Design Lab with Bon Ku

Latest Episodes:

EP 128: Designing the Future of Food | Dan Barber Jul 20, 2023

Show notes

This week we talk about how real food is the best medicine.

Dan Barber is chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, and the author of The Third Plate. A fierce advocate for sustainable, ethical farming and cooking, Barber’s opinions on food and agricultural policy have appeared in The New York Times and other publications. He also co-founded Row 7 Seed Company, which brings together chefs and plant breeders to develop new varieties of vegetables and grains. Barber has received multiple James Beard awards including Best Chef: New York City (2006) and Outstanding Chef (2009). President Barack Obama appointed him to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports & Nutrition. Barber continues his work to blur the line between the dining experience and the educational, bringing the principles of good farming directly to the table.

This episode was recorded live at the 2023 Aspen Ideas: Health Festival. Special thanks to the Aspen Ideas team for making this happen! Bon also wrote a blog post for the event, 5 Reasons Why Clinicians Should Think Like Designers.

Episode mentions and links:

Blue Hill Farm

Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

Book: The Third Plate

Row 7 Seeds

Chef Dan Barber brings new veggie varieties to the aisle with Row 7 Seed Company

Michael Mazourek: Culinary Breeding Network

Dan’s photo credit: Richard Boll

Follow Dan: Twitter | Insta

Follow Blue Hill Farm: Twitter | Insta

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/128

EP 127: Designing Brand Strategy | Howard Belk Jul 13, 2023

Show notes

This week we talk about simplicity as a strategy.

Howard Belk pulls double duty as Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer of leading global brand experience consultancy Siegel+Gale, which he claims is one (or two) of the six best jobs on the planet.

He is an entrepreneur who helped a 50-year-old branding firm reestablish industry leadership by embracing its disruptor legacy. Since his arrival at the firm in 2004, he and his colleagues have established Siegel+Gale as The Simplicity Company, truly the go-to firm to help untangle the mind-bending brand mash ups that result from the entrepreneurial adventures of the CEOs they love.

Over his career, he has partnered with Fortune 500 clients to embrace the power of simplicity, purpose, experience and design to transform and grow their companies. Today, he is one of those rare birds who understands both business and design, and more importantly how to embrace one to succeed at the other.

Episode mentions and links:

Siegel+Gale

Siegel+Gale: CVS Case Study

Siegel+Gale: BMS Case Study

Howard’s photo credit: Madeline King

Howard’s restaurant rec: Omen

Howard’s book rec: The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore

Follow Howard: Twitter | Insta | LinkedIn

Follow Siegel+Gale: Twitter | Insta | LinkedIn

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/127

EP 126: Designing with Neurodivergent People | Katie Gaudion Jul 06, 2023

Show notes

This week we talk about designing for diverse perspectives

Katie is a designer and researcher; she is a design consultant and Senior Research Associate at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design which is an Inclusive design Centre based at the Royal College of Art in London. Katie is neurodivergent (Dyslexic and Dyspraxic) and for the last 16 years has collaborated with neurodivergent people to explore ways to make their everyday lives comfortable and enjoyable. Katie has worked within a range of contexts: Supported living accommodation, mental health hospitals, garden design, healthcare services, developing design standards for the built environment and street design.

An important aspect of Katie’s PhD called: A designer’s approach: Exploring how autistic adults with additional learning disabilities experience their home environment, was to explore how to connect and engage with people beyond verbal speech. A great lesson learnt was the importance of empathy, something that can grow and develop.

Katie speaks not as an expert but as a person with lived experience and the privilege of collaborating with lots of different people.

Episode mentions and links:

Design Lab Podcast Ep 36 with Rama Gheerawo

Heart n Soul: Believe in Us

Streets for Diversity

Streets for Diversity Survey

Katie’s restaurant rec: The Jetty

Follow Katie: Twitter | LinkedIn

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/126

EP 125: Designing Home-Based Care | Gregory Snyder Jun 29, 2023

Show notes

This week we talk about designing human-centered care, at home.

Gregory Snyder is a clinical innovator and physician executive leading technology-enabled care delivery models to improve healthcare quality and safety. He is a graduate of Princeton University, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Brigham & Women’s Hospital Internal Medicine residency, and Harvard Business School. He practices hospital medicine at Mass General Brigham Newton-Wellesley and is Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Mass General Healthcare Transformation Lab. Greg is Clinical Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, Associate Faculty at Ariadne Labs, and adjunct faculty for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He is focused on scaling virtual hospital at home programs and improving the quality and safety of home-based care as Vice President of Clinical Strategy & Quality Improvement for Medically Home. Greg has partnered with diverse healthcare technology ventures to improve healthcare quality, safety, value, and experience.

Episode mentions and links:

Medically Home

Greg’s restaurant rec: Parc Philadelphia

Follow Greg: LinkedIn

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/125

EP 124: Designing Nursing Care | Sarah DiGregorio Jun 15, 2023

Show notes

This week we talk about the story of nursing how it has shaped our world.

Sarah DiGregorio is the critically acclaimed author of Early: An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What It Teaches Us About Being Human and Taking Care: The Story of Nursing and Its Power to Change Our World. She is a journalist who has written on health care and other topics for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Slate and Insider, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her daughter and husband. For more information please visit her website: http://sarahdigregorio.com/

Episode mentions and links:

Sarah’s Website

Book: Taking Care: The Story of Nursing and Its Power to Change Our World

Book: Early: An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What It Teaches Us About Being Human

Book Review: Healing the Unsung Healers via NYT

Sarah Digregorio at HarperCollins Publishers

Sarah’s restaurant rec: Ayat NYC

Follow Sarah: Twitter | Insta | LinkedIn

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/124

EP 123: Designing Oceans | Helen Czerski Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

Today we talk about building a healthy relationship with the ocean.

