PRI: Design for the Real World: Recent Episodes
Public Radio International/WNYC
Design for the Real World is an inside look at the hidden genius of everyday things - lipstick, sheetrock, tea bags, ballparks - from Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, public radio's weekly guide to what's happening in the culture. Produced by Public Radio International and WNYC.
Before the invention of the dialysis machine, kidney failure was basically a death sentence. Registered nurse Janice Breen explains how the design of dialysis machines has evolved since she started working with them back in 1973.
Robots taking over the world? Stealing all the jobs? Robotics engineer Daniel H. Wilson says we shouldn't fear the all-knowing floor-cleaning unit called Roomba. Produced by Caitlin Lindsey.
You might remember zoot suits from the swing craze in the late nineties. But for one Southern California tailor and her prom-bound customers, zoot suits have never gone out of style. Produced by Eric Molinsky.
The writer Akiko Busch explains how, over the years, kids' school accessories have ascended into high style. Produced by Jocelyn Gonzales.
Graphic designer Noah Scalin created a new skull design every day for a year and posted them to his blog Skull-a-Day. He used whatever was at hand: breakfast cereal, sparklers, and little green army men. Scalin thinks that no matter the material, the skull is timeless. Produced by Studio 360's Michele Siegel and Erin Calabria.
Cubicles have a bad reputation as soul-crushing, gray boxes wallpapered in Post-its. But they were originally designed to promote health and wellness. Cubicle pioneer Joe Schwartz explains what went wrong. Produced by Catherine Epstein.
Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister's favorite album cover of all time is one of Warhol's notorious designs: The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers, with the fully operational zipper. Produced by Derek John. And Cale reveals Warhol's inspiration for the Velvet Underground's signature banana cover.
Jeremy Kinney of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum explains how the Wright brothers' wooden propeller - designed using the world's first wind tunnel -- made the dream of defying gravity come true. Produced by Dennis Nishi.
Design guru Steven Heller explains how Father Christmas became branded as a jolly bearded old man in a red suit.
Cartoon characters have helped sell burgers and fries for years. But for graphic designer Steven Heller, there's one icon that stands above the rest. He's a pudgy little boy with a pompadour, checkered overalls and a Double-Decker burger in his hand.
Architect and homebuilding guru Duo Dickinson talks about a tool belt he says makes all the difference. Produced by Rob Christiansen.
Wylie Dufresne loves state-of-the-art equipment, but his favorite kitchen tool is modest: the whisk. We asked an expert, Gourmet Magazine's former style director Corky Pollan, what makes a whisk really mix and beat.
Every time a new Apple product is rumored, a fraction of the country goes into a frenzy. Every bit of new information is pored over by millions of Apple cultists. A new release is earning that kind of excitement right now, but it's an old-fashioned book a handsome, hardcover biography of Steve Jobs.
Darren Wershler-Henry, a professor of Communications, pays tribute to the whack of metal against paper, the smell of ink, and a technology we've almost forgotten. Produced by Zeke Turner.
Today rock band T-shirts are sold at major retailers, to kids who weren't alive when classic rock was born. But when music writer Johan Kugelberg was growing up in Sweden, wearing the Sex Pistols or Ramones on your chest was its own act of rebellion. Produced by Andrea Silenzi.
Cookbook author Meredith Deeds gets passionate about the kitchen tool that revolutionized baking and became a status symbol in the process. Produced by Kim Gittleson and Jillian Goodman.
Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield wrestles with the form and function of his newest kitchen appliance, a can opener. Produced by Steve Nelson.
Designer Ken Carbone finds delight in his local hardware store. Produced by Jocelyn Gonzales.
When Nintendo released Donkey Kong in 1981, it was one of the only arcade games in which you did more than just blast space invaders. It contained an entire world, with a damsel in distress and an unlikely hero: a little Italian plumber named Mario. Maybe no one is more excited than Tom Chatfield, the author of Fun, Inc.: Why Gaming Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century, who compares Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto to "Orson Welles, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas wrapped up" in one person. Chatfield describes his three-decade-long love affair with the plumber in the hat. Produced by Mark Anderson.
In 1947 a wounded tank commander in the Soviet Army changed the face of gun design from his hospital bed. Writer Guy Martin looks at the AK-47 rifle. Produced by Gardner Allen.
In 1960, zip tops made opening aluminum cans more convenient and dangerous. Those razor-sharp metal tags you ripped off and threw away were a hazard for the thirsty. That all changed in 1972, when a young engineer named Daniel Cudzik was hired by the Reynolds Metals Company to help them enter the fledgling aluminum can business. Since its invention, Cudzik's pop-tab has by one estimate conserved half a billion pounds of aluminum, and quite a few thumbs.
