Lighting Matters®

Welcome to the podcast about Lighting Matters! Our unflinching conversations uncover the nuances and complexities that shape the craft of lighting design. Tune in to explore the pivotal ‘whys’ behind a lighting designer’s choices and find honest answers to your most challenging lighting questions, because Lighting Matters®.

Lighting Matters® is a arts podcast hosted by Avraham Mor & Lisa Reed, with 39 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Avraham Mor & Lisa Reed hosts Lighting Matters®, a arts show with 39 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #38

  Episode 38: Behind the Booth - Illuminate at NeoCon, Part I of II

  Aug 4, 202628 minS1

  Avi Mor of Morlights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design pull up chairs on the Illuminate@NeoCon floor for four back-to-back manufacturer check-ins. Sage Russell, VP of Specification Sales at LumenWerx, explains why a fully custom experience room, built in just thirty days, outdrew every standard booth on the floor. Nate Jackson of Fixt Electric traces an unlikely path from Soviet-era salvage runs across Russia to launching Cym x Fixt, a new architectural line made with ceramicist Cym Warkov. Sean Gaydos, president of USAI Lighting, gets candid about the real math behind an eighty-show marketing calendar, drayage, unions, and rep support included. And Jana Owens, director of sales at Luminii and part of the team behind Morlights' recent LeSelect restaurant project in Chicago, makes the case for an underrated Midwest design community. "Bring something special, make it worth your while," one guest says. What did the lighting industry's first dedicated trade show floor actually deliver, and what still needs fixing before next year? Part one of two — episode 39 picks up the conversation with more manufacturers from the show floor. In This Episode: (00:00) Framing the Illuminate@NeoCon debrief series (02:09) Sage Russell of LumenWerx on Illuminate's first-year impact (07:42) Booth placement and next-year growth for exhibitors (08:59) Nate Jackson of Cym x Fixt launches a new architectural line (12:14) Sean Gaydos of USAI Lighting on trade show economics (17:34) Designers backing the manufacturers who back the industry (20:56) Jana Owens of Luminii on selling light beyond the spec sheet (24:16) New product launches and the Midwest design community Would you be interested in sponsoring our podcast? Reach out to us. Share your thoughts, comments, like and subscribe to hear all of our informative upcoming episodes! About the show: Lighting Matters is hosted by Lisa Reed and Avi Mor. In each episode, we’ll dig deep into the meticulous process of creating lighting design for architecture, showcasing industry leaders who balance artistic creativity with technical precision, and listen as they share their successes and challenges in architectural lighting design. Resources: LumenWerx — https://www.lumenwerx.com Fixt Electric Co. — https://www.fixtelectric.com USAI Lighting — https://www.usailighting.com Luminii — https://www.luminii.com NeoCon 2026 Featured Panel Talk: https://youtu.be/8OKOe1oX90Q?si=rGxIhUvENzU9Es1J Educational Vignettes at NeoCon 2026: https://edisonreport.com/2026/06/08/llluminate-at-neocon-2026-built-for-designers/ Illuminate @ NeoCon 2026: https://edisonreport.com/2026/06/08/llluminate-at-neocon-2026-built-for-designers/ IALD — iald.org NeoCon neocon.com Lighting Matters Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lighting-matters-podcast/ Lighting Matters Podcast YouTube Chann...

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #36

  The Triangle of Responsibility: Rebecca Keehner on Who Really Owns Lighting Design

