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In this episode, Lyssia sits down with architect, researcher, and author Ann Sussman to explore how the spaces around us shape the way we feel, move, and behave, often before we are consciously aware of it. Drawing from her work in cognitive architecture, neuroscience, and eye tracking, Ann looks at what our brains are actually responding to when we experience a building, a street, or a city. The conversation explores the idea that humans may be far more instinctive than we realize. Ann explains why our brains are naturally drawn to faces, contrast, color, and certain visual patterns, and how tools like eye tracking can reveal what captures our attention within the first few seconds of entering a space. She also looks at why industries like technology, advertising, and automotive design have become so sophisticated at understanding human emotion while architecture has been slower to embrace the same science. They take the conversation deeper into one of Ann’s most provocative ideas: the connection between war, trauma, and the rise of modern architecture. Ann explores how the destruction of World War I and World War II created an urgent need to rebuild, and how the personal experiences of architects who lived through war may have influenced the buildings and cities that followed. They ask what happens when design is shaped during periods of enormous disruption—and how much of that legacy we may still be living with today. Lyssia and Ann also examine the health consequences of the environments we have built. From highways and car-dependent neighborhoods to narrow sidewalks and places where walking has become difficult or unsafe, Ann argues that architecture is not simply about the buildings themselves. It is also about whether we can walk to a café, whether children can bike to school, whether older adults can remain independent, and whether our surroundings support the way human bodies were designed to move. The conversation moves into walkability, longevity, stress, social connection, public transportation, and the difference between places built around people and places built around cars. Ann points to cities like Paris and Copenhagen as examples of environments that increasingly prioritize pedestrians, bicycles, and everyday human interaction, while asking what American cities may need to rethink as the population ages. Ann also shares the work of the Human Architecture + Planning Institute, a nonprofit focused on understanding the human experience of the built environment through education and research, including eye-tracking and biometric studies. Its courses bring together neuroscience, psychology, architecture, and design to better understand how people actually experience the places around them. By the end of this episode, you may start looking at the built environment differently and asking a bigger question: if our surroundings are constantly shaping our nervous systems, our behavior, and even our health, why are we still designing as though they are only something to look at? More Room to Think: Ann Sussman / Human Architecture + Planning Institute Website: https://www.thehapi.org/ HAPI Courses: https://geneticsofdesign.com/2026/07/30/looking-for-a-happy-summer-check-out-these-hapi-courses-bridging-the-arts-sciences/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T13cAmFcHHc Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with architect, leadership coach, and best-selling author Diane Van Buren to explore what Rome can teach us about beauty, architecture, and the way we live today. Drawing from her years living in Rome and her background in architecture, Diane looks at why the city’s piazzas, fountains, public spaces, and handcrafted details still feel so powerful centuries later. The conversation explores what the Romans understood about human scale, belonging, beauty, and civic life. Diane explains why piazzas act as “people magnets,” why pedestrian spaces can feel more restorative, and why public beauty can do more than simply decorate a city. She also talks about the way Roman architecture communicated permanence, power, luxury, and identity, and why those ideas still shape how we experience buildings today. They take the conversation deeper into some of Rome’s most enduring design lessons, including the Pantheon and the engineering behind its unreinforced concrete dome. Diane explains how Roman concrete was designed to strengthen over time and why the craftsmanship, proportion, and durability of ancient buildings continue to stand in such sharp contrast to much of what we build now. Lyssia and Diane also explore what may have been lost along the way. From the decline of ornamentation and handmade detail to the rise of car-centered cities, repetitive materials, and buildings designed around speed and efficiency, they look at how modern spaces can become disconnected from the people who actually use them. The conversation also moves into fountains, sculpture, public art, craftsmanship, city squares, and the role beauty can play in everyday life. Diane explains why spending time in thoughtful public spaces can create room to slow down, observe, process, and reconnect, and why beauty does not have to be grand or expensive to have an impact. By the end of this episode, you may start looking at the places around you differently and asking a bigger question: if Rome got so much right about how people gather, move, and experience beauty, what have we forgotten about how to build? More Room to Think: Diane Van Buren LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurel-diane-van-buren-14698315/ Website: https://thrivingvisionaries.com/ Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Elizabeth and Rich Landry, the husband-and-wife team behind Kensington Design House, to explore what may be hiding beneath the surface of a beautiful home. Bringing together Elizabeth’s background in psychology and science-informed design with Rich’s architectural