Artists aren't just, and designers aren't just communicators.

We can actually be change agents.

We can actually build things.

We can create things.

We can run things.

We can be in charge of things.

From the chat audio collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Milman.

On Design Matters, Debbie talks with some of the most creative people in the world about what they do, how they got to be who they are, and what they're thinking about and working on.

On this episode, a conversation with Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky about art, design, entrepreneurship, and change. The world can be our

campus. Our canvas isn't necessarily 18 by 24 inches. It can be the whole world.

Brian Chesky is someone who has reshaped the world through his imagination. As the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb,

he helped transform a simple idea, sleeping in a stranger's room on an air mattress, into a

global movement grounded in belonging, hospitality, and the hope that people can take care of one

another.

Trained as an industrial designer at the Rhode Island School of Design,

Brian has brought an artist's curiosity to some of the thorniest questions about how we live,

how we travel, and how we connect, and in doing so, has changed the possibilities for millions of people around the world.

Brian Teske, welcome to Design Matters. Well, thank you for having me here.

Brian, is it true that when you were seven years old, you asked Santa Claus to bring you poorly designed toys so you could redesign them?

Yes, absolutely. What gave you the sense that that that was possible that Santa would actually do that for you? Well, I remember just as a kid,

I don't know why I would like get catalogs of toys or catalogs of sporting goods, items,

or whatever. And I would just, I'd first draw them and trace them. And then I'd redraw them and I'd change them. And I would then want to, like, disassemble things. And so when the time came, I think when I was five, I got hockey equipment. When I was six, I think I got like a drawing easel. And then by seven, I was like, all right, like, what am I going to design? What am I redesigned? And I think that was kind of like where I got it. And I was really fun. Like I started. And it was even just things like like that were popular. Like I remember like Game Boy and Game Gear came out in video games. Kids love like were obsessed with those. So I was like redesigning consoles um Nike errors or like um we're just coming out and so I was really getting

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