Launched in 2024, ARGANTO; Gabriele Devecchi - Between art and design is a six-episode podcast produced, co-written and narrated by David Plaisant for the Archive bearing this silversmith and polymath’s name in Milan.

Arganto was made possible by the Italian Council grant of  (the first to be awarded to a podcast), it tells the story of Devecchi, a nuanced and sometimes obscure figure in the history of Milanese design of the 20th century.

Accomplished biographer and arts writer Alberto Saibene and David speak to many of Devecchi’s contemporaries, fellow artists, designers, design historians and his friends and family in Milan, Karlsruhe, London, Manchester and even Brazil.

This very Italian story is told in English, and you’ll struggle to find a podcast (about art and design at least) like it anywhere…

Launched in November 2022, the second series of From the Moon continues the journey into knowledge and understanding. Using the tools (and brains) from the worlds of culture, design, science, philosophy and more besides to give a truly interdisciplinary approach to investigating universe. The podcast closely follows many of the themes of Triennale Milano’s 23rd International Exhibition “Unknown Unknowns; An Introduction to Mysteries”.

David chats with curators, creators and thinkers and tries to make sense of some enormous questions. He also asks if we need answers at all; maybe coexistence with the universe’s mysteries is a better path to understanding?

Push and Pull, the first episode of From the Moon Season 2, explores something so fundamental in our universe that we tend to think we know everything about it. From Newton’s falling apple, to the tidal pull of the Moon, gravity plays a central role as the greatest designer. But do we truly understand gravity? David explores the consequences of gravity and how they might work in perfect synchrony, or not.

Guests: Julijonas Urbonas (pictured), Lithuanian artist, designer, researcher, engineer, founder of the Lithuanian Space Agency and associate professor at the Vilnius Academy of Arts; Bosco Sodi, Mexican artist, and Camilo Oliveira, designer at Space Caviar.

The second episode of season 2 of From the Moon ventures into the great unknown, delving into three installations exhibited at Triennale Milano. Although all very different, together they help to see the speculative, investigative and cultural scope of the Unknown Unknowns theme. David speaks with Colin Koop, design partner in SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill); Susanna Hertrich, research-based artist; and art practitioner Ani Liu on her olfactory-focused work.

Photo credit: DSL Studio.

Launched in 2011, Monocle 24 gave radio a new lease of life as well as new audiences in the digital era. For David this was the best possible place to start his career in radio. By 2015 David had become Associate Producer, writing and producing (and sometimes presenting) two weekly podcasts: The Stack and Monocle on Design.

Since becoming Monocle’s Rome Correspondent in 2016, David has provided regular radio content. Some stories that stand out: exploring the architecture of Rome’s 1960 Olympic Village, a visit to the Casa Sperimentale, the design legacy of Alitalia, and then an investigation into Rome’s wild boar problem.

“B&B Italia enlisted journalist David Plaisant (who memorably interviewed architect Paolo Portoghesi for Wallpaper*) to curate its first podcast series, talking all things sofas and homes with leading design voices including Michael Anastassiades, Mario Bellini, Ivy Ross, and Philippe Starck. Topics of the 30-minute conversations include ideas on the home of the future, comfort and ergonomics and the impact of the sofa on popular culture, with focus episodes on B&B classics such as ‘Camaleonda’ and ‘Le Bambole’, two iconic Mario Bellini designs.”

Words by Rosa Bertoli from Wallpaper* magazine’s pick of the best design podcasts.

This 7-episode podcast series was produced by Triennale Milano and hosted by David Plaisant. It features contributions from MoMA curator Paola Antonelli, Forensic Architecture founder Eyal Weizman, bioacoustician Bernie Krause, urban thinker Ricky Burdett, and architects Shigeru Ban, Tatiana Bilbao and Assemble, the London based collective. A series of vital conversations expand and extrapolate the themes of the XXII Triennale di Milano titled Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival.

Launched in May 2021 by Triennale Milano, this ambitious podcast series aims to make sense of the world and the universe beyond that, from an imaginary radio studio on the moon. David Plaisant spoke to 30-plus guests all eminent in their fields; artists, architects, curators, astrophysicists, and even an astronaut. Each episode tries to look at a set of global topics in the realms of culture and science, seeking perspectives rather than answers.

On Episode 2 of From the Moon, we examine a Divided Planet. In the last episode It quickly became apparent that the peaceful picture of the blue and green planet that we observe - is just that - a picture. But should we question that sense of collectivity? As much as many guests observe a wonderful natural world that needs to be preserved, they also see a broken planet with many deep cracks.

In Episode 3 of From the Moon, David Plaisant “crosses borders” referring to a much-used figure of speech when looking at the globe. But rather than looking at borders as the traditional divisions between countries, nation states or cultures he attempts to find out what these demarcations, these artificial lines, these separations really look like from our human and often personal perspective.

For Episode 6 of From the Moon, we imagine a utopia or dystopia (depending on how you look at it): the world without humans, and the very final stages of the universe beyond that. Speaking to two philosophers, a biologist, a theatre director, an ecologist, an HIV AIDS specialist and more besides; this is the most interdisciplinary and thought-provoking episode yet