Helen Czerski was born in Manchester. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London. As a physicist, she studies the bubbles generated by breaking waves in the ocean to understand their influence on weather and climate. Helen has been a regular presenter of BBC TV science documentaries since 2011. She also hosts the Ocean Matters podcast, is part of the Cosmic Shambles network, and is one of the presenters for the Fully Charged Show. She has been a science columnist for the Wall Street Journal since 2017 and she is the author of the bestselling Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life, Bubbles: A Ladybird Expert Book, and Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works.

Episode mentions and links:

Helen's Website

Helen’s latest book: The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works

Helen’s other works

Scripps Institute of Oceanography

Article by Helen: Why we need to respect Earth’s last great wilderness – the ocean - via The Guardian

Helen’s restaurant rec: Old Ship Hammersmith

Follow Helen: Twitter | Insta | LinkedIn

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/123

EP 122: Knock Knock, Hi with the Glaucomfleckens | Will and Kristin Flanary Jun 01, 2023

Show notes

This week, Bon talks about redesigning medicine with Will and Kristin Flanary (aka the Glaucomfleckens)!

Knock Knock, Hi! Is a podcast and YouTube series hosted by Will and Kristin Flanary (aka the Glaucomfleckens). I had the chance to join this famous duo on their show and chat about redesigning medicine. We talk about why fax machines are still a thing, how I can die happy if we figure out how to eliminate hallway beds from ever being a thing, And how Dr. Glaucomflecken really just nailed his emergency medicine character. ICYMI we are rebroadcasting that interview for you this week on Design Lab. If you want to see the video of the episode or listen to the full episode of Knock Knock, we’ll share links in the show notes.

Episode mentions and links:

The Glaucomfleckens

Lady Glaucomflecken

Dr. Glaucomflecken

Knock Knock, Hi with the Glaucomfleckens!

Video of the episode via YouTube

Human Content Productions

"Why do hospitals still use fax machines? Jefferson's Bon Ku has no answers for medical comedian" - Via The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Tom Avril

Follow Lady Glaucomflecken: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/122

EP 121: Designing for the Future | Manuel Lima May 25, 2023

Show notes

This week we talk about The New Designer: rejecting myths and embracing change.

Manuel Lima is an internationally renowned designer and author of three bestsellers that have been translated into several languages: The Book of Circles, The Book of Trees, and Visual Complexity. Named “one of the 50 most creative and influential minds” by Creativity magazine, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a leading voice on information visualization. His talks have been watched by more than three million people around the world and he has been featured in such magazines and newspapers as Wired, New York Times, Science, Nature, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Forbes, and El País. The founder of VisualComplexity.com and a regular teacher at Parsons School of Design, he has over fifteen years of experience designing digital experiences and leading product teams at such companies as Google, Microsoft, and Nokia. His new book is The New Designer: Rejecting Myths, Embracing Change (MIT Press, May 2023).

Episode mentions and links:

https://www.mslima.com/

Book: The New Designer: Rejecting Myths, Embracing Change

Manuel’s previous publications

A Visual History of Human Knowledge via TED Talks

Six Principles for Designing Any Chart via Medium

Manuel’s restaurant rec: Asia

Follow Manuel: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Insta

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/121

EP 120: Designing Self-Care | Pooja Lakshmin May 18, 2023

Show notes

This week we talk about designing real self-care versus faux self care.

Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, MD is a psychiatrist and author, the founder of Gemma, the digital community focused on women’s mental health and equity; and a contributor to The New York Times. Her new book, REAL SELF-CARE: Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble-Baths Not Included, has been featured on Good Morning America, NPR’s Code Switch and 1A, Talks @ Google, The New York Times, Vox, and The Guardian. Pooja has spent thousands of hours taking care of women struggling with burnout, despair, depression, and anxiety in her clinical practice. Her work focuses on the intersection of mental health and gender. She frequently delivers keynotes and consults with organizations and Fortune 500 hundred companies to help women and marginalized groups feel empowered and to connect with their agency in the workplace.

Episode mentions and links:

https://www.poojalakshmin.com/

https://www.gemmawomen.com/

Hope Is Not a Thing to Have—It’s a Skill to Practice via Oprah Daily

How to Escape ‘Faux Self-Care’ via NYT

How Society Has Turned Its Back on Mothers via NYT

Pooja’s restaurant rec(s):

Matt's El Rancho

Meanwhile Beer

Sushi Bar Hospitality

Follow Pooja: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/120

EP 119: Designing Dementia Care | Sandeep Jauhar May 11, 2023

Show notes

This week, we are talking about designing better dementia care.

Sandeep Jauhar has written several bestselling books, all published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. His latest book, "My Father’s Brain," published in April 2023, is a memoir of his relationship with his father as he succumbed to dementia. In the book, Jauhar sets his father’s descent into Alzheimer’s alongside his own journey toward understanding his father’s disease.

A practicing physician, Jauhar writes regularly for the opinion section of The New York Times. His TED Talk on the emotional heart was one of the ten most-watched TED Talks of 2019. To learn more about him and his work, visit his website at www.sandeepjauhar.com or follow him on Twitter: @sjauhar

Episode mentions and links:

https://sandeepjauhar.com

My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's

Sandeep’s restaurant rec: Claro BK

Follow Sandeep: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook

Episode Website: https://www.designlabpod.com/episodes/119