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- [00:02]
Chris Duffy
You're listening to how to Be a Better Human. I am your host, Chris Duffy. Today's guest, Debbie Millman, is one of the most acclaimed and talented podcasters around. You know her from her fantastic Design Matters podcast, but she's also an incredible artist, an author, an illustrator, an educator, and so much more. We're going to be talking with Debbie about how to stay curious, how to grow as an artist, and how to design the arc of a creative life. That is a question that Debbie has been investigating for more than 20 years on her show Design Matters, and it's one that has lessons for people in all phases of their life. I cannot tell you how much I have taken away from listening to Debbie's show and from learning from her. So to start us off, here is a clip from a Design Matters episode. This was a live event that they did at the Green Space in nyc. And at this event, Debbie is being interviewed by her wife, the writer Roxane Gay, about what inspired Debbie to start Design Matters in the first place. You've been doing Design Matters for 15 years, which in podcast years is about 100. Why did you decide to do a podcast? And how have you sustained the interest in doing one for so many years?
- [01:11]
Debbie Millman
Well, I didn't really decide to do one. I was asked. I was offered an opportunity by Voice America Business Network, which was a fledgling Internet radio network at the time, and I was offered the opportunity to pay them for airtime on their network. And at the time, I was doing very well professionally in a commercial realm. And I had surpassed any possible hope or dream that I'd had professionally in my branding career. But because it was all commercial, I actually felt that I was dying and that I had lost all of my creative heart. And, you know, I wasn't writing anymore. I wasn't drawing anymore. I wasn't doing anything creative. And I understood why. I mean, my professional success was the first time I'd ever been successful at anything in my life. So, of course, at the time, I was like, okay, I'm not gonna do anything but this. Cause it feels so good to be successful at something finally in my 40s. But then that wore off, you know, that metabolized and I needed to do something creative. And this felt like a sneaky way to be creative but still be able to justify it from a business perspective, because I could interview clients or I can interview people in the design business. And so that's really how it started. It was really a Hail Mary to my creativity. And because I have such generous friends, they were willing to come on the show. I mean, they had no reason to come on the show. I mean, Steve Heller is sitting in the front row. Steve is my mentor, my fairy godfather. He's been on the show 13 times. Every time he says, OK, he'll still be doing it because now I want to do with him every year so we can create this oral history of design together. I'm shocked that he says yes. But why it grew, I think is just because of the guests that I have and, and the generosity in their hearts for me. I'll never, ever get tired of talking to people about who they are and how they've become who they are and how they make their lives and how they create and make things out of nothing.
- [03:30]
Chris Duffy
Okay, so from the Design Matters podcast to the how to Be a Better Human podcast, here's Debbie. Now at Verizon, we have some big news for your peace of mind. For all our customers, existing and new, we're locking in low prices for three years guaranteed on my plan and my home. That's future you peace of mind and everyone can save on a brand new phone on MyPlan. When you trade in any phone from one of our top brands, that's new phone peace of mind. Because at Verizon, whether you're already a customer or you're just joining us, we got you. Visit Verizon today. Price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate. Additional terms and conditions apply for all offers.
- [04:08]
Roxane Gay
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- [04:30]
Unknown
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- [05:25]
Debbie Millman
Hi, I'm Debbie Millman. I'm a designer. I'm an author of eight books. My new book, Love Letter to a Garden, will be out shortly. I am the chair of the Master's in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, the editorial director of Print.com and the host of the long running podcast Design Matters.
- [05:46]
Chris Duffy
So, Debbie, I once took a workshop from you that was about how to have a great interview. And one of the secrets that you taught all of us was to make sure that your first question revealed deep research about the person, that it was surprising and not something that they get asked often, and that it made them laugh. So my first question to you is, does having taken your class and remembering your lessons count as a good first question?
- [06:10]
Debbie Millman
It's a great first question. It's actually awesome because I don't even know if I remember teaching the class.
- [06:16]
Chris Duffy
It was so helpful, genuinely. It was so fantastic. And, you know, you're so wonderful at interviewing, which I think is actually quite unusual for someone who has a really illustrious and big accomplished career of their own, that they're also really interested in other people and accomplishments.