perspective, they look at the ways our homes can quietly affect our health, stress levels, habits, and everyday lives. The conversation explores why a home can look beautiful and still work against you. Elizabeth and Rich explain how clutter, poor lighting, awkward layouts, lack of connection to nature, and everyday points of friction can shape the way we feel without us always realizing why. They also discuss the idea that we often adapt ourselves to our homes instead of asking whether our homes should be adapting to us. They take the conversation deeper into some of the parts of the home we rarely think about, including indoor air quality and HVAC systems. Rich explains why the air moving through most residential HVAC systems is largely recirculated rather than fresh outdoor air, why filters need more attention than many homeowners realize, and how poor ventilation, humidity, pollutants, and improper maintenance can create problems that may be completely invisible. Elizabeth and Rich also break down their Home Environment Study, which looks beyond aesthetics to evaluate how a space is actually performing. From lighting levels and air quality to circulation, comfort, clutter, and emotional response, they explain why understanding what is happening in a home can help uncover problems we may have simply learned to live with. The conversation also moves into biophilic design, texture, materials, natural light, aging in place, and the small changes that can make a home feel dramatically different without requiring a full renovation. Sometimes the answer is not more square footage or more furniture, but a better layout, fewer obstacles, more intentional light, or simply paying attention to where friction shows up in your daily routine. By the end of this episode, you may start looking past how your home appears and paying closer attention to how it actually makes you feel, function, and live. More Room to Think: Kensington Design House Website: https://www.kensingtondesignhouse.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kensington.designhouse Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Julian Treasure, leading expert on sound, communication, and the power of listening, to explore something most of us rarely think about: how the sounds around us shape the way we feel, focus, communicate, and live. Julian explains why sound deserves just as much attention in design as color, texture, lighting, and layout. We may stop consciously noticing the hum of an HVAC system, traffic outside the window, or conversations happening around us, but that doesn’t necessarily mean our brains have stopped processing them. He breaks down why the human voice is one of the most distracting sounds, why open-plan offices can make it harder to concentrate, and why the spaces we spend our time in are often designed for the eyes while largely ignoring the ears. The conversation also explores the hidden effects of living in an increasingly noisy world. Julian discusses how noise can affect sleep, stress, productivity, hearing, and health, and why restaurants, offices, schools, and even our homes can become louder than we realize. They also discuss whether noise-canceling headphones are really a solution, why natural sounds like birdsong can help create a better environment, and what architects and designers can do to make spaces more acoustically comfortable. Most importantly, this episode offers a practical way to start listening to your own space. Julian shares a simple exercise for evaluating any room by asking three questions: Is it healthy? Is it helpful? And does it make me happy? From quieter appliances and better acoustic treatments to curtains, ceilings, and the sounds we choose to surround ourselves with, small changes can completely shift the experience of a room. Because sometimes the biggest problem in a space isn’t what you see. It’s what you hear. More Room to Think: Julian Treasure Website: https://www.juliantreasure.com/ Communication Skills Assessment: https://studio.com/apps/juliantreasure/mcc?ref=juliantreasure&code=a The Listening Society: https://www.thelisteningsociety.community/ Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Dr. Anjan Chatterjee, neurologist, cognitive neuroscientist, and founding director of the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics at the University of Pennsylvania, to explore what actually happens in the brain when we experience beauty—and why some spaces simply feel better than others. Dr. Chatterjee breaks down the science of neuroaesthetics and explains how our brains respond to people, places, art, architecture, and the environments around us. He introduces the aesthetic triad—the sensory, emotional, and meaning-based systems that shape what we find beautiful—and explains why beauty is far more personal than we may realize. What feels calming, interesting, or inviting to one person can feel completely different to another depending on memory, culture, experience, and personality. The conversation also explores the three qualities Dr. Chatterjee’s research has identified in our experience of space: coherence, fascination, and hominess. They discuss why some rooms immediately draw us in, why others overwhelm us, and what actually makes a space feel like home. Dr. Chatterjee also explains how ceiling height, curves, openness, noise, and even the layout of an environment can influence the way we feel and behave, often without us consciously noticing it. Most importantly, this episode offers a different way to think about design. Rather than following a trend or trying to create a universally “beautiful” room, Dr. Chatterjee encourages us to pay closer attention to our own reactions. How does this space make me feel? Do I want to stay here? Does it feel comfortable, interesting, or overwhelming? Because when it comes to the spaces around us, the brain may be responding long before we ever put that feeling into words. More Room to Think: Dr. Anjan Chatterjee + Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics: https://neuroaesthetics.med.upenn.edu/ Psychology Today — Brain, Behavior, and Beauty: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-behavior-and-beauty LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjan-chatterjee-4131734 Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Dan D’Agostino, founder and principal architect of Plan Architecture, to explore what it really means to design a custom home. Working across architecture and interiors, Dan has built his practice around a “curb to counter” approach, thinking through everything from how a house sits on the land to how someone moves through the kitchen, and his work asks a deceptively simple question: what if your home was designed around the way you actually live? The conversation centers on why true customization goes far beyond choosing finishes, adding square footage, or pulling inspiration from Pinterest. Dan explains why his process starts with more personal questions: how do you want to feel when you pull into your driveway? What do you want guests to think when they walk through the front door? Do you want to wake up with the sun? How far are you willing to walk from your bed to the bathroom at night? For Dan, these details are not small at all. They are the foundation of a home that feels specific to the person living in it. Dan also shares why designing a home can start to feel a lot like therapy. From separate bedrooms and bathrooms to a three-story slide, he explains why the best custom projects happen when clients are honest about what they want, even when those requests are unconventional. The conversation also looks at how social media and AI are changing the design process, why inspiration images can sometimes make homes less original, and why a beautiful AI rendering can still fail when it meets the realities of structure, light, code, and daily life. By the end of this episode, you may realize that the real luxury in a custom home is not having more space or more expensive finishes. It is having a home that understands you. More Room to Think: Plan Architecture Website: https://www.plnarc.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/planarchitecture Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with astrologer Anthony Perrotta, founder of AP Astrology, to explore the surprising connection between astrology and the spaces we live in. With a background in fashion, interior design, marketing, and more than 16 years of studying astrology, Anthony looks at birth charts not as fortune-telling, but as a way to understand patterns, preferences, and the environments that may feel most natural to us. The conversation breaks down what a birth chart can actually reveal about the way we live. Anthony explains why the sun sign is only one small part of the picture, and how the moon, rising sign, Venus, elemental balance, and even the fourth house can offer clues about comfort, aesthetics, color, materials, and the way we experience home. They also explore why some people are instinctively drawn to certain textures, objects, layouts, and design styles without always knowing why. Anthony also takes Lyssia through all 12 zodiac signs and shares what each might need from a space, from the boldness and natural light of Aries to the softness of Taurus, the flexibility of Gemini, the nostalgia of Cancer, the drama of Scorpio, and the sensory, artistic nature of Pisces. Along the way, they talk about why trends can sometimes pull us away from our own taste, how astrology can be used as a tool for more personal design decisions, and why your moon sign may be one of the best places to start if you want your home to feel more like you. The conversation also moves beyond interiors into Mercury retrograde, eclipses, Saturn returns, trend forecasting, and the idea that astrology may be more useful as an anticipatory tool than a predictive one. Anthony explains why astrology should not be something that makes us feel powerless, but something we can choose to work with while still keeping our own agency firmly intact. By the end of this episode, you may start looking at your home a little differently—and wondering how much of your design style was written in the stars all along. More Room to Think: Anthony Perrotta Website / Readings: https://www.perrotta.co/bookings Substack: https://anthonyperrotta.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ap_astrology/ Cosmic Reflections Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Reflections-Astrological-Intentions-Everyday/dp/157863945X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9NKQEAYXTF41&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RmUHvnDvHdQQUie02kr1PUSNPtlx-abgl2JAEgdvOKu_Uv4CHyB9-JmJdUF4PbpAxfaDKDKy8Repc8JyS-KvmeAAWTJyW9idmKxIIFSxmJU.-EmFbiIcagZlJNSiWkg15lgJzpeLqS1Hv37q9MxLH9w&dib_tag=se&keywords=anthony%2Bperrotta&qid=1784914341&sprefix=anthony%2Bperrott%2Caps%2C200&sr=8-1 Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cosmic-reflections-anthony-perrotta/1150439587?ean=9781578639458 Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In the first episode of season two, Lyssia sits down with Dr. Mariana Figueiro, director of the Light and Health Research Center at Mount Sinai and one of the leading researchers in light and human health, to explore how light shapes far more than what we see. Originally trained as an architect, Dr. Figueiro has spent her career studying how light affects our circadian rhythms, sleep, mood, alertness, and long-term health, and her work asks a simple, overlooked question: what if the light in your home is quietly working against you? The conversation centers on why Dr. Figueiro describes light almost like a drug. Like medication, she explains, light needs a dose, a timing, and a regularity to work in your favor, and getting the timing wrong can disrupt sleep just as easily as the right timing improves it. They break down what that means in practice: how much light the eye actually needs, why