Launched on February 4th, 2005, Design Matters is one of the first and longest running podcasts in the world. Over the last 20 years, Design Matters has evolved from a niche, live internet radio program broadcast over a landline telephone to a global podcast with over 500,000 downloads a month. While the program was originally about design, the show now centers on how the world’s most incredibly creative people—designers, writers, artists, musicians, educators, scientists, philosophers, athletes and performers—design the trajectory of their lives. The format of Design Matters is organized around the idea of “storytelling through questions,” and empowers guests to share original and intimate stories. Each singular long-form interview focuses on the creative journey guests have taken with a deeply researched focus on their origin story, the challenges they’ve encountered, the choices they’ve made and the art they create. To date, there are over seven hundred episodes of the show featuring luminaries such as artists Bisa Butler, Amy Sherald, Marilyn Minter, Ai Weiwei, Deborah Kass; designers including Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Scher, Jessica Walsh, Rick Griffith, and Chip Kidd; graphic novelists Allison Bechdel, Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine, Roz Chast and Lynda Barry; photographers Catherine Opie, Albert Watson, Lynn Goldsmith, Pete Souza and Mary Ellen Matthews; illustrators Christoph Niemann, Brian Rea, Maira Kalman, Barry Blitt and Edel Rodriguez; podcasters Ira Glass, Krista Tippett, Jad Abumrad, Hrishikesh Hirway and Kara Swisher; musicians Rosanne Cash, Jon Batiste, Michael Stipe, David Byrne and Indigo Girls, scientists Neil deGrasse Tyson, Eric Kandel, Kip Thorne and David Spergel; directors Sarah Polley, Suzan-Lori Parks, Brian Koppelman, Thomas Kail; activists Gloria Steinem,
Anita Hill, Sarah Lewis, Cindy Gallop, Sonya Passi and Joy Buolamwini, and many, many more.

Considered one of the most rigorously researched podcasts on the air, the show won a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in 2011, in 2015 Apple designated the show as one of the best podcasts on iTunes, and in 2022 and 2023 named it one of their “All Time Favorites.”
Design Matters has won two Webby Awards, three Communicator Awards, a Signal Award, three awards from The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, including a ‘Best In Show’ award for Best Host. The podcast also received two nominations for the Ambie Award. The show has been featured on over 100 “best-of” lists including Architectural Digest, Goop, The Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Magazine, Marie Claire and HGTV, and the magazine Business Insider chose it as one of the best podcasts in the world.