Design Matters with Debbie Millman

Platon, the British-Greek portrait photographer and human rights artist, joins designer Scott Dadich to trace his path from a Greek village to photographing presidents, celebrities, and survivors. They discuss dyslexia, design, social media’s effect on attention, and the emotional craft of portraiture. Stories involving John F. Kennedy Jr., Leonard Cohen, and Esther explore adversity, vulnerability, leadership, and the enduring power of human connection.

Debra McGuire, acclaimed costume designer, artist, and author of Dressing the Story, shares her journey from Barbie clothes and handmade jewelry to Hollywood. She explores the visual worlds of Friends, Freaks and Geeks, Anchorman, Idiocracy, and Dolly Parton, revealing how color, silhouette, collaboration, and problem-solving shape unforgettable characters. She also discusses creative independence, entrepreneurship, and transforming her archives into new art.

Craig Elimeliah, Chief Creative Officer of Code and Theory, is a pioneering digital creative and technology thinker. He recounts his unconventional journey from rabbinical studies to the early internet, where he helped invent new forms of brand expression. They explore the blurred boundaries between art and design, AI’s impact on authorship and reality, responsible innovation, and why future designers must become world builders.

Françoise Mouly, the French-American art editor, publisher, and visual storyteller behind RAW and The New Yorker’s iconic covers, reflects on a remarkable creative journey. She recalls revolutionary Paris, architecture, New York, and the making of RAW. She explores comics’ transformative power, editorial trust, print’s lasting meaning, and why curiosity and lived experience remain essential to human-made art.

Ada Limón, acclaimed poet, author, and former U.S. Poet Laureate, discusses her book Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry. She reflects on growing up between two homes, family, divorce, mortality, infertility, and learning to trust her writing. Limón also explores nature, joy, vulnerability, and poetry’s power to connect people across generations.

Kim Hastreiter, co-founder and longtime editor of Paper magazine, reflects on her downtown New York life as a cultural connector. She recalls discovering art, nightlife, fashion, and journalism, launching Paper as a guerrilla newspaper, championing Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and creating the viral “Break the Internet” issue. She also discusses her memoir Stuff, collecting, design, and preserving cultural memory.

Lidia Yuknavitch, bestselling author and artist, explores childhood, competitive swimming, trauma, grief, sexuality, and creative transformation. She recalls reclaiming her artistic voice, writing through devastating loss, and finding resistance in the body and imagination. She also discusses Kristen Stewart’s film adaptation of The Chronology of Water, menopause as liberation, and the meaning of her mermaid tattoo.

Gloria Steinem, pioneering journalist, author, and feminist leader, reflects on a restless childhood, unconventional work, and the experiences that shaped her activism. She recalls traveling with her father, her mother’s unrealized ambitions, studying in India, reproductive freedom, and creating Ms. magazine. She also explores anger, optimism, aging, and imagining a more equal future.

C. Thi Nguyen, philosopher and author of Games: Agency as Art, explores how games and scoring systems shape who we become. He talks about games as "libraries of agency," why rules create new capacities, the allure and danger of metrics, and how to tell if you are playing someone else’s game. Short, thought-provoking conversations on play, values, and how to reclaim meaningful measures.

Suzanne Vega, acclaimed singer-songwriter known for narrative hits like "Luka" and "Tom's Diner," and author of the new album Flying with Angels. She talks about her multicultural childhood in Spanish Harlem, the craft of songwriting and where songs come from, her shift into electronic sounds, the album’s origins in recent crises, and collaborating with her daughter.