"Lately, I've been thinking about..."

On this episode we speak to software developer and my own creative partner (and inspiration for this podcast) Maurice Gaston about mentorship. How do we do it? How does it differ from leadership or management or coaching? When do we feel comfortable in the role? And much, much more.

Recommended content from this episode

Web series
Developing Philly

Events
BarCamp Philly

TV
Ted Lasso

Video
The Anti-Disney Messages of… Disney Movies

Our intro and outro music is "Humbug" by Crowander

In this episode we talk to UX career coach Amy Santee about capitalism. How we define it as an exploitative, extractive system. The lack of a good word for making money without screwing people over. The propaganda supporting capitalism. And what we can do to fight it.

Recommended content from this episode

People
Kim Cerna - the designer I talked about

Organizations
Tech Workers Coalition
Collective Action in Tech (list of tech unions)

Articles
"NY Times tech workers win largest tech union in United States" - Liberation

Books
Goliath by Matt Stoller
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown

Our intro and outro music is "Humbug" by Crowander

In this episode we talk to University of North Texas  interaction design professor Cassini Nazir about curiosity. It's (literal) roots in care, how it affects how we think about the war in Ukraine, the defiant ingenuity of the targets of oppression, the pros and cons of empathy, and much, much, more.

Recommended content from this episode 

Articles
Articles about our poor memory of weather (shifting baseline syndrome)
Another article about shifting baseline syndrome
Don Norman - Why I Don’t Believe in Empathic Design  

TV
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Our intro and outro music is "Humbug" by Crowander

In this episode we talk to Erika Wohlstadter, Principal Researcher at Think Company,, psychobilly upright bassist, sewist, costumer, queer spec fic writer, and so much more about strangeness. What attracts us to it? How do we hide or leverage the strangeness in ourselves? How is normality a political tool? What are the consequences of strangeness? And how is anarchy not what you probably think it is?

Recommended content from this episode:

Movie
Passing

Video
Glamrou on queer identity and quantum physics

Book
Design Justice by Sasha Constanza-Chock

Psychobilly bassist, UX researcher, and all around brilliant thinker Erika Wohlstadter and I talk about strangeness in all its forms: how and when we choose to be strange and when or if to hide it and the political and personal implications of those choices.  How this can play out for folks living with autism, how it affects our willingness to perform onstage, and questioning even the concept of "normal". Oh, and also I get an education into what "anarchy" really means.

Recommended content from this episode:

Movies/Video
Passing
Gender identity: 'What quantum physics taught me about my queer identity' - Amrou Al-Kadhi (AKA Glamrou)

Book
Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need

In this episode I talk to storyteller, connector, and comedian Neil Bardhan about how we work from scheduling to values to measuring productivity to reducing anxiety and all of the things that a COVID-induced work from home environment forces us to think about. How do we manage ourselves when we have a fair amount of freedom? What does it mean for our jobs to be, to some extent, being ourselves? And why are salary negotiations a terrible way to begin a working relationship? All this and more.

Books mentioned:

Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
Deep Work by Cal Newport

Mule Design co-founder and Just Enough Research and Conversational Design author Erika Hall and I chat about how a lack of understanding about the business aspects of their design works can lead designers to become the tools of extractive, unethical practices. We get into how this has played out in her own work and how Mule makes decisions about what work they will and will not do (and also why they're called "Mule"), why some companies choose not to have a sales team, the value of constraints in design, and lots, lots more.

Recommended books from this episode:

Designing Business by Clement Mok
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII by Aristotle (where he talks about friendship)
Putting the Rabbit in the Hat audiobook by Brian Cox

Our intro and outro music is "Humbug" by Crowander

On our pilot episode, author and documentarian Kevin Smokler and I talk about consequences. We also get into owning versus sharing, being ourselves, and how to think about restorative justice in a punishment-oriented world.

Recommended content from this episode:

Books
The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee
The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. Baptist

Movies/TV
Exterminate All the Brutes
The Work

Video
"Restorative Welcome and Reentry Circle"

Our intro and outro music is "Humbug" by Crowander