Episodes

Archispeak is one of architecture's longest-running podcasts — 380+ episodes of honest, unfiltered conversation about what it's actually like to work in the profession. Since 2012, architects Evan Troxel and Cormac Phalen have been exploring design, career, firm culture, tools, work/life balance, mentoring, generational differences, and job hunting — everything that comes with building a life in architecture.

This isn't a highlight reel. It's the conversation architects actually have — about the hard parts of practice, the moments that define a career, and the things no one tells you in architecture school.

Built for architecture students, emerging architects, and seasoned professionals who want honest perspective on the profession.

Topics include architecture career and job searching, design process and critique, firm culture, work/life balance in architecture, architecture tools and software, mentoring and professional development, generational differences in architecture firms, and candid interviews with architects and industry leaders.

380+ episodes. Since 2012.

#395 - Thermal Reactive Umbrella

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Topic

Some weeks the conversation just goes where it goes. Evan and Cormac spend this one reading Wikipedia and AI overviews at each other in real time — the AIA convention ping-ponging from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, SoFi Stadium sunk 100 feet into the ground for the LAX flight path, its cable-net roof that expands and contracts like a tennis racket until Cormac christens it a "thermal reactive umbrella." Along the way: stadiums built as war memorials, U2 tours, and Public Enemy's opening statement in Birmingham.

Underneath the tangents is a real question for the profession. The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) has sat below 50 for a year, job confidence is low, and the flagship AIA convention costs each attendee around $1,500 before tours and CEUs. This episode is especially relevant for architects deciding whether that show is still worth attending when the economy is soft — and anyone who's quietly started reading the convention as an expense instead of an investment. It's a loose, funny episode that lands somewhere honest.

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