Elise Hugh

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

What happens when you grow up in a home where art isn't something you go see, but something you create to survive?

Rosalie Simpson would know.

She comes from a line of clay artists stretching back generations.

She also builds custom lowrider cars.

And if that sounds like a contradiction, it's kind of the point.

Rose grew up in Santa Clara, Pueblo, New Mexico.

Raised by her mother, the sculptor Roxanne Swensel, in a home where the electricity was sometimes deliberately turned off and art was indistinguishable from life.

In this conversation with Design Matters podcast host Debbie Millman, she explores what it means to treat everything, a ceramic figure, a car, a room, your own body, as a vessel.

They talk about what it means to listen to the world around you, and Rose reminds us that we are never as powerless as we think.

And now our conversation of the day.

Thank you for having me.

That was Rose B. Simpson in conversation with Debbie Millman at TED Next 2025.

If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines.

And that's it for today.

TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective.

This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tansika Sungmarnivong.

This episode was mixed by Christopher Fasey-Bogan.

Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Balarezo.