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Design Downtime

Guy Segal

"Design Downtime" celebrates the joys of living a balanced creative life outside the pixels and wireframes.

Join your host, Guy Segal, a design director, on this journey to redefine what it means to be a successful design professional, as each episode features a conversation with a talented design expert, delving into the world beyond their design screens and uncovering the passions that fuel their imagination.

We invite you to break free from the shackles of hustle culture and embrace the full spectrum of human experience – because life is too precious to be spent only in pursuit of productivity.

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22 episodes
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Avg 36 min
English

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S5 · E10
Thursday · 31 min
Erin Casali Loves Illustrating
A picture is worth a thousand words when Erin Casali joins us to share about her illustration practice. She reflects on not being able to visualize images in her mind, which makes her process generative and exploratory; drawing to discover, not to transcribe. Erin describes switching from pencil to ink as a forcing function to break perfectionist habits and train herself to think in whole compositions rather than obsessing over details. Finally, she explores the blurry line between design and art, where what makes something art is the human soul projected into it. Guest Bio Erin Casali (she/her) is a VP/Director of both product and design, with over 10 years of experience in each. She has a hybrid approach with design, product, and engineering in her background. Her rare blend of skills, including psychology and change management, enables her to foster collaboration and break down silos. Driven by a passion for improving lives through her work, she empowers teams to reach their full potential. She advocates for purpose, transparency, and diversity, fostering a culture of trust and agency. Her diverse experiences across startups, large corporations, advisory, and board roles have equipped her with a versatile toolkit to adapt to various organizational contexts and drive meaningful change. Links Erin’s website: https://intenseminimalism.com/ Inklings of Late on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inklings.of.late/ Inklings of Late on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/inklingoflate.bsky.social Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E9
August 20 · 27 min
Jenny Dee Brecheisen Loves Barrel Racing
Saddle up and start your stopwatch, when Jenny Dee Brecheisen joins us to talk about her passion for barrel racing. She shares how it completely transformed her life, from city dweller to 10-acre landowner with four horses. Jenny explores the deep bonds formed with her horses through daily care and patience, the 14-17 seconds of pure adrenaline that make all the preparation worthwhile, and the steep learning curve and real physical dangers that come with the sport. Guest Bio Jenny Dee Brecheisen (she/her) is a UI Engineer on Cloudflare’s UI Platform team, where she works across frontend UI, systems, and engineering infrastructure. Beginning with a degree in graphic design and early work in print and marketing, she later moved into product design and design systems before transitioning into engineering, bringing a cross-disciplinary perspective to building products in the age of AI. Her work today spans everything from frontend development and accessibility to migrations, debugging, and improving how software gets built and maintained at scale. When she’s not working, she spends her time barrel racing and investing in futurity horse prospects. Links Jenny’s website: tinycrowbar.com Jenny’s race-tracking app: highloper.com Jenny on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yennie/ Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E8
August 13 · 33 min
Luke Murphy Loves Being in a Band
It's not all mosh pits and crowdsurfing when Luke Murphy joins us to talk about nearly 20 years of band life. They talk about the sharp contrast between recording an album and the rush of performing it, and how the Brutalligators' chemistry works through defined roles, mutual respect, and just enough creative tension to push each other forward. Luke also punctures the myth of touring glamour, but explains that the friendships, the crowd energy, and the moment a new song lands on stage make it entirely worth it. Guest Bio Luke Murphy (they/them) is a Principal Design Advocate at zeroheight. Before zeroheight, Luke has worked as an IC and leader in product design and advocacy teams at Memrise, Mr & Mrs Smith and Microsoft. They host the Design Systems WTF podcast, and co-organize the WDC and Converge conferences. When they’re not nerding out about design systems and DesignOps, they are busy raising their 13-year-old son, shouting in a queer punk band, or running a DIY vinyl subscription company. They also don’t sleep. Links Luke’s Website: www.lurkmoophy.com Brutalligators on bandcamp: brutalligators.bandcamp.com Brutalligators on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6PQwcg9SjBaPxGhqWeSIs5?si=w0sEdUZiTI27Yfr1stBZyA Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E7
August 6 · 26 min
Odette Jansen Loves City-Building Games