- [06:37]
Debbie Millman
Oh, well, thank you for saying that. I would like to think that I've improved over the years. I have been doing this now for 20 years, and I feel that it is an acquired skill. The more you do it, the more you begin to understand how people respond to different kinds of questions, how humor is so helpful in creating rapport, and how showing deep respect with deep research is so appreciated and then in many ways rewarded because people become so engaged in sharing such meaningful conversation. And it's not opportunistic at all. It's really genuine. I am genuinely curious about people and I'm endlessly fascinated by how they've become who they are.
- [07:35]
Chris Duffy
I think that something that I've learned from you in listening to your podcast and in reading your books and hearing you talk, is how everything is design. In a way. Everything has a design to it. And I think it's fascinating to think about how there's the visual design, there's branding, there's all of that, but there's also the design of an interaction. A lot of what you've just described is putting thought into how can I design an interview or a conversation so that it goes better? And these are often places where we don't think about design at all. Do you think you landed on that naturally, or is that an outgrowth of.
- [08:09]
Debbie Millman
Your professional work I've discovered over the decades now that it's not really random in as much as it's been serendipitous how I've gotten to certain things. But I do think that the common denominator in everything that I do is a search for identity. In the branding work that I do, it's about the identity of a product or an organization or an institution or a movement. In my writing, it's trying to understand human behavior and motivation. And same with my illustration work. And in the podcast, it's a search for a person's identity through their origin story and their beliefs and the work that they make and create.
- [08:57]
Chris Duffy
That idea of finding the through line in your own work, I think that's something that people really struggle with, especially young people starting out in their careers. But what advice do you give people when they're trying to figure out what their thing is, what their brand or their self is?
- [09:14]
Debbie Millman
Okay, well, that's going in a very different direction because I don't believe that people should be working on their personal brand. I actually find that to be somewhat reprehensible and really the opposite of what I'm talking about. I'm talking about discovering soul and. And brands, by their very nature are created by humans. Brands are not self directed. We as humans have to direct them. And they don't have a soul and they don't bleed and breathe and have a heartbeat. Whatever we project onto them is our own construct. When people ask me about personal branding because I do so much work in branding, that's inevitably a question. And I've thought about it long and hard. And brands are manufactured. It's meaning. Manufactured. Humans are living, breathing entities. We're a species and we're messy and we change and evolve, or at least one would hope that we do. We grow. And brands are not self directed. They're only directed by humans. Some humans are better than others in that direction and in their intention. But what I suggest that humans work on is building their character and building their reputation and building their body of work. And doing those three things will help create or communicate really your Persona and your intentions and who you are. But once we start to position ourselves as a brand, first of all, it is about positioning. It is about creating a manufactured meaning. Then we begin to lose all the wonderful things that make us human. Now we can own brands, we can direct brands, we can manage brands, we can design brands. But the minute we begin to see ourselves as brands, we become a commodity. And I find that really unfortunate and a little Bit sad.
- [11:18]
Chris Duffy
I love that distinction and I've actually, I've never heard anyone else make it. And I've also never thought about it that way, but it really rings so true.
- [11:26]
Debbie Millman
Yeah, I mean, if I thought of myself as a brand, I would. And as a brand consultant, I would say to myself, well, doing so many different things actually dilutes your brand because it's gonna take a lot longer to master those different things and to create a reputation and a body of work. But that's my passion, is doing different things. I also would tell my podcast director, Moi, that having the name design matters after 20 years is probably a bit of a misnomer because you're doing a lot more talking to people about design. Given my expertise, I've sort of re engineered the meaning to be more about how the world's most creative people design the arc of their lives. But if I was starting out now, knowing what I'm doing and the kinds of interviews that I undertake, I would never have used that name. But I also know as a branding person that there's a lot of equity in it, and so I'm just hoping my audience goes along for the ride.
- [12:28]
Chris Duffy
I want to go deeper on the three things that you talked about. How can someone build their character in your mind?
- [12:35]
Debbie Millman
By working really hard to be as transparent about who they are as possible. By telling the truth, by showing up, by living up to your word. I think that those are very personal inner directives that shouldn't be done either opportunistically or for any other reason than just being, no pun intended here, a better human.
