Elayne DeLeo speaks with Terence Lester about homelessness, Love Beyond Walls & The Dignity Museum in Atlanta. Terence stands as a beacon of compassion and advocacy in the realm of social justice. With an unyielding commitment to uplifting underserved populations, he founded Love Beyond Walls, a non-profit organization that ambitiously seeks to humanize the stories of the homeless and dismantle systemic poverty. Their initiatives span from mobile makeovers for the homeless to providing...

Elayne DeLeo speaks with designer John Ferguson on how taking an elective class in desktop publishing at his Atlanta public school sparked his path to becoming a digital design professional, the importance of mentorship for young students who may not see design as a career path, why Atlanta is the cultural capital of the US (and how it may be failing in design), and creating the Black Bauhaus movement to celebrate the work of black designers. John Ferguson is Design Director at Work &...

Speakers: Ruth Stevens, Chairman, The Potters House CBO/APT Kenya Cath Barton, Pediatric Physiotherapist APT Kenya is a project run by The Potter’s House CBO since February 2022 addressing this need by using Appropriate Paper Technology (APT) as a low cost and sustainable solution to make seating and standing devices for disabled children in Kenya.APT devices help the child to maintain a comfortable and functional position in either sitting or standing. This good positioning is proven to...

Elayne DeLeo talks to designer and author of Superhuman by Design, Donald Burlock, Jr on his path from dreaming of designing airplanes to experience and brand designer, how to make organizations understand and activate around the value of design process, and why empathy is not the primary motivator for good design. Donald Burlock, Jr. is an in-demand design leader with more than ten years of experience creating strategies and game-changing results in the marketplace. Donald has launched...

The Good, the Bad, and Ugly of Artificial Intelligence Elisa Celis is an assistant professor in the Statistics & Data Science department at Yale University. She studies the manifestation of social and economic biases in our online lives via the algorithms that encode and perpetuate them. Her research leverages both experimental and theoretical approaches, and her work spans multiple disciplines including data science, machine learning, fairness in socio-technical systems and algorithm...

Elayne DeLeo speaks with Jason James, VP of Design for Instacart about his path to a career in design and the reality of "imposter syndrome" when success comes early. He also shares his insights on how businesses need to leverage design to build culture and foster collaboration, what he does to spark creativity in his team and for himself, and the design thinking and principles underlying Instacart’s approach to COVID and how they continue to guide their design into the future. Bio: Jason...

Elayne DeLeo has a conversation with Andrew Graves, Director of Ortus Economic Research on what defines a design economy, the data and outcomes of his research for the Design Council UK, how design is key to future economic growth and positive societal change, and why cities should invest in a study of their creative industries to understand the impact of design on business growth, real estate value, new investments, employment, GVA and exports, policy decisions, and the use and under-use of...

In our last podcast of 2020, Elayne DeLeo spoke with multidisciplinary designer and researcher Victoria Ayo. They discuss why designers need to create with intention for greater equity, and her research on maternal mortality in the United States and how it disproportionately affects black women across all socioeconomic levels. This research led her to create the pregnancy care app Kindred that provides doula-informed care and support for a fully supportive pregnancy experience available to...

Elayne DeLeo spoke with Catherine Clark, architect and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)-USA and former Chair of the New York Chapter of the RIBA-USA. They discuss how architects must take the lead in addressing climate change (and pandemics) through the built environment, her mission and plans for expanding RIBAs role and membership in the US, how identity influences how young architects view joining industry organizations like RIBA and AIA, and why now is the...

Elayne DeLeo spoke to Carla Swickerath, Partner at Studio Libeskind about the rewards of working closely with government, 9/11 families and businesses on Libeskind's World Trade Center Master Plan, how COVID-19 has laid bare the inequities of our communities and the importance of having designers contribute to big solutions, and some advice for architecture grads coming into an uncertain future. www.libeskind.com

Dr. Pierce Gordon—An innovation catalyst, researcher, facilitator, and evaluator. He specializes in interdisciplinary research that unpacks how communities value, support, and practice innovation in social justice and international development. His research and consultation work has worked to track and support the field's spread, complexity, and emergence. Whether conducting ethnographic analyses and facilitation projects in the Botswana innovation ecosystem, or by co-founding Reflex Design...

Jonas Peterson—CEO of the award winning design firm Form Us With Love, spoke with Elayne DeLeo about the collaborative process between their design  team and the brands they work with, why sustainability and designing for a better world is key to their success, and how the name Form Us With Love started as a joke, but has become their raison d'etre. www.formuswithlove.se

Atlanta commercial real estate broker and cultural developer Gene Kansas joins MA!'s Elayne DeLeo for a conversation on how his childhood in the gumbo of New Orleans inspired his love of storytelling, his work to save the historic Atlanta Daily World Building in Sweet Auburn, and the responsibility of developers and humankind to create "affordable everything". In his 20+ years in Atlanta commercial real estate — and inspired by a colorful, deep-fried, parade-filled, culturally rich...

Chris Hardy is an American industrial designer based in Atlanta. Born in Houston in 1984, he pursued an education of design, receiving a BFA in Industrial Design from the College for Creative Studies and a Masters of Design from the School of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. After returning to the United States in 2009, he began his career as a freelance designer collaborating with furniture and lighting manufacturers as well as interior design firms. His work has been...