  Jul 9, 202634 minS1

  8% of award-winning projects had a lighting designer. Only 2% got credit. Why is this profession still invisible? Recorded live at Illuminate@NeoCon 2026 in Chicago, this episode features Rebecca Keehner, Senior Interior Designer at Stantec Architecture — a global architecture and engineering firm with all major design disciplines under one roof. Hosts Avi Mor of Morlights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design (RBLD) dig into the structural dynamics of how lighting actually gets done on projects. Who owns it? Who should? Rebecca introduces what she calls the "triangle of responsibility" — the working relationship between interior designers, lighting designers, and electrical engineers — and makes a sharp case for why adding a lighting designer doesn't inflate a budget, it redistributes expertise where it belongs. The conversation moves into specification rigor, material testing under controlled light conditions, and the persistent problem of lighting designers going uncredited on award-winning projects. "98% of the jobs had lighting designers on them — but only the lighting design firms were able to promote that they were involved." Short episode. Dense content. Rebecca Keehner is a Senior Interior Designer at Stantec Architecture with 19+ years of experience across retail, restaurant, healthcare, multi-family, and corporate projects. NCIDQ certified and LEED accredited, she pairs 15 years of Revit expertise with a design approach rooted in form, materiality, and client experience. In This Episode: (00:00) Live from NeoCon: Rebecca Keehner on her role at Stantec Architecture (03:04) The triangle of responsibility explained (05:50) How scope and fee divide across the lighting triangle (10:26) Specification precision and the cost of getting it wrong (11:56) How light controls visual hierarchy in a space (16:14) Testing materials under real lighting conditions (19:06) Color casting and why flat samples mislead (20:02) The four visual design disciplines in the built environment (22:06) The lighting design credit gap in industry awards (24:36) Budget, schedule, team, or client: what matters most (30:22) Rebecca's favorite lighting experience: the redwoods Would you be interested in sponsoring our podcast? Reach out to us. Share your thoughts, comments, like and subscribe to hear all of our informative upcoming episodes! About the show: Lighting Matters is hosted by Lisa Reed and Avi Mor. In each episode, we’ll dig deep into the meticulous process of creating lighting design for architecture, showcasing industry leaders who balance artistic creativity with technical precision, and listen as they share their successes and challenges in architectural lighting design. Resources: Stantec Architecture — Rebecca Keehner's firm URL: https://www.stantec.com IALD — iald.org NeoCon neocon.com Lighting Matters Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lighting-matters-podcast/ Lighting Matters Podcast YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbLkEKnB8XgSXoeDY0T8t3w Lisa Reed https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-j-reed-b198154/ Reed Burkett Lighting Design http://www.rbldi.com Avraham...

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #35

  Episode 35: Zero Out of a Hundred: Jen Park on Why Lighting Never Gets Credit

  Jun 2, 202656 minS0

  <p>Of 100 award-winning architecture projects, how many listed a lighting designer in the credits? The answer should embarrass the entire industry.<br /><br />Jen Park, principal at Chicago's Park Fowler, joins hosts Avi Mor of Morlights and Lisa Reed of Reed Burkett Lighting Design to examine what architects genuinely understand about lighting—and where the gaps are. Park describes lighting as the critical thread in architectural composition: invisible when right, conspicuous when wrong. Who's actually making that argument to developers? The discussion covers the ROI case for lighting design, color temperature consistency across building types, and one startling data point—of 1...

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #34

  Episode 34: The Unregulated Profession: Why Lighting Design Needs Licensing Now

  May 19, 202659 minS0

  <p>Why does the profession that shapes how humans experience every built space they occupy still have no regulatory recognition — anywhere in the world?<br /><br />Dawn Brown, CLD, Design IALD, Lighting Designer at Ontario Aesthetic Lighting Design (OALD), joins Avi and Lisa for a direct look at the future of the profession. The conversation covers the persistent divide between interior designers and lighting designers, Dawn's proposal to regulate lighting design in Ontario, and the science case for circadian and wellness lighting. "If we know there's something we can do to prevent harm, why not just do it?" Engineering addresses th...

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #33

  Episode 33: Profit Leaking Out the Floor: Inside Lighting's Broken Spec Process

  May 1, 20261h 2mS0

  <p>Lighting's go-to-market model is one of the most complex in any product category. Does anyone outside the industry actually understand that—and does it matter if they don't?<br /><br />Amy Bonder came to Luminii from the Fortune 500—Black & Decker, Advance Auto Parts, Bridgestone—and found that nothing prepares you for lighting's go-to-market complexity. In this episode, hosts Avi Mor (Morlights) and Lisa Reed (Reed Burkett Lighting Design) dig into what's broken. One agent partner touched a single project 178 times. The conversation moves through data fragmentation, spec integrity, and a harder question: why does this industry still fail to develo...

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Lighting Matters®. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.