- [13:05]
Chris Duffy
And then what about reputation? I think that's also such an important piece of this too.
- [13:08]
Debbie Millman
See, a lot of these things are about consistency, about doing things in the way that you feel is true to what you believe in consistently. And if you do that over time, then the reputation building and the character building happens organically. It's not something that's positioned or done for a specific reaction or for a specific reward. It's just who you are and standing up for those beliefs, whether or not they're popular. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. But if you start to shift in the wind with popularity contests, then that's the opposite of building a character or a reputation. Now, all of this takes time. I would tell young people to have some patience, to have some patience on building their reputation and their character, because if they work too hard at coming out of the gate all fully formed, they're not going to have the opportunity to evolve and to Be able to move into different pathways all the time. I tell my students, don't get so caught up in what your portfolio looks like now, because there is absolutely no question in my mind that if you are a good designer, in five or 10 years, you're going to look back on that portfolio with horror and nostalgia and somewhat amusement. Because you want to be growing. You want to be better than you were 10 years ago. And to be able to see the growth is actually a great thing. It's a great accomplishment.
- [14:36]
Chris Duffy
That also ties into this, the third piece that you mentioned, which is having a body of work. It's really easy to not build a body of work or to not put work out there or create it because you're so worried about it being perfect or it being good enough that in 10 years it will stand up. But whereas I think everyone who I really respect as a creative person or an artist in any way, they get better by making things. They're not worried about each thing being perfect. It's the iterative process. It's not like the one golden statue that they've created.
- [15:04]
Debbie Millman
That's another thing my students often say is, well, I'll do this when I have more confidence. And I'm like, well, when do you think that's going to happen if you never actually try? Because the only way to get confidence is to do it successfully, repetitively. And if you don't start, you're never gonna have the opportunity to get to that success. So what are you waiting for?
- [15:29]
Chris Duffy
Speaking of waiting, we are actually gonna have to wait just a moment to get even more brilliance from Debbie, because we're gonna take a quick ad break and then we will be right back. Don't go anywhere.
- [15:45]
Unknown
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- [16:45]
Chris Duffy
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- [18:48]
Debbie Millman
Well, in many ways they're created for different purposes. Art that is in exchange for money. Now, I'm not talking about art that's hanging in a gallery that's offered for Sale. I'm talking about commissioned art, design, illustration that generally is done for a client with a creative brief or very specific directions on what is required. And I think that's great. And I love illustration. I think that especially satire right now is some of the most important creative work happening in our culture. Work for self healing tends to be more self directed. And as long as somebody is able to create something on their own terms, it's worthy and important and necessary as well. And then lastly, I think fine art is different in that your audience could be anyone, anyone. And it's about creating some type of visual language that's never existed before. I mean, the great artists examining the world through a new lens. And that's what I would imagine is the highest aspiration for any artist to examine the world through a new lens and share information about who we are or why we do the things that we do. Really trying to understand in its purest form, human motivation and expression and communication. And I think poetry does that too, actually, the best poetry. As for what I make, I just have a hard time seeing what I do as, you know, offering a new perspective on the world or a new way of thinking about something. In my interviews, I'm trying to give my guests an opportunity to do that, I guess, but I'm not the one doing it, so it's different.
- [21:04]
Chris Duffy
I completely disagree. I so see you as doing that as bringing a completely new perspective and a way to see the world. I think of that in everything that you do. I mean, I just think there is such a clear Debbie Millman vision for what art and what conversation looks like. And to me, that is such a work of art and it's so inspiring. So I really, I have to disagree and say there is a way that you look at the world that's different than other people.
- [21:29]
Debbie Millman
Well, thank you. Thank you. That means everything to me coming from you and I really, really thank you for that.
- [21:36]
Chris Duffy
Both of your TED talks, they start with this big history in science, right? Like we go back hundreds of thousands of years to when something is created. There is this thread in a lot of your work that is thinking about the specific and the personal in placement in relative scale, right? Like in the scale of the universe or in scale of nature. So I'm curious if you could tell us a little bit about why understanding our relative place in the world matters so much to you.
- [22:05]
Debbie Millman
Thank you for noticing that about my work. I am, in another lifetime, I would have loved to have been an astrophysicist, a theoretical astrophysicist. To be specific. But I have, and I'm very willing to admit this and recognize this at a very early age. Absolutely no mind for math.
