Design Lab with Bon Ku

How might we better prepare for disasters?

What role did deadly design play in Hurricane Katrina?

How does the concept of triage during a crisis reflect our values?

Sheri Fink is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated television producer and the author of the New York Times bestselling nonfiction book Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital about choices made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She is a producer of the Five Days at Memorial limited series on Apple TV+.

Fink’s work has often explored the impact of crises on health care and is informed by her background as an MD and former relief worker in disaster and conflict zones (she also holds a PhD in neuroscience).

Five Days at Memorial, the recipient of eight book awards, was based on an article investigating patient deaths at Memorial Medical Center. Co-published by ProPublica and the New York Times Magazine, the article won both a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award.

As a news reporter, Fink extensively covered the Covid pandemic and, earlier, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, sharing Pulitzer Prizes in 2021 and 2015 with New York Times colleagues. Fink’s investigation into how the Ebola epidemic began in Sierra Leone and why it wasn’t stopped in time for the PBS Frontline episode Outbreak received an Emmy nomination for outstanding research in 2016.

Fink often lectures on topics ranging from emergency preparedness to journalism and is an adjunct associate professor at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She is at work on a book about the global Covid pandemic.

Episode Links and Mentions:

http://www.sherifink.net/

Article on the book via NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/books/five-days-at-memorial-by-sheri-fink.html

Article about the new show via Entertainment Weekly: https://ew.com/tv/tv-reviews/five-days-at-memorial-review-apple-tv-plus/

Follow Sheri: Twitter | Facebook | Insta

Episode Website/Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/designlabpod/sherifink

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Production by Robert Pugliese

Edit by Fernando Queiroz

Cover Design by Eden Lew

Theme song by Emmanuel Houston

Indexed in the Library of Congress: ISSN 2833-2032

Pinar Guvenc is a partner of SOUR, an international, award-winning architecture and design studio with the mission to address social and urban problems through sustainable, adaptive and inclusive methodologies. In addition to managing the business operations, she also leads strategic planning, research and partnerships of the studio. Prior to SOUR, Pinar co-founded various ventures where she helped set-up company infrastructure and grow them through funding or incubation, achieving international recognition and awards. New York Functional Furniture – an e-commerce platform for functional furniture designed in NYC, was acquired by Lazzoni USA after its showroom opening in 2015 and Sponge Inc. - a clean-tech startup - won three international awards, and has been accepted to EU’s Climate KIC Accelerator in Netherlands and Plug and Play Incubator in California, USA. Pinar is also part-time faculty at Parsons School of Design, School of Design Strategies and serves on the Board of Directors of Open Style Lab, a nonprofit organization initiated at MIT, with the purpose of making style accessible to people of all abilities. She created and teaches a strategic collaborations workshop series for Pratt Center for Community Development and Made in NYC initiative. Pinar is a frequent public speaker and a guest lecturer, and hosts the panels and podcasts of What's Wrong With, a series of discussions with progress makers and experts to diagnose real problems, ideate solutions and raise awareness to the general public. Pinar has a BSc in Industrial Engineering and MSc in Economics & Finance. Bon and Pinar talk about why inclusive design is better design, diagnostic ideation, and the broadening definition of health.

Did you know that a graphic designer created the first over-the-counter pregnancy test? How did giving birth become medicalized? What does culturally appropriate care look like?

Michelle Millar Fisher has worked as an educator, curator, and historian in universities and museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and the MFA Boston where she is currently the Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts. Her work focuses on the intersections of people, power, design, and craft. She has co-authored many books, essays, and exhibitions including Design and Violence and Items: Is Fashion Modern?

Amber Winick is a mother and design historian. She holds an MA in Design History, Decorative Arts, and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center, and a BA in child development and anthropology from Sarah Lawrence College. She has received two Fulbrights, and has lived and researched maternal and child-related designs, policies, and practices around the world. She has expertise in the designed systems, environments, and objects that empower (and disempower) us, particularly around birth, family leave, caregiving, schools, and early childhood.

Allan Chochinov is an educator, writer, speaker, and advocate for the power and capacity of design. He is the Founding Chair of the MFA in Products of Design graduate program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and a partner of Core77, the design network serving a global community of designers and design enthusiasts since 1995. Allan has moderated and led workshops and symposia at venues from the Aspen Design Conference to the Rockefeller Center at Bellagio, and has been invited to speak on design at organizations from frog Design and SYPartners to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The New York Times, and the National AIGA. A frequent lecturer and critic, he has worked with students at schools including MIT, Yale School of Management, Columbia School of Business, RMIT, IIT, and Carnegie Mellon. Prior to SVA and Core77, his work in product design focused on the medical, surgical, and diagnostic fields (early work focused on HIV/AIDS, and later projects included work for Johnson & Johnson, Oral-B, FedEx, and Herman Miller). He has been named on numerous design and utility patents, and has received awards from The Art Directors Club, The One Club, I.D. Magazine, and Communication Arts. He has also served on the boards of the National AIGA organization, Designers Accord, Design Ignites Change, and NYCxDESIGN.

Episode Mentions:

Tanaka Kapec Design Group http://www.wedesigntosimplify.com/

Change Everything You Hate About Meetings With This One Single Word

Follow Allan on Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

Show website link: https://mailchi.mp/designlabpod/allanchochinov

This episode is sponsored by:

Fortune Brainstorm Design, to be held May 23-24 in Brooklyn is a curated experience for passionate and successful design and design-minded professionals. Join Fortune and be inspired by diverse examples of design excellence, explore how design thinking and practice can be challenged and advanced, meet and network with high-level peers, and leave with concrete ideas and partnerships to drive transformation within your organization. Listeners of Design Lab with Bon Ku can use code “designlab” for a 20% discount on registration!

For more information or to register go to FortuneBrainstormDesign.com.

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Production by Robert Pugliese

Cover Design by Eden Lew

Theme song by Emmanuel Houston

On today's episode, we are going to talk about design through the lens of policy.

Rick Griffith is a British-West-Indian collagist, writer, letterpress printer, designer, and optimist futurist based in Denver, Colorado. As a designer, he works at the intersection of programming, policy, and production. He is a columnist for PRINTmag.com, the two-time programming chair for the AIGA National Conference, and the 2023 Acuff Chair at Austin Peay State University. Rick’s works are collected and exhibited worldwide and can be found in the permanent collections of The Denver Art Museum, The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and The Tweed Museum at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He is a founder and partner with Debra Johnson of the graphic design consultancy MATTER, the designer behind the Black Astronaut Research Project (BLARP.org), The Pledge for Spaces, and the Introductory Ethic for Designers and Other Thinking Persons. One of his favorite long-term design projects is a bookstore for designers and revolutionaries. He DJs a live Internet radio show, Design To Kill, every Tuesday 6 pm Eastern Time.

Episode mentions and links:

MATTER Studio

Shop at MATTER: For designers and other thinking persons

Rick Griffith: A Love Letter to Design, a List of Demands, and a Stern Look via Print Magazine

Rick’s Book Recommendations:

The Black Experience in Design

You Need a Manifesto

Buy Health Design Thinking via Shop at MATTER

• 50% OFF until 3/31/23 if you use discount code: designlab

The Restaurant Rick would take you to in NYC:

B&H Dairy Kosher Restaurant

Follow Rick: Twitter | Insta | LinkedIn

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/108