Last week, Apple's Steve Jobs made a design presentation not to masses of swooning tech journalists, but to the Cupertino, California city council. What Jobs unveiled this time was Apple's future corporate headquarters. The design, by celebrated architect Norman Foster, is shaped like a giant glass doughnut with curved windows all around. Kurt Andersen spoke with design writer and curator Phil Patton about what this fantastic, futuristic building could mean for Apple and the design legacy of Steve Jobs.
Sand sculptor Kirk Rademaker makes architecture out of sand -- fantastical structures as high as ten feet, with arches and balconies, and sloping curves that stretch all over the beach. He showed off his skills at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell.
Last month, Studio 360 announced plans to redesign the board game Monopoly. Capitalism and real estate have changed a lot since Monopoly was first sold by Parker Brothers in the 1930s, and we decided the game was due for a major overhaul. We collected dozens of inspired suggestions from listeners, and delivered them to veteran game designer Brenda Brathwaite. This week she reveals an investment game she created with her partner Ian Schreiber. It lets players ride the economic roller coaster of the 21st century: Boom.
Since the board game Monopoly first came out in the 1930s, capitalism and tycooning have changed a lot. Someone who knows that better than most is former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who now hosts a public affairs program on CNN. Spitzer told Kurt Andersen his first lesson in the laws of the free market occurred during family Monopoly games: his father, a titan of New York real estate, showed no mercy. Eliot Spitzer weighed in on our Monopoly redesign project. Tell us how you would change the game by May 3, and we'll share your ideas with our game designer, Brenda Brathwaite.
William McDonough is a grand old man in the young field of green architecture. In the 1970s, he built the first "green roof" in America a corporate headquarters with a meadow on top and is now working on a sustainable building for NASA. Kurt Andersen asks him about the opportunities and challenges of environmental design. (Originally aired: April 18, 2008)
Artist-programmer R. Luke DuBois has his own map of the U.S., and it's not colored with red states and blue. DuBois doesn't need the polls; he gathered his data from 19 million dating profiles. Politics, schmolitics he wants to know what we really think about. Who's shy, who's bored, who's sexy. And who wants to be spanked. Produced by Studio 360's Eric Molinsky.
This week in Studio 360's Design for the Real World: Sam Kean explains how the 19th century Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev invented the the Periodic Table and why the table's orderly design endures today. Kean is the author of "The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements."
For years, Bollywood's sappy, over-the-top, romantic musicals drew audiences with colorful hand-painted murals on the old movie theaters. But digital printing presses have put many of the painters who created these murals out of work. In Delhi, one craftsman found new patrons for his movie-mural artistry: American ex-pats in love. Produced by Linda Blake.
Natural historian Janine Benyus believes that imitating nature's best ideas can provide solutions to human problems. Could we store electricity like an electric eel to build a nontoxic battery? Benyus told Studio 360's Sarah Lilley how copying nature's design is the key to our own sustainability.
At the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, instructors Tisha Johnson and Blair Taylor explain why car design has changed so little in the last 20 years. Kurt talks with students Ben Messmer and Lili Melikian about the prototypes they're working on. And Jim Heimann weighs in on the future of car design.
Design for the Real World: Frankfurt Kitchen Kitchen designer Lyn Peterson says that everything we take for granted can be traced back to the Frankfurt Kitchen, created by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in the late 1920s. It's the mother of all modern kitchens, and an original version was recently acquired by New York's MoMA. Produced by Britta Conroy-Randall.
On America's earliest highways, road signs were hand-painted on wood. When interstate highways became standardized, so did the typeface. But in all sorts of conditions it still looks fuzzy. Graphic designer Don Meeker helped bring highway signage back into focus. Produced by Derek John.
Tea historian Jane Pettigrew explains why the world has never recovered from an American innovation. Produced by Deanna Kashani.
Big Brother is now just a mouse click away. Whether we know it or not, our online activity is being watched and then sold to the highest bidder. It's all thanks to a little line of programming code called a "cookie." Its inventor, Lou Montulli, says that without cookies, the web would be even creepier. Produced by Studio 360's Derek John.
Before the invention of the dialysis machine, kidney failure was basically a death sentence. In this week's Design for the Real World, a registered nurse named Janice Breen walks us through how the design of dialysis machines has evolved since she first started working with them back in 1973. Produced by Gretta Cohen.