- [22:30]
Chris Duffy
Same.
- [22:30]
Debbie Millman
I spend inordinate amount of time thinking about how the universe was created. Where did the hydrogen and the helium come from? Do black holes come out the other side and create other universes? I mean, I can't even begin to tell you. I have subscriptions to so many science podcasts and science sites, and I just spend a lot of time wondering. And so in the same way that I sort of go back to the very beginning of a person's life in my podcast, I am just obsessed with origin stories and understanding how we all got here, as well as understanding how an individual got here.
- [23:14]
Chris Duffy
That's a really interesting thread that you've been pulling on for many, many years. And to connect it to your latest work, this book that's coming out, I'm wondering what are some of the ways in which a garden has made you think differently about origins or endings? Because when I work with plants, sometimes it's like it seems like it's dead and then it comes back, or it seems like it hasn't started and it actually has. So how have you thought about origins.
- [23:39]
Debbie Millman
In your own well, I have always had a relationship with nature ever since I can remember. I was always happier when I was around trees and meadows and lots of different greenery. My family had a house in the Catskills for a very long time. I went to summer camps all through my childhood in the Catskills as well. And as I became an adult and started living in more urban places, always tried to have a little tiny piece of outdoors, whether it be a deck or a terrace or an actual backyard, and spent from my 20s to my 50s trying to have some sort of garden without really having any success, truly any success. I was just ill equipped to manage soil and sun and ph and all sorts of things that, you know, you have to think about. I just wanted a garden. So I planted things and hoped they'd grow. And, you know, when you plant roses in a shady environment, they're not gonna thrive. Then during COVID at that point, I had gotten engaged to my now wife and she had a house in Los Angeles and I had a place in New York City. And we decided during COVID that we would stay at her house because we'd have a car and an ability to be able to travel more, get out of just sort of the house. And I started to turn her backyard into a garden. And suddenly, because I was there every day. And it's a beautiful environment to have a garden. It's nice and warm and very consistent in the weather that I was able to actually have success for the first time and was able to grow vegetables and flowers and shrubs and even a lemon tree. And so I began to think quite a lot about the way in which plants grow and then go into hibernation and then come back, you know, perennials, annuals. And I became really fascinated by how a seed can turn into everything, into a life system. And I started posting some of my adventures in gardening on Instagram. And I think Chi Perlman saw what I was doing. My dear friend Chi, and because she does a lot of work with Ted and is a chief curator, she asked me if I'd be interested in doing some interstitials the year that Ted went completely online. And I decided that one of those would be about gardening. And between that and seeing a piece that I did for a far magazine on my expedition to Antarctica in search of a total eclipse of the sun, Timber Press, which is an arm of Hachette, reached out and asked me if I'd be interested in writing this book about gardening. And I said, well, if I wrote a book about gardening, gardeners would roll their eyes and kind of laugh, like Snoopy, you know, because I am by no means an accomplished gardener. I am at the very beginning of my journey with a teeny weeny bit of success. And by success, I mean like a salad. Like, I grew everything that went into a salad. And they actually were interested in that angle. And so that's what I did. But it's very much about learning how to do something for the first time or overcoming many, many obstacles, whether self imposed or real, and then having a modicum of success that I could celebrate.
- [27:53]
Chris Duffy
So many of the topics that have come up in this conversation already are also reflected in nature and in plants and in gardening. Right. The idea of patience, the idea that when you're working, like with a tree, you have to prune away excess. This idea of avoiding extremes, right? It has to be not too sunny, but not too shady. This idea that there's this impossibility, perfection. These are all things that you find in gardening as well as in all the other places we've been talking about it.
- [28:19]
Debbie Millman
Absolutely. And then the rebirth. I walked outside of my apartment today and my neighbor has a hydrangea, large hydrangea, in front of their house. And the buds are out. The buds are out. And I find that to be miraculous that this plant grows these gorgeous flowers and they last for a really long time and then they fall off and go to sleep and. And then somehow, because of some change in temperature, because of some way the sun hits it. Who knows? Exactly. I'm sure people do, but I don't. There they come back again.
