Phones Never Die. They're Eaten By Birds

Can we really call it progress when it creates so much waste? What if your phone — the one you’re using right now — was your last phone? Take a good look at it and imagine using it for the rest of your life. Could it even last that long? Could you? Probably not. Today I want to think about what that means. What happens to a planet and its people when technological progress is measured in product cycles. And what happens when there's no balance sheet to account for the other side of that — when every new product leaves billions of products and accessories and packaging behind...

Show Notes

• My first cellphone
• My second cellphone
• This clip ended up on the cutting room floor, but here's Derek Zoolander's tiny phone
• You can learn more about the Agbogbloshie landfill by reading its Wikipedia page, looking at these photographs, or watching this documentary. Please watch it!
• You can learn more about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch here.
• "The Victims of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a clip from 60 Minutes
• Project Ara Demo at Google IO 2015
• Google Cancels Project Ara
• The Fairphone
• Danny Boyle interviewed by Marc Maron

Music

All music used in this episode was independently produced by r beny and licensed by Design Tomorrow for non-commercial use.

• Felt
• Fall Creek Unit
• Formation Process
• Novation Peak
• Mariposa
• Alluvial
• Natoma
• Spindle
• Illumination Ceremony

Credits

Design Tomorrow is produced by Chris Butler at the Tomorrow office in Durham, NC.

You can follow the show on Twitter @dsgntmrrw. You can visit the show's website at designtomorrow.co, and you can email me at chris @ designtomorrow.co.

Thanks for listening, and remember, what we do and think today can create a better tomorrow.

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