Neon signage has been around for exactly a century, but today the glowing lights face competition from cheaper LED technology. Syracuse University physics professor Eric Schiff and Jeff Friedman of New York's Let There Be Neon Studio explain what's behind neon's everlasting glow. Produced by Jordan Sayle.
Samina Quraeshi grew up in a prominent family in Pakistan in the 1960s. She remembers the exact moment she decided to become a designer: when she saw the tail fins on the American ambassador's car.
As we approach the first Tuesday in November, we're awash in red, white and blue bumper stickers, buttons, and lawn signs. Graphic designer Michael Bierut explains why so many of these campaign signs look the same, no matter what side of the fence they're planted on. Produced by Hillary Frank.
The multimedia artist and designer Ben Rubin says more effort should go into creating audio landmarks -- like the sound of subway doors opening. Produced by Steve Nelson.
The Curta Calculator is an object that has been made totally obsolete by modern electronics. Designer Chris Spurgeon talks about the beauty of this powerful and sleek device.
The twangy sound of the Telecaster guitar makes it the favorite of blues players and most country guitarists. Redd Volkaert has spent the last five years playing for Merle Haggard, and he tells us how he fell in love with the Telecaster. Produced by Michael May.
Paola Antonelli, a design curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, appreciates the classic design of this staple of your medicine cabinet.
Earlier this year the Museum of Modern Art acquired the "@" symbol as part of its permanent collection. MoMA design curator, Paola Antonelli, tells the story of how it came to be so ubiquitous. Produced by Kim Gittleson.
Wallpaper. It's not just a substitute for paint, and design curator Susan Yelavich tells us why we should pay it more respect.
Milton Glaser, the legendary graphic designer who invented the "I Love NY" symbol, explains why he thinks the new logo for the Bahamas works wonders.
With only one speed, no flywheel, and no brakes, the fixed-gear reduces the modern bicycle to its most basic machinery. Graphic designer and amateur racer Naz Hamid tells why he loves to ride on the wild side. Produced by Jonathan Menjivar.
London's old, intensely convoluted subway required a new kind of map that broke the rules of cartography. Chris Spurgeon explains why the 1931 Underground map was copied from Tokyo to Chicago.
Designed for keeping ammunition dry in World War II, duct tape is now available in every color, clear, camouflage, and tie-dye. Author Tim Nyberg explains how duct tape has become ubiquitous. Produced by Dennis Nishi.
Graphic designer Steven Heller tells the story of a seaside landmark known as the "Eiffel Tower of Coney Island."
Architect William Katavolos remembers the inventor of the most popular puzzle of the 1980s -- The Rubik's Cube.
The Italian icon of mid-century transport is back in the States, zipping around in irresistible candy colors. Paola Antonelli, design curator at the Museum of Modern Art, has her own soft spot for the scooter. Produced by Angela Frucci.
Design Critic Philip Nobel confesses a peculiar passion for a household appliance-- The Miele vacuum cleaner.
Graphic designer Michael Bierut appraises the design of the single most familiar government form, the one due to the IRS on Thursday, April 15, 2010.
Bob Clevenhagen has been the head designer at Rawlings for more than thirty years -- and he's only the third person to hold that title in the company's 130-year history. We found Bob in his office at the Rawlings factory in Washington, Missouri. Produced by Benjamin Conniff.
You put your coins in, they disappear forever ... and somehow you don't mind. We sent Hammad Ahmed to Atlantic City to find out what makes a slot machine spin.
Buy any robots lately? Robotics engineer Daniel H. Wilson explains what's so special about a sentient little vacuum cleaner called the "Roomba." Produced by Caitlin Lindsey.
Nathan Isherwood owns a moped repair and retail shop in Brooklyn. He loves the modest motorbikes because they're easy to fix and they get 100 miles per gallon. Produced by Matt Frassica.
Design critic Veronique Vienne gives an ode to suitcases as adventurous as the trips they go on.
Design guru Steven Heller explains how Father Christmas became branded as a jolly bearded old man in a red suit.
You might remember zoot suits from the swing craze in the late nineties. But for one Southern California tailor and her prom-bound customers, zoot suits have never gone out of style. Produced by Eric Molinsky.
Firearms expert Gary James explains why a pistol designed a century ago is still being issued to some forces in Iraq, and why it remains popular with law enforcement. Produced by Dennis Nishi
When designer Jay Harman comes home from a sailing expedition, he's got a head full of inventions which he spins into new products-- beautiful, efficient designs that mimic nature. He grew up in Australia and spent hours in the ocean watching the way fish move. He envied that ease and decided to copy those natural movements in his inventions. Produced by Mary Stucky.