We built this city, or rather Odette Jansen did, as she joins us to explore her deep love of city-building games. She talks about being drawn to games with genuine depth and resource management challenges, and a blank canvas that gives her full control without consequences. Games like Cities Skylines or Planet Zoo, where she's logged over 400 hours recreating Disneyland leaf by leaf. Odette also reflects honestly on how being late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD shapes her play style. From the hyperfocus and Excel sheets tracking city resources, to the pure joy of knowing random animal facts at the zoo. Guest Bio Odette Jansen (she/her) has spent 15 years in UX. She leads research and content at ING, and she also runs UXR Study (uxrstudy.com) - a training platform for UX researchers, used by over 80,000 professionals worldwide, with courses, templates, and support on everything from research to UX leadership. She's got a BSc in UX and an MEd in talent development and diversity. She's late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD, and that shapes a lot of her work - she's spent a long time looking at how organizations overlook neurodivergent people, and how to build places and leaders that don't. Links Odette on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/odett/ UXR Study: https://uxrstudy.com/ Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E6
July 23 · 24 min
Jarvis Moore Loves Sneakers
It's time to lace up when Jarvis Moore joins us to talk about his love for collecting sneakers. He shares how it grew from a childhood longing into a curated collection that serves as his primary form of personal expression, the systematic approach behind his collecting, and how he navigates the hype-driven world of limited collaborations and grail sneakers. Beyond the collecting itself, he reflects on how sneakers function as cultural shorthand, community building, and self-expression, including the Jordans he wore on his wedding day. Guest Bio Jarvis Moore (he/him) is a Senior Design Lead for Design Systems at Realtor.com, where his job is to build the infrastructure that makes great design possible at scale. In addition to maintaining and architecting systems, he’s spent his career teaching teams how to think in systems before they ever touch a component. His work spans enterprise design systems, AI tooling, and the harder question most orgs avoid “how do you actually build design culture, not just document it?” He speaks and teaches on all of it, because he’s lived it. He’ll tell you the hardest part of design systems was never the components. It’s the people. It’s always been the people. Links Jarvis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarvismoore1016/ Jarvis on Twitter/X: https://x.com/jmodesigns10 Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E5
July 16 · 30 min
Sam Gordashko Loves to DJ
Get ready for the beat to drop, when Sam Gordashko joins us to talk about her love of DJing. She traces her journey from recording mixtapes off the radio as a kid to spinning sets at Burning Man. She shares how she learned to embrace imperfection as a recovering perfectionist, breaks down her systematic approach to navigating 50,000 tracks, and explains how DJing puts her into a flow state of constant, calculated risk-taking. Sam also offers practical advice for anyone curious about trying DJing themselves. Guest Bio Sam Gordashko (she/her) is a freelance design systems pro with a design tokens obsession based out of Toronto, and she's on a mission to make complex tech feel human. Over the years, Sam has worked with big names like Getty Images, Shutterstock and Intuit, plus plenty of scrappy startups figuring it all out, with most of her career spent as a "Design Team of One" at various tech innovation startups. You might know her as Samantha Gordashko or Sam I am Designs, the public speaker, host of design systems events, and educational content creator focused on design tokens, design-to-development processes, and systems thinking. She's got a knack for turning intimidating technology into approachable, actionable workflows and has built a reputation in the design systems community for making people laugh while sharing her future-friendly design pro tips, real-world workflows, epic fails, and radical honesty about what not to do. Links Sam’s website: https://samiam.design/ Sam’s set, Promise Cherry Beach, June 12, 2022: https://soundcloud.com/ilovepromise/aubade-promise-cherry-beach-june-12-2022 Sam’s set, Solar Seance, Club Rapture: https://soundcloud.com/aubade_samiam/ssrapture Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E4
July 9 · 42 min
Helen Gaskell Loves Writing Romantic Fiction
Love is in the air, when Helen Gaskell joins us to talk about writing rom com novels. She shares the story of her accidental path to publishing — from writing a fan letter to a mobile game, to landing a deal with just 10,000 words written. Helen reveals the surprising structural discipline behind the genre, and passionately defends romantic fiction as a misunderstood feminist art form, arguing it offers sophisticated social commentary and genuine emotional comfort. Her debut, The Regency Switch, is available now from HarperCollins. Guest Bio Helen Gaskell (she/her) is a freelance lead content designer based in the UK. After ten years at the BBC as a content producer she now works on GOV.UK projects and has spent time at over a dozen central government departments. Most notably, she worked on the first public-facing AI-driven project for the Foreign Office, and wrote the UK government's guidance on AI for services. Links The Regency Switch: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-regency-switch/helen-gaskell/9780008769574 Helen’s author website: http://helengaskellwriter.co.uk/ Helen’s design website: https://www.helengaskell.co.uk/ Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E3
July 2 · 38 min
Mike Perrotti Loves Plants
