Episode 6: Kira Gould & Lindsay Baker - Design the Future Podcast Review

Kira Gould and Lindsay Baker host a sort of cousin podcast to this one. It’s called Design the Future and it chronicles women leaders who are doing great sustainability work within the built environment. They've produced more than 20 episodes in 2020, and their guest list is a rock star roster. I've listened to nearly all of their conversations and love the inspiring stories they've featured. So I thought it'd be fun to compare notes and hear what Kira and Lindsay have been learning. We chat about career paths, leadership styles, and mentors. We grapple with the seasons, reminisce about in-person gatherings, and discuss how we're forging through the pandemic.

Kira Gould is a writer and strategist who touches design leadership, climate action, and climate justice. She is a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030 and serves on the AIA Committee on the Environment national Advisory Group. Kira co-authored Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design with Lance Hosey in 2007. She has directed communications for two design shops—William McDonough + Partners and Gould Evans—and served as Managing Editor at Metropolis magazine.

Lindsay Baker is a real estate industry veteran with a background in building science, sustainability, and technology. She most recently led the creation of the Sustainability and Impact group at WeWork. Prior to that, she helped found Comfy, a smart buildings software company. She has also worked at Google, the US Green Building Council, and as a researcher of the built environment at UC Berkeley. She serves on a number of for-profit and non-profit boards, including Measurabl and SPUR—the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.