@atomiota on #DesignChat

I had the privilege of being interviewed by Ryan McGovern on his live Mashable chat show DesignChat. In this hour-long installment, we covered various rangy topics including my zigzaggy design background, recent experience working for a trading firm and hedge fund, what I'm up to now designing online platforms that attempt to make American democracy more robust, why I like the intersection of design and politics, the problems of rational ignorance in the American electorate, using MRI brain scans to to understand the way people process political information, the profound role of Twitter in my life, what design at mid-career means to me, why open government data is a mixed blessing and how data visualization is only one part of the solution, what unemployed designers ought to be thinking about and doing and why, and whether or not I plan on getting one of the new mythical Apple iTablets....among other things.

Aside from seriously flubbing a few audience questions (sorry, @kaleemux) and not-so-trivially mixing up "Billions" and "Trillions" (eg, real economy GDP vs metaeconomy aggregate value; I had a little brain short circuit bouncing from video window to chat window, ack), it was great fun to be a part of this meandering conversation. Props to Ryan for really trying to make this live video chat work as a legitimate interactive interview format - it really does have its obvious power and benefits. Thanks to the twenty or so folks who tuned in, and definitely follow @DesignChat on Twitter for future show updates.

Thanks for the generous invitation, Ryan. Click here for the 70 minute streaming segment on Mevio.