Get your fill of chlorophyll, when Mike Perrotti joins us to talk about his passion for plants. He shares how a therapist's recommendation to add greenery to combat seasonal depression unexpectedly spiraled into a tropical obsession. Mike describes how he catches himself coveting rare expensive plants and consciously redirects back to the meditative joy of caregiving and cultivation. He also reveals how managing a diverse collection in a low-light apartment requires the same constraint-driven creative thinking as design. Guest Bio Mike Perrotti (he/him) is a Product Designer at Datadog living in Brooklyn with an assortment of plants and reptiles, a cat, and a loving partner who tolerates it all. He spends his weekends in his lush greenhouse by day and on dark, foggy dancefloors by night. Before moving to New York in 2012, he studied art in Philadelphia, then fell sideways into UI design and frontend development. He later went on to become a major contributor to various design systems, including GitHub's Primer. Along the way he developed a pattern of picking up hobbies and going completely and shamelessly overboard with them. His houseplant hobby snuck up on him and (predictably) spiraled into an obsession. Links Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-perrotti-81402572/ Mike on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mperrotti_ Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E2
June 25 · 27 min
Daniel Sanchez Griborio Loves Karate
It’s time to wax on, wax off as Daniel Sanchez Griborio joins us to talk about his lifelong love of karate. He describes how his parents enrolled him at age five, and how the structure and rigor created a sense of belonging. Daniel explains karate's core philosophy of seeking perfection while understanding it's unattainable, and how focusing on incremental progress sustained him through five consecutive years of losing in the first round of nationals before finally winning at age 17. He talks about karate becoming an anchor and a reminder that "what you put in, you get out," shaping how he approaches everything from work to parenting. Guest Bio Daniel Sanchez Griborio (he/him) is a design leader at Scotiabank and a lead instructor in User Experience Design at BrainStation. With over 15 years of experience in various design roles, he has held positions such as Director of Product Design and Senior Manager of User Experience at Scotiabank, guiding the creation of user-centric digital banking solutions. Daniel has also contributed to organizations like The Felt Store and TD, where he has focused on enhancing design strategies and e-commerce experiences. He possesses a passion for empowering future designers with industry insights and real-world applications. Links Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielsanchezgriborio/ Daniel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealdanielsan/ Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S5 · E1
June 18 · 36 min
Mike Monteiro Loves Listening to Records
In the first episode of season 5, Mike Monteiro is "still listening to wax, he's not using the CD" when he joins us to share about his lifelong love of vinyl records. From his parents' 70s console record player to a 4,000-record music room, he traces how music became a path of self-discovery. Mike explains how he keeps track of his incredible collection, talks about the Platonic idea of the prefect record store, and makes a passionate case against audiophile gatekeeping: however you listen to music, you're doing it right. Guest Bio Mike Monteiro (he/him) is the co-founder and Design Director of Mule. He writes and speaks frequently about the craft, ethics, and business of design. He's written a bunch of books, including Design Is a Job, Ruined by Design, and the brand new How to die (& other stories), which is only tangentially about design. He lives in San Francisco, with his wife Erika and their dog Rupert. He has been buying vinyl his entire life, and currently has about 4,000 records. Links Mike’s website: https://www.mikemonteiro.com/ Mike’s Good News newsletter: https://buttondown.com/monteiro Muhammad Ali inserting a 45 into the record player of his 1959 Cadillac Eldorado: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1edo3g1/muhammad_ali_inserting_a_45_into_the_record/ Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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June 2 · 1 hr 15 min
Design Overtime: The Design Process Is Not Dead — It Just Feels That Way (with Pavel Samsonov)
In this conversation, host Guy Segal and returning guest Pavel Samsonov challenge the recurring claim that the design process is dead — arguing that for many, it was never really alive in the first place. Pavel makes the case that process isn't a rigid framework imposed from above, but a set of self-imposed, iterative constraints that help designers make better decisions. The conversation explores how factory-era management thinking and agency-world deliverable culture have distorted our understanding of what process actually means, and why most "process transformations" fail because they serve managerial control rather than the people doing the work. Pavel and Guy also dig into the social dimension of design — how effective process is as much about managing stakeholder relationships and intake as it is about creating a decision-making framework that allows you to say "no". Guest Bio Pavel Samsonov (he/him) is a Principal Experience Designer at Justworks in New York. His approach to product & UX draws from his research at Nielsen Norman Group, experience building design practice at AWS, and managing product teams at Bloomberg. Pavel often describes himself as a Problem Designer, because the biggest influence on the solution is always the framing of the problem. Links Pavel's weekly newsletter, Product Picnic: https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/ Influence by Design, Pavel's full-day workshop with Active Voice HQ: https://www.throughlineconf.com/events/philadelphia-2026 Credits Cover design by Kristine Planche (inspired by Raquel Breternitz).