the first hour after waking matters most, and why dimming the hours before bed matters nearly as much as brightening the ones after. Dr. Figueiro also shares what years of applied research have shown, from redesigning lighting aboard US Navy submarines to help sailors sleep and stay alert on shift, to her long-running work in nursing homes, where increasing daytime light improved mood, reduced agitation, and lowered fall rates in patients with Alzheimer's disease. The conversation also pushes back on a few popular assumptions: why blue light glasses and screen filters are often oversold, why a dim room can look bright enough to fool your eyes while doing nothing for your body clock, and why red light seems to work more like a cup of coffee than a sleep aid. By the end of this episode, you may realize that better sleep has less to do with what you do right before bed and more to do with the light you let in hours before you even think about it. More Room to Think: Dr. Mariana Figueiro LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariana-figueiro-694632150/ Light and Health Research Center at Mount Sinai: https://icahn.mssm.edu/research/light-health LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/light-and-health-research-center-mount-sinai/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Light.and.Health.Research.Center.Mount.Sinai X: https://x.com/LightSinai/ Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this special Season One Rewind episode, Lyssia revisits some of the most thought-provoking conversations from Room to Think to explore the invisible forces that can shape how a home feels. Featuring Kimberly Gallagher, Danijela Saponjic, Tami Sharp, and France Brunel, this episode moves between feng shui, energy, clutter, Ayurveda, materials, and the nervous system to ask a deceptively simple question: why can we sometimes feel a room before we have consciously noticed anything about it? Kimberly Gallagher explains her approach to feng shui and why she thinks of it as something like “acupuncture for the home.” She shares how the idea of energy moving through a space changed the way she understood her own centuries-old cottage, including the unlikely connection she made between Wi-Fi struggling to travel through thick walls and the possibility of energy feeling similarly blocked. For Kimberly, the goal is not simply rearranging furniture, but creating a home that feels supportive, balanced, and able to flow. Danijela Saponjic takes that idea further with one of the simplest principles in the episode: clutter clearing moves energy, and energy moves opportunity. She explains why entrances matter in feng shui and how she approaches a home not only for the life someone is living now, but for the life they hope to create. Rather than simply making a vision board, she encourages people to consider whether their space is physically making room for what comes next. Tami Sharp brings the conversation back to something immediately recognizable: the feeling of relief when you walk through your own front door. She explains why a home should function as a sanctuary and how clutter, darkness, furniture placement, technology, and even the position of a desk can subtly change how a space feels. Her advice starts small. Instead of trying to overhaul an entire house, clear one drawer, organize one area, or address the part of your home that consistently makes you feel stuck. France Brunel connects these ideas to Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, and explains how she has adapted its principle of counterbalancing into her work as an interior designer. If someone already runs anxious, for example, she may introduce heavier woods, thick rugs, tactile surfaces, matte finishes, and grounding materials. If someone feels sluggish or depleted, lighter forms and reflective surfaces may bring more brightness and movement into the room. France also explains why designing a home cannot be separated from the environment outside it. Having lived in places including New York and France, she considers the energy and pace of a city when designing the space someone returns to at the end of the day. A home, in that sense, does not exist in a vacuum. It can counterbalance the world outside and give the body something different when it comes back in. Across these conversations, the language changes—feng shui, Ayurveda, energy, psychology, intuition—but the question underneath it stays remarkably similar: what is your space doing to you before you consciously notice it? You may not be able to see everything that shapes the feeling of a room. But your body may already be paying attention. More Room to Think: Kimberly Gallagher — Your Home Has A Personality https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/your-home-has-a-personality Danijela Saponjic — The Hidden Forces of Feng Shui https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/the-hidden-forces-of-feng-shui Tami Sharp — What Lingers in a Space https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/what-lingers-in-a-space France Brunel — Ayurveda for Your Home https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/ayurveda-for-your-home Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this special Season One Rewind episode, Lyssia revisits some of the most memorable conversations from Room to Think to explore the connection between home, memory, and identity. Featuring Juhani Pallasmaa, Shavonda Gardner, Amber Dunford, Adam Trest, Miriam Carpenter, Maggie Wilkerson, Emily Campbell, and Dr. Esther Sternberg, this episode looks at why certain places, objects, materials, and rituals stay with us long after childhood—and how they continue shaping the homes we create as adults. Juhani Pallasmaa reflects on the childhood experiences that shaped his philosophy of architecture and why home exists not only physically, but through memory, imagination, and feeling. He shares the powerful memory of seeing the light of his childhood home through