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Wake Up Excited!

by Brad Frost

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The UX Design Podcast: User Experience, Product Design, UX Research, UI Design, AI, Usability, Interaction Design, Prototyping, Accessibility, and Design Systems

Latest episodes

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Luke Wroblewski talks about what’s waking him up excited these days and draws an analogy between trail building and product building, emphasizing prototyping and especially maintenance. The conversation shifts to parenting teens and Luke’s…
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June 30, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min

Luke and Brad discuss feeling newly unblocked by today’s tools which enable rapid experimentation, which must be done at a human level. Exploring nuance over binary positions, comparing reactions to AI to stages of grief, and exploring…
Incubating Ideas, Human Memory, and Designing for Humanity with Don Norman

June 26, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

Don Norman discusses how his best ideas arrive through “incubation,” often waking him at 1–2 AM to write, and explains how he starts books by finding a guiding title and compelling theme rather than dull “history and basics.” He compares…
Homeschooling, Community Confidence, and Being Human at Work with Abby Covert

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Abby Covert shares what excites her now, leaving corporate life, reclaiming creativity through recovery work, sobriety, journaling, and disciplined writing, and how community builds confidence beyond capability. They explore being willing…

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About the show

Inspiring conversations with exuberant humans about how to live a creative, fulfilling, and authentic life. Hosted by enthusiasm enthusiast, Brad Frost. We experience a brief moment of truth when we first wake up in the morning. Before the cold shower of reality, our infinite to-do lists, and macro-level woes seize our consciousness. We experience a brief moment of excitement — and this pure moment tells us something important about ourselves. There are people out there who seem to move through life with intention, authenticity, creativity, kindness, and enthusiasm. And they do this despite the deeply inperfect world we inhabit. This podcast is an attempt to learn from these people. Through wide-ranging conversations, Wake Up Excited explores guests' passions, interests, enthusiasms, and philosophy of life.