Maggie Gram
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maggiegram.bsky.social
Maggie Gram
@maggiegram.bsky.social
440 followers 540 following 21 posts
Designer & cultural historian. I work at Google and belong to the Alphabet Workers Union. Out June ‘25 from Basic Books, The Invention of Design:
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/maggie-gram/the-invention-of-design/9781541600645
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Maggie Gram
kqedforum.bsky.social
🎧 Listen to the podcast!

Historian and designer @maggiegram.bsky.social spoke with @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social about her new book "The Invention of Design," how the field of design has evolved and the peril, and promise, of design thinking.

🔗:
Can We Really Design Our Way Out of Our Problems?
KQED's Forum · Episode
buff.ly
September 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
vanderbeeken.bsky.social
Very well written and illuminating book by @maggiegram.bsky.social
www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/maggi...
The Invention of Design
From a brilliant cultural historian, “a secret history of the twentieth century” (Louis Menand) told through the story of design and its utopian ...
www.hachettebookgroup.com
June 27, 2025 at 9:18 AM
maggiegram.bsky.social
Excited to talk with @printmag.bsky.social this afternoon. Register here: l8r.it/VBTi
June 19, 2025 at 4:23 PM
maggiegram.bsky.social
I love that @myhnn.bsky.social published this excerpt, AND I feel compelled to emphasize that "Irrelevant at Best, or Else Complicit" headlines an excerpt (it's a quote) rather than a review 😆🫠
myhnn.bsky.social History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · Jun 4
Read an excerpt from
‪@maggiegram.bsky.social‬’s “The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History.” www.hnn.us/article/irre...
Irrelevant at Best, or Else Complicit
The state of design in 1970.
www.hnn.us
June 17, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
simongandrew.bsky.social
One of many moments in Omar El Akkad’s new book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” that will stop you in your tracks.
There is an impulse in moments like this to appeal to self-interest. To say: These horrors you are allowing to happen, they will come to your doorstep one day; to repeat the famous phrase about who they came for first and who they'll come for next. But this appeal cannot, in matter of fact, work. If the people well served by a system that condones such butchery ever truly believed the same butchery could one day be inflicted on them, they'd tear the system down tomorrow. And anyway, by the time such a thing happens, the rest of us will already be dead. No, there is no terrible thing coming for you in some distant future, but know that a terrible thing is happening to you now. You are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice. You are being asked to dismantle the machinery of a functioning conscience. Who cares if diplomatic expediency prefers you shrug away the sight of dismembered children? Who cares if great distance from the bloodstained middle allows obliviousness. Forget pity, forget even the dead if you must, but at least fight against the theft of your soul.
March 29, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
epopppp.bsky.social
I like that my mid-range financial decisions now include considerations like "will money be worth anything"
February 23, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
cydharrell.bsky.social
@emilytav.bsky.social articulates beautifully what is different about civic tech (imperfect yes) & DOGE (disastrous)
screenshot from Emily’s article “But all of the work was driven by an unshakable belief that the public deserved more from its government, and that the government was capable of doing better. For the US Digital Service, tech was a means to an end: an effective government that people can rely on & easily interact with instead of having to go through a Kafkaesque maze of websites and phone numbers and apps and forms.”
February 19, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
clancyny.bsky.social
Forthcoming, June 25. By @maggiegram.bsky.social!
January 30, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
politicalnotes.bsky.social
An executive order issued Wednesday by President Donald Trump will not stop California public schools from teaching LGBTQ curriculum, the state education office told the @bayareareporter.bsky.social ...
www.ebar.com/story.php?ch...
Amid Trump order, CA education department stands firm on LGBTQ curriculum
An executive order issued Wednesday by President Donald Trump will not stop California public schools from teaching LGBTQ curriculum, according to the state education office.
www.ebar.com
January 30, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
brian-goldstone.bsky.social
Love this letter from David Velasco (the former Artforum editor fired for publishing an open letter against the carnage in Gaza) responding to that Harper’s piece lamenting the contamination of contemporary art by politics.
"Sorry, I could barely get through Kissick’s orgy of grievances. I lived through the years he elegizes, saw some great art and even more middling art. Anyone reading his piece with a gimlet eye will notice that it was speculation, not ‘politics,’ that sucked the air out of the room. I do agree with him on one point: the art world is boring right now. But you’re not going to save it by being boring yourself. And you’re definitely not going to get art that ‘tears open [your] consciousness’ through nostalgia for Hans Ulrich Obrist. Go outside, look around. Stop being sad because markets and institutions aren’t pandering to you. Go where the energy is. Go make some real friends. Break a magazine. Go to a protest. Free Palestine. David Velasco New York City”
January 30, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
shannonmattern.bsky.social
I have some of those 1970s 📚 on cardboard furniture, but I was unaware of their cnxn to the 💐Workshop for Learning Things 🛠️, a Whole Earth-y resource + learning center for teachers (same as the 60s Ctr for Understanding Media, predecessor to my old dept @ The New School!)

