In this episode, Alison sits down with Rachael Dietkus, a social worker and designer whose practice challenges the false divide between care and design. Together, we talk about luck not as chance or magic, but as something built through persistence, timing, and the quiet work of showing up for others.

What begins as a conversation about survival becomes an exploration of what sustains us: the mentors who see us, the small acts of care that change our direction, and the systems that decide who gets to thrive. Rachael shares how her path from social work to design taught her to treat care as infrastructure—to build it, not wait for it.

A companion to Sentido’s “Luck as a Superpower” chapter, this episode looks at how we design futures where luck is shared, not hoarded. It’s about agency, timing, and the ways we repair what’s been broken. And it’s a reminder that sometimes, what looks like luck is really the result of choosing to keep going—with care, and with purpose.

In this episode, Alison sits with her lifelong friends — Norma, Delia, and Vanessa — women who have known her through every version of herself. Together, they trace the arc of friendship that began in the streets of 1980s and ’90s New York City and has carried them through love, loss, and reinvention.

What starts as a conversation about growing up becomes a reflection on what sustains us—the laughter, loyalty, and lived wisdom that shape how we lead and who we become. They speak openly about aging, identity, and the unspoken contracts of sisterhood: how we hold one another up when the world doesn’t, and how friendship can be its own form of design.

A companion to Sentido’s “Sisterhood?” chapter, this dialogue honors the unseen labor of care that women do for one another and the power of staying connected across decades. It’s a love letter to chosen family, to the ones who remember who you were before the world had a name for you.

In this episode, Alison sits with filmmaker and storyteller Elaine Del Valle, whose debut feature Brownsville Bred captures the beauty and brutality of growing up in 1980s Brooklyn. In a conversation about persistence, self-belief, and the quiet rebellion of creating without permission, Elaine reflects on what it means to keep going when the world tells you not to.

In this first episode of season two, Alison explores the edges of uncertainty with Jessie Shefrin, an artist, educator, and former Provost at the Rhode Island School of Design. In this conversation about wandering, testing, stumbling, and ultimately emerging into new clarity, Jessie reflects on the sparks that shape us, those fleeting moments of sensation that accumulate into transformation. Together, the dialogue traces how luck, timing, and openness weave into leadership and design, offering listeners a meditative space to consider their own turning points and the practices that help us stay open to what might emerge.

In this final episode of season one, Jacqui and Alison reflect on the times with Quinnton Harris, one of the founders of Hella Creative – the team behind the Hella Juneteenth movement. We talk about his incredible journey, the importance of Juneteenth not just as a day, or a moment, but a call for organizational change. How we can continue to grow, listen, learn, do much better, and make the hire.

Episode 11 is part two of the conversation about Design Operations and where we are heading. In this episode, Jacqui and Alison go broad and extensive (and somewhat meandering ) about future opportunity areas for Design Operations and how we, as design leaders, can lead the charge in laying the groundwork for that future. We charge forward into the unknown with the responsibility to consider society, ethics, customer experience, and the employee experience. Discuss.

In episode 10 Jacqui and Alison begin to dig into the current state of Design Operations. Get ready for some more real talk around what is Design Ops anyway, where does it come from, what (and who) does it look like, and why/when/do we even need it.

We have a special guest this week! Matt Abrahams, Principal and Co-Founder Company of Bold Echo Communication Solutions, Lecturer in Organizational Behavior at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and host of the podcast Think Fast Talk Smart. Matt chats with us about how to be more mindful of how we communicate and bring intention to our daily interactions. We also ask him how we, as hosts, could talk a Lil less and land subject matter a Lil more.

In this episode, Jacqui and Alison unpack the different levels of organizational maturity. To Design in general, and the future as Design is embedded in our every day. How do we, as Design leaders, continue to balance the present need, with the future state – in service of business needs to change and evolve in order to remain relevant.

Businesses are trying to implement Design Thinking & Human-Centered Design – the struggle is real. In this episode, Jacqui and Alison talk about that struggle as well as why it's not just about a great design org or methods that will get you there, and why transformation (led by human-centered operations) needs to take shape in order for organizations to truly understand why good design is good business.