a dark forest and feeling safe before he had even reached the door. Shavonda Gardner remembers her grandmother’s small Louisiana home, a place that felt enormous because of the love, family, and life that filled it. That experience continues to influence how she designs today, beginning with how a space should feel rather than simply how it should look. Amber Dunford takes that idea further, explaining how childhood spaces can become emotional anchors and how listeners can begin noticing the environments that make them feel calm, comfortable, energized, or unsettled. Adam Trest shares how seeing foxes behind his childhood home became a family symbol that he now carries into his own home through art and wallpaper. Miriam Carpenter traces her connection to wood back to the enormous oak tree outside her childhood window and early memories of her grandfather’s workshop. Maggie Wilkerson explores why hand-me-down furniture, vintage pieces, and objects with a past can make a home feel deeply personal. She shares the story of finding a wrought-iron bench in Mexico and learning its history directly from the family who had owned it, showing how an object can carry one family’s story into another. Emily Campbell explains why she asks clients to think about their favorite place on earth and the feeling they associate with it, rather than beginning with an aesthetic. For her, that place is a family cabin in northern Michigan that represents connection, joy, ease, and a slower pace of life. Dr. Esther Sternberg closes the episode by reflecting on why a village in Crete felt instantly familiar to her. The food, accents, community, nature, and rhythms of daily life reminded her of the way she had been raised, revealing how a place can feel like home because it echoes something already stored in our memory. Across these conversations, one idea keeps returning: home is rarely just about design. It is about safety, belonging, familiarity, connection, and the experiences we carry with us. Our homes do not simply hold our memories. Our memories help build our homes. More Room to Think: Juhani Pallasmaa — Architecture Beyond the Eyes https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/architecture-beyond-the-eyes Shavonda Gardner — Space Beyond Square Footage https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/space-beyond-square-footage Amber Dunford — How Childhood Designs Your Home https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/how-childhood-designs-your-home Adam Trest — Foxes, Folk Art, and the Feel of Home https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/foxes-folk-art-and-the-feel-of-home Miriam Carpenter — The Emotional Life of Wood https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/the-emotional-life-of-wood Maggie Wilkerson — The Art of a Collected Home https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/the-art-of-a-collected-home Emily Campbell — A Home That Feels Like You https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/a-home-that-feels-like-you Dr. Esther Sternberg — The Spaces That Heal Us https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/the-spaces-that-heal-us Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this special Season One Rewind episode, Lyssia revisits some of the most compelling conversations from Room to Think to explore the science behind why spaces make us feel the way they do. Bringing together insights from Dr. Sally Augustin, Dr. Esther Sternberg, Dr. Anja Jamrozik, Dr. Kati Peditto, and Professor Justin Hollander, this episode looks beyond aesthetics to understand how our surroundings affect attention, stress, comfort, health, and the way the brain processes the world around us. The conversation breaks down what is actually happening when a room feels calming, distracting, overwhelming, or strangely uncomfortable. Dr. Sally Augustin explains why clutter can quietly consume our mental processing power and make it harder to focus, while also revealing why spaces that are too empty can create their own kind of stress. She explores how principles of biophilic design, including natural light, natural materials, greenery, views, and gentle sensory stimulation, can help create environments that feel more supportive to the human brain. Dr. Esther Sternberg takes the conversation deeper into the connection between environment, stress, and physical health. Drawing from decades of research into the relationship between the brain and immune system, she explains how chronic stress can influence the body and why the places we spend time in can either contribute to that stress or help us recover from it. She also shares the personal experience that transformed her own understanding of healing spaces, when a period spent living more slowly in Crete, surrounded by nature, movement, healthy food, community, fresh air, and sensory richness, coincided with a dramatic improvement in her health. The episode also explores the elements of a space that are easy to overlook because we cannot always see them. Dr. Anja Jamrozik explains why a room can look beautiful and still be difficult to inhabit when acoustics, temperature, air quality, smell, privacy, or the presence of other people have not been considered. She describes the mismatch that can occur when spaces are designed primarily through renderings and visual models rather than through the full physical experience of actually being there. Dr. Kati Peditto offers practical ways to make everyday spaces feel more comfortable without undertaking a major renovation. From adding rugs, canvas, and other acoustic materials to reducing glare, adjusting task lighting, improving temperature control, and replacing fluorescent lighting, she explains how relatively small changes can reduce sensory strain and create a greater sense of personal control. These interventions can be particularly important for neurodivergent people, but many of them can improve comfort and cognitive function for anyone. The conversation