Humans are blessed with a range of senses plus the most powerful brain of any species. We make life better when our choices and decision making use both our brains (Head) and senses (Heart).  

The smallest choices can make a big difference to the quality of life if both head and heart are employed together to best effect. 

• Everything is designed.
• Better design makes life better for everyone.
• Everyone is a designer.

But what does all that mean? This episode goes back to the basics of what the podcast is about, including a practical illustration of how we are all designers.

Having recently looked at how natural light can be considered as a design element, this episode moves on to investigate the almost endless possibilities of artificial light to make our lives better.

Doctors have been known to undertake drug trials on themselves before releasing them on the public. Many architects try out new ideas when building their own homes. In this podcast Kevin Drayton considers three such schemes, each with a very different character.

The late Sir Terence Conran could claim to have done more to bring good design to post-war Britain than any other individual. He was a genuine believer in the power of good design to make life better and never lost his zeal despite going on to father a vast business empire.

He believed everyone had the right to good design and the pleasure and enjoyment it could bring. No design ascetic, he enjoyed comfort, convenience, food, drink and a whole lot more to the full.

For me, he represented so many things I believed in and his influence was enduring and deep. He deserves a permanent place in design history.

Light, natural and artificial, are essential tools in a designer's armoury. This podcast looks at natural light: how it illuminates buildings and the spaces within, and why orientation and the time of year can radically change it.

A later episode will deal with natural light.

An interview with Rhona Warnock, veterinary surgeon specialising in rehabilitation and sports medicine who is also an accomplished mountaineer and martial arts instructor.

We discuss her take on designing better lives for animals, but also those that look after them

There are lots of really useful sources of information that will tell you how to do something. In this episode I suggest that with the end goal firmly in mind, there may be different ways to achieve that goal.

The resources you need may appear quite unexpectedly. Don't be dogmatic; stay flexible and you may still Make Life Better. By Design.

Most people acknowledge that there is a housing crisis in this country. There is less agreement on why and how it should be tackled.

Kevin Drayton sets out some thoughts on a number of possible causes for this long standing problem.

How can we all be the same but different at once? Every coin has two sides and there are no guarantees in life - except death and taxes. 

This episode looks at the paradoxes involved in trying to make life better and why there's no point worrying about getting things wrong.