Sudden Skyscrapers
In this episode of Doom and Bloom, Eric Benson and Marc O’Brien join us to ask some big questions: Why is climate being erased from federal budgets? Why is climate literacy still an elective in design schools and not a required course? And why are we preparing students for AI but not for the climate crisis?
We explore the uncertainty of our current political moment and the urgent need to embed climate education into the foundation of every design program. Eric and Marc also explore a bold vision for the future—transforming unused office buildings or local restaurants into pop-up co-learning hubs where designers, students, and communities come together to collaborate, learn, and act.
From rethinking how we teach design to reimagining where learning happens, this conversation is a call for creativity, community, and radical inclusion in the face of climate change.
About Eric Benson (Website / LinkedIn)
Eric Benson is an educator, designer, and climate communicator working at the intersection of sustainability and design education. As a professor of graphic and sustainable design at the University of Illinois, he is committed to empowering the next generation of designers to create meaningful environmental change. He also hosts Climify, our design education podcast now in its fifth season, where he explores how climate-conscious design can transform the way we live, work, and learn. Through his teaching, creative practice, and storytelling, Eric brings hope, urgency, and imagination to the climate conversation.
