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PODCAST

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.

arts design

All Episodes

22:25

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

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/08/04

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?

en

20:27

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

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/30

Roland Barthes asked why some images become personal while others remain surface. AI makes that old question newly urgent for all of us.

en

28:20

The Whole Life of a Thing (on Piet Oudolf)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/28

Piet Oudolf treats change, wear, and decline as design materials, revealing what becomes possible when we stop optimizing for the perfect moment.

en

30:39

Product design is not art (on the Ulm School)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/27

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.

en

22:10

I brought myself with me (on travel)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/26

You fly somewhere to become new, but the self you fled packs itself in your luggage — so what were you ever really flying for?

en

26:40

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

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/25

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?

en

29:00

The wick is only string (on making do)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/23

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?

en

31:51

Craft you never notice (on the car interior)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/22

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.

en

25:51

Through smoke (on perfume)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/21

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?

en

27:00

The prepared mind saw nothing (on scenario planning)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/20

The prepared mind that supposedly saw the 1973 oil shock coming got the timing wrong — so what did all that imagining actually prepare?

en

27:11

Every inside corner is round (on corner radius)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/17

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?

en

24:09

It felt like knowing (on learning)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/16

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?

en

32:24

The hammer that expands (on sheet metal)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/14

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?

en

27:06

Beautiful things are difficult (on beauty)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/13

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.

en

25:45

Fine is not a feeling (on feeling more)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/08

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?

en

26:15

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

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/07

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.

en

29:14

The shape that fits no hand (on ergonomic design)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/06

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.

en

26:39

Wanting was never the missing piece (on task initiation)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/05

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.

en

24:36

Wood turned against itself (on plywood)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/05

How does gluing weak veneers crosswise make something strong, and why do we quietly look down on a material honest about how it was built?

en

25:55

The poem and the payment (on Rural Studio)

Soft Ratios Research ·

2026/07/05

When a charitable building is also beautiful, what are we really moved by: the help itself, or the flattering picture of ourselves helping?

en

47 results

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