If this interview is any indication of the general quality of Dorian Devins (and I honestly don't know if that is the case), I would refrain from calling her ingenious. It's nice to see art notables in public forums, but Stephen Heller was asked dull, obvious questions and therefore, responded in the same manner. I've seen him speak before and found him upbeat and engaging, but my mom didn't believe my claims after listening to this interview with me. Please excuse my hyperbolic summary of the interview.

DD: Hi. You've written 80 books.

SH: No, 90.

DD: And *stutter* you do other stuff too.

SH: Yes.

*Both giggle. DD goes up to get her glasses.*

DD: How about that billboard with the bomb and Iraq? Isn't that something?

SH: Yes.

DD: Has any graphic design ever been that controversial before?

SH: Yes, duh.

DD: Has graphic design ever been censored?

SH: *stutter* Yes. Examples.

DD: Oh. Well, is graphic design significant?

SH: Yes.

DD: That's great, you know.

SH: Yes.

DD: I should point out Milton Glaser.

SH: Yes, you should.

DD: Do graphic designers have ethics?

Check it out yourself if you don't believe me.

I did. You were right. Wow. Maybe she was having an off day.

Heller thankfully saves the interview though.

It was kind of funny hearing her stumble through the introduction of Mr. Heller. I guess that just goes to show you the recognition that even some of the most well known designers get in a non-designer crowd.

Although uninformed interviewers with no interesting questions are hardly uncommon, her level of political inanity was embarrassing:

“How about that website that I didn’t see and don’t quite know what it was? Can you imagine anything so evil?”

“We need to win back the flag from right wingers but I’d never want to actually fly one because I’m not a right winger. Doesn’t the flag make you cringe? We need someone to make some ads to make me change my mind!”

“There was this guy who said something but maybe he didn’t but that would have been interesting if he did, don’t ya think?”

There are some people who almost don’t need an interviewer. They have a canned talk ready when they go on the radio—funny story [pump the current book] clever quip [pump the book] poignant vignette [pump] story of the old times of connection to interviewer/station/place [allow interviewer to pump the book and if the interviewer fails to do so then. . . well, you know]—but even if Steve had book or school promotion as a goal, hucksterism is not one of his greater talents.

He can be a great conversationalist but there seemed to be a reverse synergy going on.

As with a great basketball team playing against a group of sloppy hacks, the level of play is downgraded toward the hacks. Sadly, Devins regularly kneecaps her guests' insights with her own inane interjections. The hallmark of her show is her mumbling, elliptical blather, and only guests who can ignore her completly can hope to emerge unscathed. Heller being too much of a gentleman to do this, was forced into a fallback position of trying to shepherd the conversation back to lucidity and make the most of his airtime by promoting his books.

Such a waste.