Jon M. Chu is a director, producer and screenwriter. Along with both parts of the Wicked movie adaptation, he directed Crazy Rich Asians, Step Up 2 and In the Heights. In a special live episode of DB|BD, Jon joins Ellen McGirt onstage at the Great Place to Work For All Summit, which took place in Las Vegas on April 10th-12th, 2025. 

Jon details how he went from  a child of immigrants with a Sharper Image film mixer making bar mitzvah videos to being discovered by Spielberg during his senior year at USC. He also talks about going from resisting making films about Asian identity to directing an all Asian cast in one of the most successful romantic comedies of all time. Jon also shares lessons he’s learned from turning down Netflix, collaborating on set and owning the room once you’re in the room. 

On this season of DB|BD, we are Designing for the Unknown. Host Ellen McGirt asks visionary designers how they navigate uncertainty- whether it be technological disruption, global crises, or shifting cultural norms.

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

Jon’s memoir Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen 

Tony Bynum is bilingual. He can speak the language of both business and design, a skill that makes him a unique leader in our industry. 

Tony is the director of the Institute for Design’s new ID Academy, where he is also a professor of practice. Previously, he founded the Northwestern Mutual Design Thinking Center of Excellence in Milwaukee, WI where he was Principal Senior Director of Experience Design. 

In this episode, Tony shares lessons from his unorthodox career path that are still applicable in today’s tumultuous job market. He also shares advice for leaders and new hires on how to use design thinking as a tool for resistance. And Tony and Ellen attempt to give a name to the current era of design- hint: it’s all about designing WITH rather than designing FOR.

On this season of DB|BD, we are Designing for the Unknown. Host Ellen McGirt asks visionary designers how they navigate uncertainty- whether it be technological disruption, global crises, or shifting cultural norms.

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

Tony’s interview in The Reel Black List.

Design As Humanity episode featuring Susan Fabry

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Tara Nathan is the EVP of Digital Solutions for Development at Mastercard and the founder of Mastercard’s Community Pass- a digital infrastructure that connects remote agricultural communities to governments, NGOs and the private sector. Community Pass currently serves 6 million farmers across India and East Africa and has an ambitious plan to reach 30 million by 2027.

In this episode, Tara tells host Ellen McGirt about creating an ecosystem that makes it possible for smallholder farmers to participate in the digital economy- a so-called “Mastercard for pigs”. She also shares her belief in leveraging both the private and public sectors to solve complex social problems and what she thinks people get wrong about development work.

On this season of DB|BD, we are Designing for the Unknown. Host Ellen McGirt asks visionary designers how they navigate uncertainty- whether it be technological disruption, global crises, or shifting cultural norms.

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

Learn more about Community Pass and the MADE Alliance.

Cocoa na Chocolate’s joyful music video and more on how the song came to be.

Welcome to the 12th season of DB|BD. This season we are Designing for the Unknown. 

Michael Eliason of Larch Lab is an architect, researcher, writer and urbanist based in Seattle He’s a self-described activist for dense, livable, affordable, and sustainable cities and the author of Building for People: Designing Livable, Affordable, Low-Carbon Communities. 

In the aftermath of the fires in Southern California, Michael helps host Ellen McGirt understand how we can build or rebuild communities to anticipate the significant climate changes imperiling our world and make us healthier, happier, more connected people.  

On this season of DB|BD, we are Designing for the Unknown. Host Ellen McGirt asks visionary designers how they navigate uncertainty- whether it be technological disruption, global crises, or shifting cultural norms.

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

Michael’s book Building for People: Designing Livable, Affordable, Low-Carbon Communities

Larch Lab

Jane Jacobs: Neighborhoods in Action

Henry Graber on Tokyo’s approach to fire resistance

Ovetta Sampson is the Director of User Experience Machine Learning at Google. In December 2023, Business Insider named Ovetta to their AI 100, a list of the 100 most influential people working in artificial intelligence. Her inclusion on that list is a refreshing addition. Ovetta approaches her work with generative AI and machine learning as an activist, with a commitment to humanity and ethics. 

In the final interview episode of the 11th season of DB|BD, Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt sit down with Ovetta to talk about why awareness of how AI is made is the first step towards holding it, and the people who make it, accountable. Ovetta also shares more about her mantra “Skynet not yet”, why we all should have an expectation that our data will be used responsibly and how her dad’s Commodore 64 launched her programming journey

On this season of DB|BD, co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for. 

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte. 

Visit our BRAND NEW site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

Ovetta Sampson’s website.

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Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

Jorge Fontanez is the CEO of B Lab, a non-profit network that believes business can be a force for good. B Lab is best known for certifying B Corps, companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance and accountability. To become a B Corp, companies need to be transparently addressing things like DEI, their own climate footprint and labor conditions. There are currently just over 9,000 B Corps in 102 countries across 162 industries, including well known brands like Patagonia, Toms, and Ben & Jerry’s. 

As the steward of B Lab’s rigorous certification process, Jorge believes that business can be more loving. To Jorge, this means building out corporate structures where every single person has access to opportunity and can benefit from a company’s growth.

In this episode of DB|BD, hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt sit down with Jorge to discuss just what love really has to do with it (business). Jorge also offers his digestible wisdom on daunting topics like facing down the ESG backlash, corporate hubris, how to identify a new generation of justice minded CEOs and rethinking marketing as a tool for education.

On this season of DB|BD, co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for. 

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte. 

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

B Lab’s website.

Sarah Ganz Blythe Appointed as Director of Harvard Art Museums

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Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer prize winning poet, professor and librettist who served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2017-2019. She’s published five poetry collections, two librettos and one memoir-manifesto. She is also a Professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard. Her most recent Libretto for the opera The Righteous is currently running at the Santa Fe Opera house through August 13th.

