I know if you stare directly into the sun, you go blind.

Like, if we look directly at our mothers, will we go blind?

Or can we see them? Can we see them just once?

From the TED 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 Kiar Alegria Hudas about her first novel and the lessons she learned from writing it.

I'm 48 years old. Who am I living this life for?

Kiera Allegria Hudis

is a Pulitzer Prize winning

playwright, composer, and novelist

whose work has reshaped

contemporary American theater.

She is the co-creator of

In The Heights, the groundbreaking musical that helped

redefine whose stories belong at the center of the American stage. Her play, Water by the Spoonful,

earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and her writing across theater, music, memoir, and now

fiction, has consistently explored identity, family, memoir, and now fiction, has consistently explored identity, family,

belonging, and the complicated inheritance of culture and care. We first spoke on design matters

when Kiara released her memoir, My Broken Language, a book that traced her coming of age at the

intersection of language, lineage, and spiritual worlds.

Our interview took a deep dive into Kiara's life and career.

In our interview today, we will be talking about her extraordinary new novel, The White Hot,

...