also looks at the surprising ways human perception may influence what feels familiar or reassuring in the built environment. Professor Justin Hollander explains how the brain is constantly searching for recognizable visual patterns, including face-like forms that may be deeply rooted in early human development. He explores how these unconscious preferences can appear in architecture, design, and even decorative details, influencing how we respond to a place before we can explain why. Across these conversations, one idea keeps returning: we do not experience space only through what we see. We experience it through attention, emotion, sound, temperature, movement, memory, biology, and the nervous system. A room is never simply sitting around us. It is constantly interacting with the body and brain. By the end of this episode, you may start to notice your surroundings differently, not simply asking whether a space looks good, but whether it helps you focus, relax, recover, connect, and feel like yourself. Because when you understand the science of feeling, you begin to realize that the spaces around you are shaping you all the time. More Room to Think: Dr. Sally Augustin — Our Prehistoric Brains at Home https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/our-prehistoric-brains-at-home Dr. Esther Sternberg — The Spaces That Heal Us https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/the-spaces-that-heal-us Dr. Anja Jamrozik — When Design Becomes the Problem https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/when-design-becomes-the-problem Dr. Kati Peditto — Designing for Neurodivergent Minds https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/designing-for-neurodivergent-minds Professor Justin Hollander — Designing Places That Feel Human https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/episodes/designing-places-that-feel-human Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Hollis Callas, a California-based illustrator, muralist, and designer, to explore how art, nature, memory, and personal expression can bring a space to life. Working across illustration, textiles, tile, interiors, and large-scale murals, Hollis creates art rooted in the natural world and in the small experiences that make a place feel meaningful. From flowers sketched on neighborhood walks to birds painted across the sides of buildings, her work asks what happens when the spaces around us begin to tell a story. The conversation breaks down why so many homes today feel polished but strangely impersonal. Hollis explains how social media has made people increasingly concerned with whether they are decorating correctly, often replacing their own instincts with trends, references, and rooms that already exist online. They explore why so many spaces are beginning to look the same, what gets lost when we design for approval, and why a home feels more soulful when it contains evidence of the person actually living there. Hollis also shares how murals can completely transform the experience of a place. She describes how an unexpected opportunity to paint her first mural led to projects inside homes, hospitality spaces, neighborhood bars, and across the exterior of a three-story building. They discuss why public art can create a stronger sense of care and identity within a neighborhood, how murals become landmarks people feel emotionally attached to, and how color and artwork can even encourage drivers to slow down and make a street feel safer. The conversation also explores the relationship between art and permanence. Drawing from her background in ceramics and her award-winning tile collection with LiLi Tile, Hollis reflects on the objects and images humans have used to tell their stories for thousands of years. From ancient pottery and the mosaics of Pompeii to contemporary murals and decorative tile, they discuss how the things we place on our walls and floors can reveal what we valued, what brought us joy, and how we lived long after we are gone. Hollis also explains why creativity often requires giving yourself permission to make something ugly. In a culture focused on productivity, perfection, and immediate results, she shares why experimentation can feel wasteful even when it is essential to the creative process. They discuss how constantly searching for inspiration online can quietly replace original thought, why some of the most successful ideas begin without a practical outcome in mind, and how making space to play can lead to work that would never emerge from trying to predict what other people will like. Nature is another central part of the conversation. Hollis shares how growing up around gardens in Georgia and spending much of her life outdoors shaped the subjects, colors, and feelings within her work. She explains why observing plants, animals, and changing seasons can help us slow down, reconnect with our senses, and notice the small transformations happening around us every day. They also explore why bringing plants, natural imagery, and organic materials into a home can create a greater sense of calm, curiosity, and life. Hollis offers practical advice for anyone struggling to make their home feel personal. Rather than beginning with what a room should look like, she suggests asking how you want it to make you feel. From there, color, artwork, objects, photographs, plants, and materials can be chosen based on the memories and emotions they carry. Whether it is a handmade mug collected while traveling, a photograph from a meaningful day, or a painting that simply makes you laugh, the most powerful pieces in a home are often the ones that could not belong to anyone else. By the end of this episode, you may realize that your home does not need to look more perfect. It may need more evidence of your life: the places you have been, the things you have noticed, the people you love, and the stories you want your walls to keep telling. More Room to Think: Hollis Callas Website: https://www.holliscallas.com/ Tile