Soft Ratios Research

Each episode, Hoyd Breton — a designer at Soft Ratios Studio — rounds up the research on something he wants to understand, and two synthetic voices read it back and work it through, the way one mind argues with itself, ending on a question. No host, nothing performed — just the thinking, a subject at a time. A public record of one person teaching himself to look more carefully.

30 episodes

17d ago latest

5x a week cadence

English language

▶ Play latestRSS feed Website Arts Design Education Self Improvement

https://feeds.softratios.com/podcast.xml

Episodes 34

Access was the product (on the Whole Earth Catalog)
3d ago · 19:57
What were a million and a half people really buying from a catalog that sold them almost nothing but a way to point past itself?
Intimacy draws its own architecture (on The Poetics of Space)
5d ago · 26:14
Why do architects treasure a book with no plans, no rules, nothing to build from? On the house you carry inside, not the one you drew.
Nothing left to take away (on John Pawson)
9d ago · 26:49
Why does an empty white room look like the easiest thing in the world, when it may be the most expensive and hard-won thing in the house?
The newspaper that stood up (on Josef Albers)
12d ago · 29:45
How can one crease make a newspaper stand, and when does using less reveal what paper can do instead of hiding the real cost?
The overlap belongs to both (on Language of Vision)
17d ago · 20:58
If the same trick that hides a warship also makes a picture refuse to resolve, which half of the man who taught both is really him?
What the eye paints over (on Teju Cole's Blind Spot)
19d ago · 20:36
Every eye is built with a blind spot the brain quietly paints over, so what if your clearest view of anything hides a hole you'll never find?
A theory of place turned against people (on broken windows)
23d ago · 26:53
A theory said fix the broken window to stop crime, so why did we spend forty years frisking the person standing near it instead?
The wound was always the first page (on Liu Cixin)
26d ago · 22:36
Liu Cixin built the coldest sky in fiction as a warning to be kinder on the ground. Why did the world keep the hunter and lose the warning?
Why some images stay with us (on Roland Barthes and AI)
1mo ago · 20:37
Roland Barthes asked why some images become personal while others remain surface. AI makes that old question newly urgent for all of us.
The whole life of a thing (on Piet Oudolf)
1mo ago · 28:32
Piet Oudolf treats change, wear, and decline as design materials, revealing what becomes possible when we stop optimizing for the perfect moment.
Product design is not art (on the Ulm School)
1mo ago · 30:56
If you can't prove why one chair feels right and a correct one feels dead, can method ever get under the feeling? On the Ulm School.
I brought myself with me (on travel)
1mo ago · 22:19
Travel begins with a common appetite for expansion: more world, more attention, more range. What lets a journey actually enlarge us?
The work behind the calm (on the back of house)
1mo ago · 26:50
A king's table sank through the floor so he'd never watch a servant work — when we hide the effort behind ease, who are we really protecting?
The wick is only string (on making do)
1mo ago · 29:10
We call it a knack — the born gift for fixing anything from a junk drawer. What if it's really just refusing to let the wick stay a wick?
Craft you never notice (on the car interior)
1mo ago · 32:02
When a door shuts with that deep thunk, can your hand tell real craft from theater? On the honesty you can't feel from the seat.
Through smoke (on perfume)
1mo ago · 26:00
Why does a smell drop you into a kitchen you left forty years ago faster than any photo — and why can't you trust what it shows you?
The prepared mind saw nothing (on scenario planning)
1mo ago · 27:10
The prepared mind that supposedly saw the 1973 oil shock coming got the timing wrong — so what did all that imagining actually prepare?
Every inside corner is round (on corner radius)
1mo ago · 27:19
A spinning cutter physically can't leave a sharp inside corner — so how much of the soft edge everywhere is necessity, and how much is fashion?
It felt like knowing (on learning)
1mo ago · 24:19
When the words go down smooth on a second read, is that the feeling of having learned them, or the exact reason you never really did?
The hammer that expands (on sheet metal)
1mo ago · 32:31
When no one can name the maker of an everyday metal object, is that the machine erasing the hand, or the hand doing its job so well it vanished?
Beautiful things are difficult (on beauty)
1mo ago · 27:12
Is beauty a ratio you could calculate, or the thing itself showing you there was never a reason to find? On an old and difficult question.
Fine is not a feeling (on feeling more)
1mo ago · 25:55
What if your steadiness isn't temperament but a habit you once learned, a way of staying safe that quietly costs you the feeling itself?
You can't tell on the shelf (on shibui)
1mo ago · 26:28
Some things you keep returning to on a hunch there's more there. The Japanese named that pull, shibui, and it starts with an astringent taste.
The shape that fits no hand (on ergonomic design)
1mo ago · 29:21
If no one actually has the average body, who are we designing for when we design for 'the average person'? On the shape that fits no hand.
Wanting was never the missing piece (on task initiation)
1mo ago · 26:50
What if the thing between you and the open file was never your character, but a barrier you could work to lower? The science of starting.

Episodes

Reading the feed…

More Arts shows

Soft Ratios Research

Episodes 34

Access was the product (on the Whole Earth Catalog)

Intimacy draws its own architecture (on The Poetics of Space)

Nothing left to take away (on John Pawson)

The newspaper that stood up (on Josef Albers)

The overlap belongs to both (on Language of Vision)

What the eye paints over (on Teju Cole's Blind Spot)

A theory of place turned against people (on broken windows)

The wound was always the first page (on Liu Cixin)

Why some images stay with us (on Roland Barthes and AI)

The whole life of a thing (on Piet Oudolf)

Product design is not art (on the Ulm School)

I brought myself with me (on travel)

The work behind the calm (on the back of house)

The wick is only string (on making do)

Craft you never notice (on the car interior)

Through smoke (on perfume)

The prepared mind saw nothing (on scenario planning)

Every inside corner is round (on corner radius)

It felt like knowing (on learning)

The hammer that expands (on sheet metal)

Beautiful things are difficult (on beauty)

Fine is not a feeling (on feeling more)

You can't tell on the shelf (on shibui)

The shape that fits no hand (on ergonomic design)

Wanting was never the missing piece (on task initiation)

Episodes

More Arts shows

Film Soceyology

The Batman Universe Comic Podcast

The Baen Free Radio Hour

Live Wire with Luke Burbank

Special Sauce with Ed Levine

Le Cochaux Show

Episodes 34

Access was the product (on the Whole Earth Catalog)

Intimacy draws its own architecture (on The Poetics of Space)

Nothing left to take away (on John Pawson)

The newspaper that stood up (on Josef Albers)

The overlap belongs to both (on Language of Vision)

What the eye paints over (on Teju Cole's Blind Spot)

A theory of place turned against people (on broken windows)

The wound was always the first page (on Liu Cixin)

Why some images stay with us (on Roland Barthes and AI)

The whole life of a thing (on Piet Oudolf)

Product design is not art (on the Ulm School)

I brought myself with me (on travel)

The work behind the calm (on the back of house)

The wick is only string (on making do)

Craft you never notice (on the car interior)

Through smoke (on perfume)

The prepared mind saw nothing (on scenario planning)

Every inside corner is round (on corner radius)

It felt like knowing (on learning)

The hammer that expands (on sheet metal)

Beautiful things are difficult (on beauty)

Fine is not a feeling (on feeling more)

You can't tell on the shelf (on shibui)

The shape that fits no hand (on ergonomic design)

Wanting was never the missing piece (on task initiation)