Can We Really Design Our Way Out of Our Problems?

In her new book, “The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History,” historian and designer Maggie Gram traces the evolution of the field of design from a focus on decoration and the way things look, to a much grander idea — that we can design ourselves into a better world. From furniture and iPhone design to helping revamp city government, “good design” has been touted as the answer to a better life. We talk with Gram about her skepticism about tech’s confidence in being able to design solutions to enormous problems and the peril, and promise, of design thinking. Guests: Maggie Gram, historian and designer; author, "The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices