Civic and service designer Sarah Brooks grew up in Manhattan, the daughter of an actress and doctor. With a voracious imagination, she spent her days running around with the neighborhood kids or watching her mom on stage. As a teenager, she found her tribe in the punk rock scene, inspired by the DIY attitude and creative expression. After getting started professionally in TV production, sudden and profound tragedy struck, sending Sarah’s life on a radical detour through grief, healing, and rebuilding herself. The journey led her to a greater appreciation for emotional honesty, human connection and presence - qualities she also brings to her creative work as design executive at IBM, and as an advocate for social impact and regenerative design. Images, links and more from Sarah Brooks!
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Ep. 144: Civic and Service Designer Sarah Brooks

Clever is a window into the humanity behind the design of the world around us. In each episode, designer Amy Devers has candid and revealing conversations with the visionaries, culture-makers, and creative forces who shape our world and inform our society. Through raw candor and honest shop-talk, Clever peels back the layers to unearth the gritty, authentic and sometimes surprising details of their creative paths. 
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Architect & designer Marc Thorpe spent his youth, just outside of Washington DC, drawing and learning to navigate a destabilizing home environment. The son of two academics, he learned discipline, rigor, and resilience from his mom, while his dad, a critical thinker, taught him to challenge and interrogate everything. Always knowing he’d be an artist, he studied Industrial Design and Architecture, and instinctively flexed his ability to seize every opportunity, as well as create them from scratch. Now, as the founder & principal of Marc Thorpe Design, a multidisciplinary studio, and (along with Claire Pijoulat) Edifice Upstate, a design & build architecture agency, he’s worked with world-renowned designers, led groundbreaking projects, and is leading the charge toward more responsible architecture. And while he has always been certain he’d be a professional creative, it is uncertainty that is his greatest inspiration.
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Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.
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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep. 214: Architect & Designer Marc Thorpe on Relationships, Responsibility, and Uncertainty

Natsai Audrey Chieza spent her youth in Zimbabwe in a close-knit extended family where she and her cousins were “in each others’ pockets.” In her teenage years the national economy crashed, necessitating a family relocation to the UK, and she began learning the skill of “not belonging.” Architecture studies proved alienating so she found a way to combine them with her love of fashion (to the consternation of her professors.) Rejecting the prescribed path of a professional architect, she instead pursued a postgraduate program in Material Futures that set her on a path of designing with bacteria. Now, she’s founded Faber Futures, a biodesign studio, and Normal Phenomena of Life, an artful lifestyle and fashion brand that also functions as a working prototype of a new model bioeconomy. She’s spent her whole life quietly not doing what was expected of her, and in this space of outsiderness she’s been very busy creating new paradigms for how we might collaborate with nature and new models for the equitable stewardship of these new biotechnologies. So, in terms of cultural infrastructure, she is an architect after all! 
Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more evergreen episodes! 
Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.
For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever Resources
Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.
Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.
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If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!
Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep. 213: The Quiet Rebellion of Biodesigner Natsai Audrey Chieza

Sharing a preview of Tools and Weapons, the podcast hosted by Microsoft’s Vice Chair and President Brad Smith. Brad speaks with leaders who are at the intersection of the promise and the peril of the digital age, exploring the role technology plays in helping to solve some of society’s biggest challenges. This episode features Yves Ubelmann, a technologist, artist, and architect who is on a mission to digitally preserve the world’s cultural and natural heritage. He is the founder and CEO of Iconem, a company that creates stunning 3D models of endangered sites and environments. In this episode, Brad and Yves take a boat trip through Venice, touring the subject of his most ambitious project: an AI-generated digital twin of one of the world’s most magnificent cities. Inspired by his grandfather’s work to restore war-damaged heritage sites in France, Yves shares how he is using AI to memorialize the world’s heritage in 3D and raising awareness of the effects of climate change on our planet. Find more episodes of Tools and Weapons at https://link.chtbl.com/clevertoolsweapons 

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Clever Presents - Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith

Ben Clymer grew up in a New York suburb, raised by middle-class public school teachers and enamored by his grandfather’s swagger and style. An Omega Speedmaster, a gift from said grandfather, is the piece that captured his heart and sets his story in motion. A painstakingly shy student, he began to gain self-confidence in high-school and a need to differentiate in college. In 2008 he started a tiny blog, HODINKEE, a passion-project about watches that gained traction and sent him on a mission to get a Master’s in Journalism. Since then, HODINKEE has led to creative collaborations with the most prestigious watch brands and famous rockstars, and grown into a multi-channel platform that has transformed the world of luxury watches. 
Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more evergreen episodes! 
Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.
For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever Resources
Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.
Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.
Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers
If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!
Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep. 212: HODINKEE’s Ben Clymer on Agency, Permanence, and the Talismans of Life

Co-founders of House of Rolison, Amanda Leigh and Taylor Hahn, grew up on opposite coasts but were both self-described angsty teens. Both had a deep love for art and architecture, choosing different professional paths before they met online and their fates intertwined. Their first date turned into a road trip and then quarantine-based cohabitation. Since starting House of Rolison, they’ve renovated a number of forgotten old homes into warm, elegant, modern beauties. Their complementary strengths and deep reverence for their crafts and trades crew, ensures that each new project has room for magic and a whole lot of soul.
Head to cleverpodcast.com for a transcript (with links!) of this episode, images, resources, and over 200+ more episodes! 
Subscribe to our free substack for updates, bonus content, and new episode alerts.
For info, resources, and special offers from our guests and sponsors: Clever Resources
Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is the platform that allows you to create exceptional sites with smart tools that streamline your workflows.
Gild Insurance is revolutionizing the small business landscape and putting the power back in creative entrepreneurs’ hands with Credited and Healthcare for Creatives.
Please say Hi on social! X, Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - @CleverPodcast, @amydevers
If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!
Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ep. 144: Civic and Service Designer Sarah Brooks

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