Graphic designer Noah Scalin created a new skull design every day for a year and posted them to his blog Skull-a-Day. He used whatever was at hand: breakfast cereal, sparklers, and little green army men. Scalin thinks that no matter the material, the skull is timeless. Produced by Studio 360's Michele Siegel and Erin Calabria.
Paola Antonelli, design curator at the Museum of Modern Art, finds sublime design in a rubber-soled wonder -- the sneaker.
This fall, eight NFL teams have donned the old American Football League uniforms. Graphic designer and sports blogger Jim Ransdell thinks these bold, simple patterns are timeless. Produced by Alana Harper.
On America's first highways, road signs were hand-painted on wood. When interstates became standardized, so did the typeface. But in all sorts of conditions it still looks fuzzy. Designer Don Meeker helped bring signage back into focus. Produced by Derek John.
D. J. Waldie loves the suburbs. He was born in one of the tract houses manufactured by the thousands in Lakewood, California. He lives there still, and today works for the city. His book Holy Land is a strange and beautiful mix of personal memoir and suburban history. Waldie tells us why the cheap tract houses of these 1940s suburbs are almost idealistic. Produced by David Krasnow and Will Becton.
Cubicles have a bad reputation as soul-crushing, gray boxes wallpapered in Post-its. But they were originally designed to promote health and wellness. Cubicle pioneer Joe Schwartz explains what went wrong. Produced by Catherine Epstein.
Stefan Sagmeister is an award-winning graphic designer who grew up in Austria and has designed album covers for the Rolling Stones and Talking Heads. When we asked him about his favorite album cover of all time, Sagmeister picked a notorious design by Andy Warhol: The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers. Produced by Derek John.
Air Force One, the Presidential 747, is designed to be a White House in the sky. But it wasn't always so deluxe. Historian Gene Eisman explains how Air Force One evolved from a bare-metal military jet into its current hi-tech luxury incarnation. Produced by Mark Anderson.
Along with a keyboard, the mouse is the main tool most people use to control their computers. But it's not exactly subtle. Bill Verplank, one of the founding fathers of interaction design, tells us about the past and future of the mouse. Produced by Gideon D'Arcangelo
The writer Akiko Busch explains how, over the years, kids' school accessories have ascended into high style. Produced by Jocelyn Gonzales.
You might remember zoot suits from the swing craze in the late nineties. But for one Southern California tailor and her prom-bound customers, zoot suits have never gone out of style. Produced by Eric Molinsky.
Jeremy Kinney of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum explains how the Wright brothers' wooden propeller - designed using the world's first wind tunnel -- made the dream of defying gravity come true. Produced by Dennis Nishi.
The journalist and designer Georgina Keenan opens up something we all used a lot more back before email -- the envelope. Produced by Rob Weisberg.
Cartoon characters have helped sell burgers and fries for years. But for graphic designer Steven Heller, there's one icon that stands above the rest. He's a pudgy little boy with a pompadour, checkered overalls and a Double-Decker burger in his hand.
It's been spinning for over a hundred years but, as James Buzard explains, some people still aren't comfortable with it. Where it stops, nobody knows. Produced by Chloe Plaunt.
Martha Stewart owes a lot to Mary and Russel Wright. Russel designed masterful dinnerware and objects for the home--and Mary invented the idea of selling a lifestyle.
You put your coins in, they disappear forever ... and somehow you don't mind. We sent Hammad Ahmed to Atlantic City to find out what makes a slot machine spin.
Paola Antonelli, design curator at the Museum of Modern Art, finds sublime design in a rubber-soled wonder -- the sneaker
Graphic designer Michael Bierut appraises the design of the single most familiar government form.
Culinary Arts Museum curator Richard J.S. Gutman explains why an American classic from the aluminum age never goes out of style.
Cartoon characters have helped sell burgers and fries for years. But for graphic designer Steven Heller, there's one icon that stands above the rest. He's a pudgy little boy with a pompadour, checkered overalls and a Double-Decker burger in his hand.
Why does it feel so good to tie a scarf around your neck? Are you just keeping warm or are you tying a knot between your head and your heart? Veronique Vienne extolls the simple scarf and instructs us on how to tie one right. Produced by Michele Siegel.
