Scratching the Surface

Otto von Busch is a designer and professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design. He has a background in arts, craft, design, and theory and his work focuses on how making practices can mobilize community and social activism. His new book, The Design Comedy, repackages Dante’s to explore the broken promises of design, the problems in academia, and the role of design theory. In this conversation, Jarrett and Otto talk about the book and its analysis of the state of design, the value of making in design education, and the relationship between design practice and design theory. Links from this episode are available at www.scratchingthesurface.fm/281-otto-von-busch
—
Help support the show by joining our Substack: surfacepodcast.substack.com

Sam Valenti IV is the founder of Ghostly International, a music label and art company he founded in 1999 and known for experimental electronic artists like Matthew Dear, Tycho, and Galcher Lustwerk. On the occasion of Ghostly’s 25th anniversary, they just released We’ll Never Stop Living This Way: A Ghostly International Catalogue, a large coffee-table book celebrating the label’s artists, designers, and ethos. In this conversation, Jarrett and Sam talk about the relationship between music and design, the record label as a cultural brand, and the role of the curator in the age of the algorithm. Links from this episode are available at www.scratchingthesurface.fm/280-sam-valenti
—
Help support the show by joining our Substack: surfacepodcast.substack.com

Thomas Weaver is an architectural writer, teacher, critic, and editor. He is a commissioning editor at Park Books where he cofounded and edits the Gumshoe series, and has teaching appoints at Princeton University and Accademia di architettura. He was previously the Senior Acquisitions Editor for Art and Architecture at MIT Press, and managing editor at the Architectural Association where he editied the school’s journal, AA Files, as well as their other publications and books. In this conversation, Jarrett and Thomas talk about the his experiments with form, pushing the limits of academic writing, and the role of the editor in architecture discourse. Links from this episode are available at www.scratchingthesurface.fm/279-thomas-weaver
—
Help support the show by joining our Substack: surfacepodcast.substack.com

Carlo Ratti is an architect, engineer, author, and academic. He is the curator of the 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture, where he developed the theme Intelligens: Natural, Artificial, Collective. He runs the Senseable City Lab at MIT and is the author of multiple books including Atlas of the Senseable City, The City of Tomorrow, and Open Source Architecture. In this conversation, Jarrett and Carlo reflect on this year’s biennale, how architecture can act as a connector of multiple intelligences, and how the senseable city is different than the smart city. Links from this episode are available at www.scratchingthesurface.fm/278-carlo-ratti
—
Help support the show by joining our Substack: surfacepodcast.substack.com

Maggie Gram is a writer, cultural historian, and designer. She’s the author of the new book, The Invention of Design, and her writing as appeared in n+1 and The New York Times. She also leads an experience design team at Google in New York. In this conversation, Jarrett and Maggie talk about how she wrote her book, the evolution of how we talk about design, design’s relationship to power, and why we need new ways to think about what design can do today. Links from this episode are available at www.scratchingthesurface.fm/277-maggie-gram.
—
Help support the show by joining our Substack: surfacepodcast.substack.com