PODCAST · education
Learner Centered Design Education
by Soumitri Varadarajan
The course you design. The course you teach your students. Could be learner centered. Soumitri Varadarajan reflects upon 35 years of teaching Industrial Design. Examining what works. Wondering why he does things the way he does. Imagining that some of this could be useful to someone. Somewhere.Disclaimer: This is not a broadcast attempting to inform you. This is merely a portal into Soumitri's brain. Into his thought experiments. It is him questioning everything. It is him finding no answers. So go away! Do not listen to this! Stop being curious.
Episodes
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The Bricklayers and the PhD
Link to post on podcast site: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2026/06/09/the-bricklayers-and-the-phd/
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Examining a Practice Based PhD
This is where it all happens. https://practice-research.com/
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Time Traveller
I am trying this. Putting out episodes without the info and background about the episode. Let me see how this goes down.
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Founder Stories
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk_(Isaacson_book)
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Alladin's Lamp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin
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Rasa Theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasa_(aesthetics)
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Industrial Design by Compensation
Notes for this episode. I will make a webpage for this episode and periodically update the webpage with information about designers I find. 60 million: Jony Ive, 2011, 30 million + 30 million per year, Find me 5 others who earn this much today 30 Million: Franz von Halzhausen (Tesla Lead…
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Writing can be your superpower
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson Apple in China by Patrick McGee The Singularity is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil Invention by James Dyson The Big Con by Marian Mazzuccato
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Shadow Self
There are two texts on Derrida, on Artaud. https://kdoutsiderart.com/tag/antonin-artaud/ - For Artaud the works are intended as weapons, not commodities, but they become commodified in any event. How then to restore, to protect, their existence as “gestures, a verb, a grammar, an arithmetic, a...
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Book Chapter: Assemblages of Development
Web space for this episode: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2026/04/24/book-chapter-assemblages-of-development/ John Maeda's Tech Report: https://designintech.report/ Capgemini: https://www.capgemini.com/au-en/careers/career-paths/students-and-graduates/ D&I: https://www.design-industry.com.au/...
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Chance Processes
Also See Jones, J. C. (2021). designing designing (1st ed.).Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350070707 The Diceman speaks -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqSeFjaEczA Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man John Cage's 4'33'' explained: The music of...
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Assemblages of Development 1
This is the first episode on the topic - Assemblages of Development.
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I am going to Dubai
Dubai is a special kind of place. Following on from that statement is another similar statement - every place is a special kind of place. To go as an ethnographer, as a researcher, as a theorist is a very particular way to look at places. Places in this vein of thinking hold secrets. They tell...
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D4X
The Provocation in this episode is: Some engineers view "design engineering" as redundant, believing that true engineering already includes design. If you want to go down the rabbit hole of design engineering is an oxymoron, industrial design engineer is an oxymoron - you will find a lot that is...
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How can the design of a drug trial inform pedagogy?
Do check out live transcriptions for this episode.
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Is human life span 500 years now?
Do check out the live transcription as you listen to this episode.
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When teachers say "I am the Project"
This is a letter to my fellow teachers. 6 of them. They have worked with me to teach in the first year - of an Industrial Design Program.
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Precision Fermentation, Singularity and the future
This is an episode that provides an entry point into the speculations about the future. It provides an entry into the world of investors, researchers and those that are constructing the future inside the labs. Here are some search terms for you to explore these areas: Precision fermentation Tony...
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LTP in a Studio Setting
This a podcast episode for a project collaborator. A fellow teacher. A colleague. We are collaborating to teach a studio. How do you teach an Industrial Design Studio in 2025? Okay more questions: How do you teach studios in the contemporary? Would you use an LTP framing? Actually an LTS -...
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Glossary of Actors
This is a short (18 minute) podcast about making a list of or a glossary of actors. I use gym work and muscle cars to illuminate, to throw light on the existence of a specific language. Of specific terms, which can be drafted to serve in an orchestra of actors.
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This is how I teach Innovation
Transcription link coming soon.
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Pedagogy Reflections June 2025
This was a walk. A long one. And I reflect upon three aspects of pedagogy - the PhD supervisions, the Capstone Project Supervision and the first year as a liminal space.
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"I am the Project" in Capstone Work
This is an episode about Placements and about my current project - "I am the Project" in Capstone Work. It is a pedagogy account. Or a musing about what I do in this space. Soumitri Varadarajan discusses the decline in campus placements in India, noting a lack of industry interest this year. He...
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Why Prompts?
This is an episode that relates to a studio within the territory of The Social Object. The Social Object is a book I have written. Why have I been offering prompts within a design studio setting?
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The Social Object and The Social Life of Things
The Social Object LINK The aim of the author has been to silence the voice of the designer to allow the accounts of objects to emerge as periodic irruptions that reveal a hidden maelstrom of passion, ideas and ailed projects. The book opens with the biography of a project dealing with waste,...
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What is Independent Study at University?
This is a 17 minute session. It is me musing about what Independent Study could be when located within a design context.
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Designer Maker
This is the third episode in a a mini series on - 2 kinds of innovation and the designer maker. As the definitive definition of Industrial Design? What is design when the post code is de-industrialised? Is it still okay to use this phrase?
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What is Technical Innovation?
This is the second episode in a three part series on Innovation - specifically as it pertains to Industrial Designers.
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What is Social Innovation?
This year I have reframed Industrial Design as being in 3 parts. Social Innovation + Technical Innovation + Designer Maker. That is it. In this way we lay to rest the practice of referring to Industrial Design bits with Product Names. Or category Names. Or transient names aka fashionable names.
