Design Matters with Debbie Millman · Design Matters Media

20th Anniversary celebration with graphic novelists Chris Ware, Alison Bechdel, Roz Chast, Seth and Lynda Barry

August 25, 2025·40 min·3 clips

Chris Ware explains why 'graphic novel' sounds like a filthy book and prefers the word cartoonist.

Twenty years gives the hour its frame. Debbie gathers earlier conversations with graphic novelists and lets the form do some of the talking. The celebration stays quiet, which suits it. The cold open drifts through art school doubt, expression, story, jokes, and that slightly awkward label, graphic novel. Debbie keeps circling back to where the work began. The strongest excerpt belongs to Roz Chast. She remembers her parents, their visits, her break from Brooklyn, and the years when work and young children took up most of the room. Nobody gets a clean pardon here. When Debbie brings up Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant, she places the book between public praise and private weight. Chast pushes away the idea of catharsis. The book was a way to remember her parents, to keep their voices intact, and to hold the experience instead of rinsing it away. Debbie listens gently, but she does not sand off the hard parts. Chast was reluctant. Her parents resisted care. She cared for them anyway. The answer stays messy. Chast says the trouble with her mother went back much earlier than old age, past any single caregiving season. Brooklyn shifts too. It is no longer just a place on a map. It is where her parents are not anymore, so going back means something different. The anniversary frame gives that sadness more room. Debbie ends by thanking the creative people and listeners who made the show possible. Her final thought keeps things plain: making a difference has to show up in what people say and what they do.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Design Matters with Debbie Millman