Collection: https://lilitile.com/collections/hollis-callas-cement-tiles Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Professor Beatriz Colomina, architectural historian, theorist, author, and professor at Princeton University, to explore the hidden forces shaping the spaces we live in and what those spaces reveal about us. Known for her groundbreaking work connecting architecture with media, medicine, sexuality, technology, and modern life, Beatriz has spent her career challenging the idea that architecture is simply about buildings. Instead, she argues that our spaces are psychological, cultural, biological, and constantly changing alongside the way we live. The conversation breaks down why the idea of “home” has always been psychological. Beatriz explains why feeling at home has less to do with being inside a particular house and more to do with feeling comfortable, protected, and connected to the world around us. They explore how architecture functions as a form of media, how everything from cinema and television to smartphones has changed the way buildings frame our view of the world, and why the spaces around us are communicating far more than we may realize. Beatriz also shares one of the most surprising ways architecture may be affecting our health: through microbes. Drawing from her research into the relationship between buildings and bacteria, she explains how increasingly sealed, sterilized environments may be separating us from the microbial diversity humans depend on. They discuss why spending time outside matters, how access to nature can influence recovery and well-being, and why the architecture of the future may need to become more porous, open, and connected to other forms of life. The conversation also gets into a side of architecture rarely discussed: desire. Beatriz explains why sexuality and intimacy have always been architectural questions, and how Playboy became an unexpected force in popularizing modern design. From bachelor pads and round beds to Frank Gehry chairs and cutting-edge mid-century furniture, they explore how Playboy used architecture as part of a larger fantasy of seduction, and why our homes still operate as a form of identity and attraction today. They also unpack how moments of crisis reshape the way we live. Beatriz traces how epidemics helped create modern sewer systems, clean water infrastructure, parks, terraces, large windows, and ideas about ventilation, while wars accelerated technologies like radio and the telephone. They discuss how COVID normalized working, teaching, and socializing from home almost overnight, blurring the line between public and private life in ways that would have seemed unimaginable only a few years earlier. Beatriz also reflects on what happens when our homes become stages for our lives. From Zoom calls that suddenly revealed our bedrooms to TikTok videos carefully framed against architectural backdrops, we now show parts of our private spaces that previous generations worked hard to conceal. At the same time, she points to another defining architectural challenge of our era: loneliness. As more people live alone and more of our relationships move through screens, she asks whether architecture can create new ways for us to have solitude without losing connection. By the end of this episode, you may realize that architecture is shaping far more than where you live. It is influencing how you feel, how healthy you are, what you desire, what you reveal, how you connect with other people, and even what you consider private in the first place. More Room to Think: Professor Beatriz Colomina Princeton University: https://arc-hum.princeton.edu/people/beatriz-colomina We the Bacteria: https://triennale.org/en/events/we-the-bacteria-notes-toward-biotic-architecture Privacy and Publicity: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262032148/privacy-and-publicity/ Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Maggie Wilkerson, interior consultant and founder of Collected Home, to explore why a house can be filled with things you love and still not feel quite right. Known for helping people create thoughtful, layered interiors that feel cohesive without becoming overly designed, Maggie approaches decorating as both a creative practice and a form of problem-solving: understanding what you are drawn to, identifying what actually works in your space, and creating a framework that allows those choices to come together with intention. The conversation breaks down why “just buy what you love” is not always the helpful advice it appears to be. Maggie explains that loving each individual piece does not guarantee that those pieces will create a unified home. They explore the difference between having good taste and knowing how to edit it, why eclectic spaces still require structure, and how deciding what does not belong can be just as important as deciding what does. Maggie also explains why decorating can feel so emotionally overwhelming. A home is not only a collection of furniture and objects; it shapes how people feel, live, rest, work, and connect. At the same time, social media has created new pressure for homes to appear finished, impressive, and ready to be photographed. They discuss how constant exposure to influencers, trends, and marketing can make people question their own instincts, confuse inspiration with personal taste, and rush into choices simply because they want their spaces to feel complete. The conversation also makes the case for slow design. Maggie shares why placeholder furniture can be one of the most practical tools for creating a better home, allowing people to meet their immediate needs without committing to expensive pieces they do not truly love. Rather than panic-buying a sofa, dining table, or lamp simply because a room feels empty, she encourages using what you already have or choosing an affordable temporary piece while waiting for the right one. It is an approach that creates time, reduces pressure, and makes room