Better World With Design

In this episode of Better World with Design, we unpack Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow through the lens of two competing systems in your mind: System 1 (fast, automatic, story-driven) and System 2 (slow, effortful, easily depleted). We walk through the book’s most memorable demonstrations—base rates versus stereotypes, the availability heuristic, the “Invisible Gorilla,” and decision fatigue—and connect them to real-world choices in work, media, and everyday life. The takeaway isn’t “try harder.” It’s learning how attention, defaults, and conditions shape what we call moral judgment—and how to design better decisions when the stakes are high.

In this episode of Better World With Design, we dive into Olga Ravn’s The Wax Child—a haunting historical novel narrated by a beeswax figure created in 1615 Denmark amid witch-trial paranoia. We unpack the book’s structure, themes, and “rumor-as-machinery” storytelling, including how grief, misogyny, and institutional power turn gossip into evidence. You’ll also hear a clear breakdown of the key characters (Costanza/Christenza, Anna, Usa, Eiler) and the church-and-court system that drives the accusations, plus how the Wax Child’s long, centuries-spanning perspective connects early modern persecution to modern systems of control.

Perfect for readers who love literary fiction, feminist historical fiction, and books about witch trials, this conversation offers context, interpretation, and a guided way into the novel—whether you’re reading for the first time or returning for a deeper understanding.

In this episode of Better World With Design, I give a clear-eyed review of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I break down why the novel reads to me as a polished but shallow comfort-read: how the framing device makes the listener feel managed, how withholding gets mistaken for depth, and how nostalgia and unmarked whiteness are treated as the default “universal” setting. We also look at why Peter Duke’s celebrity pull becomes the book’s narrative gravity, even as the story claims to critique that hunger. If you’re searching for a Tom Lake summary, themes, and an honest critique of the praise, this is for you.

Join us as we dissect M.L. Rio's dark academia thriller If We Were Villains — not just as a story, but as a case study in craft, morality, and the seductive danger of performance. This isn't your typical book club. We're going deep: examining the Shakespearean architecture, the groupthink mechanics, and the character roles that turn seven theater students into a tragic machine. Hosted by a reader who believes every great book has an argument worth debating, this series breaks down the novel act by act — exploring how language becomes identity, how roles become cages, and how the pursuit of being extraordinary can cost you your humanity. Perfect for readers who want to understand not just what happens in a story, but why it feels the way it does, and what it means when you close the book. Spoiler-smart, structure-focused, and designed for the conversations you'll have long after the last page.

In this episode, I explore what happens when you let your younger self speak without interference—when you refuse to edit, improve, or apologize for who you were.

Drawing from my 1996 handwritten journals, written as a nineteen-year-old immigrant in Florida, I discuss how those carefully crafted words became the lyrics for "Pop A Pill"—a track that bridges three decades without compromise.

This isn't about nostalgia or revival. It's about genuine dialogue across time, made possible by one rule: use the archive exactly as you find it, or don't use it at all.

Topics covered:

• Why your younger self might have access to truths your older self has lost
• The political dimension of refusing to disavow earlier versions of yourself
• How handwritten journals from 1996 become forensically valuable in the age of AI
• What it means to dance to the rhythm of who you used to be
• The double-dog dare at the heart of working with unedited archival material

Full lyrics to "Pop A Pill" included in the essay.

Links:

• Read the full essay: [Your website/Notion page URL]
• Listen to "Pop A Pill": [Streaming link]

In this first part of our deep dive into De La Soul's groundbreaking debut album 3 Feet High and Rising, we explore how three kids from Long Island changed hip-hop forever in 1989.

This episode covers the album's revolutionary approach to sampling, its playful game show format, and tracks 1-11, including classics like "The Magic Number," "Me Myself and I," and "Eye Know."

We'll examine why this album mattered so much—how it expanded hip-hop's sonic palette, proved the genre could be weird and experimental, and opened doors for countless artists who didn't fit the mainstream mold.

Topics covered:

• The context of hip-hop in 1989
• Prince Paul's innovative production techniques
• The Native Tongues collective
• Track-by-track analysis of the first half of the album
• Why sampling from unexpected sources changed everything

Settle in for a deep dive into one of electronic music's most transformative moments. This episode explores the birth and evolution of acid house—a genre that altered the course of music history.

We trace the origins of that distinctive squelchy TB-303 sound from Chicago in 1987, examining Phuture's seminal "Acid Trax" and the accidental discovery that launched a movement. But the story goes deeper: we investigate earlier appearances of the 303's characteristic sound and question the accepted timeline of acid house's genesis.

From Chicago warehouses to Manchester's Hacienda, from Ibiza's beaches to underground raves across the UK, this episode charts how a misused bass synthesizer became the voice of a generation and sparked a cultural revolution that continues to resonate today.

Topics covered:

• The Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer and its unintended purpose
• Phuture's "Acid Trax" and the Chicago origins story
• The UK acid house explosion and the Second Summer of Love
• Warehouse culture and the birth of rave
• The technology behind the sound: 808s, 909s, and analog synthesis
• Acid house's lasting influence on electronic music

Perfect for: electronic music enthusiasts, music historians, producers, DJs, and anyone interested in how technology and culture intersect to create revolutionary art forms.

Join Gary Crossey as he kicks off 2026 with a deep dive into Better World With Design's new direction. This episode explores the decision to center marginalized voices through the Voices from the Margins series, examining why representation matters, how design shapes justice, and what it means to build with intentionality. Discover the year's content strategy, thematic focus areas, and the personal journey that led to this shift in purpose.

In this episode of Better World with Design, host Gary Crossey explores Sara Ahmed's groundbreaking work Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. This dense but rewarding philosophical text challenges us to rethink how we orient ourselves in the world, and how people design spaces around normative assumptions.

Gary shares his honest experience wrestling with Ahmed's challenging ideas, from her insights into lesbian networks and queer women's experiences to her analysis of how heteronormativity functions as a spatial arrangement rather than just a sexual orientation.

Key Topics Covered:

• Understanding orientation as both spatial and sexual
• Designers make assumptions about whose bodies belong when designing spaces.
• The concept of "straightening devices" in design and systems
• Applications to disability studies, critical race theory, and trans studies
• Contemporary relevance to AI, algorithms, and digital spaces
• Climate crisis and ecological reorientation
• Design implications for creating more just and inclusive spaces

Whether you're a designer, architect, technologist, or anyone interested in creating more equitable systems and spaces, this episode offers essential frameworks for understanding how design choices become orientation devices that shape whose movements are easy and whose require constant navigation.

A deeply personal narrative about a domestic fire that becomes a metaphor for family dysfunction, addiction, and the hidden struggles of growing up in a home marked by tension. This story examines a moment when an ordinary kitchen accident—a grill pan left on too long—reveals the deeper fractures in a family held together by patterns of escape and avoidance. Through vivid details and honest reflection, it explores how crisis doesn't always bring people together, and how sometimes the most dangerous fires are the ones that never produce visible smoke.