Curious by Design
Curious by Design is a podcast about how things get built, and why they end up the way they do.
Every product, city, system, and business is the result of a series of choices. Some intentional. Some accidental. Some brilliant. Some… less so.
Hosted by Jason Hardwick, this show explores the thinking behind the work: the history, the tradeoffs, the constraints, and the invisible decisions that shape the world around us. From design and engineering to culture, technology, and everyday systems we take for granted, each episode pulls on a single thread and follows it deeper than expected.
This isn’t a how-to podcast.
It’s a why-did-they-do-that podcast.
If you’ve ever looked at something and wondered how it came to be—or how it could’ve been designed better, you’re in the right place.
Welcome to Curious by Design.
Curious by Design
Bonus Episodes Are Here — A Curious by Design Announcement
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Every once in a while, we come across a topic that’s just too interesting to ignore.
Something strange.
Something unexpected.
Something that makes you stop and wonder… how did that end up like that?
But not every curious discovery fits neatly into a ten-minute episode.
So we’re introducing something new.
Bonus Subscriber Episodes.
These are additional explorations that live alongside the regular show — a little longer, a little deeper, and sometimes a little weirder.
Think of them as the side paths off the main trail of Curious by Design.
More stories.
More unexpected facts.
And more of the hidden design decisions shaping the world around us.
If you enjoy the show and want a few extra curiosities along the way, you can unlock the subscriber episodes right here in the feed.
Because once you start noticing how the world is designed…
you start seeing it everywhere.
And that’s Curious by Design.
