our lives easier and safer, it also creates more complex systems, and fewer humans who understand those systems. Which means when problems do arise—people can be left unable to deal with them. Human factors engineers call this “the automation paradox.”

99% Invisible-171- Johnnycab (Automation Paradox, Pt. 2)

Who decides that the color this season is “mint green” or that denim jackets are “back?” Of course, there’s top-down fashion, where couture houses and runway shows set a trend that trickles down through the rest of the industry. Then there’s bottom-up - where street photographers hunt down grassroots ways that people are wearing clothes, which then comes to influence popular fashion.
But these two methods are for the relatively cutting-edge. For the mass market,  for retailers, designers, and marketers working in major clothing chains, there’s a middle path to determine what’s “in.” And often times, it is through a  company called WGSN.

229- The Trend Forecast

Debbie talks to writer Tim Ferriss about the strategies he has used to change his life.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: 2009-2016

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Tim Ferriss

On this podcast Debbie talks to Mike Rigby about his international career in design and branding and how to stay creatively engaged. “Every event you go to, every person you meet, everything you do is fuel for your next idea.”

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: 2009-2017

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Mike Rigby

On this podcast Debbie Millman talks to Rochelle Udell about her very creative professional life. "The strength of creative people is to be the outside observer of ordinary things. That's the strength of the creative person, so you've gotta stay outside a little bit."

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Rochelle Udell

Debbie talks to Connie Birdsall about designing some of the most successful brands of our time and what to do when a meeting with clients is not going well.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Connie Birdsall

On this episode Debbie Millman talks to Jonathan Adler about how his pottery defined his aesthetic. “It’s about craft and luxury mixed with a sense of optimism and cheekyness.”

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Jonathan Adler

Debbie talks to poet Elizabeth Alexander about the journey of her extraordinary life and how death makes us think about what we truly value.

Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Elizabeth Alexander

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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