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March 24 · 1 hr 30 min
Design Overtime: Agile, Design, and the Gap Between Promise and Practice (with Pavel Samsonov)
In this inaugural episode, Pavel and I dig into the history and dysfunction of Agile, not to relitigate waterfall vs. Agile, but to examine why modern Agile practice has drifted so far from its original intent. We explore how the Agile manifesto was written entirely without designers in mind, how the "Scrum industrial complex" turned a flexible philosophy into a rigid checklist, and why two-week sprints often amount to waterfall in disguise. We cover the critical role of feedback loops, the danger of prioritizing outputs over outcomes, and why shared problem understanding is what teams actually need. We also make a case that good design principles are the closest thing we have to a genuine fix, because design is built around the kind of iterative, goal-questioning thinking that Agile always promised and rarely delivered. Guest Bio Pavel Samsonov (he/him) is a Principal Experience Designer at Justworks in New York. His approach to product & UX draws from his research at Nielsen Norman Group, experience building design practice at AWS, and managing product teams at Bloomberg. Pavel often describes himself as a Problem Designer, because the biggest influence on the solution is always the framing of the problem. Credits Cover design by Kristine Planche (inspired by Raquel Breternitz).
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S4 · E16
February 12 · 33 min
Vitaly Friedman Loves Techno
It’s the season 4 finale and we’re celebrating at 150 bpm, when Vitaly Friedman joins us to talk about his lifelong journey through techno music. It all began in Belarus when, as a child, he discovered The Prodigy on cassette, continuing into his teens, that were spent obsessively exploring every possible musical avenue. Vitaly explains his preference for minimal, melodic, and "honest" techno over mainstream EDM, emphasizing his deep appreciation for the craft, passion, and commitment artists put into their work. He discusses how music serves different functions in his life, whether providing flow and calmness while working, or creating vivid, cinematic experiences at live concerts, and reveals his practice of continuously discovering new artists to avoid getting stuck. Guest Bio Vitaly Friedman (he/him) loves beautiful content and does not give up easily. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he studied computer science and mathematics in Germany. While writing algebra proofs and preparing for software engineering at nights in the kitchen, at the same time he discovered passion for typography, interface design and writing. After working as a freelance designer and developer for 6 years, he co-founded Smashing Magazine back in 2006, a leading online magazine for designers and developers. His curiosity drove him from interface design to front-end to performance optimization to accessibility and back to user experience over all the years. Vitaly is the author, co-author and editor of Smashing Books (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/books), and a curator of Smashing Conferences (https://www.smashingconf.com). He is the UX lead with the European Parliament and Smashing Magazine and front-end/UX consultant in Europe and abroad, working with large and small companies and organizations like Haufe-Lexware, Axel-Springer and others. He also runs Measure UX (https://measure-ux.com) and Smart Interface Design Patterns (https://smart-interface-design-patterns.com), friendly video courses on UX and design patterns, along with a live UX training for passionate UX and product designers. Links Vitaly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitalyfriedman Amelie Lens at EXIT 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80jdSJxZUAE Amelie Lens — Live In the tunnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1-Xc7EfT44 Worakls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXJawwVI03E Paul Kalkbrenner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YPbpWeIx2Q Extrawelt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryc3YudCYXU Prodigy — Out of Space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4eav7dFvc8 Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S4 · E15
February 5 · 33 min
Sera Tajima Loves Movement
We’re getting in motion with Sera Tajima, as she joins us to talk about her lifelong relationship with movement. She explains how ballet taught her precision, control, and the ability to withstand "good pain”, creating a meditative practice of syncing mind and body, that continued to martial arts. Sera’s athletic journey took a turn three years ago when she developed long COVID, forcing her to completely reassess her relationship with movement. Through her recovery process, she learned to listen to her body's needs rather than pushing through, discovering the importance of small daily movements. Sera continues to advocate for a cultural shift away from the tendency to treat the body as merely a vessel for the mind, and instead reconnect with it on a deeper level. Guest Bio Sera Tajima (she/her) is a product designer turned climate investor and advisor, bringing Silicon Valley growth expertise to founders solving our planet's biggest challenges. She's spent a decade driving growth at Y Combinator, Zendesk, and Webflow—achieving results like 200% acquisition increases. Through Conscious Tech Ventures, she guides climate startups scaling breakthrough solutions. Sera also has a course on sustainable growth. UC Berkeley-educated, Sera has spoken at Ikea, Uber, universities, and tech conferences worldwide, helping founders leverage product-market fit and product-led growth strategies. Her mission: Accelerate conscious tech that makes today's broken systems obsolete. We can't solve climate problems with the same thinking that created them. Links Sera’s website: https://www.conscioustech.co/ Sera on Spotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/seratajima/ Sera on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seratajima/ Sera on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@seratajima Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S4 · E14
