Design Matters with Debbie Millman

Design Matters is one of the first and longest running podcasts in the world. Broadcasting independently for 19 years, Design Matters began before the advent of mainstream podcasting and is now a part of the TED Audio Collective. The show centers on how the world’s most incredibly creative people—designers, writers, artists, musicians, educators, scientists, philosophers, athletes and performers—design the trajectory of their lives. Each singular long-form interview focuses on the creative journey guests have taken with a deeply researched focus on the challenges they've encountered, and the choices they've made. With a catalog of over 500 interviews, the show has a reach of about 500,000 downloads per month globally.

The format of Design Matters is organized around the idea of "storytelling through curiosity," and the show is now considered one of the most rigorously researched podcasts on the air.

Over the last two decades, Design Matters has evolved from a niche, live internet radio program to a global podcast with over 500,000 downloads a month. While the program was originally about design (hence the name) and began before the advent of mainstream podcasting, the show evolved over the years into a widely respected, award-winning podcast. Design Matters won a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in 2011, in 2015 Apple designated the show as one of the best podcasts on iTunes and in 2022 and 2023 named it one of their “All Time Favorites."