Podcast Summary

TED Talks Daily: Sunday Pick – Design Matters 20th Anniversary with Eileen Myles, Elizabeth Alexander, Sarah Kay, and Amber Tamblyn

Original Air Date: March 22, 2026
Host: Debbie Millman (Design Matters) | Shared on TED Talks Daily
Guests: Eileen Myles, Elizabeth Alexander, Sarah Kay, Amber Tamblyn

Episode Overview

In celebration of Design Matters' 20th anniversary and for World Poetry Day, this special episode compiles memorable interviews with four renowned poets: Eileen Myles, Elizabeth Alexander, Sarah Kay, and Amber Tamblyn. Each poet discusses their personal journey, the role of poetry in shaping identity and memory, and how language can bridge the personal and universal. The episode includes live poetry readings, moving reflections, and candid conversations about art, discipline, vulnerability, and the many intersections of creative practice.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Lived Practice of Poetry

[01:16–04:47] Eileen Myles (with Debbie Millman)

• What Does a Poet Do?
  • Eileen Myles describes poetry as "a very ordinary but, like, very necessary and sort of completely surreal and phenomenal job."
  • Myles likens poets to "professional human[s]" – people who chronicle and narrate the epic and everyday through their unique gaze.

"Part of what's interesting about being a poet is that nobody knows, you know, that it's sort of like what people don't get is that it's almost like you're like a professional human." – Eileen Myles [03:31]

• Finding Community & Identity
  • Myles recounts their move to NYC and the serendipity of meeting poet Paul Violi, which became a gateway into the vibrant, plural poetry communities of the 1970s.
  • On labels, Myles prefers "folk poet" over "New York School," aiming for more vernacular, less "precious" art. [06:10–06:33]

"Maybe even more vernacular. I mean, even the New York school is kind of precious and, like, we're about art, you know, And I want that to be less true." – Eileen Myles [06:20]

• Translation & Reinvention

  • Myles discusses translating styles and realities across gender and sexuality, and how they've worked to bring "more lesbian content into the mainstream." [06:52–07:32]

• On Ginsberg & 'Howl'

  • Myles praises Allen Ginsberg's sense of performance, publicity, and his blending of "ancient, incantatory" language with media savvy. The boxcars in 'Howl' evoke both movement and generational trauma.

"He was a poet very influenced by film, by tv, by the media. And he used the kind of ancient, incantatory way of poetry...Plus it carries…the part that people don't talk about…is they don't talk about its relationship to the Holocaust." – Eileen Myles [08:03]

2. Form, Discipline, and Memory in Poetic Craft

[14:24–28:11] Elizabeth Alexander (with Debbie Millman)

• The Role of Discipline
  • Alexander credits ballet and dance training with instilling discipline as a writer, noting that the devotion—beyond talent—is crucial to true artistry.

"Finding a discipline. Discipline is. Discipline is discipline." – Elizabeth Alexander [15:59]

• Personal & Universal Truth
  • Reflects on her autobiographical poem "Tina Green," showing how specific stories create universal resonance, especially around identity and race.

"I believe poems more Than any I believe anything actually, really. Or once I've made something, I believe it more than what happened because it's fixed. Perhaps, maybe." – Elizabeth Alexander [17:57]

• Mentorship and Becoming a Poet
  • Alexander shares how Derek Walcott, upon reading her diary, encouraged her to see poetry in her word clouds, emphasizing organic lineation and letting the poem "find its shape."

"You start to catch a rhythm...this is the amount. And then you say, all right, let me, in this next line, let me follow that amount." – Elizabeth Alexander [24:36]

• Alienation & Belonging
  • In her poem “Boston,” Alexander captures her isolating experience as a Black woman in a changing city, juxtaposed with moments of hospitality and loss.

3. Performance, Vulnerability, and Public Voice in Poetry

[28:31–42:05] Sarah Kay (with Debbie Millman)

• Poetry as Response to the Universe
  • Kay unpacks her poem, "The universe has already written the poem you were planning on writing," inspired by both awe-inspiring natural phenomena (starling murmurations, blue whale hearts) and the realization that poets "hold something to the light" rather than invent ex nihilo.