for a home to evolve naturally. They also explore why shopping should often be the last step rather than the first. Maggie explains how mood boards, design muses, and a clearly defined style mix can act as guardrails before any purchase is made. She shares the idea of a “design detox,” temporarily stepping away from a store or platform that has become a creative crutch, whether that is Target, HomeGoods, or Amazon. By widening the places you look for furniture and decor, from local makers and Etsy sellers to antique stores and Facebook Marketplace, you begin to develop a more personal eye and create a home that does not feel sourced from a single aisle. Maggie also opens up about having aphantasia, the inability to create clear mental images in the mind’s eye, and how it has shaped the way she designs. Because she cannot simply imagine how a chair, wallpaper, or piece of art will look in a room, she relies on visual mock-ups and mood boards as a testing ground. She explains how tools like Canva, Spoak, and Freeform can help anyone make more confident decisions, especially when a room is being completed slowly and the final elements are not yet in place. The conversation also examines the warmth and meaning that vintage and antique pieces can bring into a home. Maggie shares why age, patina, craftsmanship, and history cannot be convincingly manufactured, and why even one older piece can give a room more character. From inherited furniture and vintage rugs to a wrought-iron bench made with a family’s initials, she explains how objects become more meaningful when they carry evidence of the lives that came before us. Throughout the episode, Maggie returns to the idea that a home should be designed inward rather than outward. The goal is not to create a space that looks like everyone else’s, impresses strangers online, or perfectly follows the latest trend. It is to create an environment that reflects the people who live there, supports the way they want to feel, and becomes more personal with time. By the end of this episode, you may realize that creating a home that feels like you is not about buying more, finishing faster, or having better taste. It is about learning how to edit, plan, collect, and trust the process long enough for every piece to earn its place. More Room to Think: Maggie Wilkerson Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maggiecwilkerson Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collected__home Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram

In this episode, Lyssia sits down with Emilie Munroe, founder and creative director of Studio Munroe, to explore what makes a beautifully designed room become a home people actually remember. Known for creating colorful, sophisticated, and deeply personal interiors, Emilie approaches design less as the creation of a signature look and more as an act of translation: understanding how someone lives, what they value, and what they may not yet recognize about themselves, then turning those clues into a space that feels unmistakably theirs. The conversation breaks down why designing one beautiful room is not enough, and why the real skill lies in connecting one room to the next. Emilie explains how shifts in color, pattern, material, and intensity can create a sense of rhythm throughout a home, allowing one space to feel bold and expressive while the next gives the eye somewhere to rest. They explore how contrast between hard and soft, curved and angular, playful and sophisticated can make a home feel layered and alive without becoming chaotic. Emilie also shares why a designer should do more than confirm the choices a client would have made on their own. From painting window frames black to covering powder rooms in unexpected wallpaper, she explains why the most rewarding design decisions often require a little trust and a willingness to move beyond what feels immediately comfortable. They discuss why people are often afraid to take risks at home, how a designer can push those boundaries with care, and why there is rarely anything interesting on the other side of playing it completely safe. The conversation also gets into how design shapes the way people interact. Emilie explains how hanging chairs, fire pits, conversation areas, music, and thoughtful layouts can encourage families and friends to spend more time together. She shares how designers can plan for changing families and future stages of life, why larger homes sometimes need more intentional places for intimacy, and how a home can become the backdrop for everything from quiet nights and family photographs to dinner parties, new relationships, and unexpected moments of connection. Emilie also makes the case for homes that feel polished without becoming precious. They explore why beautiful spaces should never feel like showrooms, how meaningful objects and evidence of real life give a room authenticity, and why a home does not need to be perfectly styled before people are invited inside. In a culture of curated tablescapes, endless inspiration images, and increasingly complicated technology, Emilie argues for something simpler: opening the door, putting on music, using paper towels as napkins, and letting the home support the life happening inside it. By the end of this episode, you may realize that the rooms people remember are not necessarily the most perfect or expensive. They are the ones with contrast, personality, surprise, and enough warmth to make people want to stay. More Room to Think: Emilie Munroe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiomunroe/ Website: https://www.studiomunroe.com/ Room to Think https://roomtothinkpodcast.com/ Loved this episode? Let us know! Subscribe to Room to Think If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review and share it with someone who would appreciate a more thoughtful approach to their space. New episodes every week. Build a better life by design. Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube | Instagram