(via Eames papers LoC)
And assortment of brochures from the workshop for learning things, including brochures, listing workshop costs, course, offerings, etc. – on cream, yellow, + green paper A postcard for the Workshop for Learning Things, from Philip Morrison to Ray Eames A list of classes, including cardboard, carpentry, classroom, photography, and simple printing Yellow course catalog from 1976. I can’t quite tell what the image is depicting!
January 30, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
retr0.id
what if computers were stupid? what if they could do less, with more? what if we had no idea who our target audience was supposed to be? what if we had more vc funding? what even *is* a use case?

our new startup asks all these questions, and more
September 18, 2024 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
thrasherxy.bsky.social
JUST PUBLISHED: It has been the honor of my career to co-author "Queer, HIV+ and Running Out of Medication in Gaza" with Afeef Nessouli @theintercept.com —a story about Palestine, AIDS, genocide, and an extraordinary survivor named E.S. Please read & share. theintercept.com/2025/01/13/i...
Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza
A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
theintercept.com
January 13, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
luckytran.com
As we witness these heartbreaking scenes from the fires in LA, an important reminder that incarcerated people make up over 30% of California’s forest firefighters.
30 percent of California's forest firefighters are prisoners
About 4,000 inmates battle blazes in the Golden State's woodlands.
www.motherjones.com
January 8, 2025 at 6:41 AM
maggiegram.bsky.social
Honestly the best description, ily @pjmaciak.bsky.social
January 6, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
angus.bsky.social
Useful data on car ownership in NYC. Cars are clustered heavily in low-poverty neighborhoods, and the highest-poverty neighborhoods with significant car ownership tend to be distant from the congestion-pricing zone.
Chart from article linked in next post, showing strong inverse correlation between car ownership and poverty level in NYC neighborhoods. Car ownership is by far the highest in locations with poverty rates below 20%, and a high proportion of the relative outliers are in the Bronx and outer Brooklyn.
January 6, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
spavel.bsky.social
We found him. The user from every user story
jlp.systems JLP @jlp.systems · Jan 5
I need a new, small, wonderful, respected, convenient, affordable, efficient, ergonomic, durable, slim, important, ethical, useful, exciting device
January 5, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
davidleheny.bsky.social
There are 12 other answers but, as you'll see by reading the first two responses, @colsonwhitehead.com pretty much sums it up

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/o...
Roland Busch, the chief executive of Siemens, the industrial company based in Munich: 2025 will be the year of industrial A.I. It will be a powerful tool to address skilled labor shortages and boost productivity, creating substantial growth opportunities. Siva Sivaram, the chief executive of QuantumScape, a developer of solid state lithium-metal batteries based in San Jose, Calif.: In 2025, the race for global battery supremacy will intensify amid growing demand across sectors like transportation and A.I. The battle for lithium-ion batteries is lost to China, but the future depends on next-generation technologies that outperform them. I hope the United States leads in this new era of energy storage. Colson Whitehead, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author: I have no hopes for 2025. Humanity is disappointing. We killed the Earth. Villains triumph and the innocents suffer. I imagine these trends will continue.
January 3, 2025 at 10:01 PM
maggiegram.bsky.social
Somehow this is happening, and it’s even available to pre-order. 😫

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
The Invention of Design: A Twentieth-Century History a book by Maggie Gram
A critical history of the idea of design--and its utopian promise Design has penetrated every dimension of contemporary society, from classrooms to statehouses to corporate boardrooms. It's seen as ...
bookshop.org
January 3, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
cydharrell.bsky.social
🥰🙏 I don't promote my book as much now that I work in government, but I did write one & I believe it's still pretty useful as we enter a time of major shifts & messy information in both government & tech

www.goodreads.com/book/show/55...
January 1, 2025 at 10:19 PM
maggiegram.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/28/w...
Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Worsens Amid Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Push: What to Know (Gift Article)
Human rights organizations and residents describe the situation in the enclave as getting more desperate. Here is a closer look.
www.nytimes.com
December 28, 2024 at 11:45 PM
maggiegram.bsky.social
Things are going well www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/o... (thx @zey.bsky.social)
Opinion | A Bird Flu Pandemic Would Be One of the Most Foreseeable Catastrophes in History
It’s not too late for President Biden to give the U.S. a life-changing gift.
www.nytimes.com
November 30, 2024 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
lukelukeluke.bsky.social
Here are some nice mushrooms
A moss speckled tree branch lies above a forest floor of fallen oak leaves, several large colonies of white Splitgill mushroom grow toward the camera, their swirling gills creating flowing patterns on varied scales. Photo taken by me December 2023
November 12, 2024 at 1:46 PM
maggiegram.bsky.social
@elapostrophe.bsky.social is this a places journal stan account
November 13, 2024 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Maggie Gram
notalawyer.bsky.social
fundamentally this is what Trump administrations are all about: the guys. there will be new guys every week. they will startle you, you'll be astounded by them, and then as quickly as they appeared they will fade into an indistinguishable mass, leaves on the forest floor.
chrislhayes.bsky.social Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · Nov 13
Trump choosing a Fox anchor to be Secretary of Defense is my first real "is this a dream?" moment since election day.
November 13, 2024 at 12:39 AM