What if the key to our future isn’t smarter answers — but better questions?

Lauren Celenza is a designer, technologist, writer, and deeply curious human navigating the complex intersections of connection, technology, and imbalance. From redesigning Google Maps for informal transit systems across the Global South to building the first free direct IRS tax-filing tool in U.S. history, Lauren’s work is all about making the invisible visible — and helping people find their way.

In this episode, Topaz and Lauren explore:

• Why curiosity often begins with dissatisfaction

• The human cost of deindustrialization and distance — and how it shaped her family

• How asking “where is the imbalance?” became her guiding compass

• Why independence isn’t enough — and how interdependence could save us

• What we might lose — and long for — in a world increasingly shaped by AI

This is a conversation about grief and grasping. About navigating the spaces between what’s lost, what’s possible, and what’s still worth holding onto.

These conversations are not performative interviews, book release tours or productivity hacks.

Genuine curiosity is the compass for these honest, human-to-human exchanges of stories. We explore how people are formed by the lives they’ve lived and celebrate the wisdom gained along the way.

Welcome to Getting Under The Skin

👉 Mentioned in this episode:

• Monika Jiang’s “Sharing Our Loneliness” — https://www.monikajiang.org/sharing-our-loneliness

• Inside the beloved IRS Direct File tool — and why it’s under threat — https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/06/direct-file-beloved-its-users-internal-irs-report-says/405883/?oref=ng-homepage-riverand

• Why Direct File is now open-source (and what that means) — https://www.404media.co/directfile-open-source-irs-tax-filing-software-turbotax-is-trying-to-kil/

• On deindustrialisation and its lasting impact on working-class communities — https://inthesetimes.com/article/deindustrialization-offshoring-manufacturing-factory-factories-unemployment-layoff-work-labor-workers-working-people-working-class-industry-ohio-michigan-south-carolina-pepsi-gm

Welcome to Getting Under The Skin.

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