"Maybe it just means that it's my turn to hold something to the light for a moment and consider it for whatever time I have." – Sarah Kay [31:45]

• Originality and Influence

  • Discusses coming to terms with the impossibility of true originality and the importance of adding one’s own voice.

• Slam Poetry and Finding Community

  • Tells the story of being anonymously signed up for a poetry slam at 14, and finding power and belonging through performance in the aftermath of 9/11. Poetry became both therapy and communion for her.

"For the first time as a 14 year old girl that I felt like a room full of people were listening to me and saw me...in some ways it felt like the whole room was communicating. There is room for you here and I don't think I've ever forgotten that." – Sarah Kay [37:17]

• Resilience Amid Trauma
  • Reads "The Places We Are Not," a poem that weaves personal and global loss, articulating the repetitive grief and longing for connection in a violent world.

4. Poetry as Identity and Self-Reclamation

[42:05–55:44] Amber Tamblyn (with Debbie Millman)

• From Actress to Poet
  • Tamblyn reflects on balancing fame from acting with her deeply private and longstanding life as a poet. She describes poetry as a space of full creative control versus the collaborative, sometimes disempowering nature of acting.

"Poetry was a third parent. Poetry was a guardian. It was a way for me to reflect on those experiences and be able to put on the page the feelings that I had." – Amber Tamblyn [46:33]

• On Being Taken Seriously

  • She notes the skepticism faced by actors who are also writers, and recounts the validation she received when Roxane Gay published her poem about Brittany Murphy.

• Metaphorical Death and Reinvention

  • Tamblyn discusses her collection "Dark Sparkler" as a reckoning with her industry and self, chronicling not just famous deaths but personal transformation and release of past identities.

"There was an entire part of myself that was dying that was...not being given an opportunity to...thrive and to become more. And that book was a direct...moment for me to...let those things be talked about on a page and to be able to see them." – Amber Tamblyn [51:33]

• Reading: 'Brittany Murphy'
  • An unflinching meditation on celebrity, loss, and media, Tamblyn’s reading underscores the haunting and brutal intimacy poetry can provide.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

On the DNA of Art:

"In the DNA of everything you write is everything else you're ever gonna write."
— Eileen Myles [01:09, 11:05]

On Poetry as Translation:

"Once you put pen to paper or start typing...on some level, you're lying...it isn't the thing. It's a symbol of the thing."
— Eileen Myles [12:07]

On the Universality in Personal Stories:

"[Art] always comes from a very particular place. And then we find ourselves in it in some kind of way."
— Elizabeth Alexander [19:52]

On the Performance of Belonging:

"Anytime I'm in a room where people have come to listen to me speak, I never take for granted what a gift that is and what it means that people communicate to me that there is room for me here."
— Sarah Kay [37:17]

On the Liberation of Writing:

"For me, at least, if I failed by it, I was failing by 100% of my own self expression, as opposed to 50% of an expression that was part of me that still might fail anyway."
— Amber Tamblyn [49:34]

Notable Poetry Readings & Context

• Eileen Myles:

  • "Rampant Muse" from I Must Be Living Twice [12:25–13:50]

• Elizabeth Alexander:

  • "Tina Green" from American Sublime [17:27–19:34]
  • "Boston" from The Venus Hottentot [25:41–27:59]

• Sarah Kay:

  • "The Universe Has Already Written the Poem You Were Planning on Writing" [28:31–30:17]
  • "The Places We Are Not" [39:22–42:05]

• Amber Tamblyn:

  • "Brittany Murphy" from Dark Sparkler [54:29–55:44]

Section Timestamps

• Opening Context & Theme: [00:04–01:16]
• Eileen Myles Interview & Reading: [01:16–13:50]
• Elizabeth Alexander Interview & Readings: [14:24–28:11]
• Sarah Kay Interview & Poems: [28:31–42:05]
• Amber Tamblyn Interview & Reading: [42:05–55:44]

Final Reflection

This anniversary episode is a luminous tribute to the vitality of poetry and its power to make sense of lived experience. Through honest stories, lived vulnerability, and the sharing of art on the air, these poets demonstrate poetry’s uncanny ability to both witness and transform. Listeners gain not just insight into the creative life but into the indelible mark poetry leaves on memory, identity, and community.