Explore every episode of the podcast Doom and Bloom

Doom & Bloom cuts through the noise to the heart of design and climate action

Our future is undecided—how will we use our collective imagination to design a better world for all?

Through unfiltered conversations, we unpack today's challenges through the lens of creativity and possibility to motivate designers to take meaningful action.

Explore bold, innovative ideas that shift away from the current paradigm towards a regenerative future.

Why are we still gatekeeping designs? Why do we prioritize competition over collaboration? Why do we assume we have all the answers before asking others? 

On the latest episode of Doom & Bloom, Marc O’Brien and Rachel Cellinese use the Thinknado process to question reality and dismantle outdated mindsets that keep design isolated and exclusive.

The conversation embraces open-source design and rejects the idea that ownership matters more than impact. When design moves beyond individual pursuits and into collective creation, new possibilities emerge. It’s time we build networks that connect designers, farmers, biologists, and organizers to co-create meaningful solutions. 

You’ll hear Marc and Rachel challenge designers to step outside their silos, forge unexpected alliances, and develop impact-driven innovations that uplift entire communities. Remember, collaboration over competition.

Why isn’t sustainability at the core of every project? Why are people still asking what sustainability even means? And why isn’t it baked into our education system? These communication gaps are holding us back—but what if we flipped the script?

On this episode of Doom and Bloom, host Marc O’Brien and guest Brian Stancheski explore how we can get more people excited about climate solutions.

What if we marketed sustainability like the latest tech drop—sexy, desirable, and impossible to ignore? Together, they use the two-word mash up "jolly & sand", to brainstorm bold ideas like sustainability beach festivals, viral campaigns, and immersive experiences that make climate solutions unforgettable. From influencers to massive beach cleanups, they explore ways to turn sustainability into a movement that can’t be overlooked.

It’s time to think bigger, take action, and make sustainability the main event.

In the first episode of Doom and Bloom, Marc O’Brien sits down with John Bielenberg and Brandt Williams, the masterminds behind Thinknado, to dismantle the predictable thinking that’s keeping us stuck. It’s time to flip the script and ask the hard questions: Is our way of thinking broken? Why do we settle for the status-quo? And most importantly, how do we unleash the creative potential we all have but rarely tap into?

We sit down with design educator Stevie Bales to tackle a big question: How can designers nudge decision makers toward climate action? We unpack why decision makers should be seen as people, just like us, who need to understand climate issues, why values shouldn’t be separated from everyday choices, and why companies get away with “values” that sound good but rarely guide their actions.

Stevie shares fresh ideas for how designers can live their values—through visible iconography, intentional design choices, and bold public statements. We imagine a system where designers define who they are, create work that reflects those values, and spark change in their communities. This conversation is about making climate values not just a statement, but a standard… one design, one action, and one conversation at a time.

In this episode of Doom and Bloom, Eric Benson and Marc O’Brien join us to ask some big questions: Why is climate being erased from federal budgets? Why is climate literacy still an elective in design schools and not a required course? And why are we preparing students for AI but not for the climate crisis?

We explore the uncertainty of our current political moment and the urgent need to embed climate education into the foundation of every design program. Eric and Marc also explore a bold vision for the future—transforming unused office buildings or local restaurants into pop-up co-learning hubs where designers, students, and communities come together to collaborate, learn, and act.

From rethinking how we teach design to reimagining where learning happens, this conversation is a call for creativity, community, and radical inclusion in the face of climate change.

In this special episode recorded live during San Francisco Climate Week, Marc O’Brien and Katie Patrick dig into why we’re stuck in a doom-heavy narrative—and what it’ll take to design for the future we actually want. From breaking down the “value-action gap” to calling out the overreliance on financial incentives and education as motivators, Katie challenges us to rewire how we think about change. This is a conversation about systems, behavior, and possibility. About moving beyond facts and fear. About shifting from problem-obsession to solution momentum. Maybe it’s time to rethink everything.

