Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future. with Carissa Carter

About this episode

Carissa Carter discusses the intersection of design and positive change, emphasizing the importance of intuition and learning from failures.

Design is not just about products and things; it applies to systems, to life, it is human. As Carissa Carter, Stanford d-school Academic Director says, “if you care about what you put out there into the world you are a designer. Everyone has the capacity to create positive change”. A former geo-scientist, Carissa teaches courses on the intersection of data and design for multiple sectors including climate change, emerging tech, and her work on designing with machine learning and blockchain has earned multiple design awards. Her just launched second book — co-authored with creative director Scott Doorley and titled: Assembling Tomorrow: a guide to designing a thriving future — is a thoughtful read (whether you consider yourself a designer or not), that offers us all a path to both “ mend the mistakes of our past and shape our future for the better ”. Bonus: it weaves in many speculative short stories and the most beautifully crafted illustrations. Tune in to hear Carissa delve into: … the forces changing the design world … how everything breaks but it’s what we learn from the cracks that matters … the importance of intuition … how there are no absolutes and embracing the…

People in this episode

Guest: Carissa Carter

Topics covered

• design
• positive change
• climate change
• machine learning
• blockchain
• intuition
• future planning

Keywords

• design
• future
• positive change
• climate change
• machine learning
• blockchain
• intuition
• speculative stories

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stanford d-school

Products: Assembling Tomorrow: a guide to designing a thriving future

More episodes of The Femme Futurists Society Podcast

• The Economic Wake-Up Call | Libby Rodney · March 31, 2026 · 53 min
• The new women's health and maternal care game changer that's saving lives. with Lailah Kara-Newton + Fifi Kara · October 9, 2025 · 57 min
• By 2050 there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish. How two women are changing that headline. with Kritika Tyagi · October 3, 2025 · 52 min
• In this call to courage, what happens when you commit to being even 20 percent braver? with Robyn O'Brien · October 1, 2025 · 59 min
• How do we create a more human internet and what does that even mean? with Mary Camacho · September 29, 2025 · 1h 5m
• How can new technologies deepen and enhance the creative process and allow all humans to more fully realize their creative visions? with Brooke Hopper · September 23, 2025 · 39 min