January 29 · 45 min
Erika Flowers Loves to Write Novels
Get ready to be swept away into a sprawling space opera, when Erika Flowers joins us to talk about her passion for writing fiction novels. She approaches writing fiction as entertainment rather than high literature, comparing her creative goals to producing Marvel-style blockbuster experiences. Erika traces her journey from discovering fantasy worlds through the Dragonlance series in middle school to spending 16 years learning the craft before finally writing her first complete manuscript. She describes her meticulous, architect-style approach to writing, treating the actual process like an athlete training for an ultra marathon. Erika talks about her strengths writing character dynamics, relationships, and exploring themes through interpersonal drama rather than external action sequences, and gives us a sneak peek into her upcoming projects. Guest Bio Erika Flowers (she/her) is a technologist and designer who brings a love of storytelling into everything she does. By day, she helps organizations shape strategy and design for the future, and by night, she writes sprawling novels and explores the craft of story as a lifelong passion. Erika has worked at tech companies such as Intuit and Mural, as well as serving a term at NASA as a civil servant as a part of their digital transformation initiative. She currently works in medical technology, innovating in the field of diabetes and insulin management. Links Erika’s website: https://www.erikaflowerswrites.com Erika on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helloeflowers Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S4 · E13
January 22 · 30 min
Priyanca D'Souza Loves Outdoor Swimming
It’s time to be one with nature, as Priyanca D'Souza talks to us about her passion for outdoor swimming. She shares how immersing in cold water offers a transcendent experience that pulls her into the present moment, from still lakes where she floats under the sky to challenging rivers that demand complete mental focus. Priyanca explains how outdoor swimming differs fundamentally from pool swimming, and emphasizes the minimalist nature of the activity. She also discusses how she actively seeks swimming spots when traveling, praising cities like Copenhagen for integrating swimming into urban life, and notes the mental health benefits of outdoor swimming, that allow her to completely disconnect from technology. Guest Bio Priyanca D’Souza (she/her) is a Senior User Researcher in the public sector, specialising in Accessibility and Inclusion. She has recently worked on complex projects for GDS, Cabinet Office, Defra and Companies House. She aims to use her lived experience of access needs to embed inclusive practices within teams to drive forward ethical and inclusive design which better meets people's needs. Enabling people to empathise with the barriers our users can face and finding opportunities to alleviate and change things to make experiences better. She is fascinated by the impacts different barriers and conditions can have on cognition, behaviour, people’s interactions and experiences of the world. She has a background in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, which she combines with lived and varied practical experience. Links Priyanca on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/priyanca.bsky.social Priyanca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyanca-ux Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S4 · E12
January 15 · 24 min
Sidra Mahmood Loves Bluegrass
Tune your banjo and join Sidra Mahmood, as they tell us about their unexpected passion for bluegrass music. Despite a musical journey through heavy metal, punk rock, and electronic music, they found a strong connection to bluegrass with its themes of labor solidarity, poverty, and anti-capitalism, being played with incredible speed and precision through improvisation. Sidra notes the genre's diversity problem, as 95% of bluegrass concert audiences are white and significantly older, despite contemporary bluegrass artists becoming more diverse, and recommends modern acts that blend punk and rock elements into the traditional sound. Guest Bio Sidra Mahmood (they/them) is a government product and service designer who currently builds data products at the federal government of Canada. Sidra knows we're not supposed to talk about work on this podcast but they can very happily talk about it all day. With a deep deep love of government transparency and civic tech, Sidra's been designing things people can use to make government suck less for over a decade. In their spare time, they can be found DJing, hanging out with their two senior retired greyhounds, and being mean to billionaires on the internet. After living in four continents, they call Toronto home. Links Sidra’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidramatik/ Sidra’s bluegrass playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7fY1eYqnDart624M6rLu4w Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S4 · E11
