What does an institution built in the 1820s have to teach us about designing for the future? Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon has spent two decades moving through museums, historic houses and public space, and now leads the State Library of NSW into its 200th year. 

In this episode, Caroline talks with Vince about the library as one of the last true third spaces, somewhere people come to be alone together. She unpacks why trust and human connection sit at the heart of public institutions, what the data says about belonging and wellbeing, and why the resurgence of physical books and slow reading isn't nostalgia, it's a response to digital exhaustion. 

The conversation also covers Caroline's own career, from a PhD written between naps with a newborn, to a Churchill Fellowship that changed how she thinks about public space, to a hard-won Instagram detox. 

Listen now for a conversation about libraries, longevity, and what it means to design for connection.