Together, they explore a playful prompt that sparks fresh ideas about reconnecting with nature, community, and each other. From imagining a “Pug Cafe” to considering the role animals could play in urban sustainability and healing social divides, they reveal how warmth, creativity, and unexpected connections might be the keys to building climate resiliency and bridging polarized communities.

This episode blends thoughtful critique with hopeful dreaming, inviting listeners to reimagine what’s possible when design, empathy, and a touch of whimsy come together.

In this episode of Doom & Bloom, we’re joined by UX/UI designer and New Wave researcher Zoe to unpack a big question: why have designers become so focused on short-term results? From tight job markets to pressure from profit-driven industries, many designers are racing to deliver—often at the expense of long-term thinking, community impact, and climate considerations.

Together, we explore what it means to design with integrity: to center people over products, to tell honest stories, and to hold space for uncertainty. We imagine new ways forward—from lecture series that connect designers with impacted communities to meditation tools that help designers tap into their human voice.

This conversation is an invitation to slow down, reflect, and reimagine design not just as a skill—but as a responsibility. What if “I don’t know” was a strength? What if we valued process over perfection? And what if design started with listening?

What if sustainability isn’t the selling point? In this episode, we sit down with Carly Schonberg, NYC Chapter Leader and product designer leading a renewable energy company, to dig into the uncomfortable truth: climate isn’t always the top motivator for business. Her work shows that when renewable energy is framed as solving real problems (financial, operational, human) it becomes impossible to ignore.

Marc and Carly get into why design isn’t just pixels on a screen, but the bridge between problems and solutions. Designers decide how people interact with a product, how it functions, and most importantly, why people care. Carly challenges the status quo: Why is design treated as an afterthought in climate companies? Why aren’t we rethinking “best practices” when the stakes are this high?

From behavioral science to primitive needs, the two unpack how design can shake things up, help us communicate better, and move people toward change without ever once mentioning “sustainability.” The takeaway? If you want people to act, meet them at their pain points, not your ideals.

Homework for listeners: try to sell a sustainable product without using the word “sustainable.”

Join the Doom & Bloom team for the final episode of Season 1 as they look back on everything, from Jolly Sand to Unlikely Peaches to Gorilla Hard and beyond. The crew digs into key ideas, challenges, and takeaways, pushing some frameworks even further with their own raw interpretations. Then, in true Doom & Bloom style, they turn the mic on themselves for a full-on Thinknado process, brainstorming what Season 2 could become. It’s unfiltered, reflective, and full of possibility.

We are back with a new season of Doom & Bloom!

This time, we're unpacking how designers can shift the culture within the design industry.

We all know designers want to make their work more climate positive, but too often this desire is met with resistance or roadblocks. Transforming the entire design industry starts with changing the culture where designers work.

This season, we'll tap back into the Thinknado process to brainstorm ways to make climate action the default at any studio or company. We're inviting professionals in and outside of the design industry to help us crack the code on changing design culture from the inside out.

In season two of Doom & Bloom we’re focusing on how designers can shift the culture within the design industry to prioritize climate-forward design decisions.

We kicked off the new season during San Francisco Climate Week, interviewing Dr. Renee Lertzman, climate psychologist and strategist.

Listen to Renee and Marc discuss the gap between how much designers care about climate and how little they're actually able to integrate it into their work and why the usual moves (educating, persuading, making the case harder) don’t work. They also explored how shifting from “yell, tell, sell” to attunement and guiding can help designers actually move culture inside their organizations.

In episode two, we talk to Drew Wilkinson, former Microsoft employee who turned a two-person sustainability group into a ten-thousand-person climate movement inside the company. We get into why sustainability dies the second it becomes a checkbox at the end of a project and where the real creative decisions happen.

Drew breaks down his “buffet” approach to getting a whole company on board, not just the one person who cares. Why that person (the designer who feels like the only one) is really never alone. And why courage might be the best trait we need in changing the culture within our work places.