Chef Wylie Dufresne, of trendy New York restaurant wd-50, loves state-of-the-art equipment, but his favorite kitchen tool is modest: the whisk. We asked an expert, Gourmet Magazine's style director Corky Pollan, what makes a whisk really mix and beat.
Darren Wershler-Henry, a professor of Communications, pays tribute to the whack of metal against paper, the smell of ink, and a technology we've almost forgotten. Produced by Zeke Turner.
Kevin Kallaugher, better known as KAL, has been the cartoonist at The Economist for 30 years. He explains how the donkey and elephant came to represent the parties, and charts their evolution in our culture. Produced by Gretta Cohn.
Historian Larry May slips into one of his favorite places -- the movie theater. Produced by Michael May.
Lifelong baseball fan and graphic designer Steven Heller looks at the most American piece of headwear -- the baseball cap.
Early humans hollowed out gourds to carry their water. Today we drink melted icebergs housed in crystal-studded bottles. Is this progress? Elizabeth Royte tracks the evolution of the water bottle. Produced by Catherine Epstein.
Today rock band T-shirts are sold at major retailers, to kids who weren't alive when classic rock was born. But when music writer Johan Kugelberg was growing up in Sweden, wearing the Sex Pistols or Ramones on your chest was its own act of rebellion. Produced by Andrea Silenzi.
Tea historian Jane Pettigrew explains why the world has never recovered from an American innovation. Produced by Deanna Kashani.
If you're heading outside for a picnic this weekend, don't forget your box of wine. That's right, box. It may call to mind sorority parties and bad hangovers, but design curator Ellen Lupton thinks that boxed wine deserves a second look. Produced by Katie Rolnick.
Almost 100 years ago, the Leica camera changed the world of photography. It was the first practical 35mm camera, and it has inspired passion in those who shoot with it. In Design for the Real World, photojournalist Deborah Copaken Kogan - the author of Shutterbabe - explains what makes the Leica so special. Produced by Dennis Nishi
Curator Paola Antonelli remembers how the tiny, energetic Superball made havoc in classrooms and workplaces.
Somewhere, right now, at a picnic or on a playing field, someone is pulling out a plate-sized plastic disk to toss around. Paola Antonelli, design curator at the Museum of Modern Art, tells us about how the Frisbee came about and how it has endured.
Jeff Wiltse, author of Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America, offers a brief history of taking the plunge. Produced by Hadara Graubart.
DESIGN FOR THE REAL WORLD: THE SKATEBOARD: Philip Nobel writes about architecture and has a column in Metropolis Magazine. Lately he's been obsessing over skateboards, specifically long boards, a sleek update to the wide "trick" oriented boards popular in the 80s and 90s. "I was never a skate rat," Nobel says, "I'm coming to this as a proto middle aged newbie poser."
Jeremy Kinney of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum explains how the Wright brothers' wooden propeller - designed using the world's first wind tunnel -- made the dream of defying gravity come true. Produced by Dennis Nishi.
Architect and homebuilding guru Duo Dickinson talks about a tool belt he says makes all the difference. Produced by Rob Christiansen.
MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli explains the perfect form and use of the ice cream cone.
Bob Clevenhagen has been the head designer at Rawlings for more than thirty years--and he's only the third person to hold that title in the company's 130-year history. We found Bob in his office at the Rawlings factory in Washington, Missouri. Produced by Benjamin Conniff.
A look at the delivery device for possibly the most socially acceptable drug -- caffeine. MoMA Design curator Paola Antonelli tells us why the disposable plastic coffee cup lid is here to stay.
Design critic Philip Nobel finds something transcendent about what most of us would consider an eyesore -- The Bayway Refinery on the edge of the New Jersey Turnpike. Produced by Jocelyn Gonzales.
Sound artist Janek Schaefer gives the scratches and pops of vinyl records some respect. Produced by Michael Raphael.
Food writer Corby Kummer tells us about a coffee maker he thinks is due for a comeback. Produced by Chris Roose.
Cookbook author Meredith Deeds gets passionate about the kitchen tool that revolutionized baking and became a status symbol in the process.
It doesn't exactly make anything beautiful, but without it our surroundings would be a lot uglier. Home renovation guru Duo Dickinson sings the praises of the invisible stuff that's all around us. Literally.
Industrial engineer James Dyson is the creator of the Dyson Cyclone Vacuum, but he also digs the elegant design of another dirty machine.
MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli reflects on the remarkable little device that helps us hold it all together.
For writer and designer Veronique Vienne, the sleek cylinder of color is as indispensable as a Swiss army knife.