Despite an overwhelming amount of national popularity which only rose as a result of covid-19, Amazon has undeniable faults. They’re part of a wicked problem involving consumer culture and disposability. Why would people invest in handmade objects that inspire attachment and care (Ezio Manzini, 2006) if they can purchase similar-looking…

In honor of Earth Day, here’s a break from the economic foundation of our current consumption crisis. I’m going to tell you a bit of my own story. I just had a birthday. I’ve had a lot of them now, but I’m not someone who believes in ceasing to celebrate…

I’m finishing up my M.F.A. in Design for Sustainability at Savannah College of Art and Design, and this is my first blog post. Don’t let the academic format scare you. I’ve worked to make what I think is really interesting information accessible to a broad audience. …

Surviving the Wild In the summer I’m miserable in Oklahoma weather. It’s brutally hot. The birds sit on the ground and pant. The oaks look shrunken and shriveled like arthritic witches around a campfire. …

I recently moved to Oklahoma after receiving a phone call in the week following graduation from my M.F.A. program. Dad had gone into the hospital with pneumonia. It was serious. Despite my many protestations, Dad had insisted on remaining my mother’s caregiver even after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s. She’s been…

It has happened. I attended my final class at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). I’m not enrolled this fall. Whether or not I’ve yet found a job is a topic for another post, but regardless, I’ve begun a new chapter in life. I took longer than most to…

A “wicked problem” is “A class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with confusing values, and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing. — Horst Rittel, 1973 The diversity of wildlife in the…

Victor Lebow wrote an autobiography titled Free Enterprise: The Opium of the American People, published in 1972, but information about his life is fairly scarce on the web. This is rare for someone whose name is so well known in certain circles. In Free Enterprise he reports being an executive…

Simon Kuznets wasn’t a bad guy. Kuznets was a brilliant guy who overlooked the potential ramifications of his grand economic tool if it were in the hands of those who’d mishandle it. When his invention was used without the supplemental measures he recommended and began to cause public suffering, I…