- [28:59]
Chris Duffy
We are also going to return in just a moment right after these ads. This episode is sponsored by Wild Alaskan company. You know, I try to be thoughtful about what I eat. I want to eat things that are good for me and good for the planet. But sometimes it can be really hard to figure that out. And a seafood I think is especially tricky, right? Like where is your fish coming from? Is it actually good or bad? I've never quite known the answers until I found Wild Alaskan Company. They send me a box straight from Alaska. The fish is wild. And also it comes packed with dry ice, which is so fun because then when I put it in the sink, I feel like I'm a wizard where like smoke is coming out of my sink and I'm like delicious seafood and a magic trick. How does it get better than that? Well, the answer is that Wild Alaskan company delivers wild caught seafood straight to my door. That means no antibiotics, no weird stuff going on, just nutrient rich, clean fish like coho salmon and Pacific halibut right off the boat to lock in taste and texture. And they're committed to responsible harvesting. Each box supports healthy oceans and fishing communities. So you're not just getting a better dinner, you're making a better decision. They offer flexible delivery, expert cooking tips, and a 100% money back guarantee. If you're not completely satisfied with your first box. No risk, just real high quality seafood. Not all fish are the same. Get seafood you can Trust. Go to wildalaskan.com betterhuman for $35 off your first box of premium wild caught seafood. That's wildalaskan.com betterHuman for $35 off your first order. Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this episode. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp's podcast Mind if We Talk? How do we cope with grief and loss? It's something that we're all going to have to face one day. And despite this being a universal experience, it's not something that we're taught to address. That's why BetterHelp teamed up with licensed therapist Hae Soo Jo to create Mind if We Talk, a new podcast that demystifies what therapy is really about. In each episode, you'll hear guests talk about common struggles that we all face. Like living with grief, anxiety, managing anger and more. Then he soo breaks it all down with a fellow mental health professional to give you actionable tips that you can apply to your own life. For me, one of the most important parts of therapy has been just learning some strategies and techniques that I can try out to see what works and what's cool about this podcast is you get to hear mental health professionals talking it through with each other and sharing some of the tips that they would maybe suggest in a given situation. Mind if We Talk? Is here to remind you that whatever you're going through, you're never alone. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
- [31:40]
Roxane Gay
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- [32:16]
Chris Duffy
And we are back. We're talking with Debbie Millman about how to design the arc of your life and how to find your own way to make art. I know that I have been really inspired by and I know that many people when I talk to them about you and your work, are really inspired by the ways in you have taken things that are awful and painful and bad and found beauty and joy and love and connection. Despite those things.
- [32:42]
Debbie Millman
I do a lot of work and I'm on the board of the Joyful Heart foundation, which is Mariska Hargitay's foundation. She started after starring in Law and SVU over 20 years ago. Now the show is 26 years old, but she started Joyful Heart about a little over 20 years ago.
- [32:59]
Chris Duffy
And just for people who aren't already familiar, the Joyful Heart foundation. The mission is to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues. And you are on the board.
- [33:15]
Debbie Millman
Being on the board helped me make my life make sense. I had been severely abused as a young girl by my stepfather and spent a lot of years in shame and pain and secrecy. And then when I had the opportunity through a friend to work on developing the no More Movement, I had the opportunity then to be introduced to Mariska. And then Mariska asked Me if I'd be interested in being on the board and then if I'd ultimately become chair of the board, which I did for five years, I'll be on the board for the rest of my life. But I was chair for five years. Given my background in branding and positioning, it felt very much like these two disparate experiences and knowledge of could come together in a way to try to help eradicate sexual violence in our culture, eradicate the rape kit backlog, which is what we were spending a lot of time and effort doing at that time, and really try to provide a way for people to feel safer about disclosing their own abuse, mistreatment and so forth. The amount of people that have reached out that I've been able to point in different directions for their own either disclosure or help or support has been remarkable and once again helps me feel like something really terrible that happened. I've been able to use that as a way to help others and then work on my own healing in the process.
- [35:01]
Chris Duffy
Something that I always feel like is a really important distinction to make too is there's this really very common but also kind of awful idea of like, oh, there's a silver lining in every cloud. I completely disagree. Some stuff is just, just shitty.