January 8 · 35 min
Jeremy Miller Loves New Orleans
You don’t need a Cajun accent to enjoy this episode, when Jeremy Miller tells us all about his hometown of New Orleans. He explains what makes New Orleans unique, including its complex history as a city shaped by French, Spanish, Caribbean, and African influences, its world-renowned music genres, and the rich culinary tradition that distinguishes between urban Creole and rural Cajun cuisines. Jeremy emphasizes the strong sense of community fostered by the city's architecture with front porches that encouraged neighborhood connections, the friendly culture where strangers greet each other on the street, and the racial diversity he took for granted until moving to the Midwest. He shares what he misses most about New Orleans, and recommends hidden gems for visitors. Guest Bio Jeremy Miller (he/him) is a UX designer, strategist, and author of Beyond UX Design: Master Your Craft Beyond Pixels & Prototypes. Through his book and the Beyond UX Design podcast, he helps designers and teams turn complex ideas into meaningful products. His work focuses on mastering the parts of the craft that live beyond the screen, like curiosity, influence, and the human connections that make great software possible. Links Jeremy’s website: https://www.beyonduxdesign.com/ Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S4 · E10
Dec 18, 2025 · 32 min
Jess Paris Loves to Snowboard
Get stoked to shred some pow, when Jess Paris joins us to talk about her passion for snowboarding. She describes how getting kicked out of ski school at age 12 led her to discover snowboarding, shaping major life decisions and eventually settling in Denver near the mountains. Jess reflects on how the once-rebellious snowboarder culture has evolved from being banned to becoming more integrated with skiers, and advises newcomers to embrace falling as part of learning, and not feel pressured to advance quickly or avoid beginner slopes. She explains that despite the inherent dangers of the sport, including breaking her jaw and suffering concussions at age 15, snowboarding serves as her primary mental escape and stress relief, where she enters a true flow state. Guest Bio Jess Paris (she/her) is the Director of Design Systems, Visual Design, and DesignOps at ServiceTitan, where she’s passionate about turning design systems into more than guardrails—they’re her favorite playground for clarity, creativity, and helping teams build things that actually help users. Based in Denver, Jess loves Colorado life: snowboarding in the winter, paddleboarding in the summer, and hitting the trails all year long. She’s not great at sitting still—whether she’s tinkering in her garden, taking on new home projects, or trying out punch needling just to see where it goes. Jess is always chasing the next idea or hobby to explore. And of course, every adventure is made better with her border collie mix, Ollie by her side. Links Jess’ website: https://jessparis.co Jess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessparis/ Jess’ Shred playlist (NSFW): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/26aK9101vKZNzgvNgqch7d?si=RO3GkUKSS8al0Ipq73kUSg Jess’ Chill Shred playlist (NSFW): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5hIy9qppgRrhlB0iCanKQa?si=nrBVnGPcRFyV7lgPhR9n8g Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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S4 · E9
Dec 11, 2025 · 31 min
Lex Lofthouse Loves Pokémon Cards
Gotta catch 'em all! Including this episode, when Lex Lofthouse joins us to talk about her passion for collecting Pokémon cards. She’s been collecting them since they first came out in 1999, taking a break as a teenager, and returning in 2016 when Pokémon Go's release reignited her passion. Lex explains how the pandemic and influencers transformed the hobby from an affordable niche into a volatile investor market, making it increasingly difficult for collectors and kids to access products at retail prices. She talks about her collecting strategies, why she prefers slightly damaged vintage cards, participating in Pokémon tournaments, and encourages former fans to reconnect with childhood nostalgia by opening a single pack. Guest Bio Lex Lofthouse (she/her) is a Senior Designer at Nzime, a digital agency in the UK. She has been working in the design industry for over fifteen years, she began her career in the cold regions of Scotland and now lives and works in Nottingham. She specialises in UX and digital design but her skillset also includes branding and print design. She’s even semi-competent at some basic HTML and CSS but that's where she draws the line! Despite being a professional designer she has also gained an odd reputation as an advocate for Comic Sans, the world’s most misunderstood typeface. In her spare time Lex is a massive Pokemon fan and has been since its release in the UK in 1999. Links Lex’s website: https://loftio.co.uk/ Lex on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/loftio.co.uk Lex on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bulbio Credits Cover design by Raquel Breternitz.
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