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Pure Design and Abloh
https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2024/05/12/pure-design-and-abloh/
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First Person Singular
For details look up - https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2024/05/09/first-person-singular/
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i.e. ID - That is Industrial Design
It is May 2024. I have mentioned the acronym i.e. ID. I have been asked to provide a voice note explaining this process.
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Tell me about Material Culture
Description section and resources coming soon.
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Can you tell me about a Masters by Research and a PhD?
Link: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/can-you-tell-me-about-a-masters-by-research-and-a-phd/ Site 'PhD with Soumitri': https://sites.google.com/view/phdwithsoumitri/home
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Beatles and Keats in the Classroom
I had a conversation with a friend. About the creative period. As being in the 20s. That the Beatles and Keats both had their best works in that period.
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The Smeis Typology
This is a podcast about project design. Or the typology of projects - aka what are the types of projects. Or what are the 5 types that all projects can be classified into. See more here - https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/2023/08/06/the-smeis-typology/
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Is This The End For Consultants?
I have been reading Mariana Mazzucato. The Big Con is the book. Dont read it if you have a weak constitution or if you have a tendency to flame. I had to frequently put it down - it is that incendiary. LINK The title for this podcast is borrowed from here: LINK QUOTE "Cynicism around consulting…
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What is Industrial Design Work?
Names in this episode: James Dyson: Best to buy the book I think. LINK Isambard Kingdom Brunel LINK Buckminister Fuller LINK Monika Mulder: http://monikamulder.com/ Guy Burgoyne: https://youtu.be/Jz0mKjwaBPQ Pernilla Johansson: Search in YouTube Ralph Gilles: Look up Abstract on Netflix. The...
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Can you learn French in four weeks?
Maybe yes? Maybe no? Listen to hear about what I did. I have undertaken a pilot project to learn French in 4 weeks. I have attended 40 hours of classes at Alliance Française Montpellier – learning in that way. I have also studied French using apps and flash cards. I now have a good grasp of the...
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How to do LTP?
Recording from Montepellier, France. Links Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/ Who is Soumitri: http://soumitri.com.au/
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How to do Instagram.
I speak about my foray into doing Instagram for a trip. I then muse about the typology of ways that constitute what we see as the visual instagram. In my case I sketch a typology in 5 parts, which sometimes expands to 6 parts. For more have a listen. For the Instagram account that I refer to…
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The Library is a Place
I am doing a few stub episodes on The Library. This first recording is about the Library as Place. The Library is a place. The library is a social space. The Library is a proposition open for coding as L4X.
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How to make a designer?
This is an episode about pedagogy. It is also a bit about how design is constructed in the contemporary in my local area. Binaries Consumer Side/ Producer Side Destination/ Journey aka Product/ Process Design as Art/ Design as a Job City Studio/ Factory R&D aka Studio/ Lab Retail/ Museum Thing/...
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Beauty (Live Recording Version)
This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away. This is an episode about Beauty. I have the book “On Beauty” by Umberto Eco sitting on my desk. Is that what triggered me to do this episode? Possibly. Podcast structure: Beauty...
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Perfection (Live Recording Version)
This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away. This is an episode about Perfection. An instigation – aimed at students on their journey of becoming designers. Links Learner Centered Design Education:...
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Goats with Agency (Live Recording Version)
This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away. This is an episode about Learning. An instigation – aimed at students on their journey of becoming designers. An Australian lens specially crafted to see a very particular kind…
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China, how I grew my love (Live Recording Version)
This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away. This is an episode about China. A designer’s China. A Designer’s lens specially crafted to see a very particular China. I can open a door to China. A very peculiar door. My…
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Freedom (Live Recording Version)
This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away. This is an episode about freedom. Freedom was the title of a book I read over the holiday period. Link below. 9.38 The Article I read out from:...
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Embodiement (Live Recording Version)
This is a live recording. I will be coming back to this episode, to ruminate and redo. That version is some weeks away. This is an episode about temperament. The links are – further reading on this subject. Links Learner Centered Design Education: https://rawslearn.wordpress.com/ Who is Soumitri:...
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10 keys to unpack Design
I am treating design as a text - that can be interpreted. Then again I am using design as food. Which can be queried to seek its genealogy, why is it the way it is? Food is culture. Culture is the ways of a people. And here we have a package - a bundle - that can be opened to reveal. Design seen…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The course you design. The course you teach your students. Could be learner centered. Soumitri Varadarajan reflects upon 35 years of teaching Industrial Design. Examining what works. Wondering why he does things the way he does. Imagining that some of this could be useful to someone. Somewhere.Disclaimer: This is not a broadcast attempting to inform you. This is merely a portal into Soumitri's brain. Into his thought experiments. It is him questioning everything. It is him finding no answers. So go away! Do not listen to this! Stop being curious.
HOSTED BY
Soumitri Varadarajan
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Learner Centered Design Education have?
Learner Centered Design Education currently has 58 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Learner Centered Design Education about?
The course you design. The course you teach your students. Could be learner centered. Soumitri Varadarajan reflects upon 35 years of teaching Industrial Design. Examining what works. Wondering why he does things the way he does. Imagining that some of this could be useful to someone....
How often does Learner Centered Design Education release new episodes?
Learner Centered Design Education has 58 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Learner Centered Design Education?
You can listen to Learner Centered Design Education on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Learner Centered Design Education?
Learner Centered Design Education is created and hosted by Soumitri Varadarajan.
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