- [35:18]
Debbie Millman
Yeah.
- [35:18]
Chris Duffy
But there is this different separate. And I see why sometimes people get confused idea which is that terrible things can happen and there can still be beauty. It's not like it required the terrible thing. But that doesn't mean that like there can't be beauty and joy right there. It's not now you're forever, your life is forever one way.
- [35:37]
Debbie Millman
You know, I thought a lot about what my life would have been like if these terrible things hadn't happened because there were several sort of cumulative things in addition to the sexual abuse. And it's very hard for me to know what that would have been like. Maybe I wouldn't have had as much drive as I do. Maybe I would feel okay as is. Maybe I'd have an ordinary life. Maybe. It's hard to say. It's really hard to say. And Seth Godin and I have talked about this quite a bit. You know, people like to ask the question, you know, what would you tell your 30 year old self? And Seth once said to me, nothing. Because if I told them anything that changed where I am right now, then I wouldn't want to risk it. And I kind of feel the same way now. I mean, yes, I'd love to have, I'd love to be exactly who I am now with a Little bit less self loathing and shame, which I'm still working on every day. But other than that, I'm married to the greatest person in the world. I do some of the most interesting things that I could imagine and I'm still not done. I kind of just have to be grateful for that.
- [36:50]
Chris Duffy
There's a frequent myth in creativity that you have to be a tortured artist, that suffering, the more you suffer, the more your creativity will blossom. And it seems like from what you're saying and from this conversation, that your most creative, your most flourishing periods have come when you've actually done more healing, that you've gotten rid of some of that suffering and been able to be more creative. Is that true or is there a connection between your well being and your living a creative life?
- [37:18]
Debbie Millman
I do think there is. I do think that one of the best pieces I've ever made from an art perspective came at a moment when I felt very, very down. It's hard because I'm like, can I? Should I get that energy back? I don't want that energy, but I really love that piece. It had a lot of energy in it. On the other hand, I think about what Elizabeth Gilbert says in I Believe her TED Talk about feeling like your best creativity comes from when you're fully relaxed into that creativity where you're doing the work every day and you sort of let the muse come through you and you're open to it. And there is, I think, a bit of both. I do know that when I'm drawing, I have to go through a period of torture with what I'm doing before I get to ease. And I know when my work is tortured and it's dreadful, it's gruesome, and then if I get to a point of ease, there's a certain, I guess, for lack of a better term, flow state, almost effortlessness that comes into doing the work. And that's my holy grail. Now it's not a matter of being happy or unhappy because that flow state could actually come, you know, I guess it's like endorphins when you're doing, when you're working out, you have to get to a certain point for that to happen. You don't start doing something and then the endorphins come. Takes quite a while. For me, it's only happened a few times in my life, so I can only rely on those experiences to know they even actually exist. But they come after a lot of struggle. And I would say the same thing happens for me with art. And I can Tell. I'm like, that's tortured and that's free. That's. That's easy.
- [39:17]
Chris Duffy
What was the piece that you said that was, like, one of the best things you've ever made?
- [39:21]
Debbie Millman
Part of it is on the COVID of my book, Self Portrait as yous Traitor. And so it was about my feeling at the time that I was being utterly duplicitous and how angry and sad and down and depressed I was inwardly. And then trying to be cool girl, to use a Gillian Flynn term from Gone Girl. You know, being the cool girl and pretending that nothing mattered. And I was in my studio and just created this piece called Self Portrait as yous Traitor. Self Portrait as a Liar, Debbie Millman, once again, being duplicitous. You know, that was the text all through it. And I just love that piece. I mean, it's one of the most honest pieces I've ever done. But I also did it, like, 30 years ago. I did it in the 90s.
- [40:13]
Chris Duffy
Well, it's also interesting to talk about that piece and the process because I've kind of used the word art, like, lowercase a in a broader way. And you've really thought about art as, like, capital A art. Like, it's not just like a broad category for you. It is a thing that is worth being respected and taken quite seriously.
- [40:35]
Debbie Millman
I agree 100%. And Roxanne and I, My wife Roxane Gay, has. We have. We have, like, quabbles over this. Is that a word? Quabbles? Squabbles.
- [40:44]
Chris Duffy
I like quabbles. Quabbles feels right. That's a loving.