Pulsing through Tracy’s long list of accomplishments is her belief that language, and specifically poetry, is a pathway to the fullest versions of ourselves- selves that today’s world often doesn’t allow us to be.

In this episode of DB|BD, hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt sit down with Tracy to talk through the writing process of two of her most recent works: the libretto for The Righteous and her 2024 memoir-manifesto To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul. Tracy also candidly engages in conversation about how she finds faith when you otherwise feel empty, how she uses history to inform her analysis of the current moment and how her employer and alma mater, Harvard, can emerge from this period of institutional struggle.

And stick around to the end of the episode to hear Tracy read one of her poems live on air!

On this season of DB|BD, co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for. 

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte. 

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

Tracy K. Smith’s website.

Full text of “An Old Story”.

More on Nada Hafez Fencing While Pregnant

Allyson Felix on Setting Up the First Olympic Nursery

Ilona Maher on TikTok

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Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

In this episode of DB|BD Ellen McGirt and Jessica Helfand talk with two extraordinary women from two seemingly different corners of the design world: Dionna Dorsey and Olivia Peebles. We say “seemingly” because, while they occupy different design disciplines, they approach their work in similar ways. They are both multidisciplinary designers with the hearts and souls of artists whose visuals bring to life what they and their collaborators know to be true about the world.

First up, we hear from Dionna Dorsey, who is running three design businesses at the same time! She has her own design firm called Dionna Dorsey Design, where she designs imagery and apparel for powerhouse organizations like Planned Parenthood. She is also the founder of District of Clothing, which is probably best known for those ubiquitous “Trust Black Women” t-shirts. She is also the CEO of Creative Ladder, an organization she co-founded with Ryan Reynolds and David Griner in 2022, that makes creative careers accessible to people from historically marginalized communities.

Dionna shares why her values take front and center in her work, how she is making design careers accessible to everyone, and why eating cereal and watching Arthur is one of her favorite creative rituals.

Next up, Ellen and Jessica talk with Production Designer Olivia Peebles. Olivia has worked as a set decorator on some of the biggest films of the past few years, including Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer. Her first film as lead production designer, Exhibiting Forgiveness, premiered at Sundance this year. Exhibiting Forgiveness is written and directed by iconic American painter Titus Kaphar.

Olivia discusses how she, as a white woman, brings to life worlds and stories that are not her own. She also shares how her training as a painter meshes with her career as a production designer and the opportunities and limitations A.I. poses to artists.

On this season of DB|BD, co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for. 

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte. 

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

Titus Kaphar’s Ted Talk

Climate Central’s Urban Heat Hot Spots Study

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Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

Twenty years ago, Shamina Singh took what might seem like an unlikely leap from a decade-long career as a labor and political organizer into an executive position at one of the world’s biggest financial institutions. To Singh, this leap was a logical next step in her fight for equity and inclusion. She is now the co-founder and president of Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth. The Center, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this spring, is the credit card giant’s social impact hub that leverages Mastercard’s extensive business assets in service of people and the planet. As of 2023, the Center has brought 48 million small businesses worldwide into the digital economy, over half of which are led by women. 

In this episode of DB|BD, hosts Ellen McGirt and Jessica Helfand sit down with Singh to discuss why the creation of an inclusive global economy is a redesign project that transcends sectors. Singh also talks about why supporting small businesses is essential to global financial inclusion and championing A.I. solutions that have some equity intention in mind. She also shares the advice she received from iconic Texas governor Ann Richards that changed her career trajectory forever. 

On this season of DB|BD, co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for. 

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte. 

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

To learn more about Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth, visit their website.

Click here to learn more about and to enter  the Center’s A.I. challenge, in partnership with data.org.

For more information on What’s Around Design’s 2024 Conference in Portugal, click here.

Watch Design Observer’s video editor Daniel Paese’s award winning short Spots.

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Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.

The WNBA is both the moment and a movement.  Approximately 400,000 fans attended WNBA games during the first month of the 2024 season, the highest first month attendance in 26 years. An average of 1.32 million viewers are tuning into each game. A historic rookie class that includes Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark are bringing new eyeballs to a game that has some of the most dedicated fan bases in professional sports. The league also saw a 200% increase in revenue in 2023 from the year prior and they are currently negotiating a TV deal independently of the NBA for the very first time.  

And don’t forget the women of this league are staunch social activists who helped flip a U.S. Senate seat in 2021.

In this episode of DB|BD, hosts Ellen McGirt and Jessica Helfand sit down with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Engelbert stepped in as the league’s very first commissioner in 2019 after spending 33 years at Deloitte. Engelbert shares how she transformed an almost non-existent marketing department to revive the 30 year old league, what the league is doing to support player wellness and why she considers the WNBA a “growth stock.”

Later in the episode we will hear from Lindsay Gibbs a sports reporter and author of the feminist sports newsletter Power Plays. Gibbs explains how this moment in the W fits into three decades of league history, why the long running record of WNBA player activism can’t be ignored and what mainstream sports media is getting wrong in their coverage of the league.

On this season of DB|BD, co-hosts Jessica Helfand and Ellen McGirt are observing equity by highlighting the “redesigners” — people who are addressing urgent problems by challenging big assumptions about how the world can and should work — and who it should work for. 

This season of DB|BD is powered by Deloitte. 

Visit our site for more on this episode and to view a transcript.

To check out the WNBA’s upcoming schedule and how to watch,  visit their website. 

To read more of Lindsay Gibbs’ reporting, including her piece on Candace Parker’s rookie season, and listen to her podcast, visit her website. 

Watch Bruhat Soma win the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Read more about the integration of Negro League baseball stats into the MLB records.

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Episodes are produced by Design Observer’s editorial team. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes.