It’s Clever’s 10th anniversary! We’re celebrating by honoring some of the amazing stories we’ve collected over the years. Our guests have continued to make meaningful contributions to the world since we had our initial conversations, be sure to subscribe to our Substack to catch up on some of their recent news!

Ep. 213: The Quiet Rebellion of Biodesigner Natsai Audrey Chieza - Natsai Audrey Chieza spent her youth in Zimbabwe in a close-knit extended family where she and her cousins were “in each others’ pockets.” In her teenage years the national economy crashed, necessitating a family relocation to the UK, and she began learning the skill of “not belonging.” Architecture studies proved alienating so she found a way to combine them with her love of fashion (to the consternation of her professors.) Rejecting the prescribed path of a professional architect, she instead pursued a postgraduate program in Material Futures that set her on a path of designing with bacteria. Now, she’s founded Faber Futures, a biodesign studio, and Normal Phenomena of Life, an artful lifestyle and fashion brand that also functions as a working prototype of a new model bioeconomy. She’s spent her whole life quietly not doing what was expected of her, and in this space of outsiderness she’s been very busy creating new paradigms for how we might collaborate with nature and new models for the equitable stewardship of these new biotechnologies. So, in terms of cultural infrastructure, she is an architect after all! 

Images and more from Natsai Audrey Chieza on our website!

Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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It’s Clever’s 10th anniversary! We’re celebrating by honoring some of the amazing stories we’ve collected over the years. We’re kicking off the party with a rewind of our very first episode! Joe Doucet has continued to make meaningful contributions to the built environment since we had this conversation, be sure to subscribe to our Substack to catch up on some of his recent works!

New York-based multi-disciplinary designer, Joe Doucet, tells Amy and Jaime why he doesn’t start any project with sketching, how a pair of avant-garde headphones caught the attention of Lady Gaga, and how he cross-trains his brain. 

Images and more from Joe Doucet on our website!

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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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Special thanks to our sponsors!

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• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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Curator Alyssa Velazquez grew up with theater as her first form of community—a foundation that continues to shape her curatorial work. Her current exhibition at Center for Craft, Craft-itarianism: Community Action Through Craft, explores how craft can add joy, distribute resources, and foster community among at-risk and marginalized people. Velazquez brings a unique interdisciplinary approach to her curatorial practice at Carnegie Museum of Art, pulling from past work in art preservation, acting, and scenic design. Alyssa teaches us that the act of making can form resource generation within communities that need life-affirming support, and that craft methodologies—from job training to art therapy to social enterprise—can be applied to create meaningful social change.

Images and more from Alyssa Velazquez on our website!

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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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Special thanks to our sponsors!

• Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.
• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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Julia Watson, a landscape architect, author, and educator, developed a passion for global cultures and knowledge as a child in Australia, inspired by her parents' National Geographic collection. She has since dedicated her career to exploring traditional knowledge systems and their application to contemporary design challenges like extreme weather, waste management, and population growth.

At the heart of Watson's work is a profound respect for indigenous knowledge systems and a commitment to applying Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to climate-adaptive design. Through her work with Lo-TEK, including the recently launched Lo-TEK Office for Intercultural Urbanism, and her books, Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism and the upcoming Lo-TEK Water (November 30 release), she strives to facilitate the equitable exchange and implementation of indigenous knowledge and technology to the crucial and complex challenges of our evolving world.

Images, links and more from Julia Watson on our website!

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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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Special thanks to our sponsors!

• Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.
• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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Designer Liz Ogbu grew up in Oakland as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, but it wasn’t until her first trip to Nigeria at 16 that she grasped the profound role place, family, and cultural context play in shaping who we are—and what we create. Drawn to the creative possibilities of architecture, she studied both architecture and engineering before traveling across Africa on a Watson Fellowship, an experience that sharpened her understanding of who her work is ultimately for: the people most impacted by design.

Today, Liz is catalyzing what design can do—in transforming informal marketplaces, helping communities heal after being fractured by freeways, and weaving practices of grief, accountability, and repair into the built environment. Her work transcends traditional architecture, centering the excavation of harm and the pursuit of more empathetic, community-rooted design at a moment when it’s needed more than ever. 

Images and more from Liz Ogbu on our website!

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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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Artist and designer Dennis Maher has spent decades exploring the life cycles of buildings. After studying architecture at Cornell, he moved to Buffalo, New York—where a job in demolition introduced him to the visceral reality of the built environment constantly breaking down and rebuilding itself.

That experience sparked a practice rooted in salvaged materials, forgotten objects, and the imaginative transformation of ordinary spaces. Maher’s work now spans sculptural installations, living environments, and his most ambitious project: The Assembly House, an evolving artwork housed inside a historic church that also serves as a training ground for the building arts.

Part immersive artwork, part cultural attraction, part educational engine, The Assembly House teaches people to build while reconnecting them to the tactile, communal experience of craft. Through what he calls “architectural dream worlds,” Maher explores how memory, materials, and imagination reshape the way we understand the spaces we inhabit—and the role we play in building them. 

Images and more from Dennis Maher on our website!

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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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Special thanks to our sponsors!

• Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.
• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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Oscar-winning costume designer Deborah L. Scott grew up sewing doll clothes, puppets, and getting swept up by the stories at the cinema. At 21 she went to work costuming show girls on the Vegas strip. Once in film, her adaptability, imagination, and resourcefulness carved a path that led to projects with Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, and onto sets of the biggest films of our time. 

Images, links and more from Deborah on cleverpodcast.com!

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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Rich Stroffolino, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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• Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.
• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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Public artist Michael Townsend grew up in a military family that relocated often—at least ten times during his childhood. He learned early how to explore new locales and seek out new friends before moving on to the next temporary hometown. His final relocation was to study art at RISD, when he chose Providence as home—and began quietly reshaping it. He founded the Tape Art movement in 1989 and built a thriving practice rooted in ephemeral public murals, deeply personal underground installations, and highly clandestine collaborations, including the now-legendary Secret Mall Apartment.

For more than 30 years, he has created hundreds of temporary murals and collaborative public works around the world, including the 9/11 Hope Project and the invention of the BOOM! Projector. Now, with the success of the Secret Mall Apartment documentary on Netflix, it’s clear that he and his collaborators were deeply intentional about incubating that narrative until it was ready to be heard.

Moving fluidly in and out of the shadows—showing up, making an impression, then dissolving underground only to emerge again—turns out Michael himself may be a work of ephemeral art.

Images and more from Michael Townsend on our website!

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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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Special thanks to our sponsors!

• Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.
• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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When her life collided with a high-profile murder trial, longtime true-crime devotee Stephanie Tinsley found an unexpected path into creative agency and advocacy. After a career in sales and private equity, everything shifted when her husband, attorney Mark Tinsley, was thrust into the spotlight during the Murdaugh murder trials. In this episode, she and Amy discuss the making of Everything They Missed, the inner resources she had to marshal to tell the story well, and why centering human dignity is her driving force in true-crime storytelling.

Images and more from Stephanie Tinsley on our website!

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Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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Special thanks to our sponsors!

• Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.
• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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Designer, craftsman, artist and educator, Norman Teague, grew up in Chicago absorbing the sounds, colors, textures and vibes of his “hood,” fancy cars, and Auntie Aretha’s painting. A highschool Drafting elective was his first real step into the design field, which he then traversed with aplomb through an MFA at SAIC, to the Venice Architecture Biennale, to MoMA, to the design team of the Obama Presidential Center. At the helm of his namesake design studio, he’s built a storied, critically acclaimed career, and a powerful legacy of challenging the design canon, cultural storytelling, and educating generations of future designers.

Images and more from Norman Teague on our website!

Special thanks to our sponsor: Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.

Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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Special thanks to our sponsors!

• Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.
• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

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Chief Creative Officer of Bruce Mau Design, Laura Stein grew up on Nun’s Island outside of Montreal, a near utopia where kids never had to cross the street. Her psychiatrist father and museum-involved mother cultivated curiosity about emotions, critical thinking, and the arts. A move to Texas in her teens resulted in quite a culture shock. Laura found an innate knack for peer reviews and analysis, which became a strength throughout the rest of her academic and professional career. Originally graduating with a degree in English, she returned to school to study art, where she found not only her community, but her band mates. From there, it was a wild ride - record signing (Sub Pop,) touring, and navigating all the ups and downs of being in a girl band in the ‘90s – the ultimate creative boot camp. Now in leadership at Bruce Mau Design, she’s deploying the wisdom garnered from all these experiences to build a culture focused on keeping possibility alive. 

Images and more from Laura Stein on our website!

Special thanks to our sponsor! Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.

Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.

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SIGN UP - for our Substack for news, bonus content, new episode alerts

VISIT - cleverpodcast.com for transcripts, images, and 200+ more episodes

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Special thanks to our sponsors!

• Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.
• Join us for Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVE, Sunday May 17, 4pm on the Main Stage at ICFF NYC. Register to attend for free with code: MISKGENSPK

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.