- [40:49]
Debbie Millman
She thinks that I'm an artist. I think I'm an illustrator and a designer. So, yes, I do feel like there is a big difference. And I mean, I said I'm an artist, but I said it in a lowercase way. I did not say it in an uppercase way. And that's a very important distinction in the way I consider my own work, my own body of work.
- [41:07]
Chris Duffy
What would it mean to be a capital A artist? What would it take for you to become a capital A artist in your own mind?
- [41:14]
Debbie Millman
To be much better at what I do, to have something to say through the work, to start a quest to create something original. I tend to love conceptual work, so I'd need to find a conceptual idea that I would want to explore and investigate. And I'd have to learn a lot more, I think, which doesn't mean it's not possible. It's just quite a big commitment and an agreement with myself on What I would need to do to do it. I don't know that I could become an artist, capital A artist, and still do all the other things that I do. I'm lucky that I've fallen into the work that I have as a podcaster, as an educator, as a brand consultant, mostly because I've just done them for so damn long. I'm lucky I actually got better at all of them. I think capital A art is different.
- [42:18]
Chris Duffy
Is that a standard that. That standard that you've just described? It's a really high bar. Do you hold other creative people in your life to that bar?
- [42:26]
Debbie Millman
Well, I know a number of other people at that bar. Like, they are considered some of the best in the world. I mean, you can tell when somebody is just at the very, very top of their talent. And I mean, I just interviewed John Batiste. I mean, he is a genius. He is a genius. He is a genius. And there's no one else like him. No one that is capital A R T, I S T artist. And when you are beholding that, you know it, you know it. They are the best. That's what I'm really talking about. When you have a completely original, imaginative mind.
- [43:18]
Chris Duffy
That, to me, is also the trait that I see in all of the. Really, all of the people that I admire the most is that ideally you would have this without the. And I'm not saying you specifically, you generally, ideally, you would have that. That desire to raise the bar without the critiquing yourself overly harshly. But I think the. The idea that, like, I'm not just going to coast, I'm always striving for something more. Those are the people that I respect the most who. That, you know, they're in their 80s and 90s, and they're still making new work, and they're still looking for something different in themselves and in their community. I think the quest is really the. I'm so much more inspired by people who are trying than by having accomplished.
- [43:58]
Debbie Millman
Absolutely, Absolutely. And to bring it all the way back to my gardening effort, that's part of why I also love it so much. You know, you can see. I mean, this is gonna be very corny, but you see growth, you see there's evidence of growth. It's amazing.
- [44:17]
Chris Duffy
Well, Debbie Millman, thank you so much for being on the show. It truly has been an absolute honor talking to you, and I couldn't admire you more. Thank you for being here.
- [44:25]
Debbie Millman
Thank you, Chris. Now we have to do part two on my podcast.
- [44:28]
Chris Duffy
Oh, okay. Well, the stakes are the bar is really high. That is it for this episode of how to Be a Better Human. Thank you so much to today's guest, Debbie Millman. Her latest book is called Love Letter to a Garden and she's the host of the fantastic Design Matters podcast. I am your host Chris Duffy and you can find more from me, including my weekly newsletter and other projects@chrisduffycomedy.com how to be a Better Human is put together by a team of audio gardeners helping us to all grow and flourish on the TED side Inside, we've got the thoughtful pruning of Daniela Valorezzo, Banban Chang, Michelle Quint, Chloe Shasha, Brooks, Valentina Bohanini, Lainey Lott, Tanzika Sunbanivong, Antonia Ley and Joseph de Bruyne. This episode was fact checked by Julia Dickerson and Mattea Salas, who know that a good podcast can only grow in accurate soil. On the PRX side, they are a team of audio design mavens with a killer fashion sense, Morgan Flannery, Norgill, Patrick Grant and Jocelyn Gonzales. Thanks again to you for listening. We would not have a show if it wasn't for you. Please help us spread the word. Please share this episode with a person who you want to keep in the creative arc of your life, whatever that means to you. We will be back next week with even more how to Be a Better Human. Until then, take care and thanks again for listening.
- [45:51]
Roxane Gay
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- [46:59]
Chris Duffy
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- [47:01]
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