The Magic of Ordinary Objects

Phones Never Die. They're Eaten By Birds

Can we really call it progress when it creates so much waste? What if your phone — the one you’re using right now — was your last phone? Take a good look at it and imagine using it for the rest of your life. Could it even last that long? Could you? Probably not. Today I want to think about what that means. What happens to a planet and its people when technological progress is measured in product cycles. And what happens when there's no balance sheet to account for the other side of that — when every new product leaves billions of products and accessories and packaging behind…

Show Notes

• My first cellphone
• My second cellphone
• This clip ended up on the cutting room floor, but here's Derek Zoolander's tiny phone
• You can learn more about the Agbogbloshie landfill by reading its Wikipedia page, looking at these photographs, or watching this documentary. Please watch it!
• You can learn more about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch here.
• "The Victims of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a clip from 60 Minutes
• Project Ara Demo at Google IO 2015
• Google Cancels Project Ara
• The Fairphone
• Danny Boyle interviewed by Marc Maron

Music

All music used in this episode was independently produced by r beny and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

• Felt
• Fall Creek Unit
• Formation Process
• Novation Peak
• Mariposa
• Alluvial
• Natoma
• Spindle
• Illumination Ceremony

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You Don't Have to Be an Entrepreneur, Part 2

Every discussion of entrepreneurship is really a discussion about values. Today, we'll follow up on last week's episode, where we began a discussion of entrepreneurship by resetting that idea — by challenging the story of entrepreneurship. We contrasted the protagonist — the hero CEO — with the reality of who we are. And we contrasted the plot — the capitalistic, meritocratic variant of the hero's journey — with the meandering serendipity of our lives' paths. But dismantling one story doesn't write ours for us. And so that's where we'll pick up today — with how we begin — by identifying, examining, and ordering our values so that they may serve as a foundation for the creative and productive lives we build upon them…

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

• Di Breun, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Drip Hop Modular Beats, by r beny
• Oriel, by Blue Dot Sessions
• The Snowgard, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Crosswire, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Li Fonte, by Blue Dot Sessions
• E2 Ambient X, by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You Don't Have to Be an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to mean what you think it means.

Over the course of the next two episodes, I'd like to share with you how my own perspective on “entrepreneurship” has evolved, and offer a critique of the sameness of the popular model of the entrepreneur. I'll also give you eight little nuggets of wisdom that have been helpful to me on my journey so far, and only grow in their value to me as it continues…

Show Notes

• Newfangled, where I work.

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

• Kirkus, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Transit Center, by Podington Bear
• Order of Entrance, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Lunette, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Tralaga, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Tolls Folly, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Exceter Lask, by Blue Dot Sessions

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Future vs. The Future

Every vision of the future is a better index of the present from which it came than whatever time it imagines. So today, let's look back at some of the things we believed would serve as landmarks of the future. Not to point out how quaint they are or to dunk on the blind spots of the past. But so that we can better understand why — no matter what shiny new objects we make and use — we never quite feel like we've gotten to the future. Why it's so difficult to recognize how far we've come…

Show Notes

• The Dymaxion House
• Le Corbusier
• Lewis Mumford
• Lewis Mumford on The City
• Robert Heinlein did get a futurist house eventually. He just had to design it himself.
• The Entire History of You

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

• Spirals, by r beny
• Fall Creek Unit, by r beny
• Live 182801, by r beny
• Pines, by r beny
• Crystals & Graves, by r beny
• Volca Keys Arp Jam, by r beny

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Words Matter

Too often we think of the word "design" as a shorthand for an ecosystem of mostly visual phenomena. But words play an enormous, though often unseen, role in the creation of everything. Today, I want to tell you a story about how my life was changed by a few words said quickly, but words which I will never forget...

Music

All music used in this episode is independently produced and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

• Envira, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Our Digital Compass, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Svela Tal, by Blue Dot Sessions
• Tolls Folly, by Blue Dot Sessions

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.