Ted Audio Collective

I was really drunk, and I was in bed with my phone next to me, which is never a good idea.

And I was not correcting my typos and I made lots and lots of mistakes.

And then I fell asleep.

From the Ted Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Milman.

For 17 years, Debbie Milman has been talking with designers and other creative people about what they do,

how they got to be who they are, and what they're thinking about and working on.

On this episode, Susan Orleam talks about her career writing articles and books, and about a celebrated pandemic tweet store.

Somebody said to me, were you performing? And I said, no, I could never have done a drunk tweet as well as I did it drunk.

Hey listener, a quick favor. We are conducting an audience survey, and we'd be really grateful if you could take just a few minutes to respond.

Please visit survey.prx.org slash Design Matters to take the survey today. That's survey.prx.org slash Design Matters. Thanks.

It's just about impossible to predict what Susan Orleam is going to write about next.

Maybe it's an article and then a book about an orchid thief, but then years later she comes out with a book about a library fire.

It almost doesn't make any sense until you start reading and see how the same intense, passionate attention is given to all the subjects in her body of work.

She literally writes nonfiction that re-enchance the world. In addition to her many books, she's a staff writer for the New Yorker, and her Twitter feed is hysterical.

Susan Orleam, welcome to Design Matters.

I'm so thrilled to be with you.

Thank you. Susan, are you still teaching yourself how to play the ukulele?

I moved from ukuleles to drums.

I understand that you learned how to play the Grateful Dead's Uncle John's Band, so both on the drums and the ukulele.

Well, my drum career had me just learning the basics of drum rolls and drum.

We had hold my drum sticks properly. I was really starting at Ground Zero, and my teacher encouraged me to play along with songs, but I was so much a diligent student that I simply did these exercises, which I really enjoyed.

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